ThePhilosopher
Department of Philosophy
Baylor University
October 2008
www.baylor.edu/philosophy
Greetings to Graduates and Friends of the Department
Our department enjoyed a number of splendid
successes in 2007-2008. One success is the
growing interest in philosophy as a major or
minor. Twenty-nine majors participated in the
May graduation exercises, the largest ever in our
department. Four more graduated in August and
six more will graduate in December. Currently,
we have 98 majors, thirty-five of whom are
seniors and twenty-four of whom are freshmen.
One catalyst for the increased number of majors
is the wide-range of courses we offer. A
description of our fall offerings can be found
here: www.baylor.edu/philosophy
Another catalyst is our department’s increased
attention to pre-law. We have developed a prelaw
track
in
the
major
(See
www.baylor.edu/philosophy) and participated in
significant ways in a Pre-Law Advisory Council
whose task is to develop institutional resources
for those interested in Pre-Law. Of course,
philosophy is one of the best preparations for
law. One of our majors, James Nortey, was
admitted to Harvard Law School, beginning this
fall. Another major, Evan Roane, developed two
new brochures for the department, one for all
majors and another for majors interested in law.
Thanks, Evan (he is now in graduate school at
the University of Warwick, in the United
Kingdom)!
Our second cohort of students (fourteen)
participated in our St. Andrews semester abroad
program during the spring of 2008, and we are
currently recruiting for the spring of 2009. See
www.baylor.edu/philosophy. In addition, Dr. Stuart
Rosenbaum directed the popular Baylor in
Oxford program (http://www.baylor.edu/oxford/) and
will again this summer. In addition, we have
received our second cohort of guests from
Chinese universities under the auspices of a
Templeton-funded grant on Science and
Religion. Two Chinese graduate students (Mr.
Wan Wei from Peking University and (Ms.
Luming Cheng from Xinjiang Agricultural
University), and one Chinese philosopher
(Professor Sang from Wuhan University) are
spending the fall and spring semesters with us.
They are a wonderful addition to our
department. Each is working on a significant
research project and the two graduate students
are taking classes. These three ventures have
increased our international participation and
visibility.
Dr. Todd Buras has resumed responsibilities as
director of undergraduate studies and sponsor of
the philosophy club. After Dr. Frank Beckwith
ably performed these roles while Dr. Buras was
on sabbatical last fall. With assistance for
outstanding undergraduate leadership, Dr. Buras
plans a weekly coffee hour. Please see this
website, www.baylor.edu/philosophy, for details
about its important contributions to the
intellectual and social life of our department and
our university.
Our graduate program continues to flourish.
Currently, we have twenty-nine graduate
students enrolled and they come to us from as
far away as Vancouver, Canada and Wuhan,
China and as close as Dallas, Texas. Entering
graduate students soon become a part of a close1
knit community of graduate students and
spouses. They organize colloquia, discussion
and study groups, and a monthly pot-luck.
We are especially proud to announce that five
students completed their Ph.D.s this year and
were hooded in the August graduation exercises.
They are David Alexander (two year teaching
appointment at Calvin College), Jay Bruce
(tenure-track position at John Brown
University), Jesse Jordan (tenure-track position
at Mount Saint Mary’s in Emmitsburg,
Maryland), Taryn Whittington (permanent
position at Malone College), and John Wolfe
(teaching as a lecturer for our department this
year). In addition, three other students have
taken full-time teaching positions this year in
other universities or colleges, as they work to
complete their dissertations. They are Christi
and Russ Hemati, who share a full-time teaching
position at Houston Baptist University (where
they will help start a department of philosophy)
and Jonathan Sands-Wise, who will be teaching
at Georgetown College in Kentucky. We are
very proud of them, one and all, and pleased
with our placement successes.
Not only do we have a strong mentoring
program to help our students become good
teachers, from the beginning our students are
encouraged to be active researchers. We are
proud to say that two of our graduate students
will be presenting at the APA’s Central Division
meeting this year. Moreover, at the last Central
Division meeting of the Society of Christian
Philosophers (SCP), five of our graduate
students presented papers, while at the Eastern
Division meeting, three of them did so. And
three of the presenting students were first year
students. No other university had so many
students presenting at either SCP conference. If
any of you who are faculty at sister colleges and
universities are looking for men and women of
high character, and with demonstrated promises
as teachers and scholars, please contact me.
This is a good time to thank Dr. Anne Bowery
for her good work during a three-year tour of
duty as Director of Graduate Studies. Dr. Anne
Bowery has accepted a position as Director of
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the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core in the College
of Arts and Sciences. Fortunately, she will
continue to teach at least one course a year for
our department, and direct dissertations, as time
permits. Anne provided able leadership the past
three years. She improved the website about
our graduate program, clarified a variety
procedures and policies germane to the graduate
program, and enhanced graduate student
awareness of essential information and
timelines. For her good work, we are grateful.
I am also pleased that Dr. Bob Roberts
(Director) and Dr. Alex Pruss (Associate
Director) have agreed to accept leadership roles
in the department’s graduate program and that
they will be ably assisted by Elizabeth Roberts,
who has agreed to serve assistant to the director,
and Ms. Marilyn McKinney, our department’s
office manager. We look forward to their
leadership in this important area.
On November 6-8, we host a conference on
Science and Human Nature: Russian and
Western Perspectives with assistance from John
Templeton Foundation. The conference is cosponsored by the Society of Christian
Philosophers. We have a fine program, which
can be found here (along with information about
registration
and
housing)
www.baylor.edu/philosophy
Please attend, if
possible.
Let me bring four more items to your attention.
First, the annual newsletter arrives in your
mailbox about a month before Baylor
Homecoming on October 31-November 1, 2008.
Let me encourage you to attend and to visit the
department while you are here. Once again, we
will host a Homecoming Lecture. This year, Dr.
Robert C. Roberts, Distinguished Professor of
Philosophy, will present “The Emotions of
Animals.” The lecture is on October 31, 3:304:45 p.m. in Morrison Hall, 105, with a
reception and refreshments to follow upstairs in
the foyer (near MH 217) afterwards. Please
plan on joining our faculty and students at this
lecture and reception.
Second, this past year many of you made
financial contributions to the department. Your
gifts allowed our faculty and students to enjoy
increased
resources
for
professional
development or academic success. In addition,
generous gift from one donor helped students
attend the St. Andrews program and refurbish
our graduate lounge. Other gifts helped keep a
bright student in school whose family met
unexpected financial difficulties.
For your
individual and collective generosity, we are
grateful. A detailed listing of our departmental
endowments is available elsewhere in the
newsletter. Please contribute to one or more of
them. Indeed, consider how you might help the
department as a part of Baylor’s major
fundraising drive. Consider endowing a chair
for one of our outstanding faculty, providing an
endowment for scholarships for undergraduates,
graduate students or international students, or
endowing lectureships for nationally or
internationally distinguished visiting faculty, to
name just a few possibilities. Please contact me
if you would like to discuss these or other ideas.
Third, without Ms. Marilyn McKinney, the
department’s office manager, the necessary
routines of successful departmental life would
run awry. She manages the machinations of our
department with care and clarity and has taken
the initiative to renovate past practices and
initiate new ones that is improving the quality of
our work.
She handles an intimidating
workload with grace and good will and we are
grateful for her good work.
Finally, each year we include a list of
department graduates. Examine it carefully. Let
us know of any changes we need to make in
order to have current information on you or
others who are our graduates. If you are
interested in receiving an electronic newsletter
from the department to keep you apprised of our
work and aspirations, please return the
enclosure with your email included. Visit our
website: www.baylor.edu/philosophy and its many
links so that you might learn more about both
the department, individual faculty, and our
undergraduate and graduate students, and the
various activities, events, and programs that
manifest the vibrant intellectual and communal
character of our department. ~~ Michael Beaty
Greetings former students and other friends of
the department,
As some of you know, Stuart Rosenbaum and I
have edited a series of books on contemporary
moral issues published by Prometheus Press.
When Prometheus began discussing with us the
possibility of editing a book on moral and
political issues related to disabilities, we
immediately thought of including our retired
colleague, Kay Toombs, as a co-editor.
Kay was an outstanding member of this faculty
from the mid 1980s until her retirement in 2000.
In 1973 Kay was diagnosed with multiple
sclerosis. Despite her illness, Kay completed
both her undergraduate and master’s work at
Baylor and subsequently received her Ph.D. in
philosophy at Rice University. After returning
to Baylor to join the faculty, she, along with
Ann Miller and Bill Hillis, created one of the
most successful courses ever taught at Baylor,
Literary and Philosophical Perspectives on
Medicine. That course was the beginning of a
series of events eventually culminating in
Baylor’s Medical Humanities Program now
directed by Jim Marcum of our department.
Because of Kay’s own disability and her
professional exploration of issues related to
disability, she was, of course, an invaluable
source for the book which should come out later
this year. I regret to report that Kay’s husband,
Dee, died this year, and we grieve with Kay in
her loss.
In June I assumed a three year appointment as
Baylor’s ombudsperson for faculty. The appeal
of the position is that it is intended to facilitate
resolutions of conflicts or disputes for the
faculty in an informal, impartial, and
confidential manner. The appointment to the
position is by the provost upon the
recommendation of the Faculty Senate.
Presently Stuart and I are focusing on a third
edition of our work on capital punishment. We
hope to complete that by February for a 2009
publication. ~~ Robert Baird
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Homecoming Lecture
Series
Morrison Hall 120
supportive. For the 2008-2009 school year I
will be on research leave at the University of
Notre Dame serving as the Mary Ann Remick
Senior Visiting Fellow in Notre Dame’s Center
for Ethics & Culture. I am working on a book
on the U. S. federal courts’ approach to the
epistemological status of theological claims in
free exercise and establishment clause religion
cases.
Friday, October 31 – 3:30
Presentation by Dr. Robert Roberts
Reception to follow in
commons area by MH 219
near MH 219
Bob
Roberts will be
presenting on
Homecoming
Presentation
“The Emotions of Animals.”
“How Sophisticated Are the Emotions of
Animals?” – Dr. Robert Roberts
People’s emotions can be sophisticated in
several ways. We can have feelings about things
that are not present to us. Our emotion can
change with a slight change in our conception of
a situation. We can deny what an emotion is
“telling” us, even while we are subject to it. We
can have emotions that depend on our having
followed a complex narrative. We can have
emotions about our emotions.
In this Homecoming talk, I will compare the
emotions of some animals, such as squirrels and
baboons, with human emotions, and will show
that animals’ emotions are sometimes
surprisingly sophisticated. But there is still a
crucial, though somewhat fuzzy difference
between human and animal mental life, and I
will try to say what that difference is.
Fellow Philosophers:
I am pleased to report that I was promoted to
full professor beginning August 1, 2008. I
thoroughly enjoy my teaching in the department
of philosophy at Baylor where the students are
easy to inspire and my colleagues are
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In August 2007, Cambridge University Press
published my monograph, Defending Life: A
Moral and Legal Case Against Abortion Choice.
I also completed manuscripts for two
forthcoming books: (1) a personal memoir that
will be published in January 2009 by Brazos
Press, Return to Rome: Confessions of an
Evangelical Catholic; and (2) an introduction to
politics for Christian college students, Is
Statecraft Soulcraft? :Politics and Christianity
(InterVarsity Press, 2009).
I also published several book chapters and
articles since last year’s Homecoming: 6 entries
in the Encyclopedia of Religion and Education
in the United States, eds. by James C. Carper
and Tom Hunt (Westport, CT: Praeger
Publishers, 2008); 4 entries in the Encyclopedia
of the First Amendment, eds. David L. Hudson,
David A. Schultz, and John R. Vile
(Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly
Press); “Is Morality Relative?,” Passionate
Conviction: Modern Discourses on Christian
Apologetics, eds. Paul Copan and William Lane
Craig (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman,
2007); "Abortion," Church and State Issues in
America Today, 3 volumes, eds. Steven L. Jones
and Ann W. Duncan (Westport, CT: Praeger
Publishers, 2007); “Intelligent Design, Religious
Motives, and the First Amendment,” in
Intelligent Design: William A. Dembski and
Michael Ruse in Dialogue, eds. Robert B.
Stewart (Minneapolis: Fortress Books, 2007);
“Christians, Politics, and the Separation of
Church and State,” in Reasons for Faith, eds. C.
Meister, and N. L. Geisler (Wheaton, IL:
Crossway Books, 2007); “Bioethics, the
Christian Citizen, and the Pluralist Game.”
Christian Bioethics 13 (2007): 1-12; “Doing
What Comes Naturally and Not Knowing It: A
Reflection on J. Budziszewski’s Work.” The
Catholic Social Science Review 12 (2007): 3340.
I gave invited talks at Princeton University
(twice), University of Colorado, Notre Dame
Law School, Palm Beach Atlantic University,
Malone College (2008 John Woolman
Lecturer), Azusa Pacific University (Common
Day of Learning Lecturer), Arizona State
University College of Law, and Bishop Gorman
High School (my alma mater in Las Vegas,
Nevada). I also gave academic papers at several
conferences including the American Political
Science Association, the University Faculty for
Life, the American Academy of Religion, and
the Evangelical Theological Society, and the
Dialogues of Cultures (at the University of
Notre Dame). I also spoke for a variety of
Christian ministries throughout the United
States, including churches, youth groups, and
institutes. ~~ Frank Beckwith
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hello Philosophy Alumni,
I hope this letter finds you and yours leading
happy and productive lives. The academic year
2007/2008 has been quite eventful both
personally and professionally. In the personal
domain, I continue to enjoy my life as dual
citizen of Austin and Waco. I’m also looking
forward to my parents relocating to
Georgetown, TX. It will be great to have them
so close by. I traveled a good bit this summer
for yoga related camps and conferences and did
manage to get some writing done in between.
I’ve had a good year publication wise. I had an
article on Plato’s Euthydemus come out in
Southwest Philosophical Review and I’m very
excited about my article, “You are what you
Read: Reading the Books of Augustine’s
Confessions,” which will appear in Augustinian
Studies. I’m particularly pleased by the venue
because it is about my favorite article that I’ve
ever written and also because it is dedicated to
Carl Vaught’s memory.
I just ended a three-year stint
as Graduate
Director of the Philosophy Department. I’ve
enjoyed my time working with the graduate
students in this context and I’m also happy to
turn over the reins of power to Bob Roberts (and
Alex Pruss as associate Grad Director).
This Fall I’m on University Research Leave.
I’m really excited about the opportunity to
devote my full time to finishing A Philosophic
Muse. It is much easier for me to write when I
wake up in the morning and say, “Okay, this is
the only job you have to do today. So sit down
and do it.” I do have to say I miss all my friends
at Baylor and the constant energy of being in the
classroom. But Baylor will still be there when I
get back.
In the Spring, I will become Director of the
Baylor Interdisciplinary Core. The BIC is an
interdisciplinary, general studies program for
undergraduates at Baylor, housed within the
Honors College. Five sequences of courses
comprise the BIC curriculum: World Cultures,
World of Rhetoric, Social World, Natural
World, and The Examined Life. These
sequences represent fourteen individual courses
for a total of forty-four hours of course work.
Students who participate in the BIC take these
courses instead of regular general studies
courses in freshman composition, literature
survey, religion, fine arts (e.g., art history,
music, theater arts), introductory social science
(e.g., history, sociology, political science,
psychology), and laboratory science (e.g.,
biology, chemistry, physics, environmental
studies).
I’ve been involved with BIC since its inception.
The Baylor Interdisciplinary Core was just
beginning when I joined the faculty in 1993 and
I’m very excited to begin this new job. I’ll still
teach one class a year in the Philosophy
Department!
I got a good deal of pleasure reading done this
summer: The Unaccustomed Earth, The Sari
Shop, Into the Wild, The Hours, Palace of
Illusions, and Plan B.
Kind regards, ~~ Anne Bowery
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Friends of Philosophy,
The fall of 08 marks the beginning of my sixth
year at Baylor! It’s hard to believe how quickly
5
the time is passing. My family is becoming
populated by increasingly school age children.
My former students are turning increasingly into
old friends. I look forward to seeing many of
you at homecoming this fall.
I continue to teach an introductory class each
term. The class has morphed into a semesterlong comparison of theism and naturalism. We
examine the best arguments and biggest
problems facing each tradition. In the process
we compare the respective explanation each
offers of the universe, human nature, and good
and evil. The syllabus for the course is online
(http://bearspace.baylor.edu/Todd_Buras/www/
1321-fall-08.htm), and is full of links to
interesting readings, many of them free. For
those interested in a book length treatment of
these topics, I recommend C. Stephen Layman’s
Letters to a Doubting Thomas (Oxford
University Press, 2007).
My philosophical research agenda remains
focused on the thought of Thomas Reid. Over
the past year I have written a new paper on an
argument Reid himself identifies as his central
point against the “Way of Ideas.” The paper is
entitled “Thomas Reid’s Experimentum Crucis,”
and is currently under review.
Over the
summer, a paper inspired by Reid’s view of
sensations and critical of the dominant
naturalism in the philosophy of mind was
accepted (at long last!): “An Argument against
Causal Theories of Mental Content,”
forthcoming,
American
Philosophical
Quarterly. An older paper also made it into
print: “Three Grades of Immediate Perception:
Thomas Reid’s Distinctions,” Philosophy and
Phenomenological Research 76.3 (2008): 603632. All of these papers are posted on my
webpage:
http://bearspace.baylor.edu/Todd_Buras/www/.
I would welcome the opportunity to discuss
philosophy with our alumni on these topics, or
any other. ~~ Todd Buras
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The highlight of my last year was serving as
Director of the Baylor in Scotland program in the
spring of 2008 in St. Andrews. My wife Jan (who
took an unpaid leave) and I went with fourteen
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wonderful Baylor students to the University of St.
Andrews for the spring term. Jan and I enjoyed our
time with the Baylor students immensely, and it
was glorious to see the beauty and historic sights of
Scotland. Highlights of the term included a one
week trip with all the students to England, and
short trips on our own to Iona and Loch Ness. I
was invited to read a paper to the Philosophy
Department in St. Andrews and to speak twice to
the Theology Research Seminar. My only regret is
that I did not find enough time for golf!
From a scholarly point of view, I finally finished
(in May, about four months late) my new book,
Kierkegaard: An Introduction, which will be
released by Cambridge University Press early in
2009. Because that project took longer than
planned, I am now somewhat under the gun to
finish my next project, which is a book on Natural
Signs of God’s Reality. This book, which will be
published by Oxford University Press, looks at the
traditional theistic arguments as attempts to
articulate “natural signs” that point to God’s
reality, signs that can be perceived by ordinary
people without philosophical expertise. Since I
have a research leave this fall I still hope to finish
this book on time by June 2009.
Publications this year included “The Historicity of
the Gospel of John: From What Perspective Should
It Be Assessed?” in Richard Bauckham and Carl
Mosser, eds., The Gospel of John and Christian
Theology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008). Since
this was a paper I originally read at a conference in
St. Andrews, it seems appropriate that it should
appear while I was in Scotland. Other highlights of
the year included giving the Julia Watkin Memorial
Lecture at St. Olaf College in November, 2007, on
the subject: “Kierkegaard: Father of Existentialism
or Critic of Existentialism.” I repeated this lecture
to a public audience at Regent College in
Vancouver, Canada last summer. (Following that
week, Jan and I celebrated our 39th anniversary by
taking a cruise from Vancouver to Alaska and
back, an experience I highly recommend).
We are spending our research leaves (my wife has
leave also) at Calvin College in Michigan. Jan and
I are enjoying the beautiful fall weather here, but
looking forward to returning to Waco in January.
By that time we will be ready to leave the snow
and enjoy a Texas winter. ~~ C. Stephen Evans
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New experiences and a deepening love for the
intellectual community that Baylor provides
mark out two features of the past year for me.
Together with my wife and son, I moved onto
campus to serve as master of Baylor’s first
residential college: Brooks College. Alongside
370 undergraduates of all classifications and
majors, we have the privilege of sharing in a
collegiate way of life where shared traditions,
learned community, and excellence of character,
mind, and heart are embraced.
As I enter my second year as master of Brooks
College, I have reluctantly decided to step down
as director of the Institute for Faith and
Learning. I first came to Baylor in 2001 to
work in IFL, and my seven years there have
been full and rewarding. However, this move
will enable me to give all the more attention to
my teaching and scholarship while serving in
Brooks College.
On that note, I enjoyed offering a section of
classical philosophy in the spring. I always
approach that course under the influence of
Pierre Hadot. He is entirely right to insist that
ancient philosophy was, above all, a way of life,
and that we also should be real lovers of real
wisdom. The rest of my teaching has been in
the Great Texts Program where I recently have
offered our ancients course (Homer through
Augustine), our medieval course (Boethius
through Shakespeare), and our twentieth century
course.
In addition to my efforts to pursue such wisdom
in the classroom, I hope that my writing bears
some signs of the same thing. Last fall saw the
release of The Schooled Heart: Moral
Formation in American Higher Education
(Baylor University Press, 2007), a book I coedited with Michael Beaty. The book will be
featured this fall as the subject of a special panel
discussion at the American Academy of
Religion. In addition, I contributed a chapter,
“Forming Faculty for Mission, to a book entitled
The Baylor Project: Taking Christian Higher
Education to the Next Level (St. Augustine’s
Press, 2007). Another book editor reprinted one
of my articles, “Can Baptist Theology Sustain
the Life of the Mind?” in The Scholarly
Vocation and the Baptist Academy: Essays on
the Future of Baptist Higher Education (Mercer
University Press, 2008). Perhaps most
enjoyable for me, though, has been the
continuation of my published exchange with
John Schellenberg on the subject of divine
hiddenness. My piece, “Reasonable Doubts
about Reasonable Nonbelief,” in Faith and
Philosophy (July 2008), maintains that his
atheological argument fails on multiple grounds,
and thus that believers have no reason to doubt
God’s existence, at least not for the reasons that
he adduces.~~Douglas Henry
Endowments
W. J. Kilgore Fellowship Fund
proceeds designated for student scholarships
Faculty Excellence Fund
proceeds support professional development of philosophy faculty
Philosophy Excellence Fund: Graduate Students
proceeds support professional development of graduate students
Philosophy Excellence Fund: Undergraduate Students
proceeds support professional development
of undergraduate students
I continued my work in epistemology and
philosophy of religion, which included the
appearance of the first volume in the Oxford
Studies in Philosophy of Religion. This series
publishes original articles by leading figures in
the area of philosophy of religion, with new
volumes anticipated to appear each year. The
second volume is now in press, and work on the
third volume is underway as well.
--Jon Kvanvig
Masters Degrees Awarded
2007-2008
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Daniel Johnson
John Shahan
Dear Alumni:
It is a pleasure to write you this fall. As I have
written in previous newsletters, I am a
philosopher of science and since arriving at
Baylor I have had the luxury of extending my
research and teaching interests into the history
and philosophy of medicine.
I recently
published a book on the philosophy of medicine,
An Introductory Philosophy of Medicine:
Humanizing Modern Medicine. I am using it to
teach a philosophy of medicine course during
the fall semester. I also teach history of
medicine then.
During the 2008 spring
semester, I participated in a conference on
Models and Methods for Graduate Education in
Medical
Humanities,
with
a
paper,
“Undergraduate
Medical
Humanities:
Relationship to Medical School Education and
Graduate Medical Humanities”. The conference
was sponsored by The Institute for the Medical
Humanities, at the University of Texas Medical
Branch, Galveston, TX, and held from March 69, 2008. I also gave an invited paper, “Cancer:
Causation, Complexity, and Systems Biology”,
at a conference on the Philosophical and
Historical Aspects of Causation in Biomedical
Sciences, which was sponsored by the Institute
for the History of Medicine and Health, at
Geneva University, in Switzerland, and held
from March 31-April 2, 2008. I gave another
invited paper, “Systems Biology: A Kuhnian
Scientific Revolution?”, at a conference on the
Impact, Relevance and Open Issues of Thomas
Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions,
which was sponsored by the University of
Athens in Greece, and held on August 21-23,
2008. I am currently working on a book-length
manuscript on systems biology, Conceptual
Foundations of Systems Biology. In addition, I
serve as the director of Baylor’s Medical
Humanities Program, with Dr. Michael Attas as
associate director. The program sponsors an
annual lectureship in the medical humanities
and the lecturer this year is Dr. Kay Toombs.
Finally, I am directing over a half-dozen honors
theses this year, ranging in topics from gene
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therapy and narrative medicine to a political
election in Fort Worth.
Publications 2008 by Dr. James Marcum
Marcum, J.A. 2008. An introductory philosophy
of medicine: humanizing modern
medicine. Philosophy and Medicine
Series, volume 99. xv + 369 pp. New York:
Springer.
Marcum, J.A. 2008. Does systems biology
represent a Kuhnian paradigm shift?
New Phytologist 179: 587-589.
Marcum, J.A. 2008. Reflections on humanizing
biomedicine. Perspectives in Biology
and Medicine 51: 392-405.
Marcum, J.A. 2008. Instituting science:
discovery or construction of scientific
knowledge? Forthcoming in International
Studies in the Philosophy of Science.
Marcum, J.A. 2008. The epistemically virtuous
clinician. Forthcoming in
Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics.
Marcum, J.A. 2008. Whitehead’s philosophy of
organism and systems biology.
Forthcoming in Chromatikon IV. Annuaire
de la philosophie en process.
Marcum, J.A. 2008. Cancer biology: from
molecular biology to systems biology.
Forthcoming in Molecular biology: new
research.
~~Jim Marcum
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Having happily settled into Waco, I have been
enjoying the philosophical and Christian
community that the Department provides. My
most major writing tasks have been work on the
manuscript of my book One Body: An Essay in
Christian Sexual Ethics for Notre Dame
University Press (basically only bibliographic
and formatting work remains), and producing a
46,000 word survey of contingency-based
cosmological arguments for the existence of
God. I have been enjoying teaching at Baylor.
Particularly enjoyable was a graduate course on
cosmological and ontological arguments, which
resulted in two accepted journal articles, one by
me and a better one by a student, and one
excellent conference presentation by a student.
I have also been heavily blogging on
philosophical and theological topics at
alexanderpruss.blogspot.com.
~~ Alex Pruss
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Having never before had an administrative post,
I was reluctant to accept Mike’s invitation to be
Graduate Program Director for a couple of
years. But Alex Pruss was willing to lend a
hand, and my wife Elizabeth offered to back me
up on details (which I am inclined to neglect),
so I accepted the job. It has been gratifying to
have closer and more frequent contact with our
graduate students, and I’m enthusiastic about
trying to strengthen our program.
This past summer was full. In the latter half of
May Elizabeth and I spent two weeks in
Argentina, on an exchange program that Karen
Alexander is developing between Baylor and the
National University of Córdoba. I gave eight
two-hour lectures on Aristotle’s Nicomachean
Ethics, over the period of two weeks. Then we
went to our summer place near Parry Sound,
Ontario for the remainder of the summer, and I
finished up four papers that I had been working
on for the past year. Two are for special issues
of The Emotion Review, the new journal of the
International Society for Research on Emotions.
One of them is on emotional consciousness and
personal relationships, the other on justice as an
emotion disposition. The latter paper interacts
with the work of Robert Solomon of the
University of Texas, who died a year and a half
ago. Another paper, “The Sophistication of
Non-Human Emotions” compares eight
dimensions of human emotions with those of
such animals as squirrels and baboons. It will be
published in a volume on animal minds by
Cambridge University Press. The fourth paper is
about sentimentalist meta-ethics, the kind of
moral theory that descends from the work of
David Hume. It is called “Emotions and the
Canons of Evaluation” and will be published in
the Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of
Emotions, edited by Peter Goldie. As you can
see, I’ve been preoccupied with emotions lately;
I also taught a graduate seminar on emotions
and morality at Baylor last spring.
~~ Bob Roberts
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dear Alumni/ae,
Another year has gone by quickly; we continue
to thrive beyond our expectations. I’ve become
the director of our Baylor in Oxford program
and spent the month of July last summer
teaching two courses at Christ Church and
breathing reasonably cool air for a change.
Texas does not offer such opportunities, and I’m
grateful for them; I lived in a wonderful flat
right by, and I ran on, the track where Roger
Bannister broke the four-minute mile. Needless
to say, I didn’t crack the four-minute barrier
myself even though I ran inspired just being on
that lovely track. More mundane matters: I
think I’m publishing some interesting stuff this
year or early next year. There’s an essay in
Contemporary Pragmatism on moral ideals, one
in The Pluralist on Mma Ramotswe’s wisdom
and one in Harvard Theological Review on
religion being a conversation-stopper. And that
book is finally making its way into daylight next
year, titled Pragmatism and the Reflective Life;
it’s intended to provide an account of the ideal
of moral living I find in James and Dewey. I
hope to see you all soon, or if not you all, then
ya’ll. “Be well; do good work; and keep in
touch.” ~~ Stuart Rosenbaum
Ph.D. Degrees Awarded
2007-2008
David Alexander
James (Jay) Bruce
Jessy Jordan
Richard (Taryn)Whittington
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John Wolfe
Updates from Recent Graduates
From David Alexander, Ph.D., Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Immediately following graduation my family and I headed for Grand Rapids, Michigan. The trip was
great. As we approached Grand Rapids our excitement increased. Michigan is much more beautiful
than we thought. About four weeks have passed since we first arrived and we are still settling in. We
are excited about our new church, which plans to open an inner-city church plant by spring. My
children, Julian (12) and Angel (11), are attending a classical school and are doing quite well.
Genevieve, my wife, misses Waco. I am thrilled with my new job. The students are involved and the
faculty is top-notch.
From: Jay Bruce, Ph.D., John Brown University, Siloam Springs, Arkansas
Kathryn and I are enjoying our time here in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. We recently celebrated our
daughter's one year birthday: she ate her cake by leaning her face directly into it. I am the first
philosopher at John Brown University, so I receive both mail addressed to me and to "the Department of
Philosophy"--different but also fun. I think regularly of my friends and mentors at Baylor: in my
interaction with students and in my teaching, I regularly think of Todd Buras, a fabulous role model.
And just this morning a faculty member asked to borrow a copy of a book by Kierkegaard, making me
think of (and talk about) both Steve Evans and Bob Roberts. I recently had an interchange with a
colleague in the English department who mentioned David Jeffrey when I said I studied at Baylor. I said
that I'd studied medieval commentaries with him and that he was on my dissertation committee. He
actually said, "He's a hero of mine." And just today, I was asked to speak before the advisory board for
our department, and I received an email asking me for an interview, for the student newspaper. I am
teaching Intro. to Philosophy and Ethics this fall, and I am impressed with JBU's students: they are
hardworking and eager, not overly impressed with themselves but not shy about considering critically
ideas that are presented to them. Transition is never fun--and how we miss friends back in Waco!--but
we are grateful to God for sending us to such a warm and welcoming--and positively beautiful--place.
From: Erin Cline, Ph.D., University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
It is hard to believe that I am already beginning my third year in the Philosophy and Religious Studies
departments at the University of Oregon. This fall I will be teaching combined undergraduate/graduate
seminars on the early Confucian philosophers Kongzi and Mengzi, and on classical Daoism. In the
coming year I have articles forthcoming in International Philosophical Quarterly, the Journal of
Religious Ethics, Modern China, and in an anthology on early Daoism. Most of my attention now is
devoted to working on a monograph which focuses on the role of moral cultivation and the family in
Western liberal political philosophy and classical Chinese philosophy. I have been awarded a research
fellowship at the Oregon Humanities Center for 2009, which will allow me to devote my energies more
fully to this work. My husband, Michael, continues to teach part-time in both Religious Studies and
Philosophy at Oregon and his book, William James on Ethics and Faith, is forthcoming from Cambridge
University Press. We are also pleased to announce that we are expecting our first child, a son, who is
forthcoming in December!
From: Zach Manis, Ph.D., Southwest Baptist University, Bolivar, Missouri
This fall marks the beginning of my fourth year teaching at Southwest Baptist University (Bolivar, MO).
I'm currently teaching a special topics course on atheism, as well as working on a manuscript for
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"Philosophy of Religion: Thinking About Faith, Second Edition," a book co-authored with Dr. Steve
Evans (Baylor), to be published by InterVarsity Press. I'm presenting papers at three upcoming
conferences this year: "On Divine Essential Goodness and the Nature of Divine Freedom," to be
presented at the Baptist Association of Philosophy Teachers conference (Oct. 3-5); "Foundations for a
Kierkegaardian Account of Moral Obligation," to be presented at the Southwestern Philosophical
Society conference (Nov. 14-16); and "A Molinist Solution to the Problem of Divine Freedom," to be
presented at the Central Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association (Feb. 18-21). My
daughter, Nora, turned one in June, and my son, Solomon, turned four in August. My wife Lisa
continues to work full-time in our home, raising Nora and Sol, as well as watching two of our friends'
children in the afternoons. We continue to enjoy our time in Missouri, where there are four distinct
seasons (sorry all you Texans!) and we are close to family in Arkansas.
From: Jonathan Sands-Wise, fifth-year student: Having started teaching at Georgetown College this
fall as a visiting assistant professor of philosophy, I am keeping busy teaching four classes and working
on finishing up my dissertation under the direction of Dr. Bob Roberts. Fortunately, I was well-prepared
by my time at Baylor, so while the load is heavy, I can still take time to enjoy the challenges of teaching
and the joys of college life, from football games to a close-knit department that echoes the sort of
community we have in the philosophy department at Baylor. Hopefully I will be able to finish my
dissertation this year and begin to focus all of my energies on teaching and landing a tenure-track
position.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2008-2009 Graduate Students
Final Writing
Amy Antoninka--Grove City College
Jay Howell—Baylor University
Lewis Pearson--Christian Brothers University
Natalie Tapken--Baylor University
Sixth Year Students
Christina Hemati--Dallas Baptist University
Russell Hemati--Dallas Baptist University
Fifth Year Students
Mike Cantrell--University of Central Arkansas
Andrew Nam--Biola University
Sean Riley--Penn State University
Angela Pearson--George Fox University
Jonathan Sands Wise--Houghton College
Fourth Year Students
Mark Boone--Dallas Baptist University
Emily Glass--Taylor University
Paul Carron--Grand Canyon University
Third Year Students
Bradley Brummeler--Regent College
Heidi Chamberlain—Houghton College
Daniel Johnson—University of Oregon
Janelle Klapauszak—Bioloa University
Joel Schwartz—Ohio University
Tom Tong—Wuhan University
Second Year Students
Ryan Byerly – Southeastern BTS
Travis Coblentz – /Gordon-Conwell TS
Matt Douglass – Asbury TS
Adam Pelser – Wake Forest University
Gregory Poore – Union University
Christopher Shrock – Harding University
First Year Students
Clifton Bryant—University of Mississippi
Nathan Carson—Regent College
Scott Cleveland—Yale Univ. Divinity School
David Echelbarger—St. Norbert college
John Spano--University of Mississippi
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The Department of Philosophy
254.710.3368
One Bear Place #97273
254.710.3838 (fax)
Waco, TX 76798-7273
www.baylor.edu/philosophy
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