John David Lewis, 1955–2012
Dr. Lewis was a visiting associate professor in the Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Program at Duke University, a position funded by the Anthem Foundation for Objectivist Scholarship and by the BB&T Charitable Foundation. He was also an adjunct associate professor of business at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
After a 25-year career in business, he changed direction and earned his Ph.D. in classics in 2001 at the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Dr. Lewis lectured internationally and was well known and respected by his colleagues at Duke.
Dr. Lewis authored three books—Nothing Less than Victory: Decisive Wars and the Lessons of History (Princeton University Press, 2010); Early Greek Lawgivers (Bristol Classical Press, 2007); and Solon the Thinker: Political Thought in Archaic Athens (Duckworth Press, 2006)—as well as many other publications in academia and in the popular press.
He was a frequent lecturer at Objectivist and non-Objectivist conferences throughout his career. Dr. Lewis drew personal inspiration from Ayn Rand’s philosophy—and his work and life reflected his beliefs. He had a unique talent for conveying his knowledge and views, whether in delivering a lecture, writing a book or in discussion with those around him.
Academic Appointments
Duke University, Visiting Associate Professor, Philosophy, Politics and Economics Program (2009-2014)
Duke University, Visiting Associate Professor, Political Science (2008-2009)
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Kenan-Flagler School of Business, Adjunct Associate Professor (2008 f.)
Ashland University, Dept. of History and Political Science, 2001-2008; Associate Professor of History, 2007-2008 (tenured)
University of London, University College, Instructor; 2000-2001
Education
PhD (2001), Classics, University of Cambridge. Dissertation: Solon’s Polis as Kosmos: Intellectual, Moral and Political Integration in Archaic Athens [Supervisor: Paul Cartledge]
MPhil (1997), Classics, University of Cambridge. Thesis: Violence and the Archaic Political Context [Supervisor: Paul Millett]
BA (1995), History, University of Rhode Island. Thesis: Fear, Loathing and Expediency: The Arguments for Railway Regulation in 1870’s Britain [Supervisor: Robert Gutchen]
Books
Nothing Less than Victory: The Will to Fight and the Lessons of History (Princeton University, March, 2010)
Solon the Thinker: Political Thought in Archaic Athens (Duckworth Press, 2006) (pb. edn. 2008)
Early Greek Lawgivers (Bristol Classical Press, August, 2007)
Articles and Book Chapters
“There Is No Right to Health Care,” Medical Ethics 2nd edn., ed. M. Boylan (Pearson Prentice Hall) (forthcoming).
“Cultural and Political Commentary,” in A Companion to Ayn Rand’s Works and Thought, ed. A. Gotthelf and G. Salmieri (Blackwell) (forthcoming).
“Constitution and Fundamental Law: The Lesson of Ancient Athens,” Social Philosophy and Policy 28.1 (2011).
“Xenophon’s Poroi and the Foundations of Political Economy,” Polis 26.2 (2010).
“Solon of Athens and the Ethics of Good Business,” Journal of Business Ethics DOI 10.1007/s10551-008-9989-4.
“History, Politics, and Claims of Man-made Global Warming,” Social Philosophy and Policy 26.2 (2009); also in Natural Resources, the Environment, and Human Welfare, ed. Ellen-Fraenkel Paul, Jeffrey Paul, and Fred Miller, Jr. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009).
“Oh Mist! Science, Religion and History in Aristophanes’ Clouds,” in Themes in European History ed. Michael Aradas & Nicholas C.J. Pappas (Athens: ATINER, 2005).
“‘Sacrilege toward the Individual’: The Anti-Pride of Thomas More’s Utopia and Anthem’s Radical Alternative,” in Essays in Anthem, R. Mayhew (ed.), (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2005).
“Slavery and Lawlessness in Solonian Athens,” in Dike 7, 2004.
“Kira’s Family,” in Essays in We the Living, R. Mayhew (ed.), (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2004).
“Carving Liberty into Stone: The Greek and American Discoveries of Fundamental Law,” in The Intellectual Activist 16.10, October 2002.
“Dike, Moira, Bios and the Limits to Understanding in Solon, 13 (West),” in Dike 4, 2001.
“The Intellectual Context of Solon’s Dike,” in Polis 18.1 and 2, 2001.
Teaching Areas and Courses
Duke University:
Political Economy, Ancient and Modern
Ancient Political Thought
Thucydides and International Relations
University of North Carolina:
Moral Foundations of Capitalism
Bowling Green State University:
Greek Philosophical Psychology, Graduate Seminar (assisting Professor Fred Miller)
Ethics and Political Economy, Graduate Seminar (assisting Professor Fred Miller)
Ashland University:
History of Western Civilization
Freshman Colloquium: The Classics and the Modern Day
Greek Language and Society
The Ancient Near East
Ancient Greece
Ancient Rome: Republic, Empire and Christianity
Warfare Ancient and Modern
University of London:
Life and Death in the Ancient World
University of Cambridge, Graduate Tutor:
Money in the Ancient World
Intensive Greek Language Seminars
Awards and Fellowships
Social Philosophy and Policy Center, Bowling Green State University, Senior Research Scholar in History and Classics (2007f.)
Bowling Green State University, Visiting Fellow, Social Philosophy and Policy Center, 2007-2008
Rice University, Department of Classics, Visiting Scholar, Spring, 2004
Letter of Commendation, Ohio Air National Guard, 179th Airlift Wing, Mansfield Ohio, Dec. 18, 2003
Ashland University, Overseas Study Grant, Spring 2003 (Florence and Sicily)
Ashland University, Nominated for Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year by Honors Students, 2003
Anthem Fellowship, 2002
Cambridge University, Cambridge Overseas Trust, Corbett Travel and Student Fund Awards, 1997-2000
University of Rhode Island, President’s Award for Excellence in History, 1995
Professional Organizations
American Political Science Association
Association of Ancient Historians
Society for Military History
American Philological Association
Cambridge Philological Society
Australian Classics Society
Editorial Activities and Article Reviewing
Consulting Editor, The Objective Standard
Reviewer, History of Political Economy; Journal of Private Enterprise Education
Reviews and Review Essays
D. Whitehead (ed.), Apollodorus Mechanicus, Siege-matters (Poliorketika). Historia Einzelschriften 216. (Stuttgart: Franz-Steiner Verlag, 2010), for Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2011.09.17.
A. Black, A World History of Ancient Political Thought (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), for The European Legacy: Toward New Paradigms (Journal of ISSEI, Israel) (forthcoming).
D. Kagan, Thucydides: The Reinvention of History (NY: Viking, 2009), for Michigan War Studies Review, 2011-010.
T. Rood, American Anabasis: Xenophon and the Idea of America from the Mexican War to Iraq (London: Duckworth, 2010), for Bryn Mawr Classical Review , 2011.01.33.
J. R. Hale, Lords of the Sea: The Epic Story of the Athenian Navy and the Birth of Democracy (NY: Penguin, 2009), for Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2010.01 57.
D. D. Philips, Avengers of Blood: Homicide in Athenian Law and Custom from Draco to Demosthenes (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2008), for Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2009.08.08.
P. Jones, Vote for Caesar: How the Ancient Greeks and Romans Solved the Problems of Today (London: Orion, 2008), for Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2009-02-28.
R. A. Gabriel, Scipio Africanus: Rome’s Greatest General (Washington: Potomac, 2008), for Michigan War Studies Review 2009.01.01.
P. Sabin, Lost Battles: Reconstructing the Great Clashes of the Ancient World (London: Continuum, 2007), for Michigan War Studies Review 2008.07.09.
G. Weller, First into Nagasaki, edited and with an essay by Anthony Weller (NY: Crown Publishers, 2006) for The Objective Standard 3.3 (2008).
Sun-tzu, The Art of War, translated with introduction and commentary by Ralph D. Sawyer (Boulder: Westview Press, 1994), for The Objective Standard 3.2 (2008).
K. Zeruneith, The Wooden Horse: The Liberation of the Western Mind, From Odysseus to Socrates, trans. R.L. Dees (NY: Overlook Duckworth, 2007), for Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2008.05.13.
A. Codevilla and P. Seabury, War: Ends and Means, second edition, (Dulles, VA: Potomac Books, 2006), for Michigan War Studies Review 2008.04.03.
K. Kagan, The Eye of Command (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan 2006), for Michigan War Studies Review 2007.08.02.
N. Morpeth, Thucydides’ War: Accounting for the Faces of Conflict (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 2006) , for Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2007.03.26.
G. Arnaldi, Italy and its Invaders, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005), for Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2006.03.30.
Pre-publication Reviewer, Living Through War and Revolution: War Experiences Since 1500, for Longman Press (2005).
C. Miller, Homer’s Sun Still Shines: Ancient Greece in Essays, Poems and Translations (New Market, VA: Trackaday, 2004), for Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2004.11.20.
B. Strauss, The Battle of Salamis: The Naval Encounter that Saved Greece—and Western Civilization (NY: Simon and Schuster, 2004), for Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2004.07.68.
Pre-publication Reviewer, Markets Don’t Fail, for Lexington Books (June, 2004).
E. W. Robinson, Ancient Greek Democracy: Readings and Sources (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2004), for Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2003.12.22.
C. A. Bates, Aristotle’s “Best” Regime: Kingship, Democracy and the Rule of Law (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2003), for Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2003.07.03.
N. Urbinati, Mill on Democracy: From the Athenian Government to Representative Government (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002) for Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2003.06.04.
J. P. Arnason and P. Murphy, Agon, Logos, Polis: The Greek Achievement and Its Aftermath (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 2001), for Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2002.05.12.
P. Murphy, Civic Justice from Greek Antiquity to the Modern World (New York: Humanity Books, 2001), for Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2002.07.03.
R. Osborne (ed.), Classical Greece (Oxford: Oxford University, 2001), for Anglo-Hellenic Review 17, Spring 2001:17.
P. Flensted-Jensen, T. H. Nielsen, L. Rubenstein (eds.), Polis and Politics, (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum, 2000), for Bryn Mawr Classical Review 01.04.22.
J. Brunschwig and G. Lloyd (eds.), Greek Thought: A Guide to Classical Knowledge (Cambridge: Belknap, 2000), for Anglo-Hellenic Review 24, Autumn 2001:24.
M. Schofield and C. Rowe (eds.), The Cambridge History of Greek and Roman Political Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University, 2000), for Anglo-Hellenic Review 22, 2000:24.
H. van Wees (ed.), War and Violence in Ancient Greece (London: Duckworth and the Classical Press of Wales, 2000), for Bryn Mawr Classical Review 01.09.14.
M. S. Marsilio, Farming and Poetry in Hesiod’s Works and Days (Lanham, New York and Oxford: University Press of America, 2000), for Bryn Mawr Classical Review 00.10.16.
Review Essay: M. C. Nussbaum, Women and Human Development (Cambridge: Cambridge.
University, 2000), for Roundtable, a Journal of the University of Chicago Law School 8.1, 2001.
Encyclopedia Entries
“Narrative on the Formation, Flowering and Decline of the Roman Republic,” and “Narrative on the Formation and Decline of Imperial Rome,” for World History Encyclopedia, (ABC-CLIO).
“Ancient Greek Elegiac Poetry,” Ancient Greece (Salem Press).
“Cypselus of Corinth,” in Notorious Lives (Salem Press).
“Hecataeus of Miletus,” Great Events from History: The Ancient World (Salem Press).
“Aeschylus,” The Literary Encyclopedia, www.literaryencyclopedia.com.
“Xenophon,” The Literary Encyclopedia, www.literaryencyclopedia.com.
“Ayn Rand,” The Literary Encyclopedia, www.literaryencyclopedia.com.
“Solon,” The Literary Encyclopedia, www.literaryencyclopedia.com.
Conference Papers and Presentations
“Xenophon’s Poroi and the Political Economy of a Good Society,” American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, September 1-4, 2011.
“The Pro-Growth Economics of Xenophon’s Ways and Means,” Center for American Studies, Christopher Newport University, March 17, 2011.
“Thucydides and the Rhetoric of Pragmatism,” Northeast Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Boston, November 11-13, 2010.
“The Warrior and the Farmer: The Ethics of Productiveness in the Early Greeks,” Association of Private Enterprise Education, Guatemala City, April 5-7, 2009.
“‘A Certain Tendency in the Army’: Xenophon’s Claim to Virtue through Corporal Discipline,” Northeast Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Boston, November 13-15, 2008.
Ohio Philosophical Association Annual Meeting, April 12, 2008, commentator to session “Asymmetry and Counseling.”
“Solon of Athens on Justice, Fate and One’s Lot in Life,” Lecture, Social Philosophy and Policy Center, Bowling Green State University, March 28, 2008.
“Homer and the Homecoming,” Lecture, Bowling Green State University, March 24, 2008.
“Did Xenophon have a Concept of Political Economy?” Northeast Political Science Association, Philadelphia, November 15-17, 2007.
“A Re-evaluation of Aurelian’s Bloodless Eastern Campaign against Palmyra,” Society for Military History Conference, Kansas State University, May 18-20, 2006.
“The Procedural Nature of Ancient Greek Law,” Workshop on Philosophy of Law, University of Texas at Austin, TX, March 31 – April 2, 2005.
“Oh Mist! Science, Religion and History in Aristophanes’ Clouds,” 2nd International Conference on Ancient and Modern European History, Athens Institute for Education and Research, Athens, Greece, December 29-31, 2004.
“Leadership and the Homeland Defense,” Briefing to the Senior Command, 179th Squadron, Ohio Air National Guard, Mission Support Group Planning Conference, December 4-5, 2003.
“Nature and Virtue in Diodorus’s Account of Epaminondas of Thebes,” Department of Classical Studies, Rice University, March 25, 2003.
“The Greek Concept of Freedom,” Conference on Values, Ethics and the Marketplace, Duke University, August, 2002.
“Justice and Necessity in Solonian Athens,” Law and Public Order in Ancient Societies Panel, The American Philological Association Annual Meeting, January, 2002.
“Pedagogical Uses of Information Technologies at the University of Cambridge: The Response to Changing Expectations,” Salve Regina University; Ancient Studies—New Technology: The World Wide Web and Scholarly Research, Communication and Publication in Ancient, Byzantine and Medieval Studies; December, 2000.
“Aristotle’s Politics 1: The Polis as Both Natural and Technical,” The Olympic Center for Philosophy and Culture; XIth International Symposium for the Political Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle; Pyrgos, Greece; August, 2000.
“The Horoi and the Bridge Between the 4th and 6th Centuries,” University of Cambridge; Place and Genre in Greek Epigraphy Conference; January, 1999.
Other Conferences and Lectures
“Individual Rights—Not Costs—as the Proper Approach to Health Care Reform,” National Press Club, Washington, DC, May 10, 2010.
“Individual Rights and Health Care Reform,” Duke University Medical Student Council, Nov. 6, 2009.
“A Defense of American Rights: Principles, not Pragmatism,” Leadership Program of the Rockies, Denver, CO, May 8, 2009; May 15, 2010; May 13, 2011.
“The Greek Lessons for Today’s Crisis of Government,” Front Range Objectivist Supper Talks, Denver, CO, May 9, 2009.
“Israel’s Moral Right to Exist,” Lecture, Tel Aviv University, December 15, 2008.
“A Policy towards Islamic Totalitarianism,” Facing Jihad: A Lawmakers’ Summit,” Jerusalem, December 14, 2008.
“The Inner Jihad,” Tel Aviv University, Israel, June 2, 2008.
“Moral Responsibility in War,” Liberty Fund, Philadelphia, June 5-7, 2008.
“Adam Smith,” Liberty Fund, San Diego, March 6-9, 2008.
“‘No Substitute for Victory’: Military Offense and the Defeat of Islamic Totalitarianism,” Lecture, Conference on the Jihad against the West: The Real Threat and the Right Response, Boston, MA. October 21-22, 2006.
“Contrasting Rationales for Liberal Order,” Liberty Fund, Indianapolis, October 11-14, 2007.
“Liberty and Authority in the Far East: Western Perspective,” Liberty Fund, Indianapolis, August 30 – September 2, 2007.
“Science, Rhetoric, and Political Freedom,” Liberty Fund, Pasadena, May 24-27, 2007.
“Wars Just and Unjust,” Liberty Fund, Louisville, March 15-18, 2007.
“Early Greek Lawgivers: Solon of Athens and the Discovery of Freedom under Law,” Ridgeview Classical Schools, Fort Collins, CO, January 26, 2007.
“Objectivism, Subjectivism and Relativism in Ethics,” Social Philosophy and Policy Center, Bowling Green State University, November 17-19, 2006 (session moderator).
“Law, Liberty and Morality,” Liberty Fund, San Diego, October 5-8, 2006.
American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, January, 2006.
American Philosophical Association Annual Meeting, New York, December, 2005.
“The Architects of Reason: The Greek Cities of Southern Italy and Sicily,” iCon Conference, London, England, September 9-11, 2005; also delivered at Front Range Supper Clubs, Denver, CO, January 22, 2005.
“The Crisis of Late Fifth-Century Athens: A Persecution of Scientists,” iCon Conference, London, England, September 24-26, 2004.
“William Tecumseh Sherman and the Moral Impetus for Victory,” at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center, Bowling Green State University, June 23, 2004.
American Philosophical Association, Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, December, 2003.
Freedom of Speech, Social Philosophy and Policy Center, Bowling Green State University, April 10-12, 2003.
American Philological Association: Annual Meeting, New Orleans, January, 2003.
The New Fragments of Posidippus: University of Cincinnati, Department of Classics, November, 2002.
American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Boston, January, 2001.
Service: Ashland University
Assistant Director, Academic Honors Program, 2004-2008
Faculty Senate, 2005-2007
Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee, 2006-2007
College Secretary, College of Arts and Sciences, 2004-2007
Faculty Advisor, Marksmanship Club, 2004-2005
New Program and Course Proposals, including Four Master Syllabi, Greek Language, Spring 2006