A. John Simmons, “Boundaries of Authority” (Oxford UP, 2016)
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What is the central argument of Simmons’s “Boundaries of Authority”?
Hello, thanks for joining us for New Books in Philosophy. I'm Robert Talise. I'm Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. I co host the program with Carrie Figder. And Carrie is associate professor of philosophy at the University of Iowa. My guest today is A. John Simmons. He's the author of a fantastic new book titled Boundaries of Authority. Which is published by Oxford University Press. As I suspect many listeners will know, John has been working on normative questions about state authority for Quite some time. This latest book explores normative issues regarding the moral rights of states with respect to territory. Now there are several questions here. uh questions about borders. Immigration and exclusion, natural resources in
Under and above the ground. And so on. Uh and many of these are taken up uh by John in the book. But before we get into the details of boundaries of authority, Let's greet our guest. Hi John.
Morning, Bob.
How are you today?
I'm well, thank you.
Well, thanks for joining us on New Books in Philosophy.
Well thank you for giving me the opportunity to to talk a bit about the book. Uh these issues are important ones, I think, and I hope that people will be stimulated to do their own work on the problems.
Great. Um Before we get into the the the problems and the and and the way that you address them in in the book, um, why don't you start us off by telling us a little bit a little bit about yourself?
Right. Uh Well, I was born in the United States and have lived here uh my whole life w with the exception of a few uh semesters spent abroad. Um I was born in New Jersey specifically and lived. uh all up and down the East Coast. Um My philosophical interests Developed Perhaps somewhat later in life than is true for many of us. Uh I had no interest in philosophy in high school or And I entered uh college as an engineer, um taking almost exclusively math and science classes, though it gradually dawned on me that my favorite classes were the electives that were outside of the engineering curriculum. Um My interest in philosophy began when I took a Undergraduate class at Princeton from Uh, Tim Scanlon, uh I think the class was called Systematic Ethics.
And while I uh did many other things during my undergraduate years, I was hooked on philosophy. um and ended up pursuing that as a major, uh it was a terrific time to do philosophy at Princeton. Um I had the opportunity to take classes with Hempel and blast us uh with uh Donald Davidson uh with uh Stuart Hampshire, uh Walter Kaufman, Dick Rorty. Uh I worked a lot with Tim Scanlon while I was there. My undergraduate thesis, which all Princeton undergraduates have to write, was directed by Tom Nagel. Um So I got some really excellent philosophical training. Uh that uh decided me to uh try my hand at graduate school. Um I went to graduate school at Cornell. Uh, where I worked primarily with Nick Sturgeon and David Lyons, David Lyons supervised.
Uh my dissertation there. Which after a couple of years of work became uh my first book on political obligation.
How does Simmons trace his philosophical background and transition to political theory?
Uh I was offered a job out of graduate school at the University of Virginia, uh, which I took and I have been there ever since for more than a year. Uh forty years I've been Perhaps tempted to leave a few times by uh offers that I've received. elsewhere, but uh the University of Virginia is a very fine university. I enjoy the students there and I love Charlottesville. Uh so I've uh I've remained and here I am now.
That's great. Um, interesting, uh, maybe philosophically that you've um stayed put. Uh um uh that you've uh taken up residence within a particular location and um Uh haven't moved. Um That um Does that seem like a philosophical
It it might it might well be.
uh you have some allegiance to uh to a particular Dare I say state. Um so gr great. Well well let's uh let's move on to the book. Um Um The book begins uh with a chapter that um discusses what you call some necessary preliminaries. Um And you're centrally concerned to introduce there um the broader uh themes and issues um concerning political authority.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the central argument of Simmons’s “Boundaries of Authority”?
0:08–4:05
2
How does Simmons trace his philosophical background and transition to political theory?
4:05–9:24
3
What preliminary issues does the book raise about political authority over persons versus territories?
9:24–22:33
4
How does Simmons use Thoreau’s civil‑disobedience to illustrate historical wrongs and state legitimacy?
22:33–37:57
5
What are the three main competing views on state territorial rights (functionalism, nationalism, majoritarian voluntarism)?
37:57–51:06
6
How does Simmons defend a Lockean individualist account of property‑like claims to land, air, and subsurface?
51:06–57:38
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