Biography
Dr. Aaron Harper joined the University of North Dakota as Director of Essential Studies in Fall 2026. He has degrees from Creighton University (B.A., philosophy) and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (M.A., Ph.D., philosophy). Before coming to UND, he was professor of philosophy at West Liberty University, where he also served as Chair of the Department of Humanities & Social Sciences and as Director of Interdisciplinary Studies. His monograph Sport Realism: A Law-Inspired theory of Sport was published in 2022.
- 19th Century Philosophy
- Ethics
- Philosophy of Sport
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Ph.D., Philosophy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2012)
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M.A., Philosophy, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2007)
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B.A., Philosophy, Creighton University (2005)
Books
- Sport Realism: A Law-Inspired Theory of Sport
Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield, 2022
Peer-Reviewed Articles
- “Interpretivism, Sport Realism, and the Vice of Formalism”
Journal of the Philosophy of Sport 52:2 (2025): 217–228 - “Reflections on the Presence of Play in University Arts and Athletics”
Reason Papers 38:1 (2016): 38–50 - “‘You’re the Best Around’: An Argument for Playoffs and Tournaments”
Journal of the Philosophy of Sport 43:2 (2016): 295–309 - “Playing, Valuing, and Living: Examining Nietzsche’s Playful Response to Nihilism”
The Journal of Value Inquiry 50:2 (2016): 305–323 - “Nietzsche’s Thumbscrew: Honesty as Virtue and Value Standard”
The Journal of Nietzsche Studies 46:3 (2015): 367–390
Book Chapters
- “Tournaments, Tests, and the Aims of Intercollegiate Athletic Competition”
College Sport Ethics: Challenges, Questions, Opportunities, eds. Chad Carlson and Shawn
Klein. Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield, 2025: 45–67 - “Power, Resentment, and Self-Preservation: Nietzsche’s Moral Psychology as a Critique
of Trump,” co-authored with Eric Schaaf
Trump and Political Philosophy: Patriotism, Cosmopolitanism, and Civic Virtue, eds. Marc Sable
and Angel Jaramillo Torres. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018: 257–280
Edited Publications in Scholarly Journals
- “Teaching Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death from a Philosophical Perspective”
Explorations in Media Ecology 25:2 forthcoming
Book Reviews
- Review of Beyond the Fields by Randolph Feezell
Sport, Ethics and Philosophy (2026) DOI: 10.1080/17511321.2026.2660074