Samuel Thomas

Sam Thomas’ main research areas include political philosophy, 19th century philosophy, environmental ethics, and philosophy of law.

His dissertation research concerns what to do about democratic backsliding: that is, the process whereby a democratic society becomes authoritarian. To answer this, one must first answer the question of what the value of democracy is, as well as the causes of backsliding. To that end, Thomas is currently working on just such a project.

In 19th century philosophy, Thomas is mainly interested in the speculative and historical materialist methodologies of Hegel and Marx, respectively, and how such methods of philosophical analysis motivate these thinkers’ substantive political views. Of particular interest here is how later thinkers (e.g., the so-called Frankfurt School) use such methods of philosophical analysis to inform their critiques of everyday life. However, Thomas teaches 19th century philosophy more broadly, covering every major thinker from the French Revolution to the turn of the 20th century.

In environmental ethics, Thomas is interested in how economic arrangements affect public environmental goods. The (mis)management of the Colorado River is one area of import for him. He is also interested in debates around to what extent we should grant rights or socialize the natural world to deal with the effects of climate change.

Thomas’ MA thesis, gained from Arizona State University in 2021, concerned legal epistemology, specifically how judges and juries should evaluate different types of evidence. This thesis covered topics in philosophy of law, epistemology, and philosophy of language to give an account of individualized evidence as qualitatively different from bare statistical evidence. However, as the previous paragraphs indicate, his main areas of study have shifted since arriving at the University of Arizona in Fall 2022.

A lifelong Arizonan, Thomas enjoys exploring Tucson and playing music in what scant free time he has.