Michael A. Boylan
Michael Andrew Boylan (born September 21, 1952) in Evanston, Illinois is an American philosopher, poet and novelist. His teaching and research interests include ethics and social/ political philosophy, literature and philosophy, and the history /philosophy of biology and medicine.[[1]]
Contents
Early Life and education
In his high school and college years Boylan excelled at a wide variety of sports including track (800 and 1500 meters), cross-country, football, basketball, and baseball. Boylan attended Carleton College where he completed his B.A. focusing on Classics, English, and in Philosophy. After spending 1974-1975 on a T.J. Watson Fellowship in London, he enrolled at the University of Chicago where he completed his M.A. in English Literature and then his Ph.D. in Philosophy. He supplemented these studies with Classics. He is the author of 42 books and 150 articles.[[2]] [[3]]
His books include 12 novels and 2 poetry books. Boylan’s teaching expertise includes History of Philosophy, argumentative essays, logic, philosophy of law, ethics, metaphysics, and epistemology.[[4]]
Career
Boylan worked as a visiting assistant professor at Marquette University, Milwaukee, from 1979-1985. After that, he was a visiting assistant professor at Georgetown University, until 1987. Since then, he has been a professor of Philosophy at Marymount University. He has also served on national policy committees and was a fellow at The Center for American Progress. He has also made policy presentations at The Brookings Institution.[[5]]
Personal life
Boylan is married and has three grown children.[[6]]
A Summary of Boylan’s Opus
Ethics and Social/Political Philosophy
Some key concepts in Boylan’s first-order ethical theory:
1. The Personal Worldview Imperative. The personal worldview imperative is: “All people must develop a single comprehensive and internally coherent worldview that is good and that we strive to act out in our daily lives.” There are four parts to the personal worldview imperative: completeness, coherence, connection to a theory of the good, and practicality. First is completeness. Completeness refers to the ability of a theory or ethical system to handle all cases put before it and to determine an answer based upon the system’s recommendations. This is functionally achieved via the creation of a good will. The good will is a mechanism by which we decide how to act in the world. The good will provides completeness to everyone who develops one. Boylan sets out two senses of the goodwill: (a) the rational goodwill that commands that humans develop their capacities of deductive and inductive logic as best they can, and that they use these abilities in their daily lives. (b) the emotion goodwill enjoins humans first to develop empathy, the rational ability to see events in the world from the perspective of others. Once individuals have done this, they need to move to the next step: sympathy. Sympathy is an open, level emotional connection with others such that when those with who we have sympathy with are in need, there is a caring response by the agent. Together: empathy + sympathy + care = philosophical love. Boylan contends that once individuals develop a rational and emotional goodwill, that they will have solved the “completeness” condition of the personal worldview imperative.
Second is coherence. There are two sorts of coherence that Boylan sets out: deductive and inductive coherence. In deductive coherence a person will react in the same way in similar situations, ceteris paribus. This is tied-up with Boylan’s principle of jurisprudence, the J.I.R. (just implementation of rules) meaning that “like cases should be treated in a like manner, ceteris paribus”). In inductive coherence the agent is enjoined not to strive after two conflicting ends that will work against each other causing failure in each. In statistics, a betting house has to always offer complementary odds covering a single event or it will become bankrupt: the so-called “sure loss contract.” Inductive coherence commands that we not enter into any sure loss contracts by our life choices.
Third is connection to a theory of the good. This means that each agent needs to evaluate the principal theories of ethics: (a) realistic ethical theories: virtue ethics, utilitarianism, and deontology; (b) anti-realistic ethical theories: ethical intuitionism, non-cognitivism, and contractarianism. The personal worldview imperative does not dictate which ethical theory an agent must choose, but simply that s/he must make a choice so as not to fall into problems of incoherence.
Fourth is living out our choices in life. This has two dimensions: (a) one must do what one says or professes about normative values in life (avoid hypocrisy) and (b) one must choose to act after what is actually possible. It may be difficult (aspirational choices) but it must not be utopian (impossible to actually affect the world). Key texts that discuss the Personal Worldview Imperative are: Basic Ethics, A Just Society, Morality and Global Justice, and Natural Human Rights: A Theory, along with a number of journal articles that set out parts of his theoretical structure in the context of offering solutions to practical problems in the world that have crucial ethical, social/political content.
2. The Shared Community Worldview Imperative. The Shared Community Worldview is, “Each agent must contribute to a common body of knowledge that supports the creation of a shared community worldview (that is itself complete, coherent, and good) through which social institutions and their resulting policies might flourish within the constraints of the essential core commonly held values (ethics, aesthetics, and religion).” There are four aspects of this imperative: (a) participation, (b) common body of knowledge, (c) creation of social institutions, and (d) diversity.
First is participation. To live in a community requires that one share in the responsibilities of being a community member. These should be shared according to fair formulae that do not overburden certain people or groups of people. However, there is no room for free riders in a well-functioning community.
Second is the common body of knowledge. The common body of knowledge constitutes the generally agreed upon facts and values about the world. This is an ongoing process and require epistemological standards that can be used to evaluate claims in a non-question begging intersubjective fashion.
Third is the creation of supporting social institutions that implement policies that put into place structures that allow the members of the community to act toward what they think is best so long as they do not harm or severely interfere with others in their designated action-designs. These institutions should be sensitive to the will of the majority, but this does not include harming minority populations.
Fourth is diversity. Homogeneity is a bad principle in evolutionary biology and it’s bad for social structures, as well. The old maxim, “two heads are better than one” can be extended to embracing all sorts of diversity in decision-making roles. This is not only the most efficient, but it is moral, as well.
Note that in Morality and Global Justice and in Natural Human Rights, this imperative has extended forms both in terms of international scope, but also in terms of the environmental communities. Basic Ethics also extends epistemological obligations upon citizens of communities so that they can be more effective actors using a factually-based common body of knowledge. Boylan’s original characterization of the shared community worldview is in A Just Society (along with a number of journal articles that set out parts of his theoretical structure in the context of offering solutions to practical problems in the world that have crucial ethical, social/political content).
3. The Argument for the Moral Status of Basic Goods is next. This argument puts into place the crux of Boylan’s account of what we all can claim as preconditions for committing action (which we must do in order to fulfill our natural desire to be good (and to do what we perceive to be good—at least for us). The answer is a universal understanding of the goods of agency that are in some kind of ascending order of importance for action. The more important the good, the more the possession of such attaches to our human nature. The claim becomes a species’ claim and not of particular individuals so that all have a right to those goods by virtue of being human. And since rights and duties are correlative, all other people in the society have a duty to provide those goods to those who lack them. Therefore, this argument along with the subsequent Table of Embeddedness, form the basis for a robust social/political philosophy. For more on this see: A Just Society, Morality and Global Justice, and Natural Human Rights.
The Moral Status of Basic Goods
1. All people, by nature, desire to be good—Fundamental Assumption 2. In order to become good, one must be able to act—Fact 3. All people, by nature, desire to act—1, 2 4. People value what is natural to them—Assertion 5. What people value they wish to protect—Assertion 6. All people wish to protect their ability to act—3-5 7. Fundamental, interpersonal “oughts” are expressed via our highest value systems: morality, aesthetics, and religion—Assertion 8. All people must agree, upon pain of logical contradiction, that what is natural and desirable to them individually is natural and desirable to everyone collectively and individually—Assertion 9. Everyone must seek personal protection for her own ability to act via morality, aesthetics, and religion—6, 7 10. Everyone, upon pain of logical contradiction, must admit that all other humans will seek personal protection of his or her ability to act via morality, aesthetics, and religion—8, 9 11. All people must agree, upon pain of logical contradiction, that since the attribution of the basic goods of agency are predicated generally, that it is inconsistent to assert idiosyncratic preference—Fact 12. Goods that are claimed through generic predication apply equally to each agent and everyone has a stake in their protection—10, 11 13. Rights and duties are correlative—Assertion 14. Everyone has at least a moral right to the basic goods of agency and others in the society have a duty to provide those goods to all—12, 13
4. The Table of Embeddedness. If the argument for the moral status for basic goods is correct, then what are those basic goods and how do they relate in the order of priority for action (which Boylan contends in all his theoretical works as the essential characteristic of who we are as humans: agents seeking to commit purposive action)? Boylan’s answer to the question is the Table of Embeddedness (“embeddedness” here refers to the primacy to the proximate requirements for committing purposive action).
The Table of Embeddedness
BASIC GOODS
Level One: Most Deeply Embedded (That which is absolutely necessary for Human Action): Food, Clean Water (including sanitation), Clothing, Shelter, Protection from Unwarranted bodily harm (including basic health care) Level Two: Deeply Embedded (That which is necessary for effective basic action within any given society) • Literacy in the language of the country • Basic mathematical skills • Other fundamental skills necessary to be an effective agent in that country, e.g., in the United States some computer literacy is necessary • Some familiarity with the culture and history of the country in which one lives. • The assurance that those you interact with are not lying to promote their own interests. • The assurance that those you interact with will recognize your human dignity (as per above) and not exploit you as a means only. • Basic human rights such as those listed in the U.S. Bill of Rights and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
SECONDARY GOODS
Level One: Life Enhancing, Medium to High-Medium on Embeddedness • Basic Societal Respect • Equal Opportunity to Compete for the Prudential Goods of Society • Ability to pursue a life plan according to the Personal Worldview Imperative • Ability to participate equally as an agent in the Shared Community Worldview Imperative
Level Two: Useful, Medium to low Medium Embeddedness • Ability to utilize one’s real and portable property in the manner s/he chooses • Ability to gain from and exploit the consequences of one’s labor regardless of starting point • Ability to pursue goods that are generally owned by most citizens, e.g., in the United States today a smartphone would fit into this class.
Level Three: Luxurious, Low Embeddedness • Ability to pursue goods that are pleasant even though they are far removed from action and from the expectations of most citizens within a given country, e.g., in the United States today a European Vacation would fit into this class • Ability to exert one’s will so that she might extract a disproportionate share of pleasant or attractive goods associated with a successful purposive agent.
Boylan contends that the Table of Embeddedness should form the basis of public policy from progressive taxation to public works projects to policies affecting public welfare (e.g., universal healthcare, education, fire and police protection, et al.
Critical Discussion: John-Stewart Gordon, ed. brings together an international group of Philosophers to discuss Boylan’s core theory in John-Stewart Gordon, ed. Morality and Justice: Reading Boylan’s A Just Society (Lanham, MD and New York: Lexington Books, 2009)
Literature and Philosophy
Fictive Narrative Philosophy (Theory)
Boylan’s literary theory, known as fictive narrative philosophy, begins with the assumption that some examples of fiction can make claims. If philosophy is about making claims, and if all texts can be viewed on an equal footing, then perhaps there is not the wide gap between fictive and philosophical texts that many in the academy think there is. Boylan spends some time in his book, Fictive Narrative Philosophy: How Fiction can Act as Philosophy, trying to set out a special logic for fictive presentation that leans heavily upon abductive logic à la Boylan. If he is correct about this, then perhaps fiction is a mode for philosophical expression. But when should one engage in what Boylan calls “direct discourse philosophy” (traditional deductive presentation based upon empirical sources) as opposed to fictive narrative philosophy? Boylan contends that there are some questions that lend themselves to empirically-based inductive and deductive logic and they should remain in the domain of direct discourse philosophy. However, there are other questions in which non-empirical input is crucial for the outcome. In these cases, direct discourse philosophy is not adequate for the task at hand. For example, “Does God exist?” Since there can be, by definition, no empirical/intersubjective data sets, the direct discourse philosophy would have to demur. However, if one were to broaden the sphere to the non-empirical, then stories might yield persuasive material. The same holds true for other questions that cannot be answered through empirical discourse—such as “are people good or bad?” or “do mathematical objects actually exist such that they can reliably describe the world?” Boylan contends that the scope of fictive narrative philosophy begins on the outer edge of direct discourse philosophy. It is of note that in Boylan’s own direct discourse books, A Just Society and Natural Human Rights: A Theory, Boylan brings in fictive accounts to shore up his direct discourse arguments.
The De Anima and Archē Novel Series (Practice)
Ten of Boylan’s 12 published novels can be fit into two series, the De Anima Novel Series and the Archē Novel Series. The title of the first series obviously refers back to Aristotle’s classic work de Anima (a Latin translation of the Greek peri psuche) which is about more general personal and community worldviews than any particular individual aspect of the human animal. This is meant to dovetail with his work in ethics and social/political philosophy on the personal worldview imperative and the shared community worldview imperative. In his most recent conventional work on this topic (Natural Human Rights: A Theory—Cambridge, 2014), ch. 6, he extended the number of communities to five including social communities near and far and ecological communities near and far.
Michael Boylan’s De Anima Series
One way to sort the varieties of personal worldview and shared community worldviews is to track a key sociological feature: major world religions and key issues associated with them—for example, Buddhism & Desire. (In the De Anima Series, all four novels illustrate Boylan’s own personal worldview that interacts with those of the major world religions in a dialectical challenge to the claims that each espouses.) This allows for a somewhat ambitious viewing of the principal worldviews on the earth. It is his expectation that the various stories will set out what he calls fictive narrative philosophy. This is a discussion of worldview that cannot be as effectively stated in straight-forward deductive argument. On the edges of the realm of truth is a rather foggy area that cannot be the subject of strict scientific analysis, yet nonetheless, is of vital importance for those seeking to live sincere and authentic lives.
Here’s a quick summary of the novels and what Boylan is trying to do in each (besides creating a compelling story that pleases—the minimum condition, as Horace, ars poetica, extolls).
Rainbow Curve (2014)—Here is a tale about race, baseball, and politics in America with an overlay of the Muslim worldview on justice. You don’t have to understand the American game to get into this book in which a teen-aged European-descent boy (who loses his last parent) is “adopted” by a 60+ African American who once was a pitcher in the Negro Baseball League (a testament to segregationist America). The boy’s mentor creates a traveling baseball team that takes on games in Mexico and in the Caribbean. The time frame (of two concurrent stories) is 1970 and 1984. A major philosophical theme (aside from the social/political themes of Chicago in this period of time and sectional violence) is justice seen from an Islamic sensibility. ISBN: 978-06927-29090;
The Extinction of Desire (2007)—This novel begins with an astounding event: at a family gathering there is a disaster in which a light plane crashes into the event killing most in the gathering. With life insurance this creates the situation of sudden wealth for Michael O’Meara, a high school history teacher. What effects will this sudden wealth have on Michael? As friends, adversaries, and a greedy ex-wife emerge from the background to lay claim to the fortune, Michael finds himself caught up in a number of troubling situations that disrupt his life and leave him questioning everything about his personal worldview. A major philosophical theme is coming to terms with desire as seen from a Buddhist sensibility. ISBN: 978-14051-48504
To the Promised Land (2015)—Moses Levi is a powerful corporate lawyer who gets a multi-national chemical company off from any legal liability for a “Love-Canal-type” case in which 1,500 people die and 15,000 have serious health reactions (largely cancer). Then Moses’ wife dies of brain cancer six months later. Is there a karma link? Moses turns away from big-time corporate law and seeks redemption through becoming a social activist. Will this be enough? Then there is also a harm Moses was responsible for against his old college roommate, Peter Simon, for which Moses also wishes to patch-up. At the beginning of the book, Moses is missing and is a suspected murder victim. The FBI believes Peter Simon did it. The resulting tale involve both a murder investigation and a view of the back stage machinations of political Washington, D.C. The ménage is an examination of how forgiveness works at the individual and group level using distinctions from the Jewish tradition. ISBN: 978-06927-29113
Maya (2018)—Like Thomas Mann’s Buddenbrooks, this multi-generational novel presents many small stories within the larger context of a family over time. In this case, it is an immigrant Irish family coming to America in the late 19th century. The family is confronted with a shared community worldview that is present in this period. Various family members make choices, but larger forces within society (acting in the place of fate, as understood via the classical Hindu tradition) interact with those striving to live the American Dream. As the next two generations proceed forward both the common understanding of the Dream changes and the facts on the ground also are transforming: the Great Depression, World War II, the boom of the 1950s and 60s, the Moon landing, and finishing with the rise of personal computers. The coda is set on the 9/11/2001 tragedy and the subsequent reaction. As the next generation is ready to go—where will free will and fate fit in? The major philosophical theme is coming to terms with fate seem from a Hindu sensibility. ISBN: 978-06929-61636
Together, these four books seek to explore personal and shared community worldview through various lenses in order to offer a more complete picture of how these concepts both describe and prescribe our behavior as humans living in the world.
Michael Boylan’s Archē Series
(The Archē Series seeks to explore philosophical themes within the context of varying novelistic structures that endeavor to define some of the major directions of that fiction form.)
Naked Reverse. (2016) --There’s a secret back door to the Ivory Tower. Readers follow college professor Andrew Viam through that secret passageway as he goes on an Odyssey into the real world full of love and violence. Will he survive? This is an open question. He falls for a woman, but then she’s running away from a boyfriend who’s into Organized Crime and wants her back. From the tough city streets of Chicago to the wild woods of Wisconsin, Andrew will have to call on new resources if he wants to make it alive to the next term. It’s a summer break he’d never experienced—and hopefully never will again. The presentation mode is the conventional time sequence narrative. The overarching philosophical position is achieving personal authenticity via action consistent with the personal worldview imperative. ISBN 978-06927-29106
Georgia (in three parts, 2016-2017)
What does the novel look like as epic? Georgia uses this structural device to explore racial identity in the state of Georgia between 1900-1930. John Dow, is an orphan of unknown parentage who is discovered by a wealthy farmer, Samuel Beauchay, who operates what used to be a cotton plantation that operated with slave labor. The slave owner’s grandson (now an adult) raises Dow almost as if he were his own son. The problem for John (and those around him during his upbringing of privilege) is whether he is black. Racial identity was very important in the rural town of Varner’s Junction. John’s real upbringing comes at the hand of Jefferson John Brown, who is the first African Americans to receive a degree in philosophy at an Ivy League University. A series of disasters brings Jefferson back to Varner’s Junction where he had been born. He now runs Samuel Beauchay’s farm for him for a salary. A murder, a fugitive, threats of lynching create a fast pace against the back drop of the decay of the Old South. Readers join along to be a partner in history and discover who-done-it! The presentation mode contains the machinery of the epic as developed in the Western Tradition. The overarching philosophical position concerns the search for personal identity, race, and the shared community worldview of an unstable racist society.
Part One ISBN: 978-06927-52548
Part Two ISBN: 978-06928-10965
Part Three ISBN: 978-06928-73274
T-Rx: The History of a Radical Leader (2019)
During the late 1960s, there was a feeling among some young people that the United States was on the verge of a revolution. The Vietnam War, Civil Rights, new social mores all contributed to create a situation in which a counter-culture evolved. This book explores the story of one counter-culture group led by a man who called himself, T-Rx. Readers enter into this world of those who seek to turn the established order upside down—even as the FBI tries to stop them. How far can revolution go? Is it ever a good thing? Wasn’t the United States founded upon revolution? The presentation mode is epistolary. The overarching philosophical position concerns the parallel positions of the extent of individual liberty within an established (sometimes corrupt) democratic society and an examination of consent respecting the existing legal system. ISBN: 978-0692-170403
The Long Fall of the Ball from the Wall (2020)
Human history in the West is sometimes parsed via the Enlightenment as offering an individualistic perspective that countered the existing communitarian worldview. Boylan has examined this historical change via direct discourse in chapters 2 & 3 of Natural Human Rights: A Theory (Cambridge, 2014). As fictive narrative philosophy, this theoretical construct is examined in terms of the early 1960s through the assassination of John F. Kennedy. This novel examines a hypothetical 2nd gunman behind the grassy knoll and how his personal struggles mirror the larger themes of individual liberty and perceived government/social oppression. The novel is told via the presentation mode of discontinuous narrative. The overarching philosophical position concerns the dialectical interactions between the role of a given individual and the society at large. How do these interactions affect free will and determinism? How strong are environmental factors in shaping us? ISBN: 978-0578-556956
Critical Discussion: Wanda Teays has edited a critical discussion of both Boylan’s literary theory, Fictive Narrative Philosophy, along with scholars who examine each novel in these two series. Wanda Teays, Reshaping Philosophy: Michael Boylan’s Narrative Fiction (Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2022). ISBN: 978-30309-92644
History/Philosophy of Biology and Medicine
In Method and Practice in Aristotle’s Biology (along with a number of journal articles on ancient Greek Medicine) Boylan viewed texts that had often been discussed only in the context of explaining either Aristotle’s Ethics or his Metaphysics. Boylan takes a different course. He seeks to see these passages as instances of biological research that also have medical research consequences (Aristotle’s father was a physician in the Royal Court in Macedon).
Boylan draws on categories from the philosophy of science to situate how Aristotle’s understanding of formal cause and final cause (combined as TE by Boylan) interact with the efficient cause and material cause (combined as ME by Boylan). For a brief discussion see https://iep.utm.edu/aristotle-biology/
This book, along with a number of articles on Aristotle, the Hippocratic writers, Galen, et al. have been often cited by others doing research in these areas.
In The Origins of Ancient Greek Science: Blood—A Philosophical Study examines the role of blood in ancient biology and medicine. Boylan sets out three ways that nature has been understood: (a) nature as known and set out materially; (b) nature as known and set out non-empirically—often with reference to religion; and (c) nature as basically unknowable via radical skepticism. These three understandings of nature form a model that allows for examination and evaluation of ancient debates on biology and medicine. It is the contention of Boylan, that these debates are brought together and resolved by Galen within the context of ancient Greek and Roman medicine.
In Genetic Engineering: Science and Ethics on the New Frontier we move to the contemporary arena. Boylan and Brown argue that the line between somatic treatment (in which genetic engineering should be given more lee-way) and germ line treatment (in which genetic engineering should subject to a strict application of the principle precautionary reason which should rule the day because of the immense complexity of unforeseen consequences in germ line alterations). As we move forward in genetic engineering with Crispr technology, these directions and restrictions become even more important as ethical directions for the future.
Bibliography
Ethics and Social/Political Philosophy
Theoretical Works
Michael Boylan, Basic Ethics, 3rd ed. (New York and London: Routledge, 2021) Michael Boylan, Natural Human Rights: A Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014) Michael Boylan, Morality and Global Justice (New York and London: Routledge, 2011) Michael Boylan, A Just Society (New York and Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield, 2004)
Applied
Michael Boylan, ed. Environmental Ethics, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2022) Michael Boylan, ed. Ethical Public Health Policies within Pandemics (Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2022) Michael Boylan and Wanda Teays, eds. Ethics in the AI, Technology, and Information Age (London and New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2022). Michael Boylan, ed. Business Ethics, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014) Michael Boylan, ed. Medical Ethics, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2014) Michael Boylan, ed. The Morality and Global Justice Reader (New York and London: Routledge, 2011) Michael Boylan, ed. International Public Health Policy and Ethics, (Dordrecht: Springer, 2008) Michael Boylan, ed. The Ethics of Teaching (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishers, 2006) Michael Boylan, ed. Public Health Policy and Ethics, editor of original essays. Substantial original material by the editor. (Dordrecht: Kluwer/Springer, 2004) Michael Boylan, ed. Gewirth: Critical Essays on Action, Rationality and Community (N.Y, Lanham, Md., Boulder, Co, Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield, 1999) Michael Boylan, ed. Ethical Issues in Business (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1995)
Critical Study
John-Stewart Gordon, ed. Morality and Justice: Reading Boylan’s A Just Society (Lanham, MD and New York: Lexington Books, 2009)
Literature and Philosophy
Theoretical Works
Michael Boylan, Fictive Narrative Philosophy: How Fiction can Act as Philosophy (New York and London: Routledge, 2019) Michael Boylan, Teaching Ethics through Three Philosophical Novels (Dordrecht: Springer, 2017) Michael Boylan and Charles Johnson, Philosophy: An Innovative Introduction—Fictive Narrative, Primary Texts, and Responsive Writing (New York and London: Routledge, 2010) Michael Boylan, The Good, The True, and The Beautiful (London: Continuum, 2008)
Applied: Novels and Poetry
Novels Archē Novels Michael Boylan, The Long Fall of the Ball from the Wall (Bethesda, MD: PWI Books, 2020) Michael Boylan, T-Rx: The History of a Radical Leader (Bethesda, MD: PWI Books, 2019) Michael Boylan, Georgia: A Trilogy—Part Three (Bethesda, MD: PWI Books, 2017) Michael Boylan, Georgia: A Trilogy—Part Two (Bethesda, MD: PWI Books, 2016) Michael Boylan, Georgia: A Trilogy—Part One (Bethesda, MD: PWI Books, 2016) Michael Boylan, Naked Reverse (Seattle, WA: Booktrope, 2016)
De Anima Novels Michael Boylan, Maya: An Irish-American History (Bethesda, MD: PWI Books, 2018) Michael Boylan, To The Promised Land: A Novel of Freedom and Redemption (Seattle: Booktrope, 2015) Michael Boylan, Rainbow Curve: Race, Sports, and Politics in America (Seattle: Booktrope, 2015) Michael Boylan, The Extinction of Desire: A Tale of Enligtenment (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007)
General Angus Black (pseudonym) Slipnot (Washington, D.C.: Mage, 1988) Michael Boylan, Far Into the Sound (New York: Echo, 1973)
Poetry Michael Boylan, A Modern Rendering of the Psalms (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2022) Michael Boylan, The Collected Poems of Michael Boylan (Bethesda, MD: PWI Books, 2022) Michael Boylan, Hafez: The Dance of Life (Washington, D.C.: Mage, 1987)
Children’s Pseudonym, Mariam Evans, When the Elephants Came (Washington, D.C.: Mage, 1988)
Critical Study Wanda Teays, Reshaping Philosophy: Michael Boylan’s Narrative Fiction (Cham, Switzerland: Springer, 2022).
History and Philosophy of Philosophy—esp. Biology and Medicine
Theoretical Works
Michael Boylan, The Origins of Ancient Greek Science: Blood—A Philosophical Study (New York and London: Routledge, 2015 Michael Boylan and Kevin Brown, Genetic Engineering: Science and Ethics on the New Frontier (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 2001) Michael Boylan, Method and Practice in Aristotle’s Biology (Lanham, MD, New York, and London: UPA/Rowman and Littlefield, 1983)
Applied
Michael Boylan, ed. The Philosophy of A.W.H. Adkins: “Virtue” and “Goodness” in Ancient Greece (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2022)
General Philosophy
Theoretical Works
Michael Boylan, The Process of Argument: An Introduction (New York and London: Routledge, 2020) Michael Boylan, Critical Inquiry (New York and London: Routledge, 2018)
Applied
Michael Boylan, Perspectives in Philosophy (Fort Worth, Tx: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1993)
