Sterling Harwood

Sterling Voss Harwood (born August 25, 1958 in Washington, D.C.) is an American professor, lecturer, author and attorney based in San Jose, California. His law practice primarily concerns family law, real estate law, personal injury cases, criminal law, and debtor/creditor/bankruptcy law.

Education

Prof. 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).

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.

Partial bibliography

Harwood has authored numerous publications including his book Judicial Activism: A Restrained Defense, (to be republished by the University Press of America, forthcoming.) 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 modest 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".

Harwood maintains a website at www.sterlingharwood.com and his publications include:

  • "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 978-0072448115 .
  • (with Michael J. Gorr), co-editor, Crime and Punishment: Philosophic Explorations (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., second printing 2000) ISBN 978-0534542498.
  • "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 978-0534542498.
  • "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 978-0534542511, 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 978-0534542511, 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 978-0534542511, 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 978-0534542511, Chapter 13, pp. 84–85.
  • "Needs," in Sterling Harwood, ed., Business as Ethical and Business as Usual (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1996), ISBN 978-0534542511, Chapter 17, pp. 91–92.
  • Judicial Activism: A Restrained Defense (Bethesda, MD: Austin & Winfield Publishers, 1996) ISBN 978-1880921685.
  • "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 978-0773492646.
  • "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 978-0813314839.
  • (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).

Citations to Harwood's academic work include:

  • Dov M. Gabbay, Patrice Canivez, Shahid Rahman, and Alexandre Theircelin, Approaches to Legal Rationality (Springer, 2010), p. 197.
  • Omar Ayaita, Philosophical Knowledge: The Search for Truth and Its Limits (Amazon.com, 2010), pp. 106 and 154.
  • Sarah J. Kitchell and Joshua M. D. Segal, "Rights, Equality, and Justice: A Conference Inspired by the Moral and Legal Theory of David Lyons," Boston University Law Review, Vol. 90, Number 6, August 2010, p. 1668.
  • John Hardin Young, International Election Principles: Democracy and the Rule of Law (American Bar Association, 2010), p. 27.
  • James Pavisian, "The Case for Human Ingenuity: How Adderall Has Sullied the Game," 48 Washburn Law Journal, 175 (2008), p. 184.
  • Thanh-Nga Nguyen, "Lawful Philosophy Professor Wreck-Chases: A Professor That Does Much More Than Teach", City College Times, May 12, 2008, p. 4.
  • Aron Zysow, "Two Theories of the Obligation to Obey God's Commands," in The Law Applied: Contextualizing the Islamic Shari'a (I. B. Tauris, 2008), p. 415.
  • John M. Parrish, Paradoxes of Political Ethics (Cambridge University Press, 2007), pp. 6 and 274.
  • Quee Nelson, The Slightest Philosophy (Dog Ear Press, 2007), p. 264.
  • Jennifer M. Collins, "Crime and Parenthood: The Uneasy Case of Prosecuting Negligent Parents," 100 Northwestern University Law Review 807 (2006), p. 808.
  • J. Edward Kellough, Understanding Affirmative Action: Politics, Discrimination, and the Search for Justice (Georgetown University Press, 2006), pp. 78 and 165.
  • Louis P. Pojman, [...], Human Rights, and the Case for World Government (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2006), pp. xi, 13, 25, and 73.
  • Louis P. Pojman, Who Are We?: Theories of Human Nature (Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 151.
  • Louis P. Pojman, Justice (Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2006), p. xii.
  • Colin Gavaghan, Defending the Genetic Supermarket (Routledge-Cavendish, 2006), p. 180.
  • Mike W. Martin and Roland Schinzinger, Ethics in Engineering, 4th ed. (McGraw-Hill, 2005), pp. 57, 85 and 327.
  • Theodore Eisenberg and Stephen P. Garvey, "The Merciful Capital Juror," 2 Ohio State Journal of Criminal Law 165 (2004), pp. 166 and 168.
  • Lou Marinoff, "The Big Picture: What is Business Ethics? What are its Prospects in Asia?," in Frank-Jurgen Richter and Pamela C. M. Mar, eds., Asia's New Crisis: Renewal Through Total Ethical Management (John Wiley & Sons, 2004), p. 33.
  • Carl Cohen and James P. Sterba, Affirmative Action and Racial Preference (Oxford University Press, 2003), p. 367.
  • David Detmer, Challenging Postmodernism: Philosophy and the Politics of Truth (Humanity Books, 2003), p. 292.
  • Louis P. Pojman, Global Political Philosophy (McGraw-Hill, 2003), p. xvii.
  • Bernard Boxill, ed., Race and Racism (Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 174.
  • Steven M. Wise, Rattling the Cage: Toward Legal Rights for Animals (Perseus Publishing, 2000), pp. 94 and 296.
  • Del Kiernan-Lewis, Learning to Philosophize: A Primer (Wadsworth Publishing Co., 2000), p. xii.
  • Keith Burgess-Jackson, "A History of [...] Law," in Keith Burgess-Jackson, ed., A Most Detestable Crime: New Philosophical Essays on [...] (Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 27.
  • William H. Shaw, Contemporary Ethics: Taking Account of Utilitarianism (Wiley-Blackwell, 1999), pp. 115, 294, and 306.
  • Michael Levin, Why Race Matters: Race Differences and What They Mean (Praeger, 1997), pp. 206, 238, 252, 254 and 257.
  • Louis P. Pojman and Robert Westmoreland, Equality: Selected Readings (Oxford University Press, 1997), p. vii.
  • Avrum Stroll, Moore and Wittgenstein on Certainty (Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 184.
  • David Lyons, Moral Aspects of Legal Theory: Essays on Law, Justice, and Political Responsibility, (Cambridge University Press, 1993), pp. 102 and 141.
  • Jeffrie Murphy, "Mercy and Legal Justice," in John T. Noonan, Jr. and Kenneth I. Winston, eds., The Responsible Judge: Readings in Judicial Ethics (Praeger, 1993), p. 155.
  • Timothy C. Shiell, Legal Philosophy: Selected Readings (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1993), pp. viii and 369.
  • Sharon Elizabeth Rush, "Breaking with Tradition: Surrogacy and Gay Fathers," in Diana Tietjens Meyers, Kenneth Kipnis and Cornelius F. Murphy Jr., eds., Kindred Matters: Rethinking the Philosophy of the Family (Cornell University Press, 1993), p. 102.
  • Steven P. Lee, Morality, Prudence, and Nuclear Weapons (Cambridge University Press, 1993), p. xiv.
  • Bernard Rosen, Ethical Theory: Strategies and Concepts (Maybield Publishing Co., 1993), p. xii.
  • Michael Levin, "Responses to Race Differences in Crime," 23 Journal of Social Philosophy (Spring 1991).
  • Lisa H. Newton, "Corruption of Thought Word, and Deed: Reflections on Affirmative Action and its Current Defenders," Contemporary Philosophy, Volume XIII, Number 7 (January/February 1991).
  • Jeffrie G. Murphy, "Mercy and Legal Justice," in Joel Feinberg, ed., The Philosophy of Law, 4th ed. (Wadsworth Publishing Co., 1991), p. 731.
  • P. S. Atiyah and Robert S. Summers, Form and Substance in Anglo-American Law: A Comparative Study of Legal Reasoning, Legal Theory, and Legal Institutions (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987), p. viii.