RICK ANTHONY FURTAK
Colorado College
Department of Philosophy 14 E. Cache La Poudre St.
Colo. Springs, CO 80903 rfurtak@coloradocollege.edu
department office: 719-389-6636
mobile phone: 720-384-5722
University of Chicago, 1997-2003. PhD in Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, June 2003.
Boston University, 1992-1996. BA in Philosophy and English, summa cum laude, September 1996.
AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION
Philosophy of Emotion; Kierkegaard and Continental Philosophy; Philosophy and Literature
Ancient Greek Philosophy; Philosophy of Mind; American Philosophy; Philosophy of Religion; Phenomenology; Epistemology; Ethics and Value Theory
Associate Professor, Colorado College, since 2010 (Department Chair, 2012-2016).
Research Associate, Colgate University, Department of Philosophy, Spring 2017.
Assistant Professor, Colorado College, Fall 2004 – Spring 2010.
Visiting Assistant Professor, Deep Springs College, Summer 2004.
Visiting Instructor, Colorado College, Spring 2003 – Spring 2004.
Lecturer, University of Chicago, Fall 2001 & Spring 2002.
Instructor, University of Chicago, Fall 2000 & Spring 2001.
NEWEST BOOK:
Love, Subjectivity, and Truth: Existential Themes in Proust (New York: Oxford University Press, 2023).
OTHER BOOKS:
Wisdom in Love: Kierkegaard and the Ancient Quest for Emotional Integrity (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2005). Paperback edition also published in 2005. Kierkegaard’s ‘Concluding Unscientific Postscript’: A Critical Guide, edited volume (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010). Paperback edition published in 2012.
Thoreau’s Importance for Philosophy, co-edited with Jonathan Ellsworth and James D.
Reid (New York: Fordham University Press, 2012).
Knowing Emotions: Truthfulness and Recognition in Affective Experience (New York:
Oxford University Press, 2018). Paperback edition published in 2020.
The Sonnets of Rainer Maria Rilke (South Bend, IN: St. Augustine’s Press, 2022).
PHILOSOPHICAL ARTICLES, ESSAYS, & CHAPTERS:
“Poetics of Sentimentality,” Philosophy and Literature 26 (2002): 207-215.
“Thoreau’s Emotional Stoicism,” Journal of Speculative Philosophy 17 (2003): 122-132. “The Virtues of Authenticity: A Kierkegaardian Essay in Moral Psychology,” International Philosophical Quarterly 43 (2003): 423-438.
“Believing in Time: Rethinking Faith and History in Philosophical Fragments, Works of Love, and Repetition,” Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook 9 (2004): 100-116.
“Estrangement and Moral Agency,” Philosophy in the Contemporary World 11.2 (2004): 37-44. “‘I Used to Care, But Things Have Changed’: Passion and the Absurd in Dylan’s Later Work,” in Bob Dylan and Philosophy, edited by Peter Vernezze (Chicago: Open Court, 2006), 16-28.
“Introduction” to The Birth of Tragedy by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. by William A. Haussmann (New York, NY: Barnes & Noble, 2006), vii-xiii.
“Kierkegaard and the Passions of Hellenistic Philosophy,” Kierkegaardiana 24 (2007): 68-85.
“Skepticism and Perceptual Faith,” Transactions of the C. S. Peirce Society 43 (2007): 542-561. “Love and the Discipline of Philosophy,” in Ethics, Love, & Faith in Kierkegaard: Philosophical Engagements, edited by Edward F. Mooney (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2008), 59-71. “Marcus Aurelius: Kierkegaard’s Use and Abuse of the Stoic Emperor,” in Kierkegaard and the Roman World, edited by Jon Stewart (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2009), 69-74.
“Emotion, the Bodily, and the Cognitive,” Philosophical Explorations 13 (2010): 51-64. “The Kierkegaardian Ideal of ‘Essential Knowing’ and the Scandal of Modern Philosophy,” in Kierkegaard’s ‘Concluding Unscientific Postscript’: A Critical Guide, edited by Furtak (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 87-110.
“The Symposium: Kierkegaard and Platonic Eros,” in Kierkegaard and the Greek World, Vol. I: Socrates and Plato, edited by Jon Stewart and Katalin Nun (London: Ashgate, 2010), 105-114.
“The Stoics,” in Kierkegaard and the Greek World, Vol. II: Aristotle and Other Greek Authors, edited by Jon Stewart and Katalin Nun (London: Ashgate, 2010), 195-208.
“Ernest Becker: A Kierkegaardian Theorist of Death and Human Nature,” in Kierkegaard’s Influence on the Social Sciences, edited by Jon Stewart (London: Ashgate, 2011), 17-27.
“A Cure for Worry? Kierkegaardian Faith and the Insecurity of Human Existence,” co-authored with Sharon Krishek, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 72 (2012): 157-175.
“The Value of Being,” in Thoreau’s Importance for Philosophy, edited by Furtak, Ellsworth, and Reid (New York: Fordham University Press, 2012), 112-126; and “Walden Revisited: An Interview with Stanley Cavell,” also in Thoreau’s Importance for Philosophy, 223-237.
“Kierkegaard and Greek Philosophy,” in the Oxford Handbook on Kierkegaard, edited by George Pattison & John Lippitt (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 129-149.
“Love as a Relation to Truth: Envisioning the Person in Works of Love,” Kierkegaard Studies Yearbook 18 (2013): 217-241.
“Philosophy and Public Life; or, How I Got Dismissed from Jury Duty,” in The Road to Tenure, edited by Erin Marie Furtak & Ian Parker Renga (Plymouth, UK: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014), 131-137. “Martha C. Nussbaum’s Political Emotions,” contribution to book symposium, Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 13 (2014): 643-650.
“On Being Moved and Hearing Voices: Passion and Religious Experience in Fear and Trembling,” in Kierkegaard’s ‘Fear and Trembling’: A Critical Guide, ed. by Daniel Conway (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 142-165.
“Love as the Ultimate Ground of Practical Reason,” in Love, Reason, and Will, edited by John Davenport & Anthony Rudd (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015), 217-241.
“Introduction to Kierkegaard,” in The Nineteenth Century Philosophy Reader, ed. by Benjamin Crowe (London & New York: Routledge, 2016), 282-292.
“Examining (and Displaying) Bias in Interdisciplinary Research on Emotions,” Kodikas/Code 39 (2016): 19-27.
“The Heart of Knowledge: Kierkegaard on Passion and Understanding,” in Kierkegaard’s God and the Good Life, ed. by Stephen Minister, J. Aaron Simmons, & Michael Strawser (Bloomington, IN:
Indiana University Press, 2017), 114-129.
“The Time Is Out of Joint: On Social Ontology and Criticism in Kierkegaard and Heidegger,” coauthored with James D. Reid, in Kierkegaard and Political Theology, ed. by Roberto Sirvent and Silas Morgan (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2018), 141-162.
“Emotional Knowing: The Role of Embodied Feelings in Affective Cognition,” Philosophia 46 (2018): 575-587.
“On the Love of Nature,” in The Routledge Handbook of Love in Philosophy, ed. by Adrienne M. Martin (London: Routledge, 2019), 205-214.
“Love, Suffering, and Gratitude for Existence,” in Dostoevsky’s ‘Crime and Punishment’: Philosophical Perspectives, ed. by Robert Guay (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), 46-69.
“Rilke on Formally Disclosing the Meaning of Things,” in Rilke’s ‘Sonnets to Orpheus’: Philosophical and Critical Perspectives, ed. by Hannah Vandegrift Eldridge and Luke Fischer (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019), 73-101.
“Varieties of Existential Uncertainty,” in The Kierkegaardian Mind, ed. by Adam Buben, Eleanor Helms, & Patrick Stokes (New York: Routledge, 2019), 376-385.
“Why Affective Cognition Depends upon Embodied Feelings,” Sofia Philosophical Review 12 (2019): 99-118.
“Book Précis: Knowing Emotions”; and, “Replies to de Sousa, Beisecker, and Gallegos,” Journal of Philosophy of Emotion 1 (2019): 98-105 & 135-145.
“Just the Magnificence of Reality,” in ‘Dear Friend, You Must Change Your Life’: The Letters of Great Thinkers, edited by Ada Bronowski (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020), 127-131.
“Forms of Emotional Knowing and Unknowing: Skepticism and Belief in Dickinson’s Poetry,” in The Poetry of Emily Dickinson: Philosophical Perspectives, ed. by Elisabeth Camp (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021), 30-57.
“Loneliness, Love, and the Limits of Language,” co-authored with Ruth Rebecca Tietjen, Southern Journal of Philosophy 59 (2021): 435-459.
“Why Love Entails Suffering: Kierkegaard on the Logical Consequences of Needing God,” International Journal of Humanistic Ideology 11.2 (2021): 109-132.
“How the Body Is Involved in Moral and Cognitive Emotions,” in Political Emotions: Towards a Decent Public Sphere, ed. by Thom Brooks (Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), 59-79.
“The Experience of Possibility (and of Its Absence): The Metaphysics of Moods in Kierkegaard’s Phenomenological Psychology,” in Kierkegaard’s ‘The Sickness unto Death’: A Critical Guide, ed. by Jeffrey Hanson and Sharon Krishek (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022), 95-109.
“Emotion, Action, and Passivity,” Emotion Review 14 (2022): 261-264.
“Love, Subjectivity, and Truth in Proust,” Partial Answers: Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas 21 (2023): 53-70.
“Existential Melancholia: The Affective Psychology of the ‘Diapsalmata’,” co-authored with Ruth Rebecca Tietjen, in Kierkegaard’s ‘Either/Or’: A Critical Guide, ed. by Ryan Kemp and Walter Wietzke (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023), 8-24.
“Possibility, Meaning, and Truth,” in Kierkegaard and Possibility, ed. by Erin Plunkett (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023), 63-77.
“Henry David Thoreau,” in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online resource, most recently updated 2023).
FORTHCOMING:
“Nothingness and Love in Nietzsche and the Kyoto School,” in The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Existentialism, edited by Kevin Aho, Megan Altman, & Hans Pedersen (2024).
“Emotional Fatalism: Our Limited Control over Affective Feelings,” in Experiencing Agency in Feeling, ed. by Thomas Fuchs and Phillip Schmidt (2024).
The Existential Spirit of Ancient Greek Philosophy, under contract with Lexington Books (2025).
Repetition: Kierkegaard’s Poetic Novella, under contract with Mercer University Press (2025). Considering the Lilies and the Birds, co-edited with Frances Maughan-Brown, in progress.
BOOK REVIEWS:
Thoreau’s Living Ethics: Walden and the Pursuit of Virtue by Philip Cafaro, Thoreau Society Bulletin (Fall 2004): 5-6.
International Kierkegaard Commentary: Works of Love, edited by Robert L. Perkins, Kierkegaardiana 23 (2004): 222-225.
In Defense of Sentimentality by Robert Solomon, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (online resource), October 2005.
Three Faces of Desire by Timothy Schroeder, Review of Metaphysics 59 (2006): 680-682. The Philosophy of Kierkegaard by George Pattison, International Journal of Philosophical Studies 14 (2006): 282-285.
Freedom and Reason in Kant, Schelling, & Kierkegaard by Michelle Kosch, Søren Kierkegaard Newsletter 52 (2007): 34-35.
Kierkegaard: An Introduction by C. Stephen Evans, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (online resource), November 2009.
Joint review of Kierkegaard’s Mirrors by Patrick Stokes and Kierkegaard by C. Stephen Evans, Southwest Philosophy Review, 26.2 (2010): 119-123.
Literary Form, Philosophical Content: Historical Studies of Philosophical Genres, edited by Jonathan Lavery and Louis Groarke, Teaching Philosophy 34 (2011): 182-184.
Kierkegaard and Death, edited by Patrick Stokes & Adam J. Buben, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (online resource), July 2012.
Self, Value, and Narrative by Anthony Rudd, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (online resource), July 2013.
Excursions with Thoreau by Edward F. Mooney, Religion and Literature, 49 (2017): 227-229.
Wilderness in America by Henry Bugbee, Transactions of the C. S. Peirce Society 55 (2019):
347-350.
Doing Valuable Time by Cheshire Calhoun, Journal of Philosophy of Emotion 2 (2020): 51-55. Emotion: A Very Short Introduction by Dylan Evans, 2nd edition; review co-authored with Imke von Maur, Journal of Phenomenological Psychology 51 (2020): 122-127.
The World-Directedness of Emotional Feeling by Jean Moritz Müller, Review of Metaphysics 75 (2021): 391-392.
REVIEW ESSAYS:
“Help Yourself,” on The Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton, Bridge: Stories and Ideas 1.1 (2000): 75-80.
“Ancient Passion, Modern Abstraction,” on Kierkegaard’s Relations to Hegel Reconsidered by Jon Stewart, Papers of the Nineteenth Century Theology Group 35 (2004): 53-69.
LITERARY PUBLICATIONS:
Rilke’s ‘Sonnets to Orpheus’: A New English Version, With a Philosophical Introduction (Scranton, PA: University of Scranton Press, 2007).
As a Patient Thinks about the Desert: Poems on Illness, Mortality, and Healing (Austin, TX: Atmosphere Press, 2021).
One poem in The Edge City Review 6 (2002): 51.
“Poison Oak and the Meaning of Being,” a personal essay, Bridge: Stories and Ideas 2.1 (2002):
157-161.
“My Own Desert Places,” a poem in The Peralta Press 2 (2003): 34.
One poem in Neovictorian/Cochlea 8 (2004): 15.
Two poems in Abiko Annual with James Joyce ‘Finnegans Wake’ Studies 24 (2004): 320-321.
“Vertigo,” a poem in Candelabrum Poetry Magazine 11.6 (2004): 38.
“Sonnets to Orpheus 1.02,” translation of a poem by R. M. Rilke, Janus Head 7 (2004): 332.
One poem in Poetry Depth Quarterly (Oct/Nov/Dec 2004): 18.
Two poems, including one Rilke translation, Illuminations 23 (2007): 16-17.
“Sonnets to Orpheus 1.05,” translation of a poem by Rilke, Blue Unicorn 31.2 (2008): 10.
“The Empty Farm,” translation of a poem by Manuel José Othón, The Lyric 90 (2010): 121.
Three poems in Desert Voices 8 (2010): 21-23.
One poem in Southern Indiana Review 17.2 (2010): 11.
“How the Flesh Protects Itself,” a poem in JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association 313 (2015): 2083.
“Inpatient Awaits,” a poem in Raintown Review 13 (2015): 79.
“Out of the Valley of Death,” a poem in Illuminations 30 (2015): 134.
“In Limbo,” a poem in Chest Journal 148 (2015): 571.
“Toward Hope,” a poem in Healing Muse 16 (2016): 82.
“Zabriskie Point,” a poem in Illuminations 33 (2018): 59-60.
“After the Agony in Stony Places,” a poem in Red Rock Review 46 (2021): 79.
Two poems in Poem 129 (2023): 10-11.
One poem in California Quarterly 43.3 (2023): 19.
OTHER SCHOLARLY WORK:
“Name Index” and “Subject Index” to Upheavals of Thought: The Intelligence of Emotions by Martha C. Nussbaum (Cambridge University Press, 2001).
“Index Locorum” to The Sleep of Reason: Erotic Experience and Sexual Ethics in Ancient Greece and Rome, edited by Martha C. Nussbaum and Juha Sihvola (University of Chicago Press, 2002). “Index” to Radical Interpretation in Religion, edited by Nancy K. Frankenberry (Cambridge University Press, 2002).
Co-Editor (with Laura Candiotto) of Special Issue of Philosophies, on Moral Psychology of the Emotions, forthcoming 2024.
‘Elements’ Series Editor, The Philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard, Cambridge University Press
Book Series Co-Editor (with James D. Reid), Bloomsbury Studies in Philosophy and Poetry
Advisory Board Member: New Kierkegaard Research, Lexington Books
Editorial Board Member: Journal of Philosophy of Emotion
Editorial Board Member: Frontiers in Psychology (Lausanne, Switzerland)
“Kierkegaard, Selfhood, and Romantic Love,” Panel Contribution, Søren Kierkegaard Society, 97th Annual APA Pacific Division Meeting (San Francisco, CA), April 2023. “The Work and Career of C. Stephen Evans,” Interviewer, Kierkegaard Group Banquet, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting (Denver, CO), November 2022.
“The Experience of Possibility and of Its Absence,” Invited Lecture, Centre for Ethics, University of Pardubice, Czech Republic, September 2022.
“Feelings of Being Overwhelmed as Sources of Insight into Value,” Apprehending Value Conference, Protestant Theological University (Utrecht, NED), September 2022.
“Kierkegaard on the Experience of Possibility,” Invited Talk, Institute for Philosophy, Leiden University (Leiden, NED), September 2022.
“On Possibility and Significance,” Research Seminar (online), University of Copenhagen, September 2022.
“Feelings of Being Overwhelmed as Sources of Axiological Insight,” Feeling Towards: The Unity of Phenomenology and Intentionality in Emotion (online conference), July 2022. “On the Love of Nature,” European-American Online Workshop in Philosophy of Emotions, December 2021.
“Why Love Is Edifying,” Kierkegaard and Love Workshop (online), Human Flourishing Program, Harvard University, November 2021.
3-day Intensive Seminar devoted to my work, Centre for Ethics, University of Pardubice, Czech Republic, August 2021.
“Love of the Individual,” Invited Talk, Summer Virtual Lecture Series, Hong
Kierkegaard Library, St. Olaf College, July 2021.
“Loneliness, Love, and the Limits of Language,” with Ruth Rebecca Tietjen, Conference: Loneliness in Philosophy and Psychology (online), July 2021.
Commentary on Jean Moritz Müller’s The World-Directedness of Emotional Feeling, Online Workshop: Position-Taking and the Intentionality of Emotional Feeling, University of Würzberg, July 2021.
“Love and Subjectivity in the Philosophical Novel”; and, with Ruth Rebecca Tietjen, “Loneliness, Love, and the Limits of Language,” 8th Annual Conference (online), European Philosophical Society for the Study of Emotions, June 2021.
“Love, Subjectivity, and Truth in Proust,” Invited Paper, 95th Annual APA Pacific Division Meeting (online), April 2021.
“Proust on Overwhelming Grief,” European-American Online Workshop in Philosophy of Emotions, June 2020.
“Forms of Emotional Knowing and Unknowing: Skepticism and Belief in Dickinson’s Poetry,” 117th Annual APA Central Division Meeting (Chicago, IL), February 2020.
“Attunement and Perspectival Truth,” Departmental Colloquium Series, University of Colorado (Denver, CO), September 2019.
“Despair and the Phenomenology of Possibility,” Opening Address, Conference on Living in Uncertainty: Kierkegaard and Possibility, School of Advanced Study, University of London (London, UK), September 2019.
Panelist, “Taking the Measure of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure,” Theatreworks: Shakespeare at the Ranch (Colorado Springs, CO), July 2019.
“The Truth-Disclosing Function of Moods,” 6th Annual Conference, European
Philosophical Society for the Study of Emotions (Pisa, Italy), June 2019.
“Attunement and Perspectival Truth: Reflections in Existential Phenomenology,” 10th Annual Southwest Seminar in Continental Philosophy (Salt Lake City, UT), May 2019.
Précis of Knowing Emotions and Response to Commentators, Author-Meets-Critics Session, Society for Philosophy of Emotion, 116th Annual APA Central Division Meeting (Denver, CO), February 2019.
Panelist, “Martha Nussbaum on Political Emotions,” Denver Project for Humanistic Inquiry (Denver, CO), September 2018.
“Emotional Knowing: How Feelings Can Reveal the World,” Invited Talk, Department of Philosophy, University of Colorado (Boulder, CO), September 2018.
“On the Uncertainty of Human Existence,” Invited Talk, Saint Olaf College, Hong Kierkegaard Library (Northfield, MN), September 2018.
Commentary on a paper by Christopher A. Bobier, 115th Annual APA Central Division Meeting (Chicago, IL), February 2018.
Panelist, “Ambition and Guilt in Shakespeare’s Macbeth,” Denver Project for Humanistic Inquiry (Denver, CO), September 2017.
“Speaking about the Uncertainty and Difficulty of Human Existence,” Conference on Kierkegaard, Existence, and Communication, University of Copenhagen (Copenhagen, DK), August 2017.
“Can Moods Reveal Aspects of the Truth?,” ISRE 2017 Conference, International Society for Research on Emotion (Saint Louis, MO), July 2017.
“The Reasons of the Heart,” 7th Annual Southwest Seminar in Continental Philosophy (College Station, TX), May 2016.
“The Role of Embodied Feelings in Affective Cognition: Why Those Who are Frightened Don’t Know That There’s Nothing to Fear,” Invited Guest Lecture, Colloquium Series, Department of Philosophy, University of Haifa (Haifa, Israel), January 2016.
“Affective Revelation in Fear and Trembling,” Keynote Address, Annual SKS Banquet at the AAR, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting (Atlanta, GA), November 2015. “Passionate Conviction and the Limits of Knowledge,” Invited Colloquium, Philosophy Department, Northern Arizona University (Flagstaff, AZ), October 2015.
Comments in response to Sergia Hay and Thomas Miles, Søren Kierkegaard Society Group Session, 89th Annual APA Pacific Division Meeting (Vancouver, BC), April 2015. Panelist at a memorial conference for Ted Cohen, Metropolitan State University of Denver (Denver, CO), June 2014.
“Love, Care, and Concern as Aspects of the Affective Background,” 5th Annual Southwest Seminar in Continental Philosophy (Colorado Springs, CO), June 2014.
“Henry David Thoreau and the Boundaries of Philosophy,” Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy, 41st Annual Meeting (Denver, CO), March 2014.
Comments in response to Michael Strawser, Richard McCombs, and Jeffrey Hanson, in a session on “Fear and Trembling after 170 Years,” 110th Annual APA Eastern Division Meeting (Baltimore, MD), December 2013.
“American Philosophy before Pragmatism: Emerson and Thoreau,” response to Russell Goodman, Lecture Series, University of Colorado (Denver, CO), September 2013.
“Questioning the Emotional ‘Low Road’: The Invisible Debate Between LeDoux and Rolls,” ISRE 2013 Conference, International Society for Research on Emotion (Berkeley, CA), August 2013.
“Thoreau and Philosophy: Response to Finley, McMurray, and Tauber,” presented in absentia, co-authored with James Reid, American Literature Association, Annual Conference (Boston, MA), May 2013.
“Heidegger and Kierkegaard: the Ontic and the Ontological,” co-authored with James Reid, 4th Annual Southwest Seminar in Continental Philosophy (College Station, TX), May 2013.
“Finding Beauty in Nature; and, Finding Good in Human Beings,” Invited Guest Lecture, Philosophy Department, California Polytechnic State University (San Luis Obispo, CA), April 2013.
“Poetics and Method: Varieties of Literary Style and ‘Argument’ in Kierkegaard’s Writings,” American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting (Chicago, IL), November 2012.
“Knowing Emotions: Why Affective Cognition Depends Upon Embodied Feelings,” International Society for Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences meeting, Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, 51st Annual Conference (Rochester, NY), November 2012.
“The Insights of Love: Kierkegaard on Passion and Truthfulness,” Opening Keynote Address, International Conference: Kierkegaard on Love and the Passions, University of Copenhagen (Copenhagen, DK), August 2012.
“We Philosophers,” Commencement Address, Boston University Philosophy Department graduation ceremony (Boston, MA), May 2012.
“Examples of Socratic Faith,” American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, panel on Kierkegaard and the Work of Edward Mooney (San Francisco, CA), November 2011.
“Faith and Doubt: Exemplars and Illustrations,” Invited Lecture, Kierkegaard Circle, Trinity College, University of Toronto (Toronto, ON), October 2011.
“The Rationality of Emotions and the Reasons of the Heart,” Conference on ‘Self Among Selves: Emotion and the Common Life,’ Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY), September 2011.
“The ‘Existential’ Spirit of Greek Philosophy: Kierkegaardian Observations,” 2nd Annual Southwest Seminar in Continental Philosophy, University of Denver (Denver, CO), May 2011.
“Love and the Meaning of Life,” Presentation for Students, Sponsored by SOSS at Colorado College (Colorado Springs, CO), December 2010.
“Apprehensive Feeling: Emotional Knowing as a Mode of Embodied Cognition,” Invited Guest Lecture, Department of Philosophy, Ryerson University (Toronto, ON), October 2010.
“Passion, Subjectivity, and Truth: A New Approach to Some Familiar Themes in Kierkegaard’s Writings,” 6th International Kierkegaard Conference, Saint Olaf College (Northfield, MN), June 2010.
Response to Patrick Stokes, “Kierkegaard and Personal Identity,” 6th International Kierkegaard Conference (Northfield, MN), June 2010.
“Kierkegaard’s Postscript and the Scandal of Modern Philosophy,” 1st Annual Southwest Seminar in Continental Philosophy, University of New Mexico (Albuquerque, NM), May 2010. “Emotion, Intentionality, and Embodiment,” Departmental Colloquium Series, University of Colorado (Denver, CO), March 2010.
“Nothing to Fear? The Cognitive Theory of Emotion – and Why It Matters,” Invited Lecture, Departments of Philosophy and Religion, Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY), November 2009.
Comments in response to a paper by Marta Tafalla, American Society for Aesthetics, 67th Annual Meeting (Denver, CO), October 2009.
“Emotion, Intentionality, and Embodiment,” Invited Guest Lecture, Centre for Subjectivity Research, University of Copenhagen (Copenhagen, DK), August 2009.
“Love, Subjectivity, and the Truth about the World,” Philosophy Department Colloquium Series, Colorado College (Colorado Springs, CO), February 2009.
“Emotion, Moral Agency, and the Force of Circumstances,” Being Human in Zimbabwe: A Conference Sponsored by the Iliff School of Theology and the University of Denver (Denver, CO), February 2009.
“Henry David Thoreau on Appreciating the Beauty of the World,” Mini-Conference at St. John’s College on Philosophical Approaches to Thoreau (Santa Fe, NM), July 2008.
“On the Intentionality of Love and Other Emotions,” 8th Annual Phenomenology Roundtable (New York, NY), May 2008.
Response to Mark Tietjen, in a session entitled “Colloquium: Plato, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche,” 82nd Annual APA Pacific Division Meeting (Pasadena, CA), March 2008. Commentary on a paper by David Hildebrand, 61st Annual Mountain-Plains Philosophy Conference (Denver, CO), September 2007.
“Author’s Reply to Critics” in a session entitled “Furtak and Others on Kierkegaard, Wisdom, and Love,” including papers on my book Wisdom in Love by Robert C. Roberts, Michael Strawser, and Mark McCreary, 81st Annual APA Pacific Division Meeting (San Francisco, CA), April 2007.
Comments in response to James Mock’s paper, 60th Annual Mountain-Plains Philosophy Conference (Topeka, KS), September 2006.
“Kierkegaard and Epistemology: A Response to Carroll and Tietjen,” Kierkegaard Group Meeting, 103rd Annual APA Central Division Meeting (Chicago, IL), April 2006. “Skepticism and Emotional Knowing,” Invited Lecture, Philosophy Department, University of Colorado at Denver, Honi F. Haber Lecture Series (Denver, CO), November 2005. “Falling in Love with the World,” SCPT Group Meeting, Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, 44th Annual Conference (Salt Lake City, UT), October 2005.
Comments in response to Paul Martens’s paper, 5th International St. Olaf Kierkegaard Conference (Northfield, MN), June 2005.
“Memory and the Soul: Kierkegaardian Reflections,” Philosophy Roundtable
Colloquium, University of Denver (Denver, CO), February 2005.
“Ancient Passion, Modern Abstraction: Kierkegaard on the Hellenistic and the Hegelian Conceptions of Philosophy,” American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting (San Antonio, TX), November 2004.
“Love and the Discipline of Philosophy,” Festschrift for Alastair Hannay hosted by Copenhagen University (Copenhagen, DK), August 2004.
“Happiness, Tragedy, and Gratitude for Existence,” Living Well: A Day-Long Retreat in Philosophy and Religious Studies hosted by CSU-Fresno (Yosemite Park, CA), April 2004. Commentary on Tony Alterman’s paper, Pacific Division Meeting of the American Society for Aesthetics (Pacific Grove, CA), April 2004.
“The View from Nowhere and the Validity of Emotional Cognition,” All-Campus Talk, Colorado College (Colorado Springs, CO), February 2004.
“On Time and Being: Existential Reflections on a Metaphysical Question in the Interlude of Philosophical Fragments,” 9th Annual Research Seminar, Kierkegaard Research Centre (Copenhagen, DK), August 2003.
“Aesthetic Perception and the Writing of the Real,” International Association for Philosophy and Literature, 27th Annual Conference (Leeds, UK), May 2003.
“Emotions as Perceptions of Significance: Introducing a Dual-Aspect Theory of the Passions,” Philosophy Department Seminar, Kansas State University (Manhattan, KS), January 2003.
“Kierkegaard and the Passions of Ancient Philosophy,” Internal Seminar, Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre, Copenhagen University (Copenhagen, DK), December 2002.
“Edifying Dependence: Kierkegaard on the Logical Consequences of Needing God,” presented in absentia, Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, 41st Annual Conference (Chicago, IL), October 2002.
“The Concept of Absurdity in the Work of Albert Camus,” Society for Philosophy in the Contemporary World, 9th Annual Meeting (Santa Fe, NM), July 2002.
“The Art of War; or, Political Rhetoric and Emotional Manipulation,” Committee on Social Thought Colloquium (Chicago, IL), May 2002.
“Kierkegaard and the Cognitive Structure of Inauthenticity,” Kierkegaard Group Meeting, 99th Annual APA Central Division Meeting (Chicago, IL), April 2002.
“Nihilism and Society: Analytic Responses to an Existential Problem,” APA conference on Morality in the 21st Century (Newark, DE), October 2001.
“Kierkegaard and the Stoics on the Reliability of Emotion,” Dissertation Panel, 4th International St. Olaf Kierkegaard Conference (Northfield, MN), June 2001.
“Nussbaum on Emotion, Morality, and Narrative,” Northeast Modern Language Association, 32nd Annual Convention (Hartford, CT), March 2001.
“Against Sentimentality: an Aesthetic and Ethical Critique,” American Society for Aesthetics, 58th Annual Meeting (Reno, NV), October 2000.
Courses taught more than twice: “Greek Philosophy” (13 times, 2003-2021); “Existential Philosophy” (7 times, 2004-2018); “Philosophy of Emotions” (10 times, 2004-2022); “History of
Modern European Philosophy” (6 times, 2005-2015); “Philosophy of Mind” (9 times, 20032021); “Philosophy and Literature” (7 times, 2005-2021); “Text Seminar: Kierkegaard” (4 times, 2006-2019); and “Environmental Ethics” (3 times, 2006-2010).
Other courses taught at Colorado College: “Phenomenology,” “Metaphysics,” “Ethics,” “Epistemology,” “Philosophy and Love,” “Text Seminar: Aristotle,” “Henry David Thoreau,” “Text Seminar: Nietzsche,” “Senior Colloquium,” “Feelings that Matter: The Philosophy and Psychology of Emotions,” “T. S. Eliot and the Philosophy of Poetry,” “Ancient to Early Modern Western Philosophy,” “Japanese Existentialism: The Kyoto School,” and “Philosophy of Religion,” among others.
At Deep Springs College: “Psyche and Society.”
I have supervised over 40 Independent Study blocks and Senior Essay projects, on topics such as the philosophy of language, neurophilosophy, aesthetics, empathy as a moral emotion, narrative, religious mysticism, the philosophy of romantic love, existential thought, philosophy of race, the problem of evil, philosophy of music, trauma and psychological healing, the ethics of same-sex marriage, artificial intelligence, humor, and philosophy as a way of life; and, on the work of such thinkers as Heidegger, Nietzsche, Camus, Nussbaum, Ricoeur, Heraclitus, Searle, Socrates, Kant, Schopenhauer, Plato, Frankfurt, Emerson, Merleau-Ponty, Nishitani, Hume, Nishida, Thoreau, and Kierkegaard.
Nominated for APA Sanders Book Prize, for Knowing Emotions, 2019.
Nominated by Illuminations for Pushcart Prize, for the poem “Zabriskie Point,” 2018.
Faculty-Student Collaborative Research Grant, Colorado College, Summer 2017.
President, Søren Kierkegaard Society (USA), Jan 2014 - Dec 2015.
Vice-President, Søren Kierkegaard Society (USA), Jan 2012 - Dec 2013.
Listed in Marquis Who’s Who in America, since 2012 edition.
Mellon Foundation, Grant for Summer Language Study, 2011.
Honorable Mention, The Lyric Annual Awards for Poetry, 2010.
Dean’s Summer Research Grant, Colorado College, 2009.
Faculty-Student Collaborative Research Grant, Colorado College, 2009.
MacArthur Professorship, Colorado College, 2006-2008.
American-Scandinavian Foundation Fellowship, 2002.
Kierkegaard Library Summer Research Fellowship, 2001.
Century Fellowship, University of Chicago, 1997-2002.
College Prize for Excellence in Philosophy, Boston University, 1996.
Distinction in English, Boston University, 1996.
Harold C. Case Scholarship, Boston University, 1995.
University Scholarship, Boston University, 1992-1996.
Native speaker of American English. Variable reading ability, in descending order from greater to lesser competency, in French, Danish, Greek, German, and Spanish.
American Philosophical Association
International Society for Research on Emotion
Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy
European Philosophical Society for the Study of Emotions
The Academy of American Poets
Society for Philosophy of Emotion
Søren Kierkegaard Society (USA)
Manuscript reviewer for: Cambridge University Press, Harvard University Press, Northwestern University Press, Indiana University Press, Routledge, Emotion Review, The Journal of Religious Ethics,
Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, Philosophical Psychology, European Journal of Philosophy,
Philosophers’ Imprint, The Journal of Ethics, Florida Philosophical Review, Erkenntnis, The Pluralist,
Journal of Philosophical Research, History of Philosophy Quarterly, Southwest Philosophy Review, Sophia, Diametros, Journal of the American Philosophical Association, The Monist, Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Faith and Philosophy, International Journal for the Study of Skepticism, Synthese, University of Chicago Press, Palgrave Macmillan, Bloomsbury Academic, Hackett Publishing Company, Baylor University Press, Lexington Books, University of Virginia Press, University of Scranton Press, University of Georgia Press, Canadian Philosophical Association, American Philosophical Association (including as Central Division program committee member for 2020), Environmental Studies and Sciences, Environment and Society, Israel Science Foundation, Czech Science Foundation, Dutch Research Council, Southwest Seminar in Continental Philosophy (including as 2011 program chair), Annals of Philosophy, Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science, Social Theory and Practice, Interdisciplinary Science Reviews,
Frontiers in Psychology, Dialogue, Brain Sciences, and The South African Journal of Philosophy.
External evaluator, Tenure and promotion reviews for Anne Christine Habbard (University of Lille, France), Sergia Hay (Pacific Lutheran University), and John Monteleone (La Moyne College).
External PhD examiner for Zachary M. Mabee (University of Reading, England) and Lyra Ekström Lindbäck (University of Pardubice, Czechia); and MA examiner for Anastasia Chen (Macquarie University, Australia).
Edward Mooney, review of Wisdom in Love, in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (online resource), July 2005.
Paul Newberry, review of Wisdom in Love, in Choice 43 (September 2005).
M. Jamie Ferreira, review of Wisdom in Love, in Modern Theology 22 (2006): 322-324.
Daniel Watts, review of Wisdom in Love, in Philosophy in Review 26 (2006): 181-182.
Michael Strawser, review of Wisdom in Love, in Søren Kierkegaard Newsletter 50 (2006).
Kevin Hoffman, joint review of Wisdom in Love and Joakim Garff’s Søren Kierkegaard: A Biography, in Christianity and Literature 55 (2006): 602-607.
Claudia Welz, review of Wisdom in Love, in Ars Disputandi 6 (2006).
David J. Kangas, review of Wisdom in Love, in Journal of the American Academy of Religion 75 (2007): 717-720.
Robert C. Roberts, review of Wisdom in Love, in Faith and Philosophy 26 (2009): 98-104.
Roberto Sirvent, article on Wisdom in Love, in Kierkegaard Secondary Literature, Tome II: English, A-K, ed. by Jon Stewart (London & New York: Routledge, 2016), 221-224.
Jeffrey Hanson, review of Kierkegaard’s ‘Concluding Unscientific Postscript’: A Critical Guide, in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (online resource), March 2011.
Norman Lillegard, review of Kierkegaard’s ‘Concluding Unscientific Postscript’: A Critical Guide, in Philosophy in Review 31 (2011): 341-342.
Joshua Furnal, review of Kierkegaard’s ‘Concluding Unscientific Postscript’: A Critical Guide, in Reviews in Religion and Theology 19 (2012): 450-452.
George Lazaroiu, review of Kierkegaard’s ‘Concluding Unscientific Postscript’: A Critical Guide, in Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations 11 (2012): 172-173.
Stephen Hahn, review of Thoreau’s Importance for Philosophy, in Thoreau Society Bulletin (Fall 2012): 5-7.
Gerald Bruns, review of Thoreau’s Importance for Philosophy, in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (online resource), February 2013.
Bob P. Taylor, review of Thoreau’s Importance for Philosophy, in Environmental Values 22 (2013): 429-432.
Justin Bell, review of Thoreau’s Importance for Philosophy, in Symplokê 21 (2013): 397-399.
C. A. Hobbs, review of Thoreau’s Importance for Philosophy, in Choice 50 (July 2013).
Whitley Kaufman, review of Thoreau’s Importance for Philosophy, in The Pluralist 9 (2014): 114-118.
Paul J. Medeiros, review of Thoreau’s Importance for Philosophy, in Philosophy in Review 34 (2014): 147-150.
William Rossi, review of Thoreau’s Importance for Philosophy, in Nineteenth Century Prose 42 (2015): 379-382.
Katherine Oktober Matthews, review of Knowing Emotions, in Riding the Dragon (online resource), July 2018.
Michael Uebel, review of Knowing Emotions, in Choice 56 (December 2018).
Cecilea Mun, review of Knowing Emotions, in Philosophical Quarterly 69 (2019): 869-871.
Robert Zaborowski, review of Knowing Emotions, in Metapsychology Online Reviews 23 (May 2019).
Talia Morag, review of Knowing Emotions, in Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews (online resource), June 2019.
Ronald de Sousa, David Beisecker, and Francisco Gallegos, book symposium on Knowing Emotions, Journal of Philosophy of Emotion 1 (2019): 106-134.
Karen Simecek, review of Knowing Emotions, pages 182-185 of article on “Affect Theory” in The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory 27 (2019): 181-200.
Available upon request.