Thomas Kerch

Faculty

Professorial Lecturer, Department of Government and Graduate Liberal Studies Program

Age: 58

Hometown: Chicago, Ill.

Education: Ph.D. Georgetown University, Government

Areas of Research: Ancient political and moral philosophy

Time at Georgetown: 13 years (as a student and as a professor)

Courses Taught: “Elements of Political Theory,” “Plato’s Political Philosophy,” “Virtue and Politics,” “The Classical Foundations of American Political Thought,” “American Political Thought,” “Roman Political Thought Graduate liberal studies program: Foundations of Modernity,” “The Citizen and the Regime”

What led you to concentrate in your field?
I started as an undergraduate with an interest in ancient history and literature, and was a Classics major. Over time, I found the philosophy texts much more enriching. Eventually I transitioned to doing Greek or Roman philosophy. Because of my interest in history, the political aspect of philosophy was most closely tied of the philosophy disciplines.

What is the greatest challenge in your field?
The greatest challenge, because I cover the entire history of political philosophy from the Greeks to the early 20th century, is setting the proper context for the text and getting the students to try to put themselves back in the time, historical, social and cultural context in which the texts were written. And to convey the idea that these are not isolated works but that they contain ideas or themes that are diachronic, that extend beyond any particular place and time and to get the fullest understanding is to get the historical context and then work out to what’s universal in them.

What is the most fascinating question in your field?
How do we try to make normative claims actually take root in empirical reality?

What is most difficult about teaching?
It depends on the level of course, if I can qualify this a little. In lower-level or entry-level classes, the greatest challenge is trying to get the students to appreciate the relevance of this material — that ideas do matter. The challenge with upper-level students is trying to see how it’s relevant not just as an idea but how it could inform the way a person lives their life. It’s a two step process: We first have to interest the student in ideas, and then how they can make use of what is still relevant for their existence. … If it doesn’t come across as sounding too corny, I’d really like to express an appreciation and thankfulness for having so many students that you don’t have to overcome a barrier to start into a conversation about ideas, but who are in a lot of respects seeking out the conversation on their own. From that perspective, I feel as an educator very privileged and fortunate.

What would be your ideal course to teach?
My fantasy would be to do a four-term sequence comprehensibly looking at classical political philosophy, starting with Plato in one term, moving to Aristotle, then the Greek historian Thucydides and then finally finishing up with Roman political thought. The purpose behind it is to try to give the students a sense of an overarching continuity that lasts roughly a millennium and then forms the basis for all early modern and modern political philosophy, at least in the West.

What would you be doing if you weren’t in academia?
I really, at this point in my life, can’t imagine myself doing something else.

Has Georgetown’s Jesuit identity affected how you teach?
Really, the rather pragmatic and mundane move across country due to a job transfer. As I become involved in and aware of Georgetown’s special identity, it makes it easier for what I teach to work with a group of students who aren’t uncomfortable when I say words like virtue or soul, which is such an integral part of ancient political and moral thought. And it makes part of the process of working with these texts much simpler because they’re receptive to it. And I think a lot of the students that have taken my courses, particularly upper-level courses where at that point you’re getting a rather self-selecting group, are interested in not just what this material can do to help form their characters, but it also ties in very closely with the whole ideal of what a Georgetown or Jesuit higher education is supposed to be: the whole care of the whole person concept.

Interview by Sheena Karkal