Education

Biography

Bill Puka teaches and researches in the areas of moral-political philosophy, psychology and moral development, applied ethics, philosophy of mind, cognitive science, applied cogsci research in problem solving (protocol task analysis), and democracy and anarchism.

Research Interest

• Philosophy 
• Psychology

Professional Activities:

• Professor of Philosophy and Psychology, RPI, 1995-present
• Visiting Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education, 1996 (Teaching and Learning Program)
• Research Member: MA program in I/O and Human Factors (RPI)
• Associate in Education, Center For Moral Development, Harvard Graduate School of Education: researched the relation of Kohlbergian moral judgment to the perceived fairness-structure of institutions, and the relation of value and virtue judgments to judgments of right and obligation (1984-85, 1978-79 {honorary}).
• Instructor in organizational development, TRICE program and Hartford Housing Authority: ran six-week course for high-level and mid-level management (1975).
• Instructor in psychology (part-time) University of Massachusetts: Introduction to psychology, developmental psychology.
• Teaching assistant (to Arthur Dyke), Harvard Divinity School: client-centered counseling (1973). Research associate (to R. W. Wittenborn), Rutgers Interdisciplinary Research Center and Marlboro State Mental Hospital: psychological testing, psychiatric interviewing, psychopharmacological research on the effects of Tofrenil and Mellaril on postmenopausal, depressive psychosis, 1966-67

Publications

1. The Golden Rule, Consequentialism, Deontology, Rawls, etc,, (2005-2006) Nine entries for The Encyclopedia of Moral Education, NY: Greenwood Press.
2. Academic Integrity: Can Student Cheating Compare with Faculty Fraudulence and Adminsitrative Hypocrisy? (2005) Liberal Education (Summer/Fall)..
3. Teaching Ethics as lifestyle Excellence (2005) Liberal Education (Summer/Fall).
4. Translating Moral Structures into Problem Solving Processes. (2005). In W. Edelstein & G. Nunner-Winkler (Eds.) Morality in social context. New York: Eliviser.
5. Moral Development(entry) (2004). Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Eds, M. Boylan, R Tong Multiple Intelligences: A response of Willingham. Education Next: J. of The Hoover Institution
6. (Stanford University)
7. Supporting Ethical Problem Solving: An Exploratory Investigation. (Robbins, R.W., Wallace, W.A., and B. Puka) in the 2004 Proceedings of the Association of Computing Machinery Special Interest Group for Management Information Systems and Computer Personnel Research, Tucson, AZ, April 22-24, 2
8. The Good of Evil (2003) in T. Wren and W VanHaaften (eds) Moral Sensibilities in Adolescence.
9. Netherlands; Concord Press. To be reprinted in Spanish (2004) (themes: the ways in which chief teen problems cited by character educators represent legitimate goods (gang violence, drugs and alchohol consumption, teen pregnancy,
10. The DIT and the Dark Side. (2002) Journal of Moral Education, 31, #3. (Fall) (themes: the uncovering of ideological biases in the Defining Issues Test based on correlations with political preference tests and computational models of cognition applied to protocol analysis; the unexpected usefulness of such bias in moral education to sensitize students to bias in moral judgment.)
11. Altruism and Character (2003 in press) in D. Lapsley (ed.) Moral Self and Responsibility: Essays on the work of Augusto Blasi. New Jersey: Erlbaum Press.
12. Forgoing Forgiveness (2002) In Before Forgiving. S. Lamb and J. Murphy (ed.) New York, London: Oxford University Press. (themes: the various pros and cons of forgiveness,  pre-empting forgiveness with a handful of alternative approaches)
13. De-Moralizing Moral Education: Putting the Pagan Back in Character (2000). In T.Wren and W. Van Haaften (eds.)  Moral  Sensibilities  and  Education.  Netherlands:  Concorde  Press.  (2001)  Reprinted  in  Spanish Sensibilidades morales y educacion. Gedisa Press, Barcelona, Spain. (themes: the various faces of punitive and workaday moralism in moral and character education.)
14. A Good-Willed Cookbook (2000) Journal of College and Character Vol. I, “1 (@CollegeValues.org) (themes the utility of training students in “cookbook” and stepwise recipe-approaches to moral choice and behavior modeled on Asian methods of childrearing in ritualistic cultural etiquette.)
15. Inclusive moral education: A critique and integration of competing approaches. (2000) In Moral Eduction and Pluralism. M Mogdil & C. Mogdil (eds.) London: Falmer Press. (themes: the criticisms made of four major approaches to moral education; a strategy for partnering these alternative approaches so that they make up for mutual shortfalls and build on mutual strengths.)
16. Moralische Nahe und moralisches Urteil: Allgemeine Theorien im personlichen Kontext. (2000) In Moral im sozialen Kontext. W. Edelstein & G. Nunner Winkler (eds.) Berlin, Germany: Suhrkamp
17. Character Education and the Young Child. (1999) In Moral Education in Early Childhood. W VanHaaften & T. Wren (eds.). Amsterdam: Concord Press. Reprinted in Spanish (Gedisa Press: Barcelona Spain. (themes: the special difficulties and opportunities of educating young children in values and role-modelling; the importance of non-indoctrinative approaches to moral education and strategies for utilizing them.)
18. Building altruism: Task analysis, natural development, and artificial moral-intelligence. (1997) In Education and Altruism. Belgrade: Institut da Pedagoska Istrazivanja Press. (themes: applying the research strategies of cognitive science to ethical problemsolving; the possibilities of a programmable ethic and its educational regimen)
19. Narrative psychology: The good, the bad, and the bibliophilic (A critique of Lorenco, Brown and Tappen)  (spring 1996) Human Development 39 #2 1993: 94-107. (themes: the conflict between qualitative and quantitative analysis of interview data; the misuses of theoretical interpretation and the lack of theoretical method; the need for comparative justification)
20. Caring community meets classroom democracy," in Dewey , Pragmatism, and Intercultural Education (1995) New York: SUNY Press.
21. Moral wisdom, moral spirit, and moral education, Free Inquiry (summer, 1994). (themes: how the separation of church and state principle actually discriminates unfairly against fundamentalist religions)
22. The science of caring. Hypatia, Vol. 6 #2 (summer, 1991): 200-209. (themes: a reply to criticisms of "The liberation of caring," further explicating my suggested research program in comparative interpretation by treating criticisms of my views and my responses to them as alternative research hypotheses.)
23. Interpretive experiments: Probing the care-justice debate in moral development. Human Development 34  #2, 1991: 61-80. (themes: identifying five assumptions that ground the case for ethical caring and its critique of patriarchal justice; testing these assumptions with five counterhypotheses on the nature of caring and fairness.)
24. Reconstructing Kohlberg's theory: preserving essential structure and removing controversial content. In Handbook of Moral Behavior and Development: Advances in Theory, Research, and Application. J. Gewirth and W. Kurtines (eds.) New York:Earlbaum Associates (1991).  (themes: distinguishing Kohlberg's meta- theories from his social   scientific theory of moral development; showing that the data-based theory can stand without Kohlberg's moral philosophical assumptions; showing that most critiques of Kohlberg apply to his meta-theories and are essentially irrelevant to the empirical stage theory.)
25. The liberation of caring. Hypatia: a Feminist Journal of Philosophy ,Vol. 5, #1 (Spring) 1990: 58-82. Reprinted in Who Cares? M. Brabeck (ed.) New York: Praeger Press 1989. Reprinted  in  J.  Larrabee  (ed)  An  Ethic  of  Care.  NY:  Academic       Press. (theme: an interpretive counterhypothesis  to  Gilligan's  "different  voice":  ethical  caring  is  not  an  alternative  track  of  moral development favored by women, but a loosely related set of coping strategies for dealing with sexist oppression; caring shows lingering sexism in its highest orientation.)
26. The Majesty and Mystery of Stage 6. In The Domain of Morality. T. Wren (ed.) Cambridge, Mass: M.I.T.Press, 1989. (themes: why the major attacks on Kohlberg's theory are defective; how they can be reconstituted; how Kohlberg's stage 6 conception of moral adequacy is empirically, structurally, and functionally defective; how the defining and disjunctive logic of liberal-egalitarian justice is inadequate; how the continuum logic of benevolence fills in the gaps; how Kohlberg's moral stage sequence, below stage 6, shows a combination of justice and benevolence ethics.)
27. Just Regard and Caring Concern: Different Voices or Separate Realities? MOSAIC Mongraphs #4, Bath, England: University of Bath Press, 1989. (themes: proposing that the psychological phenomena of moral reasoning development and ethical orientation (justice and care focus) fall in different domains; divergences in research method account for the difference; flaws in theory building account for their confusion.)
28. The philosopher as corrections officer: doing time in a participatory democracy. In Philosophers at Work. E. Cohen (ed.) New York:Holt Rinehart, Winston, 1989.  (themes: how to apply an eclectic ethical position to certain styles of personal interaction; how to apply principles of respect and concern to the self-governance of a prison unit.)
29. Caring--in an interpretive voice. New Ideas in Psychology, Vol. 7, #3 (Winter) 1989: 295-314. (themes: distinguishing qualitative research from interpretive theory; explicating the necessary steps and components of an interpretive account in social science; analyzing the different missing steps and components of Kohlberg's theory and Gilligan's "different voice" hypothesis; arguing that these "rival" positions are talking passed each other.)
30. Ethical caring: pros, cons, and possibilities. In Inquiry Into Values: Problems in Contemporary Philosophy, Vol. II, New York:Mellen Press, 1988. (theme: a comparative justification of ethical caring, raising problems for its claims to moral adequacy.)
31. Moral development without the philosophical captivations. Moral Education Forum, Winter, 1987. (theme: on  the proper and improper relationships between moral philosophy and psychology; on the non-partisan use of ethical theories in gauging moral development.)
32. Applied ethics--taking a stand. International Journal of Applied Philosophy , Vol. 3 #1 (Spring) 1986: 69-84. (theme: distinguishing applied philosophy from philosophers applying themselves to non-academic work; a model for nonacademic philosophy stressing traits of integrity, wisdom, and depth; applications of this model to government work.)
33. Die Nutzen und Nachteil der Stufe 6. In Zur Bestimmung der Moral Philosophische und Sozialwissenschaftliche Beitrage. W. Edelstein and G. Nunner-Winkler (eds.) Munich:Surkamp Press, 1986. (A long monograph of which The majesty and mystery of stage 6 is a selected and substantially revised version.)
34. The savings approach to social conflict. Philosophy and Social Conflict, Vol. 6 (Spring) 1984: 120-137.   (themes: why ethics can not be applied directly to social policy; why policy ethics must express the Constitutional ethic and the diverse ethical views of "the people"; posing a motley ethic to represent such ethical  diversity;  posing  a  creatively  bipartisan  policy  for  urban  revitalization  emphasizing  economic democracy.)
35. An analytic approach to resolving problems in medical ethics. (with D. Candee) Journal of Medical Ethics, June, 1984, 2, 61- Reprinted in Professional-judgment: A Reader in Professional Decision-making. A. Elstein and J Dowie (eds.) NewYork: Cambridge Univ.. Press, 1988). (theme: how to derive concrete moral judgments from abstract principles of Kantian respect and utilitarian concern.)
36. The libertarian challenge: notes on Nozick. Revista de Occidente, Feb., 1984: 189-207.  (theme: evaluating the libertarian problem for            liberalegalitarianism--if autonomy is the source of moral regard,  and we freely invest ourselves in our talents and skills, how can these individual differences be morally arbitrary?)
37. The Community Assistance and Revitalization Act (S.634) Federal bill and Senate floor statement,  Congressional Record 2/28/83. (themes: a bill to give tax incentives to small business owners and investors to  create  jobs  and  housing  in  urban  ghettos;  the  creation  of  a  resident-owned,  democratically run development corporation to control economic growth and spread   profit from   housing "gentrification; eleven special incentives to promote employee ownership of businesses.)
38. Codes and creeds (Reply). Business and Professional Ethics 7, (Summer), 1983: 63-66. (theme: professional codes of ethics seem useless for decision making, but they provide unseen aid formoral perception and self- expression.)
39. Moral vision: as Kohlberg sees it. (essay review) Harvard Educational Review, Vol. 55 #1 (Spring) 1983: 68-73. (theme: why Kantian ethics can not rule out conservative themes such as just desert, negative rights, and capital punishment; why liberal justice must account for them.)
40. Altruism and moral development. In The Nature of Prosocial Development. D. Bridgeman (ed.) New York:Academic Press, 1983.   (themes: gauging moral development in both deontological and teleological terms;  deriving  developmental  adequacy  from  benevolence  reasoning  as  well  as  justice  reasoning; challenging traditional philosophical critiques of "love ethics" (apage) echoed by Kohlberg.)
41. An interdisciplinary treatment of Kohlberg. Ethics, 92 (April) 1982: 468-490. (themes: a critique of how philosophers analyze Kohlberg's theory; an alternative model for how to apply philosophical theory to statistical  findings  on  moral  judgment;  a  comparison  ofKohlberg's  complex-stage  model  with  the simplestage and continuum model of moral development.)
42. Kohlbergian forms and Deweyan acts. In Moral Development, Moral Education, and Kohlberg. M. Munsey  (ed.) Birmingham:Univ. of   Alabama Press, 1979.   (theme: a comparison of principled and intuitionist ethics.)
43. A Kohlbergian reply to critics. In The Domain of Moral Education. Cochrane, Hamm, Kazepides (eds.) New York:Paulist Press, 1979.  (themes: a selective defense of Kantian ethics against antiformalist criticism; a defense of Lakotosian research programs and theory building.)
44. Moral education and its cure. In Reflections in Values Education. J. Meyer (ed.) Waterloo, Ontario :Wilfred Laurier  University  Press,  1976.        (themes:  limitations  of  deontological  theory  and  justice  principles; sociobiological roots of ethics; education to promote benevolent virtues and values.)
45. Democratism versus Patriotism: (At Education Next; J. of the Hoover Institution (Stanford Univ.) The Citizen’s Emergency Powers Act: Checks and Balances That The Constitution Left Out (at Philosophy and Public Policy, for review).
46. Patriotism: Sacred and Profane (At International Journal for Social Studies, for review) Patriotism as Treason: Five Lesson in Democracy (at Harvard Ed Review, for review)
47. Be your own hero ( under review) In Why The Right is Wrong .L. Nicholson (ed.) New York: SUNY Press. (themes: the problems of moralism and ideological bias in character education; the presentation of and alternative moral education program focusing on exemplars as role-models, but also integrating a variety of approaches and the psychological mechanisms they engage)
48. Leaving the Victim Out (At Yale Law Review for review). (Theme: how fundamental features of US Constitutional Rights, rules of court procedure and evidence, plea bargaining and immunity unjustly discriminate against crime victims and civil litigants.)
49. The Legal Advocate as De Facto Saint. (final revisions) (Theme: How the roles assigned to a legal advocate within the adversary system of court representation and general representation require or imply behavior akin to that observed in research on moral exemplars toward their constituencies.)
50. Corporate Responsibility and Lifestyle Redress (with Edward Woodhouse) At Journal for Business and Professional Ethics, for review. (Theme: If one participates in irresponsible corporate behavior that can’t feasibly be prevented or publicly exposed, one owes proportionate compensation through extra- work participation in related public causes.)
51. Ethically adequate ethics: substantive and applied theory building. (paper version submitted to APhA eastern division meetings, article version for Journal of Philosophy) (themes: Separating distinctive from substantive philosophical theorizing; recasting major ethical theories as extremely bold and reductionist experiments in moral cognition; setting parameters for substantive ethics and prescriptive theory)
52. Good Will: Steps of Respect in the footsteps of the King. (submitted to AERA for determination of appropriate journal, probably Educational Researcher) (themes: a summary outline of the steps of Good Will from the Good Will book, accompanied by a variety of tips for educating Good-Willed skills.)
53. The Science of Caring. (submitted to theThe Science of Caring. (submitted to the AERA journal Educational Researcher (revisions requested) (themes: tracing out the applications of ethtracing out the applications of ethical caring research for interpersonal negotiations, with accounts of classroom scenarios. )