Sterling Harwood

Sterling Voss Harwood (born in 1958 in Washington, D.C.) is an American professor, lecturer, author, radio host, and attorney based in San Jose, California.^[1] His law practice primarily concerns immigration, family law, real estate law, personal injury cases, criminal law, and debtor/creditor/bankruptcy law.

Education

Harwood received his M.A. (1986) and Ph.D. (1992) degrees in philosophy from Cornell University and while there received his J.D. in law from Cornell Law School in 1983. In 1980, he graduated magna cum laude from the University of Maryland, College Park, where he earned his B.A. with general honors and highest honors in philosophy and was elected Phi Beta Kappa in his junior year there (1979).^[2]

Teaching career

Since 1982, Harwood has taught at Cornell Law School (1989), Cornell University (1982–1989), Lincoln Law School of San Jose (2007 to date), Evergreen Valley College (2001 to date), San Jose City College (1995 to date), San Jose State University (1989–1996 & 2008), Illinois State University (1988), University of Phoenix (1998–2004), Foothill College, Hobart and William Smith Colleges (1989), Chabot College, Gavilan College, and at other colleges and universities.

Radio program

Harwood hosts a radio program on station KLIV 1590 AM in San Jose, California called Spirit To Spirit that explores conspiracy theories, true crime, unsolved mysteries and the paranormal. Notable guests have included: James Fetzer,^[3] Seth Shostak,^[4] and Brian William Hall, the organizer of Conspiracy Con.^[5]

Opinions

Harwood has authored numerous publications including his book Judicial Activism: A Restrained Defense. He criticizes utilitarianism in his essay "Eleven Objections to Utilitarianism." In the article "Against MacIntyre's Relativistic Communitarianism" Harwood criticizes the communitarianism of Alasdair MacIntyre. Harwood defends conditional knowledge against skepticism in his essay "Taking Skepticism Seriously—and in Context." He defends an inheritance tax in his article "Is Inheritance Immoral?" He defends moral realism and criticizes moral relativism in his essay "Taking Ethics Seriously—Moral Relativism versus Moral Realism." He criticizes Marxism in his article "Madisonian Democracy and Marxist Analysis." In his essay "Conceptually Necessary Links between Law and Morality," Harwood uses the minimum content of natural law developed by the famous advocate of legal positivism H.L.A. Hart to defend a version of natural law. Harwood criticizes the legal doctrine of stare decisis in his article "Weaken Stare Decisis: On Burton's Judging in Good Faith." Harwood defends the compatibility of mercy and justice in his essay "Is Mercy Inherently Unjust?" He defends affirmative action in his article "The Justice of Affirmative Action."

Bibliography

• "Eleven Objections to Utilitarianism," in Louis P. Pojman and Peter Tramel, eds., Moral Philosophy: A Reader, 4th ed. (Hackett Publishing Co., 2009), Chapter 22, ISBN 978-0-87220-962-6.
• "Is Inheritance Immoral?" in Louis P. Pojman, ed., Political Philosophy: Classic and Contemporary Readings (McGraw Hill, 2001) ISBN 978-0-07-244811-5.
• (with Michael J. Gorr), co-editor, Crime and Punishment: Philosophic Explorations (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., second printing 2000) ISBN 978-0-534-54249-8.
• "Is Mercy Inherently Unjust?" in Michael J. Gorr and Sterling Harwood, eds., Crime and Punishment: Philosophic Explorations (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., second printing 2000) ISBN 978-0-534-54249-8.
• "Exploitation," in Christopher Berry Gray, ed., The Philosophy of Law: An Encyclopedia, Volume I (Garland Publishing Co., 1999), pp. 280–282.
• "Is/Ought Gap," in Christopher Berry Gray, ed., The Philosophy of Law: An Encyclopedia, Volume I (Garland Publishing Co., 1999), pp. 436–437.
• "Liability, Criminal," in Christopher Berry Gray, ed., The Philosophy of Law: An Encyclopedia, Volume II (Garland Publishing Co., 1999), pp. 498–501.
• "Thomas Paine," in Christopher Berry Gray, ed., The Philosophy of Law: An Encyclopedia, Volume II (Garland Publishing Co., 1999), pp. 625–626.
• "Weaken Stare Decisis: On Burton's Judging in Good Faith", 17 Law and Philosophy 203-211 (1998).
• "Sensibility Theories," in Donald M. Borchert, ed., The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Supplement (Macmillan, 1996), pp. 532–533.
• "Warren Commission," in Joseph M. Bessette, ed., Ready Reference: American Justice (Salem Press, Inc., 1996), pp. 839–840.
• Editor, Business as Ethical and Business as Usual: Text, Readings and Cases (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1996) ISBN 978-0-534-54251-1, 582 pages.
• "Taking Ethics Seriously—Moral Relativism versus Moral Realism" in Sterling Harwood, ed., Business as Ethical and Business as Usual (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1996) ISBN 978-0-534-54251-1, Chapter 1, pp. 1–4.
• "Against MacIntyre's Relativistic Communitarianism" in Sterling Harwood, ed., Business as Ethical and Business as Usual (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1996) ISBN 978-0-534-54251-1, Chapter 2, pp. 5–10.
• "Why Be Moral?: A Definition and Defense of Humanism," in Sterling Harwood, ed., Business as Ethical and Business as Usual (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1996) ISBN 978-0-534-54251-1, Chapter 13, pp. 84–85.
• "Needs," in Sterling Harwood, ed., Business as Ethical and Business as Usual (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1996), ISBN 978-0-534-54251-1, Chapter 17, pp. 91–92.
• Judicial Activism: A Restrained Defense (Bethesda, MD: Austin & Winfield Publishers, 1996) ISBN 978-1-880921-68-5.
• "Conceptually Necessary Links between Law and Morality" in Werner Krawietz, Neil MacCormick and Georg Henrik von Wright, eds., Prescriptive Formality and Normative Rationality in Modern Legal Systems (Berlin: Duncker and Humblot, 1994).
• "Accountability," in John K. Roth, ed., Ready Reference: Ethics, Volume I (Salem Press, Inc., 1994), pp. 11–12.
• "Benevolence," in John K. Roth, ed., Ready Reference: Ethics, Volume I (Salem Press, Inc., 1994), pp. 77–78.
• "Fraud," in John K. Roth, ed., Ready Reference: Ethics, Volume I (Salem Press, Inc., 1994), pp. 319–320.
• "Merit," in John K. Roth, ed., Ready Reference: Ethics, Volume II (Salem Press, Inc., 1994), pp. 552–553.
• "Prescriptivism," in John K. Roth, ed., Ready Reference: Ethics, Volume II (Salem Press, Inc., 1994), p. 693.
• "Temptation," in John K. Roth, ed., Ready Reference: Ethics, Volume III (Salem Press, Inc., 1994), p. 864.
• "The Justice of Affirmative Action," in Yeager Hudson and Creighton Peden, eds., The Bill of Rights: Bicentennial Reflections (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1993), Chapter 6, ISBN 978-0-7734-9264-6.
• "Debate: Is Affirmative Action Justified?," in Timothy C. Shiell, Legal Philosophy: Selected Readings (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1993), pp. 373–378.
• (with Michael J. Gorr), co-editor, Controversies in Criminal Law: Philosophical Essays on Responsibility and Procedure (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1992) ISBN 978-0-8133-1483-9.
• "Necessary Connections between Morality and Hart's Concept of Law," 12 Vera Lex 17-18 (1992).
• (with Anita Silvers), "Moral Reasoning" and "Legal and Aesthetic Reasoning," in Brooke Noel Moore and Richard Parker, Critical Thinking, third ed. (Mayfield Publishing Co., 1992), Chapters 13-14, pp. 363–396.
• "For an Amoral, Dispositional Account of Weakness of Will," Auslegung: A Journal of Philosophy, Volume 18, Number 1 (Winter 1992), pp. 27–38.
• "Democracy and the Defense of Judicial Activism," Contemporary Philosophy, Vol. XIII, No. 10 (July/August 1991).
• "Critical Review of Nicolas Fotion and Gerard Elfstrom, Military Ethics: Guidelines for Peace and War," in Yeager Hudson and Creighton Peden, eds., Revolution Violence, and Equality (The Edwin Mellen Press, 1990), pp. 438–439.
• "Affirmative Action is Justified: A Reply to Newton," Contemporary Philosophy, Vol. XII (March/April 1990), pp. 14–17.
• "Madisonian Democracy and Marxist Analysis," in Christopher B. Gray, ed., Philosophical Reflections on The United States Constitution: A Collection of Bicentennial Essays (Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 1989).
• "Taking Skepticism Seriously - and in Context," 12 Philosophical Investigations 223-233 (1989).

References

External links

• Spirit to Spirit homepage
• Sterling Harwood's Homepage