Reading Philosophy and Practicing Leadership draws on David Haney's extensive leadership experience in higher education and his scholarship in literature and philosophy to provide a framework for ethical leadership in an age of individualism. Haney argues that our current social and political milieu is dominated by an extreme form of “instrumental individualism” and shows how the tradition of philosophical hermeneutics, broadly conceived, can provide useful alternative perspectives. Haney follows Charles Taylor’s arguments about individualism having become unmoored from moral frameworks, then develops an “ethical hermeneutics” as an alternative, building on the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer, Paul Ricoeur, Emmanuel Levinas, and others. Throughout the book, Haney provides concrete examples and solutions to difficult leadership problems that both acknowledge and move beyond instrumental individualism. Through these philosophical and practical lenses, the book contributes to current debates on the nature of our cultural milieu and shows how the resources of hermeneutic philosophy can provide practical insights for leaders. This book is primarily of interest to leaders and professionals in higher education and other organizations who are interested in a deeper philosophical understanding of the organizational dynamics in which they work. This book is also of interest to philosophers and other students of the humanities looking for practical applications of hermeneutic philosophy, as well as general readers desiring to understand the practical challenges faced by contemporary organizations and alternative approaches to those challenges.

David Haney is a recently retired college president who served as president of Centenary University in New Jersey and Hiram College in Ohio. He worked in higher education administration for more than two decades, holding positions as department chair, vice provost, chief academic officer, and president. As an administrator, Haney published articles and delivered presentations on leadership as applied hermeneutics, higher education finance, strategic planning, boards of trustees, general education, and related topics in outlets including Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

During his scholarly career, Haney published two monographs in Penn State University Press’s Literature and Philosophy series: William Wordsworth and the Hermeneutics of Incarnation (1993) and The Challenge of Coleridge: Ethics and Interpretation in Romanticism and Modern Philosophy (2001). With Donald Wehrs, he also co-edited Levinas and the Nineteenth Century: Ethics and Otherness from Romanticism Through Realism (University of Delaware Press, 2009). His scholarship has appeared in leading disciplinary journals, including PMLA and Studies in Romanticism, and he has presented his work at national and international disciplinary and interdisciplinary conferences.