Roger Davis Masters (June 8, 1933 – June 22, 2023) studied at
Harvard (A.B. 1955,
Summa cum Laude), served in the
U.S. Army (1955–57), completed his M.A. (1958) and Ph.D. (1961) at the
University of Chicago, and served on the faculty at
Yale (1961-67) and then
Dartmouth College, with a two-year leave to serve as
Cultural Attaché at the
American Embassy in
Paris (1969–1971). From his retirement in 1998 he was the Nelson A. Rockefeller Professor of Government Emeritus in the Department of Government at Dartmouth.
Academic career
Roger Masters made deep and wide-ranging contributions in
social science. The central concern of his career was how the natural world influences human behavior, and creates opportunities for political action to improve societal outcomes.
Masters began his career in
political philosophy as a student of
Leo Strauss at the University of Chicago. His dissertation and subsequent book The Political Philosophy of Rousseau helped shape understanding of
Jean-Jacques Rousseau's role in modern political thought. He translated and edited influential new editions of Rousseau's works (The First and Second Discourses and On the Social Contract, with the Geneva Manuscript and Political Economy), and later co-edited the only complete English edition of The Collected Writings of Rousseau. The role of natural science in early political thought is also addressed in his 1996 book, Machiavelli, Leonardo and the Science of Power, and his 1998 book, Fortune is a River: Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolò Machiavelli's Magnificent Dream to Change the Course of Florentine History.
Masters' investigation of how nature influences human societies led to significant contributions in the field of
international relations, as well as human
ethology and
sociobiology. This work included pioneering laboratory experiments in
political communication. Later, Masters' research on biology and human behavior led to new epidemiological evidence regarding the behavioral impacts of
neurotoxins, first on the consequences of
lead poisoning, and then on the links between a common method of
water fluoridation to elevated blood lead and a higher prevalence of violent crime, substance abuse and learning disabilities.
Masters' work has pioneered the application of natural science discoveries to the social sciences and government policy. He was a founding member and served on the Executive Council of the
Association for Politics and the Life Sciences, and led a multiyear consultancy on biology and politics for the
U.S. Department of Defense in collaboration with anthropologist
Lionel Tiger and neuroscientist
Michael T. McGuire.
Published work
Principal books
Masters, Roger D. (ed.), 1964. The First and Second Discourses by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, translated by Roger D Masters and Judith R Masters. New York: St. Martin's Press (
ISBN0-312-69440-7).
Masters, Roger D. (ed.), 1967. The Nation is Burdened: American foreign policy in a changing world. New York: Random House (
ISBN9780394437996)
Masters, Roger D., 1968. The Political Philosophy of Rousseau. Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press (
ISBN9780691019895), also available in French (
ISBN2-84788-000-3).
Masters, Roger D. (ed.), 1978. On the Social Contract, with the Geneva Manuscript and Political Economy by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, translated by Judith R Masters. New York: St Martin's Press (
ISBN0-312-69446-6).
Masters, Roger D., 1989. The Nature of Politics. New Haven: Yale University Press (
ISBN0-300-04981-1).
Masters, Roger D., 1993. Beyond Relativism: Science and Human Values. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England (
ISBN0-87451-634-X).
Masters, Roger D., 1996. Machiavelli, Leonardo and the Science of Power. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press (
ISBN0-268-01433-7). See also
NYT book review
Masters, Roger D. and Margaret Gruter, eds.,1992. The Sense of Justice: Biological Foundations of Law. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications (
ISBN0-8039-4398-9).
Masters, Roger D. and Michael T. McGuire, eds. 1994. The Neurotransmitter Revolution: Serotonin, Social Behavior, and the Law. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press (
ISBN0-8093-1801-6).
Masters, Roger D., Glendon A. Schubert and Albert Somit, eds., 1994. Primate Politics. Lanham, MD: University Press of America (
ISBN0-8191-9386-0)
Edited series
Masters, Roger D. and Christopher Kelly, eds. (1990)
The Collected Writings of Rousseau. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England (12 volumes, various years). Series includes:
The Confessions and Correspondence, Including the Letters to Malesherbes (
ISBN0-87451-836-9)
Letter to Beaumont, Letters Written from the Mountain, and Related Writings (
ISBN1-58465-164-4)
Letter to D'Alembert and Writings for the Theater (
ISBN1-58465-353-1)
The Plan for Perpetual Peace, On the Government of Poland, and Other Writings on History and Politics (
ISBN1-58465-514-3)
The Reveries of the Solitary Walker, Botanical Writings, and Letter to Franquières (
ISBN1-58465-007-9)
Social Contract, Discourse on the Virtue Most Necessary for a Hero, Political Fragments, and Geneva Manuscript (
ISBN0-87451-646-3)
Principal articles and book chapters, by theme
International Relations
Masters, Roger D. (1961), A Multi-Bloc Model of the International System. The American Political Science Review, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Dec.), pp. 780-798.
JSTOR1952527
Masters, Roger D. (1964b), World Politics as a Primitive Political System. World Politics, Vol. 16, No. 4 (July), pp. 595-619.
JSTOR2009448
Political Theory
Masters, Roger D. (1977), The Case of Aristotle's Missing Dialogues: Who Wrote the Sophist, the Statesman, and the Politics? Political Theory, Vol. 5, No. 1 (Feb.), pp. 31-60.
JSTOR191146
Masters, Roger D. (1989). "Obligation and the new naturalism". Biology and Philosophy. 4 (1): 17–32.
doi:
10.1007/BF00144037.
S2CID143792647.
Human Ethology and Sociobiology
Masters, R. D. (1973). "Functional approaches to analogical comparison between species". Social Science Information. 12 (4): 7–28.
doi:
10.1177/053901847301200401.
S2CID144594327.
Masters, Roger D. (1982), Is Sociobiology Reactionary? The Political Implications of Inclusive-Fitness Theory. The Quarterly Review of Biology, Vol. 57, No. 3 (Sep.), pp. 275-292.
JSTOR2827464
Masters, Roger D. (1983), The Biological Nature of the State. World Politics, Vol. 35, No. 2 (Jan.), pp. 161-193.
JSTOR2010269
Masters, R. D. (1984). "Ostracism, voice, and exit: the biology of social participation". Social Science Information. 23 (6): 877–93.
doi:
10.1177/053901884023006001.
S2CID144839723.
Masters, Roger D. (1990), Evolutionary Biology and Political Theory. The American Political Science Review, Vol. 84, No. 1 (March), pp. 195-210.
JSTOR1963637
Masters, Roger D. (2009). "Mechanism and Function in Evolutionary Psychology: Emotion, Cognitive Neuroscience, and Personality". Psychological Inquiry. 6 (1): 65–8.
doi:
10.1207/s15327965pli0601_12.
Political Communication
Masters, Roger D. (1981), Linking ethology and political science: Photographs, political attention, and presidential elections, in Meredith Watts, ed. Biopolitics: Ethological and physiological approaches. New York: Jossey-Bass. (
ISBN978-0875898513)
McHugo, Gregory J., Lanzetta, John T., Sullivan, Denis G., Masters, Roger D. and Englis, Basil G. (1985), Emotional Reactions to a Political Leader's Expressive Displays. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology. 49(6, December):1513-1529. (
ISSN0022-3514)
doi:
10.1037/0022-3514.49.6.1513
Roger D. Masters, Denis G. Sullivan, Alice Feola, Gregory J. McHugo (1987), Television Coverage of Candidates' Display Behavior during the 1984 Democratic Primaries in the United States, International Political Science Review. Vol. 8, No. 2, (April), pp. 121-130.
JSTOR1600686
Newton, James S., Roger D. Masters, Gregory J. McHugo and Denis G. Sullivan (1987), Making up Our Minds: Effects of Network Coverage on Viewer Impressions of Leaders. Polity, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Winter), pp. 226-246.
JSTOR3234781
Sullivan, Denis G., Roger D. Masters (1988), "Happy Warriors": Leaders' Facial Displays, Viewers' Emotions, and Political Support. American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 32, No. 2 (May), pp. 345-368.
JSTOR2111127
Masters, Roger D., Denis G. Sullivan (1989), Nonverbal Displays and Political Leadership in France and the United States. Political Behavior, Vol. 11, No. 2 (June), pp. 123-156.
JSTOR586276
Masters, Roger D., Siegfried Frey, Gary Bente (1991), Dominance and Attention: Images of Leaders in German, French, & American TV News. Polity, Vol. 23, No. 3 (Spring, 1991), pp. 373-394.
JSTOR3235132
Masters, Roger D. (1991), Individual and cultural differences in response to leaders' nonverbal displays. Journal of Social Issues, 47(3): 151-165.
doi:
10.1111/j.1540-4560.1991.tb01828.x
Way, Baldwin M.; Masters, Roger D. (1996). "Political attitudes: Interactions of cognition and affect". Motivation and Emotion. 20 (3): 205–36.
doi:
10.1007/BF02251887.
S2CID143960723.
Way, Baldwin M.; Masters, Roger D. (1996). "Emotion and Cognition in Political Information-Processing". Journal of Communication. 46 (3): 48–65.
doi:
10.1111/j.1460-2466.1996.tb01488.x.
Neurotoxins and Behavior
Masters, Roger D., with Baldwin Way, Brian T. Hone, David J. Grelotti, David Gonzalez, and David Jones (1997), Neurotoxicity and Violence, Vermont Law Review, 22:358-382.
Masters, Roger D., Hone, Brian T., and Doshi, Anil. 1998. "Environmental Pollution, Neurotoxicity, and Criminal Violence," in J. Rose., ed., Environmental Toxicology: Current Developments (London: Taylor and Francis), pp. 13-48. (
ISBN9789056991401)
Masters, Roger D.; Coplan, Myron J. (1999). "Water treatment with silicofluorides and lead toxicity". International Journal of Environmental Studies. 56 (4): 435–49.
Bibcode:
1999IJEnS..56..435M.
doi:
10.1080/00207239908711215.
Masters, R. D.; Coplan, M. J. (1999). "A dynamic, multifactorial model of alcohol, drug abuse, and crime: linking neuroscience and behavior to toxicology". Social Science Information. 38 (4): 591–624.
doi:
10.1177/053901899038004005.
S2CID145745037.
Masters RD, Coplan MJ, Hone BT, Dykes JE (2000). "Association of silicofluoride treated water with elevated blood lead". Neurotoxicology. 21 (6): 1091–100.
PMID11233755.
Coplan, M.J. and R.D. Masters (2001), Guest Editorial: Silicofluorides and fluoridation. Fluoride. Volume 34, No. 3 (Aug): 161-164. (
ISSN0015-4725)
Archived 2003-03-10 at the
Wayback Machine
Coplan MJ, Patch SC, Masters RD, Bachman MS (2007). "Confirmation of and explanations for elevated blood lead and other disorders in children exposed to water disinfection and fluoridation chemicals". Neurotoxicology. 28 (5): 1032–42.
doi:
10.1016/j.neuro.2007.02.012.
PMID17420053.