Miner, Robert C. 1970–

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MINER, Robert C. 1970–

PERSONAL: Born 1970. Education: Rice University, B.A., 1993; University of Notre Dame, M.A., 1995, Ph.D., 1999.

ADDRESSES: Home—TX. Office—Baylor University, Tidwell 306, Waco, TX 76797. E-mail—Robert_ [email protected].

CAREER: Author and educator. St. Edmund's College, Cambridge, Cambridge, England, visiting scholar, 1996; University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, lecturer in philosophy, 1997; Xavier University, Cincinnati, OH, visiting assistant professor of philosophy, 1998–99; Boston College, Boston, MA, assistant professor of philosophy, 1999–2002; Baylor University, Waco, TX, assistant professor of philosophy in honors college, 2002–04, associate professor, 2004–.

WRITINGS:

Vico, Genealogist of Modernity, University of Notre Dame Press (Notre Dame, IN), 2002.

Truth in the Making: Knowledge as Construction in Theology and Philosophy, Routledge (New York, NY), 2003.

Contributor of numerous scholarly articles and book reviews to publications, including International Philosophical Quarterly and Epistemologia.

SIDELIGHTS: Author and educator Robert C. Miner serves as an associate professor of philosophy in the honors college at Baylor University, in Waco, Texas. His research interests include seventeenth- and eighteenth-century philosophy, twelfth and thirteenth century theology, ancient protreptic, and the works of philosopher Giambattista Vico (1668–1744). Miner's writings include a biography of Vico, Vico, Genealogist of Modernity, and a volume on theology and philosophy titled Truth in the Making: Knowledge as Construction in Theology and Philosophy.

Vico is remembered primarily for reviving the Italian humanist tradition and his belief that imagination could be considered a form of knowledge, as well as for his attacks on the theories of Descartes and Enlightenment views of history. Miner presents Vico as an Orthodox Catholic thinker—as opposed to having traditional, more Marxist views—and examines the philosopher's belief that the subject should be the starting point for any analysis of doctrine. Thora Ilin Bayer, in the Review of Metaphysics, commented that "Miner wishes to establish that Vico is not a secular skeptic or cynic but a believer in traditional Christian doctrine." She added that "in terms of Vico scholarship two aspects of Miner's work make it especially interesting: his thesis that Vico's philosophy is normative and his grounding of Vico's new science in Vico's Universal Law." Library Journal reviewer David Gordon wrote that Miner's work "offers original insight and understanding into a seminal, if occasionally neglected, figure."

Truth in the Making offers readers a map of the way knowledge and creative power relate through an examination of the history of philosophical enquiry. Miner traces philosophy back to early ideals of creativity in relation to religious thought, going on to explore how knowledge in different disciplines interacts, from mathematics to philosophy to theology.