Eugene Webb
Encyclopedia
Eugene Webb is Professor Emeritus in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies
at the University of Washington
. Webb holds a Ph.D., in Comparative Literature from Columbia University (1965), an M.A. in English Literature from Columbia University (1962) and also a B.A., in Philosophy from the University of California, Los Angeles (1960). Webb was a member of the faculties of both the Comparative Literature
Department and the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, where he served as Associate Director and chaired programs in both Comparative Religion
and European Studies (1994). Webb was also the founder of those two programs: Comparative Religion in 1974, and European Studies in 1994. He retired from the University of Washington in 2000, where he now has the title Professor Emeritus of International Studies.
, and has authored the books The Dark Dove: The Sacred and Secular in Modern Literature (1975), Eric Voegelin
, Philosopher of History (1981), Philosophers of Consciousness (1988) and The Self Between: From Freud to the New Social Psychology of France (1993).
His book World View and Mind: Religious Thought and Psychological Development was published by the University of Missouri
Press in 2009.
Webb translated and wrote the introduction to Jean-Michel Oughourlian
's, The Puppet of Desire: The Psychology of Hysteria, Possession, and Hypnosis, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991).
He also translated a second book by Oughourlian, The Genesis of Desire, published by Michigan State University Press in 2010.
Jackson School of International Studies
The Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies is a school within the University of Washington's College of Arts and Sciences, in Seattle, Washington. The school's name honors Henry M. Jackson, a former U.S. Senator from the state of Washington....
at the University of Washington
University of Washington
University of Washington is a public research university, founded in 1861 in Seattle, Washington, United States. The UW is the largest university in the Northwest and the oldest public university on the West Coast. The university has three campuses, with its largest campus in the University...
. Webb holds a Ph.D., in Comparative Literature from Columbia University (1965), an M.A. in English Literature from Columbia University (1962) and also a B.A., in Philosophy from the University of California, Los Angeles (1960). Webb was a member of the faculties of both the Comparative Literature
Comparative literature
Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the literature of two or more different linguistic, cultural or national groups...
Department and the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies, where he served as Associate Director and chaired programs in both Comparative Religion
Comparative religion
Comparative religion is a field of religious studies that analyzes the similarities and differences of themes, myths, rituals and concepts among the world's religions...
and European Studies (1994). Webb was also the founder of those two programs: Comparative Religion in 1974, and European Studies in 1994. He retired from the University of Washington in 2000, where he now has the title Professor Emeritus of International Studies.
Studies
Webb has two books on the novels and plays of Samuel BeckettSamuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
, and has authored the books The Dark Dove: The Sacred and Secular in Modern Literature (1975), Eric Voegelin
Eric Voegelin
Eric Voegelin, born Erich Hermann Wilhelm Vögelin, was a German-born American political philosopher. He was born in Cologne, then Imperial Germany, and educated in political science at the University of Vienna. He became a teacher and then an associate professor of political science at the...
, Philosopher of History (1981), Philosophers of Consciousness (1988) and The Self Between: From Freud to the New Social Psychology of France (1993).
His book World View and Mind: Religious Thought and Psychological Development was published by the University of Missouri
University of Missouri
The University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...
Press in 2009.
Webb translated and wrote the introduction to Jean-Michel Oughourlian
Jean-Michel Oughourlian
Jean-Michel Oughourlian is a French neuropsychiatrist and psychologist as well as a writer and philosopher recognized both in France and the United States for his collaboration with René Girard and his work on the mimetic theory of desire...
's, The Puppet of Desire: The Psychology of Hysteria, Possession, and Hypnosis, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1991).
He also translated a second book by Oughourlian, The Genesis of Desire, published by Michigan State University Press in 2010.
Academic Positions
- Professor Emeritus of International Studies, University of Washington, 2000
- Professor of Comparative Literature and Comparative Religion, UW, 1975
- Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, UW, 1974
- Associate Professor of English, UW, 1973 Assistant Professor of English, UW, 1966 Assistant Professor of English, Simon Fraser University, 1965
Principal Administrative functions
- Associate Director, Jackson School of International Studies, 1997-2000
- Chairman, European Studies Program, 1994-98
- Executive Committee, Comparative Literature Department,1990-93
- Executive Committee, Ph.D. Program in Literary Theory, 1990-93
- Steering Committee, Comparative History of Ideas, 1978-2000.
- Acting Chairman, Department of Romance Languages and Literature, 1985-86
- Faculty Senate, 1984
- College Council, College of Arts and Sciences, 1976-79, Spring 1987
- Chairman, Comparative Religion Program, 1973-85
Works
- The Self Between: From Freud to the New Social Psychology of France (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1993)
- Philosophers of Consciousness: Polanyi, Lonergan, Voegelin, Ricoeur, Girard, Kierkegaard (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1988).
- Eric VoegelinEric VoegelinEric Voegelin, born Erich Hermann Wilhelm Vögelin, was a German-born American political philosopher. He was born in Cologne, then Imperial Germany, and educated in political science at the University of Vienna. He became a teacher and then an associate professor of political science at the...
: Philosopher of History (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1981). - The Dark Dove: The Sacred and Secular in Modern Literature (Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 1975).
- The Plays of Samuel BeckettSamuel BeckettSamuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
(Seattle: University of Washington Press; London: Peter Owen, 1972). - Samuel BeckettSamuel BeckettSamuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
: A Study of His Novels (Seattle: University of Washington Press; London: Peter Owen, 1970).
Articles
- “ErosErosEros , in Greek mythology, was the Greek god of love. His Roman counterpart was Cupid . Some myths make him a primordial god, while in other myths, he is the son of Aphrodite....
and The Psychology of World Views,” Anthropoetics XII, 1 (Spring / Summer 2006). URL: http://www.anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap1201/webb06rev.htm - “Voegelin’s Gnosticism Reconsidered.” Political Science Reviewer, 34 (2005): 48-76.
- “René GirardRené GirardRené Girard is a French historian, literary critic, and philosopher of social science. His work belongs to the tradition of anthropological philosophy...
and the Symbolism of Religious Sacrifice,” Anthropoetics 11, no. 1 (Spring / Summer 2005). URL: http://www.anthropoetics.ucla.edu/ap1101/webb.htm - “Girard, Sacrifice, and Religious Symbolism.” Journal of European Psychoanalysis, 14 (Winter-Spring, 2002): 59-79.
- “Eros und die Psycholgie der Weltanschauungen” in Kulturen des Eros (Eranos Jahrbuch, neue folge., vol. 8: 179-229). Munich: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2001. Also in Russian translation in Arba (online periodical in Russian) URL: http://www.arba.ru/guests/articles/2005323-1.html
- “Eric VoegelinEric VoegelinEric Voegelin, born Erich Hermann Wilhelm Vögelin, was a German-born American political philosopher. He was born in Cologne, then Imperial Germany, and educated in political science at the University of Vienna. He became a teacher and then an associate professor of political science at the...
and Literary Theory,” in Politics, Order and History: Essays on the Work of Eric Voegelin, ed. Glenn Hughes, Stephen A. McKnight, and Geoffrey L. Price. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001. - “Spiritual Disorientation and Voegelinian Postmodernism,” review of Glenn Hughes, ed., The Politics of the Soul: Eric Voegelin on Religious Experience, and David Walsh, Guarded By Mystery: Meaning in a Postmodern Age. The Review of Politics, 62, no. 4 (Fall, 2000): 823-827
- “Le Désir philosophique,” in Le Désir: Énergie et finalité, ed. Jean-Michel Oughourlian. Paris: L’Harmattan, 1999.
- “Persuasion and the Problem of Polarizing Rhetoric.” Voegelin Research News, 4, no. 4 (August 1998).
- “Ernest BeckerErnest BeckerErnest Becker was a cultural anthropologist and interdisciplinary scientific thinker and writer. He is noted for his 1974 Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Denial of Death.-Early life:...
and the Psychology of Worldviews.” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science, 33, no. 1 (March 1998): 71-86. - “Le Differenziazioni della coscienza.” In La Scienza dell’ ordine: Saggi su Eric Voegelin, ed. Gian Franco Lami and Govanni Franchi. Rome: Antonio Pellicani Editore, 1997.
- “Mimesis, Evolution, and Differentiation of Consciousness.” Paragrana: Internationale Zeitschrift für Historische Anthropologie, 4, no. 2 (1995): 151-165.
- “Objective and Existential Truth in Politics.” Public Affairs Quarterly, 9 (no. 2, April, 1995), pp. 93–99.
- “Epilogue: The Symbolism of Political Community.” In Render Unto Caesar: The Religious Sphere in world Politics, edited by Sabrina Petra Ramet and Donald W. Treadgold (Washington, DC: American University Press, 1995), pp. 433–446.
- “The Ambiguity of Political Community.” Hellas, 5, 2 (Winter 1994): 52-61.
- “SocratesSocratesSocrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon, and the plays of his contemporary ...
, ModernismModernismModernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
, and the Problem of a Genuine PostmodernismPostmodernismPostmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...
.” In Plato and Postmodernism (Glenside, PA: The Aldine Press, 1994), pp. 29–39. - “The New Social Psychology of France: The Heritage of Jacques Lacan.” Religion (1993) 23: 61-69.
- “The New Social Psychology of France: The Girardian School.” Religion (1993) 23: 255-63.
- “The Epochal Particularism of Modernity.” Gallatin Review 12 (no. 1, Winter 1992-93): 87-95.
- “Socrates, Modernity, Postmodernism.” Hellas, 3, 1 (Spring 1992): 27-41.
- “Augustine's New Trinity: The Anxious Circle of Metaphor.” In Innovation in Religious Traditions: Essays in the Interpretation of Religious Change, ed. Michael A. Williams, Collett Cox, and Martin S. Jaffee. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1992. Pp. 191–214.
- “Religion, Modernity, and the Humanities,” Religious Studies and Theology, 11, nos. 2 & 3 (1991): 18-35.
- “Recent French Psychoanalytic Thought and the Psychology of Religion.” Religious Studies and Theology, 8, nos. 1 & 2 (January, May, 1988): 31-44.
- “The Ecumenical Significance of Lonergan's Theological Method.” Ecumenical Trends, 17, no. 4 (April 1988): 49-52.
- “Metaphysics or Existenzerhellung: A Comparison of Lonergan and Voegelin.” Religious Studies and Theology, 7, nos. 2+3 (1987): 36-47.
- “The Hermeneutic of Greek Trinitarianism: An Approach Through Intentionality Analysis.” In Religion in Context, ed. Timothy P. Fallon and Philip Boo Riley. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 1988.
- “Politics and the Problem of a Philosophical Rhetoric in the Thought of Eric Voegelin,” Journal of Politics, 48, 1 (1986): 260-273.
- “The Alchemy of Man and the Alchemy of God: The Alchemist as Cultural Symbol in Modern Thought,” Religion and Literature 17, 1 (Spring 1985): 47-60.
- “Eric Voegelin (1901-1985) : Eulogy at Stanford Memorial Chapel.” Sequoia, 29, no. 2 (1985): 96-98.
- “The PneumatologyPneumatologyPneumatology is the study of spiritual beings and phenomena, especially the interactions between humans and God.Pneuma is Greek for "breath", which metaphorically describes a non-material being or influence....
of Bernard LonerganBernard LonerganFr. Bernard J.F. Lonergan, CC, SJ was a Canadian Jesuit priest, philosopher, and theologian widely regarded as one of the most important Catholic thinkers of the twentieth century....
: A Byzantine Comparison,” Religious Studies and Theology 5, 2 (1985): 13-23. - “Mesopotamian Religion,” in Denise L.Carmody and John T. Carmody, Ways to the Center: An Introduction to World Religions, Second edition (Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Publishing, 1984), pp. 199–205.
- “Faith, Truth and Persuasion in the Thought of Eric Voegelin,” in Voegelin and the Theologian: Ten Studies in Interpretation, Toronto Studies in Theology, Vol. 10, ed. John Kirby and William M. Thompson. (New York and Toronto: Edwin Mellen Press, 1983), pp. 356–69.
- “Luther and Zen: Cultural Implications of Doctrines of Sudden Deliverance,” in Michael A. Williams, ed., Charisma and Sacred Biography, Journal of the American Academy of Religion Thematic Studies, 48, 3 and 4 (1982): 69-86.
- “The Spiritual Crisis of Modernity: Keynes, Beckett, Baudelaire.” Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal 62, 2 (Summer 1979): 131-143.
- “Eric Voegelin's Theory of Revelation.” The Thomist, 42, 1 (January 1978): 95-122. Reprinted in Eric Voegelin's Thought: A Critical Appraisal, ed. Ellis SandozEllis SandozEllis Sandoz is the Hermann Moyse Jr. Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Director of the Eric Voegelin Institute for American Renaissance Studies...
. Durham: Duke University Press, 1982, pp. 157–78. - “Self and Cosmos: Religion as Strategy and Exploration in the Novels of E.M. Foster.” Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 59, 2 (Summer 1976): 186-203.
- “George HerbertGeorge HerbertGeorge Herbert was a Welsh born English poet, orator and Anglican priest.Being born into an artistic and wealthy family, he received a good education that led to his holding prominent positions at Cambridge University and Parliament. As a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, Herbert excelled in...
and the Language of Disclosure.” West Coast Review 10, 3 (February 1976): 44-46. - “Pozzo in Bloomsbury: A Possible Allusion in Beckett's Waiting for Godot.” Journal of Modern Literature 5, 2 (April 1976): 326-331.
- “Yukio MishimaYukio Mishimawas the pen name of , a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor and film director, also remembered for his ritual suicide by seppuku after a failed coup d'état...
's Cosmology.” West Coast Review 10, l (June 1975): 48-53. - “The Religious Thought of W. H. Auden: The Ambiguity of the Sacred.” Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal 58, 4 (Winter 1974): 439-57.
- “Hermine and the Problem of Harry's Failure in Hesse's Steppenwolf.” Modern Fiction Studies 18, 7 (1971): 115-24.
- “Criticism and the Creative Process.” West Coast Review 2, 2 (Fall 1967): 13-20.