Current Projects
Upcoming Publications:
Freedom, Virtue and the Common Good. Book under contract with Notre Dame University Press.
Freedom is an essentially spiritual notion, and therefore somewhat elusive and not subject to a complete theoretical definition. But freedom is not altogether limitless, boundless or undefined: freedom expresses itself within a meaningful horizon in which there is commerce between the most elevated and the most common. In Tocqueville’s terms, freedom experiences itself as “under the government of God and the laws alone.” That is, Freedom is without merely human or arbitrary constraint, but freedom is limited and defined by its relation to some higher reality. But this formula of Tocqueville’s is at least as much a question as an answer; indeed, one might say that the central question, the problem that drives the whole history of political philosophy is bundled up in this dual reference. What is the relation between boundless freedom (originally modeled by a Creator God) and concrete and knowable laws (moral and political) as dimensions in the necessary horizon of meaningful human action?
Other Notable Endeavors:
Fathom the Good. An ongoing project to create curriculum worthy for the philosophic appetite of K-12 students.
fathomthegood.com
Fathom the Good is a K-12 curriculum designed to engage students in "The Great Conversation" of Western political, philosophical, and religious traditions. Heading up Fathom's development is Elizabeth Sexton, a friend and former student of Professor Hancock. Along with philosophic input and consultation from professor Hancock, Sexton and her team are working tirelessly on Fathom the Good to insure it provides the education America's children need in our increasingly secular and nihilistic modern age.
LDS moral, political, and philosophical talk database.
In conjunction with motivated research assistants, Professor Hancock is moving towards the completion of a BYU affiliated General Conference talk database designed to guide researchers to talks relevant to their political questions. This database has been long in the works and should be completed by the end of September 2022. Stay tuned!