CSU Stanislaus | Department of Philosophy

Ph.D. (Philosophy, 1983)
University of Colorado, Boulder
(University Dissertation Research Award)
MA (Philosophy, 1980)
University of Colorado, Boulder
AB (Philosophy, 1976)
University of California, Santa Cruz
(Department and College Honors)

Employment History:

California State University, Stanislaus

Assistant Professor of Philosophy (1983-87)

Associate Professor of Philosophy (w/tenure) (1987-1992)

Professor of Philosophy (1992=>)

Department Chair (Philosophy) (1990-2010)

Interim Associate Dean, College of Arts, Letters and Sciences (1998-99)

Director, University Honors Program (2000=>)

Interim Dean, College of Humanities and Social Sciences (2010=>)

Areas of Specialization:

Continental Philosophy
(Kant, Nietzsche, Phenomenology, Existentialism, Postmodern Philosophy)

Critical Perspectives on Rationality and Objectivity
(Dissertation: Intentionality, Science, and Technology:
Toward a Phenomenological Paradigm of Reason)

Areas of Competence:

Professional Ethics, Ethical Theory & Human Valuation
History of Ancient and Modern Philosophy
Philosophies of Mind, Knowledge, and Reality
Environmental Thought, Philosophy of Technology
Reading Seminars in the Humanities

Publications and Recent Presentations:

The Grateful Dead in Concert: Essays on Live Improvisation (ed., with Stan Spector). Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2010.

“’Pouring Its Light into Ashes’: Exploring the Multiplicity of Becoming in Grateful Dead Improvisation.” In The Grateful Dead in Concert: Essays on Live Improvisation. Edited by Tuedio, J. and Spector, S. (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2010), pp. 133-151.

"It All Rolls Into One: The Allure of Chaotic Synergy in Grateful Dead Improvisation and Musical Dialogue," Texas/Southwest Popular Culture/American Popular Culture Association Conference (Albuquerque: February 2010).

“Nothing to Hold (You Can’t Let Go): Embracing the Uncanny in Grateful Dead Songs of Home,” Dead Letters: Essays on the Grateful Dead Phenomenon (Vol. 4), Nicholas Meriwether (ed.) Dead Letters Press (Columbia SC: 2010), pp. 183-193.

“Ambiguities in the Locus of Home: Exilic Life and the Space of Belonging,” in Homes in Transformation: Dwelling, Moving, Belonging, ed. by Hanna Johansson and Kirsi Saarikangas (Finnish Literary Society, Helsinki: 2009).

“Pouring Its Light Into Ashes: Exploring the Theme of Becoming in Grateful Dead Musical Experience,” Texas/Southwest Popular Culture/American Popular Culture Association Conference (Albuquerque: February 2009)

“Wings To Fly: Love's Refrain in the Ideational Space of a Grateful Dead Soundscape,” Texas/Southwest Popular Culture Association/American Popular Culture Association Conference (Albuquerque: February 2008)

“Words Half Spoken and Thoughts Unclear: Synchronicity, Ambiguity, and Exposure To Excess In The Transvaluative Dynamic Of Grateful Dead Music,” Unbroken Chain Symposium (The Grateful Dead in Music, Culture and Memory) (National Symposium Conference, UMass Amherst: November 2007)

“Transversal Logic in Philosophical Practice: Pathways to Possibilities, Inroads to Home,” 2nd ASPCP International Conference for Philosophical Practice (Chicago: May 2007)

Book Review: D. E. Polkinghorne, Practice and the Human Sciences:
The Case for a Judgment-Based Practice of Care (SUNY 2004):
Philosophical Practice, Nov. 2006 2(03)

“All Ears, All Body: The Strange Attraction in Nonlinear Musical Embodiment,” Texas/Southwest Popular Culture Association/American Popular Culture Association Joint National Conference (Albuquerque: February 2007)

“Community Through Excess: Bataille’s Festival of Rapture and Deadhead Concert Experience,” Dead Letters, Vol. III: Essays on the Grateful Dead Phenomenon, Nicholas Meriwether (ed.) Dead Letters Press (Columbia SC: 2006), 59-69.

“Judgment and Openness as Strategic Limits on Inquiry: Calibrating Attunement in Philosophical Practice,” American Philosophical Association/Pacific Division Meeting (ASPCP Session): Portland OR (March 2006).

Book Review: H. G. Frankfurt, On Bullshit (Princeton: 2005):
Philosophical Practice, March 2006 2(1), 57-60

“Boundaries in Translation at the Margins of Liminal Excess: Calibrating the Voice of Empire to the Ear of Resistance,” Empire Conference (CSU Stanislaus: March 2006); published in: Margins (CSU Stanislaus Honors Program Journal: May 2006), 61-65

“And Then Flew On: Improvisational Moments of Rhizomatic Assemblage in Grateful Dead Musical Experience,” Texas/Southwest Popular Culture Association/American Popular Culture Association Joint National Conference (Albuquerque: February 2006)

“Normalization, Exclusion and Excess: Constructing Community in Grateful Dead Space,” Texas/Southwest Popular Culture Association/American Popular Culture Association Joint National Conference (Albuquerque: February 2005)

“A Postmodern Basis for Narrative Realism in Philosophical Counseling,”
International Journal of Philosophical Practice, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Spring 2004), 32-75.

“Death of a Virtue Salesman: The Philosophical Counselor as Personal Redeemer,” Pratiche Filosofiche 2/1 (April 2004), 71-77.

“Morti Di Un Venditore Di Virtu: Il Consultente Filosofico Come Redentore Personale,” Pratiche Filosofiche 2(1) (April 2004), 77-85.

“Nothing to Hold (You Can’t Let Go): Embracing the Uncanny in Grateful Dead Songs of Home,” American Pop Culture Association (San Antonio TX: April 2004)

“Assessing the Promise of Philosophical Counseling: Questions and Challenges for an Emerging Profession,” International Journal of Philosophical Practice 1/4 (2003), 30-41.

“The Grateful Dead Parallax: Toward a Phenomenological Reading of the Grateful Dead Concert Experience,” in: Dead Letters, Vol. II: Essays on the Grateful Dead Phenomenon, Nicholas Meriwether (ed.) Dead Letters Press (Columbia SC: 2003), 29-38.

“Thinking About Home: An Opening for Discovery in Philosophical Practice,” in
Philosophy in Society, H. Herrestad, A. Holt and H. Svare (eds.) Unipub Forlag
(Oslo, Norway: 2002), 210-215. Also presented at 6th International Conference on Philosophical Practice (Oslo, Norway: July 2001)

“The Search for Home as a Postmodern Philosophical Exercise,” Inaugural Address, ASPCP Annual Meeting @ Eastern Division APA Meeting (New York: Dec. 2000)

“The Philosophical Counselor as Personal Redeemer: Death of a Virtue Salesman,” Plenary Lecture, 4th International Conference on Philosophical Practice (Cologne, Germany: August 1998)

"Philosophical Counseling as a Window on the Abstract Realities of Everyday Life," 3rd International Conference on Philosophical Practice (New York: July 1997)

"Postmodern Perspectives in Philosophical Practice:
Reconstructing Life-Narratives on the Frontiers of Human Development," in:
Perspectives in Philosophical Practice, Wim van der Vlist (ed.)
Vereniging voor Filosofische Praktijk (Groningen, Holland: 1997)

Critical Study: Kockelmans, Phenomenological Psychology: The Dutch School (Nijhoff, 1988): Husserl Studies 7 (1990), 213-23

Perspectives on Mind (w/Herbert R. Otto), Synthese Library 194
D. Reidel: Dordrecht, Holland (1988) Reviewed in Husserl Studies 6 (1989)
Perspectives on Mind (Google Books)

"Intentional Transaction as a Primary Structure of Mind," in Perspectives
on Mind, w/commentaries by William McKenna and Steve Fuller (183-216)

“Cognitive Motility and Common Sense Understanding,” American Philosophical Association/Pacific Division Meeting: Berkeley CA (March 1989)

"The Source and Nature of Edmund Husserl's Transcendental Turn,"
Philosophy Today 30 (1986), 192-209

"Merleau-Ponty's Refinement of Husserl," Philosophy Today 29 (1985), 99-109

"Merleau-Ponty's Rejection of the Husserlian Ideal of a Rigorous Science,"
Philosophy Today 25 (1981), 204-209

"Notes on the Methodology of Scientific Research," Auslegung 7 (1980), 208-22
"Ideas and Experience," Auslegung 6 (1979), 196-205

"Sartre's Phenomenology of Lived Immediacy," Kinesis 9 (1979), 72-87

"The Engagement of Lived Immediacy: A Phenomenological Uncovering
of the Field of Human Freedom," Auslegung 6 (1979), 97-113

"Phenomenological Excavation: Searching for the Irreducible Ground
of Conscious Experience," Auslegung 4 (1977), 199-208

University Service:

Director, University Honors Program (2000-2010)

Department Chair
(Philosophy Department: 1990-2010; Modern Languages 2004-2010)
Dean's Advisory Council, College of ALS (1996-2007); HSS Chairs Council (2007-2010)
Core Planning Committee, College of ALS (1998-2004); College of HSS (chair, 2008-2010)
Department RPT Committee (Chair, 1993-96, 1997-2003, 2007-2009)
Tenure-Track Search Committee (Chair, 9 searches: 1991-2002, 2007)
Steering Committee Design Team for Cognitive Studies BA Program (1987-91, 2000-01)
Authored Philosophy Department's Academic Program Review (1995-96, 2000-01, 2008-09)

Speaker of the Faculty
(1996-97; re-elected 1998-99--resigned to become Interim Associate Dean)
Authored working draft of Evaluative Criteria for Faculty PSI Policy (1996-97)
Authored working draft of University Mission Statement (Chair: 1994-96)
Authored Teaching Evaluation Task Force Report (Chair: 1996-97)
Organized Faculty Team for CSU Academic Conference on "Cornerstones Initiative
and the Future of the Baccalaureate" (Monterey, January 1996)
President's University Budget Priorities and Assessment Committee (1994-5, 1996-97)
Provost's Council (appointed: 1996-98)
AAHE Summer Academy (1998: University Assessment Project; 1999: University Honors Program)

Senate Executive Committee (elected: for 1985-86, 1994-98)
Presiding Chair, Academic Senate/SEC: 1996-97)
Speaker-elect of the Faculty and Vice-chair of Senate/SEC (1995-96 and 1997-98)
Faculty Budget Advisory Committee (Presiding Chair: 1994-95)

Provost's Master Academic Planning Committee (Chair: 1997-2000)
Facilitated Development of a University Master Academic Plan (wrote MAP Report)

University Strategic Planning Commission (1995-99)
Steering Committee 1996-97 (University's first Strategic Planning Framework)
Chair, Steering Committee January 1999 (facilitator for comprehensive Strategic Plan)

President's Tactical Innovation Committee (1992-94)
Comprehensive study of the University's administrative structure, with
Budget Crisis Report and Recommendations to President and Senate (TIC Report)

University Administration Search Committees (1987-88, 1995-96, 2006-2010)
Search for Associate Vice-President for Academic Affairs (1987-88)
Search for Dean, College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences (1995-96)
Advisory Committee re: Appointment of Interim Provost (Spring 2002)
Search for Director of Financial Aid (Spring 2006; Spring 2008)
Search for Founding Dean, College of Humanities and Social Sciences (Spring 2007)
Search for Associate Vice-President of Enrollment Services (Summer 2007)
Search for Provost/VP Academic Affairs (Chair, Spring 2010)

Honors Program Curriculum Development Coordinator (1999-2000)
Coordinated development of University Honors Program for implementation in Fall 2000

Department-level Committee Service

Academic Senator (Philosophy Department representative: 1990-1999, 2006-2010)

Liberal Studies Steering and Advisory Committees (1996-2010)

Interdisciplinary Studies MA/MS Steering Committee (2005-2010)

Chair, Liberal Studies RPT Committee (2005-2007)

Cognitive Studies Steering Committee (1990-2007)

Assumed Chair’s responsibilities for Modern Languages programs in Fall 2004

Co-Director of Conference on “Normalization, Exclusion, Excess” (Alphonso Lingis, Charles Scott and other nationally known philosophers), CSU Stanislaus (Oct. 2005)

Co-Director of Conference on “Visual Intelligence and the Sense of Art” (Edward Casey, David Wood, Irene Klaver, and others), CSU Stanislaus (Nov. 2006)

Professional Service:

Assistant Editor, Auslegung: A Journal of Philosophy (1978-2007)
(editorial review of submissions, primarily in Continental philosophy)

President (2001) and Executive Board Member (1998-2006)
American Society for Philosophy, Counseling and Psychotherapy (ASPCP)
Program Chair for Pacific Division APA/ASPCP Meetings

National Advisory Board, American Philosophical Practitioners Association (APPA)

Editorial Board, International Journal of Philosophical Practice (Journal of ASPCP)

Editorial Board, Philosophical Practice (Journal of APPA)

Co-Director of International Conference on Philosophical Practice
(Co-sponsored by ASPCP and Albert Ellis Foundation: Chicago, May 2007)

External Reviewer for Academic Programs:
CSU Northridge Philosophy Program (June 1997 and May 2004)
Southern Connecticut State University Philosophy Program (April 2002)

Philosophical Counseling Papers:

Philosophical Counseling as a Window on the Abstract Realities of Everyday Life

Death of a Virtue Salesman: The Philosophical Counselor as Personal Redeemer

References for Death of a Virtue Salesman Paper.pdf

A Postmodern Basis for Narrative Realism in Philosophical Counseling.pdf

Thinking About Home: An Opening for Discovery in Philosophical Practice.pdf

Assessing the Promise of Philosophical Counseling:
Questions and Challenges for an Emerging Profession.pdf

Book Review: On Bullshit.pdf

Judgment and Openness as Strategic Limits on Inquiry:
Calibrating Attunement in Philosophical Practice.pdf

Book Review: Practice and the Human Sciences:
The Case for a Judgment-based Practice of Care.pdf

Philosophy Papers:

Ambiguities in the Locus of Home: Exilic Life and the Space of Belonging.pdf