Lehigh University Department of Philosophy

Gordon C.F. Bearn, Ph.D. (Yale University) CV (pdf format) Selfridge Professor and Director of the Lehigh University Humanities Center
Professor Bearn's interest focuses on whether the philosophers in our century who despise the science centering of life and thought (Wittgenstein, Heidegger) as well as those who welcome this trend (Russell, Carnap, Quinc, Churchland) might not both be muddled. Both presuppose the existence of a clean cut between philosophy and science and simply choose to be on different teams. But the late work of the likes of Derrida, Foucault and Deleuze inspires the thought that there can be no clean cut of the sort required by both teams. This touches none of the substance of the laboratory life that naturalizes love, but makes the ideological defence of either the laboratory or the library indefensible. Where does this leave us? Well yes, precisely, where does this leave us?

Mark H. Bickhard, Ph.D. (University of Chicago) CV (pdf format) Henry R. Luce Professor in Cognitive Robotics & the Philosophy of Knowledge
Dr. Bickhard's extensive interest include the Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Science and Epistemology. Please visit his personal website for further information

Robin S. Dillon, Ph.D. (University of Pittsburgh) CV (pdf format) Associate Professor
Professor Dillon's academic interests are in ethics and feminist philosophy. Her research focuses on self-respect, seeking to understand what it is, why it matters morally whether and how we respect ourselves, and what the connections are between self-respect and respect for and from other people. She works in the intersection of virtue ethics, moral psychology, political philosophy, and feminist ethics, and looks to Kant and Aristotle for insight and inspiration. She regularly teaches a first-year seminar on self-respect, as well as various courses in ethics (ethical theory, contemporary ethics, bioethics, global ethics) and in social and political philosophy. In addition, she teaches a course on feminist theory which is cross-listed with the Women's Studies Program, with which she has been involved for many years, including seven as Program Director.

Steven L. Goldman, Ph.D. (Boston University) CV (pdf format) Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Professor in the Humanities
Professor Goldman's teaching and research both center on the relationships among science, technology and society - that is, among ideas, machines and values - in modern Western culture. He has a joint appointment in the History and Philosophy departments, and teaches courses in the history of science as well as the philosophy of science. In addition, he teaches courses in Lehigh's Science, Technology and Society Program, which he served as director of for eleven years.

Michael Mendelson Ph.D. (University of California, San Diego) Associate Professor
In so far as taxonomy matters, it can be said that Professor Mendelson has strong interests in ancient, medieval, and modern philosophy, combined with a more than passing interest in eastern philosophy and a recurrent obsession with the endeavor that goes under the dubious rubric of "metaphilosophy" (a bit of taxonomy of which he is even less fond than usual). In both his research and teaching, he attempts to examine various forms of existential and theoretical confidence often presupposed by both our pre-reflective intuitions and the philosophical reflection that arises out of these intuitions. In particular, he is interested in exploiting the philosophically neglected resources of "the gothic," both in its quasi-canonical 18th & 19th century incarnations and its even less respectable if more enduring sub-canonical manifestations, as a prism through which these various forms of confidence can be viewed and subjected to reflective examination.

Gregory M. Reihman, Ph.D. (University of Texas at Austin) CV (pdf format) Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, Director of Faculty Development, co-Director of the Lehigh Lab
Professor Reihman's teaching and research interests include the history of modern philosophy, classical Chinese philosophy, comparative philosophy, and philosophies of technology and education. On any given day, these interests might lead him to investigations into how Western philosophers have interpreted Eastern philosophy, into how modern philosophers critiqued and built on the works of their predecessors, into how technologies shape our view of what counts as real, or into how university teachers can best help students learn. You can view Professor Reihman's personal home page Lehigh's Faculty Development Lehigh Lab

Roslyn Weiss, Ph.D. (Columbia University) CV (pdf format) Clara H. Stewardson Professor and Chair
Professor Weiss' research interests lie in ancient Greek philosophy, primarily Plato, and in medieval philosophy, primarily Maimonides. Her interest is in the difference between the Greek, or "philosophical", way of trying to understand the world on the one hand, and the way faith approaches the world on the other. she is also interested in the different approach to morality taken by reason as compared with that taken by faith.

Aladdin Yaqub, Ph.D. (University of Wisconsin-Madison) CV (pdf format) Associate Professor
Professor Yaqub's primary areas of research are logic, philosophy of mathematics, and philosophy of science; but he is also interested in the core areas of analytic philosophy and its history, as well as in Islamic philosophy. The general question that defines his work is what the properties and relations exhibited by various components of a field imply about the metaphysics of the subject matter of that field. For example, many different areas of mathematics have common applications to each other. What does this relation of internal applicability tell us about the status of the entities postulated by theses areas? If we suppose, for example, that these entities are mental constructs, how do we explain such a relation? (After all, works of fiction by different authors are seldom "applicable" to each other.) Could we say that these entities have being? And if they do exist as abstract objects, why do many of them have exemplifications in the physical world?

Donna Wagner. Department Coordinator

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		Gordon C.F. Bearn, Ph.D. (Yale University) CV (pdf format) Selfridge Professor and Director of the Lehigh University Humanities Center Professor Bearn's interest focuses on whether the philosophers in our century who despise the science centering of life and thought (Wittgenstein, Heidegger) as well as those who welcome this trend (Russell, Carnap, Quinc, Churchland) might not both be muddled. Both presuppose the existence of a clean cut between philosophy and science and simply choose to be on different teams. But the late work of the likes of Derrida, Foucault and Deleuze inspires the thought that there can be no clean cut of the sort required by both teams. This touches none of the substance of the laboratory life that naturalizes love, but makes the ideological defence of either the laboratory or the library indefensible. Where does this leave us? Well yes, precisely, where does this leave us?

		Mark H. Bickhard, Ph.D. (University of Chicago) CV (pdf format) Henry R. Luce Professor in Cognitive Robotics & the Philosophy of Knowledge Dr. Bickhard's extensive interest include the Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Science and Epistemology. Please visit his personal website for further information

		Robin S. Dillon, Ph.D. (University of Pittsburgh) CV (pdf format) Associate Professor Professor Dillon's academic interests are in ethics and feminist philosophy. Her research focuses on self-respect, seeking to understand what it is, why it matters morally whether and how we respect ourselves, and what the connections are between self-respect and respect for and from other people. She works in the intersection of virtue ethics, moral psychology, political philosophy, and feminist ethics, and looks to Kant and Aristotle for insight and inspiration. She regularly teaches a first-year seminar on self-respect, as well as various courses in ethics (ethical theory, contemporary ethics, bioethics, global ethics) and in social and political philosophy. In addition, she teaches a course on feminist theory which is cross-listed with the Women's Studies Program, with which she has been involved for many years, including seven as Program Director.

		Steven L. Goldman, Ph.D. (Boston University) CV (pdf format) Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Professor in the Humanities Professor Goldman's teaching and research both center on the relationships among science, technology and society - that is, among ideas, machines and values - in modern Western culture. He has a joint appointment in the History and Philosophy departments, and teaches courses in the history of science as well as the philosophy of science. In addition, he teaches courses in Lehigh's Science, Technology and Society Program, which he served as director of for eleven years.

		Michael Mendelson Ph.D. (University of California, San Diego) Associate Professor In so far as taxonomy matters, it can be said that Professor Mendelson has strong interests in ancient, medieval, and modern philosophy, combined with a more than passing interest in eastern philosophy and a recurrent obsession with the endeavor that goes under the dubious rubric of "metaphilosophy" (a bit of taxonomy of which he is even less fond than usual). In both his research and teaching, he attempts to examine various forms of existential and theoretical confidence often presupposed by both our pre-reflective intuitions and the philosophical reflection that arises out of these intuitions. In particular, he is interested in exploiting the philosophically neglected resources of "the gothic," both in its quasi-canonical 18th & 19th century incarnations and its even less respectable if more enduring sub-canonical manifestations, as a prism through which these various forms of confidence can be viewed and subjected to reflective examination.

		Gregory M. Reihman, Ph.D. (University of Texas at Austin) CV (pdf format) Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, Director of Faculty Development, co-Director of the Lehigh Lab Professor Reihman's teaching and research interests include the history of modern philosophy, classical Chinese philosophy, comparative philosophy, and philosophies of technology and education. On any given day, these interests might lead him to investigations into how Western philosophers have interpreted Eastern philosophy, into how modern philosophers critiqued and built on the works of their predecessors, into how technologies shape our view of what counts as real, or into how university teachers can best help students learn. You can view Professor Reihman's personal home page Lehigh's Faculty Development Lehigh Lab

		Roslyn Weiss, Ph.D. (Columbia University) CV (pdf format) Clara H. Stewardson Professor and Chair Professor Weiss' research interests lie in ancient Greek philosophy, primarily Plato, and in medieval philosophy, primarily Maimonides. Her interest is in the difference between the Greek, or "philosophical", way of trying to understand the world on the one hand, and the way faith approaches the world on the other. she is also interested in the different approach to morality taken by reason as compared with that taken by faith.

		Aladdin Yaqub, Ph.D. (University of Wisconsin-Madison) CV (pdf format) Associate Professor Professor Yaqub's primary areas of research are logic, philosophy of mathematics, and philosophy of science; but he is also interested in the core areas of analytic philosophy and its history, as well as in Islamic philosophy. The general question that defines his work is what the properties and relations exhibited by various components of a field imply about the metaphysics of the subject matter of that field. For example, many different areas of mathematics have common applications to each other. What does this relation of internal applicability tell us about the status of the entities postulated by theses areas? If we suppose, for example, that these entities are mental constructs, how do we explain such a relation? (After all, works of fiction by different authors are seldom "applicable" to each other.) Could we say that these entities have being? And if they do exist as abstract objects, why do many of them have exemplifications in the physical world?

		Donna Wagner. Department Coordinator