Welcome...

Hi and thank you for navigating to my site. I teach online and on-the-ground philosophy courses at Southwestern College near my current home in Southern California. I've also recently been hired as a member of the MiraCosta College Associate Faculty. I love philosophy and, consequently, try to push it on anyone who will listen, including my students. Of course, this "pushing" is a complex process. I generally subscribe to the notion that there are multiple intelligences, hence I vary my teaching methods as much as I can to reach as many students as I can.

Like many, my research interests change depending on what day of the week you ask me. But there are a few topics that continue to spark my interest: philosophy of art, eastern thought, pop-culture and philosophy, games and philosophy. I am especially interested in this last topic since games are sometimes thought to be frivolous activities unworthy of philosophical attention. But games of all kinds—from board to video—embody rich areas of human innovation, to say the least. Turning a philosophical eye to games has the potential to uncover more interesting aspects of human nature than one might first imagine.

For proof of these last claims, check out my book this coming November (2008) from Open Court Publishing. It is an edited collection of essays on the prolific Legend of Zelda video game franchise.

Publisher's Website Listing

Amazon Listing

For my latest response (in blog form) to the reception on the net so far of the Zelda book, Click Here

For a link to my current Philosophy 101 Online Course, Click Here (In Progess)

Quote of the Month (Year?):

"It could be that in the next hundred years mankind will thread the needles of technology and politics, solve the energy and materials crisis, avert nuclear war, and control reproduction... But what then?" E.O. Wilson, On Human Nature