Dean, College of Arts & Sciences
Ph.D., New York School of Social Research, New York
M.A., University of South Carolina
B.S., Indiana University of Pennsylvania
afjjl@uaa.alaska.edu


Dr. Liszka is the author of three books: Moral Competence (Prentice Hall, 1999), A General Introduction to the Semeiotic of Charles S. Peirce   (Indiana University Press, 1996), and The Semiotic of Myth (Indiana University Press, 1989). He is also written several articles on ethics, pragmatism, and aesthetics. He is the co-founder of The Alaska Quarterly Review, and past editor of The Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal. He was Humanities Fellow in 1985 at the University of Toronto, Scarborough College. He has recently received the Teaching Excellence Program, Teaching Excellence Award at UAA, and the Chancellor's Award for Outstanding Research.

The Semiotic of Myth

Myths are dangerous symbols. To the extent that they are believed, they place the rules and values of a culture in crisis; their interpretation within a culture must, therefore, be strictly controlled. To understand the meaning of a myth within a culture is to understand the norms of that culture. To understand how myth functions in a culture, on the other hand, is to form the basis for a comprehensive critique of that culture.

Moral Competence

Moral Competence is written primarily for those who have interest in the traditional and enduring questions of ethics, but little or no training in philosophy. It is meant to be as much a vehicle for the exploration of great ides, as it is an instrument for personal reflection and improvement.

A General Introduction to the Semeiotic of Charles Sanders Peirce

In this book, Dr. James Liszka presents a systematic and comprehensive account of Peirce's theory.  Although there are excellent critical and expository studies of Peirce's semeiotic, this book is the first to integrate all the various branches of semiotic into a coherent picture of what Peirce meant by the discipline.