Jeffrey Stout

Jeffrey Lee Stout (born September 11, 1950) is an American religious studies scholar who is Professor Emeritus of Religion at Princeton University. He is a member of the Department of Religion, and is associated with the departments of Philosophy and Politics, the Center for the Study of Religion, and the Center for Human Values. His works focus on the possibility of ethical discourse in a religiously pluralistic society. He served as president of the American Academy of Religion in 2007.

Life and career Stout was born on September 11, 1950, in Trenton, New Jersey. He was active in the civil rights movement and the opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War. While attending Brown University, he was involved in a student strike, managed the Rhode Island Draft Information Center, and established a student magazine.

He graduated from Brown in 1972. Since obtaining his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1976 from Princeton University, Stout has remained there as Professor of Religion. He is former chair of the Committee for Film Studies at Princeton. and plans to expand the materials into a book.

Theory He has championed what he calls "the moral tradition of democracy" as a "background of agreement" shared by participants in the political/social debates taking place in America today. This is his answer to such thinkers as Alasdair MacIntyre and Stanley Hauerwas who believe that participants in such debates do not share enough common ground to prevent their arguments from being intractable. Stout has been influenced by Richard Rorty and more recently Robert Brandom and, albeit with qualifications, aligns himself with the school of philosophy known as American pragmatism.