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Academic Qualifications
- C.O.P. in Beginner’s Maori, University of Auckland (2006)
- Ph.D. in philosophy, Australian National University (1975)
- M.A. (First Class Honours) in philosophy, University of Canterbury (1970)
- B.Sc. in physics, University of Canterbury (1965)
Background
Robin Small’s academic background was originally in physics and then in philosophy. He has taught at universities in Australia and New Zealand as well as being a Visiting Scholar in the United Kingdom and Canada, and since 2003 has been an Associate Professor at the University of Auckland, where he is currently Head of the School of Social and Policy Studies.
Current Teaching
- EDUC 113 (Current Issues in Education)
- EDUC 120G ( Education, Knowledge and Society)
- EDPROFST 842 (Doctor of Education Research Portfolio)
Research
Robin Small’s research has been not only in the philosophy and history of education, but also in philosophy itself. His books include a study of Karl Marx’s contributions to educational thought, a survey of the phenomenological tradition, and several works on the thought of Friedrich Nietzsche. Recent articles include an analysis of the ethical dimension of the concept of life expectancy and a critique of constructivist epistemology in its anti-realist version.
A current research program is in ethics. In part, it focuses upon educational research, where it asks: What can educational researchers do to make sure their research is ethical? And how are these ways of making decisions justified? Linking theory with practice, this project argues for an problem-solving rather than a ‘top-down’ strategy, and claims that institutional ethics committees provide better means for making good ethical decisions than formal codes of ethics.
Authored and Edited Books
Robin Small, Marx and Education. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005. x + 197pp. ISBN 0-7546-5329-3.
Marx and Education is the first assessment of the educational thought of Karl Marx (1818-1883) and its later influence, in the light of developments at the close of the twentieth century. It provides a new perspective, in which many aspects of Marx's ideas are seen clearly for the first time, freed from misleading associations and outdated prejudices.
Marx's thinking on education touches on many still current issues: about personal development, the nature of learning, and the ultimate aims of education, as well as the relations between the school and society. Robin Small explores Marx’s approach to each of these issues and in relating them to later developments brings the story up to the present day.
Link to the publisher’s web site: Click here
Robin Small, Nietzsche and Rée: A Star Friendship. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. xxiv + 247pp. ISBN 0-19-927807-5.
During years of close friendship, Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) and Paul Rée (1849-1901) shared ideas and developed a new and original approach to philosophy and ethics. The course of their partnership, from its origins in shared hopes to its ending in a painful breakdown of personal relations, is the subject of this book.
The full story has not been told before. Some of its biographical aspects - especially the three-sided relationship involving the young Lou Salomé which had severe emotional consequences for Nietzsche - have been known. Yet many personal details are presented here for the first time. The philosophical account is equally absorbing, showing how this collaboration was a crucial stage on Nietzsche's way toward his most original and radical contributions to philosophy.
Link to a review of this book: Click here
Link to the publisher's website: Click here
Paul Rée. Basic Writings. Ed. and trans. Robin Small. Urbana-Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2003. liv + 181pp. ISBN 0-252-02818-X.
This book contains the first English translations of The Origin of the Moral Sensations and Psychological Observations, the two most important works by the German philosopher Paul Rée. These essays present Rée’s moral philosophy, which influenced the ideas of his close friend Friedrich Nietzsche considerably.
Nietzsche scholars have often incorrectly attributed to him arguments and ideas that are Rée's and have failed to detect responses to Rée's works in Nietzsche's writings. Rée’s thinking combined two strands: a pessimistic conception of human nature, presented in the French moralists’ aphoristic style that would become a mainstay of Nietzsche's own writings, and a theory of morality derived from Darwin’s theory of natural selection. Rée's moral Darwinism was a central factor prompting Nietzsche to write On the Genealogy of Morals and the groundwork for much of today's ‘evolutionary ethics.’
Link to the publisher’s web site: Click here
Robin Small, Nietzsche in Context. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001. xx + 202pp. ISBN 0-7546-0539-6 (Hbk), 0-7546-0540-X (Pbk).
Nietzsche in Context presents a comprehensive reinterpretation of Nietzsche’s thought, placing Nietzsche in the context of the philosophers of his own time. Offering a survey of important philosophical themes, Robin Small identifies the writer or writers with whom Nietzsche most felt himself to be engaging in dialogue. This historical dimension is complemented by original analysis and interpretation of the ideas under discussion.
Nietzsche in Context takes Nietzsche scholarship into new and fruitful directions. By locating his ideas within a broader context, this book provides a comprehensive reinterpretation of Nietzsche’s thought adding to the continuing interest of his contributions to philosophy.
Link to the publisher’s web site: Click here
Robin Small (ed.), A Hundred Years of Phenomenology:
Perspectives on a Philosophical Tradition. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2001. xxx + 190pp. ISBN 0-7546-0416-0.
This collection of new essays on phenomenological themes reviews aspects of the philosophical movement which began with the publication in 1900-01 of Edmund Husserl's path-breaking Logical Investigations. A broad survey of phenomenology is particularly timely given that this philosophical movement is reaching a hundred years of its existence. The thirteen contributions represent a wide range of approaches and interests within the phenomenological framework. Some present approaches to Husserl, while others explore aspects of the fundamental texts of phenomenology and provide critical discussions of later thinkers such as Heidegger, Sartre, and Derrida whose relation to Husserl receives particular attention. The final section relates phenomenology to other disciplines and to broader issues in social thought and cultural studies. This book will enable students and professional philosophers alike to explore the various strands of this widely influential school of thought.
Link to the publisher’s web site: Click here
Other recent publications
Small, R. (2006), ‘Peter Gast’. Journal of Nietzsche Studies, no. 32, forthcoming.
Small, R. (2003), A Fallacy in Constructivist Epistemology. Journal of Philosophy of Education 37.3, 483-502.
Small, R. (2002), The Ethics of Life Expectancy. Bioethics 16.4, 307-34.
Small, R. (2001), Codes are not Enough: What Philosophy can Contribute to the Ethics of Educational Research. Journal of Philosophy of Education 35.3, 387-406.
Small, R. (2001) Zarathustra’s Four Ways: Structures of Becoming in Nietzsche. British Journal for the History of Philosophy 9.1, 83-107.
Small, R. (2006) Nietzsche’s Evolutionary Ethics. In Gudrun von Tevenar (ed.), Nietzsche and Ethics. New York: Peter Lang, forthcoming.
Small, R. (2006) Nietzsche and Cosmology. In Keith Ansell-Pearson (ed.), A Companion to Nietzsche. Oxford: Blackwell, 189-207.
Small, R. (2004), What Nietzsche Did During the Science Wars. In Moore, G. and T. H. Brobjer (eds), Nietzsche and Science. Aldershot: Ashgate, 155-70.
Small, R. (2003) Translator’s Introduction. In Rée, P. Basic Writings. Ed. and trans. R. Small. Urbana-Chicago: University of Illinois Press, xi-liii..
Small, R. (2002) Eternal Recurrence. In White, R. (ed.), Nietzsche. Aldershot: Ashgate, 3-23. [reprinted article]
Small, R. (2002) Codes are not Enough: What Philosophy can Contribute to the Ethics of Educational Research. In McNamee, M. and D. Bridges (eds), Ethics and Educational Research. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 387-406. [reprinted article]
Small, R. (2001) Introduction. In Small, R. (ed.), A Hundred Years of Phenomenology: Perspectives on a Philosophical Tradition. Aldershot: Ashgate, xiii-xxix.
Papers in Conference proceedings
Book Reviews
Small, R. (2006) Review of Gregory Moore, Nietzsche, Biology and Metaphor. In British Journal for the History of Philosophy, forthcoming.
Small, R. (2006) Review of Paul Rée, Gesammelte Werke 1875-1885. In New Nietzsche Studies, 6.3-4/7.1-2, 259-65.
Small, R. (2003) Review of Löwith, K., Nietzsche’s Philosophy of the Eternal Recurrence of the Same. In International Studies in Philosophy, 35.4, 343-45.
Small, R. (2001) Review of Simon May, Nietzsche’s Ethics and his War on ‘Morality’, and Matthew Rampley, Nietzsche, Aesthetics and Modernity. In British Journal for the History of Philosophy 9.3 , 594-98.
Conference addresses
Small, R.(2006), Realism Without Réealism: A Neglected Side of Nietzsche. Annual Conference of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, Philadelphia, October.
Small, R.(2005), The Birth of the Spirit of Revenge. Annual Conference of the Friedrich Nietzsche Society, Peterhouse, Cambridge, September.
Small, R.(2004) The Right, the Good and the Nice: Rival Paradigms in the Ethics of Educational Research? Annual Conference of the Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, November.
Small, R.(2004) Nietzsche’s Evolutionary Ethics. Annual Conference of the Friedrich Nietzsche Society, University of Sussex, September.
Small, R. (2001) What Nietzsche Did During the Science Wars. Annual Conference of the Friedrich Nietzsche Society, Emmanuel College, Cambridge, September.
Small, R. (2000) Nietzsche’s Philosophy of Indifference. Boston Colloquium for the Philosophy of Science, Boston University, April.
