Michael W. Howard
Professor – retiring August 2022
Department of Philosophy
Teaching Repertoire
PHI 102 Introduction to Philosophy
PHI 210 History of Ancient Philosophy (fall semester)
PHI 312 History of Modern Philosophy (spring semester)
PHI 240 Social and Political Philosophy
PHI 250 Formal Logic (fall semester)
PHI 344 Theories of Justice
PHI 345/SPI 504 Global Justice
PHI 354 Foundations of the Human Sciences
plus occasional seminars
Research Interests
social and political philosophy, workplace and economic democracy, basic income, global justice, philosophy of social science
Books
Alaska’s Permanent Fund Dividend: Examining It’s Suitability as a Model, co-edited with Karl Widerquist (Palgrave MacMillan, 2012).
Exporting the Alaska Model: Adapting the Permanent Fund Dividend for Reform around the World, co-edited with Karl Widerquist (Palgrave MacMillan, 2012).
Self-Management and the Crisis of Socialism, (Rowman & Littlefield, 2000)
Socialism, (Humanity Press, 2001). There is an associated Socialism website, which has selected chapters online and links to many socialism-related sites.
Recent publications available online:
Articles
- “Universal Basic Income Roundtable: Response to Critics,” Maine Policy Perspectives (an online forum of the Maine Policy Review), November 2019
- Howard, M., Pinto, J., & Schachtschneider, U. (2019). Ecological Effects of Basic Income. In The Palgrave International Handbook of Basic Income. Ed. Malcolm Torry. Palgrave Macmillan, 2019
- “Arguing for Universal Basic Income: Precariousness, not the End of Work,” (2018, August 16)
- “Universal Basic Income: Policy Options at National, State, and Local Levels.”
- “A Carbon Dividend as a Step toward a Basic Income in the United States: Prospects and Problems,” 7/5/2017
- “Carbon Fee and Dividend: comparative merits, potential for coalition building, and critical issues,” Spring 2016
- “Liberal and Marxist Justifications for Basic Income”
- “Basic Income and Migration Policy: A Moral Dilemma?”
- “Basic Income and Job Guarantees: Alternatives or Complements?”
- “Basic Income and Cooperatives,” (for the 7th Congress of the Basic Income European Network, Amsterdam)
- “Worker-Controlled Workplaces“
- “Income Inequality, “ (for the Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice)
- “A NAFTA Dividend: A Guaranteed Minimum Income for North America,” (2006 BIS Essay Prize Winner)
- More at my Scholars Strategy Network page.
Op-eds, videos, podcasts, and other short pieces
- “UBI, Covid-19, and ME,” Maine Policy Matters, podcast series of the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center, University of Maine, April 2020
- “We have two years to avoid climate disaster. A carbon fee and dividend will help.” Bangor Daily News, 12/19/2018
- “Why income guarantees makes sense to reduce poverty.” Bangor Daily News. 3/29/2019
- “Universal Basic Income: The way of the future or a work-crippling safety net?” interview with Chris Farrell on Minnesota Public Radio, 7/19/18
- Basic Income, Climate Change, and Degrowth
- Basic Income and Degrowth (discussion paper)
- “Trump says the Paris agreement is unfair to the US. The US pledges didn’t go far enough,” Bangor Daily News, 7/18/2017
- “Automation and the Need for a Universal Basic Income”, 11/18/2017
- “Socialist Party ME September 2017”
- “Interviews on Basic Income for Wide Angle television-Episode 29”
- “Interviews on Basic Income for Wide Angle television-Episode 29-Extra”
- “Environmental Justice: Sharing the Burdens of Climate Change” (2017 new version)
- “Environmental Justice and Climate Change” video of lecture
- “Middle-class’ Immigration Test”
- “The Internet and Democracy”
- “Costs of the Iraq War”
- Review of The Commonwealth of Life: A Treatise on Stewardship Economics
- “Instant Runoff Voting”
- “Nuclear Primacy is Not Security”
- Changing Maine 2011 documents and links
Other Activities
I have been involved over the years with various peace and justice organizations, such as the Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine, seeking non-military solutions to conflict. I have traveled, among other places, to Cuba and the former Yugoslavia, and have given talks on these countries. I am Treasurer for an interdisciplinary society called the International Institute for Self-management, that meets bi-annually in various countries to discuss research and current developments in cooperatives and other forms of economic democracy. I have been a contributing editor for a related publication, the Grassroots Economic Organizing Newsletter (GEO). I am the Coordinator of the US Basic Income Guarantee Network, and co-editor of the journal Basic Income Studies. I am also active in several societies, such as the Radical Philosophy Association, the North American Society for Social Philosophy, and the Basic Income Earth Network. I also help to organize every semester a lecture series for the Socialist and Marxist Studies interdisciplinary minor.
Education
B.A., University of Chicago
M.A. and Ph.D., Boston University
Honors
Outstanding Faculty Award for Teaching and Advising, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Maine, 2011-1012
Basic Income Studies Essay Prize, 2006.
Personal
Married to Valerie Carter; one daughter, Emma; one stepson, Jeremy.
My door is always open to talk to students interested in philosophy. Drop by the Maples for a chat, or inquire over e-mail.