Palmer, Eric -

Personal Information
First Name: 
Eric
Last Name: 
Palmer
Department / Program: 
OTHER
Other: 
Center for Studies in Religion and Society
University Affiliation: 
University of Victoria
Phone: 
2507216325
Email Address: 
Area of Research
Subject: 
Astronomy
Geographical Region: 
France
Time Period: 
16th Century
18th Century
Specific Area of Research: 
Descartes, Voltaire, methodology, Copernican revolution, early modern philosophy, enlightenment popularization of science
Academics
PHD Program: 
Philosophy
PHD University: 
University of California, San Diego
PHD Date: 
1991
Major Publications: 
Voltaire's Candide: Broadview Edition. 2009, Broadview Press. “Real Institutions and Really Legitimate Institutions,” David Mark, ed. The Mystery of Capital and The Construction of Social Reality. Open Court, 2008. The entrenched cultural influence of an erroneous reading of social contract theory yields a pair of myths: that people’s choices alone generate social institutions, and that government precedes and underwrites both the reality and the legitimacy of all other social institutions. Prior institutional and socio-technical creations provide the material on which changes in institutions may be enacted, and political legitimacy concerns ethics more fundamentally than positive law.
Membership in Academic Societies: 
International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science (HOPOS)
Courses Taught: 
History and Philosophy of Science, Rights, Rebellion and Civil Disobedience, The Evolution of Social Organization, Theory of Knowledge