Social and political philosophy, environmental ethics, philosophy of architecture and urban planning, environmental aesthetics
Professor Paden received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois in 1981. He has taught at the Universities of Connecticut, Maryland, Florida, and the District of Columbia. He joined the faculty at George Mason University in 1989 and retired in 2016.
He has done research on a variety of topics, publishing over 50 articles in such areas as the history of philosophy, social and political philosophy, environmental ethics, environmental aesthetics, and the philosophy of architecture and urban planning.
He is currently doing research on environmental aesthetics from a Darwinian perspective.
Book:
Architecture and Mysticism: Wittgenstein and the Meanings of the Palais Stonborough, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2007.
Edited Volume:
The Aesthetics of Architecture, Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011 (Co-edited with David Goldblatt).
Articles:
“Landscapes and Environmental Aesthetics’ Environment Space Place, v. 8, n.1, 2016, pp. 33-55.
“Nature, Disorder, and Tragedy: Towards an Evolutionary Aesthetic,” Environmental Philosophy, v. 12, n. 1, 2015, pp. 45-66.
“Picturesque Landscape Painting and Environmental Aesthetics,” Journal of Aesthetic Education, v. 49, n. 2, Summer 2015, pp. 39-61.
“A Defense of the Picturesque” Environmental Philosophy, v. 10, n. 2, Fall 2013, pp. 1-21.
“Philosophical Histories of the Aesthetics of Nature,” Environmental Ethics, v. 35, Spring 2013, pp. 57-77. (Co-authored)
“Aesthetics and Sustainable Design,” Environment, Space, Place, v. 4, n. 1 Spring 2012, pp. 7-28.
“Ecology, Evolution, and Aesthetics: Towards an Evolutionary Aesthetics of Nature,” British Journal of Aesthetics, v. 52, n. 2, April 2012, pp.123-139. (Co-authored)
“Otto Wagner’s Modern Architecture” Ethics, Place, Environment, v. 13, n. 2, June 2010, pp. 229-246.
“Ecotourism and Its Historical Paradigms,” Environment, Space, and Place, v. 1, Spring 2009, p. 139-167.
“Marxism, Utopianism, and Modern Urban Planning,” Utopian Studies, v. 14, n. 1, 2003, pp. 82-111.
“Marx’s Criticism of the Utopian Socialists,” Utopian Studies, v. 13, n. 3, 2002, 67-91.
“The Two Professions of Hippodamus of Miletus: On the Relationship Between Philosophy and Urban Planning,” Philosophy and Geography, v. 4, n. 1, February 2001, pp. 25-48.
“Popper’s Anti-Utopianism and the Concept of the Open Society,” Journal of Value Inquiry, v. 34, n. 4, December 2000, pp. 409-426.