Postbac Premed Student Devises New Value Theory; Publishes Academic Text

Postbac Premed student Stephen Petro '14 is a born philosopher, and at only 24 years of age is publishing his first book, Rationality, Virtue, and Liberation: A Post Dialectical Theory of Value, which sets out to challenge and reorient the philosophical debate surrounding the theories of Gewirth, Habermas, and others. The development of this new theory has been long in the making, as Petro has been interested in philosophy since before he knew what it was.

“As a child, I was intellectually curious to the point of controversy. I went to a Catholic grade school, and I began to develop ideas which clashed with the orthodoxy. I would encourage other children to question fundamental tenets of the faith; I would ask the teacher how she could know certain things she was saying were true. I was a rather unpopular child among the faculty,” Petro said.

This interest blossomed when Petro took a philosophy class in his senior year of high school, and finally found a framework to make sense of the constant questioning he’d been doing his entire life.

“I began to identify with philosophers like Aristotle, Aquinas, Kant, and so on. These were people who called into question conventional thinking—not merely for the sake of doing so, but for the sake of eschewing dogma.”

It wasn’t long before Petro began formulating his own ideas about the nature of value, and throughout college he began to clarify these ideas through his own independent research and discussions with other academics. As his theories became more and more refined, he decided to write them down in an effort to define them clearly and systematically.

During the summer before his senior year, while simultaneously doing research for his honors thesis, Petro began writing a book, but only for his own edification—he never dreamed anything would come of it.

“Between the historical research for my thesis and the writing of this manuscript, I often slept maybe four or five hours per night. Anyone watching me through this process would have thought I was crazy and wasting my time on something that was completely pointless, but I didn't care,” Petro said.

He continued this work through the fall semester by applying for an independent study, and eventually sought the advice of Darrell Cole, PhD, a professor of religious ethics and theology at Drew University. Cole read Petro’s work, and encouraged him to seek publication.

After spending several months revising and expanding his ideas, Petro’s manuscript was accepted by Springer, known for publishing academic journals and books in the fields of science, technology, and medicine.

With the publication of his book, Petro hopes to demonstrate to readers the importance of self-liberation and personal enlightenment, which he says occurs only when people stop living through the opinions of others.

“I am fully aware that it can seem as though value theory is up in the clouds, and I am very clear throughout the book exactly how my findings apply to particular situations. I believe the realizations that my book brings to light will cause people to change their lives drastically and for the better; it has certainly had this effect on me,” Petro said.

Rationality, Virtue, and Liberation: A Post Dialectical Theory of Value will be available for purchase on December 1, and will also be available as an e-book in Butler Library. Petro will be hosting a lecture entitled "Value Innateness and Universal Moral Grammar: Normative Implications of the Cognitive System" on Wednesday, November 13 in the GS Lounge from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Several copies of the book will be raffled off and all students are welcome to attend.