Faculty

Mitch Clearfield

B.A., University of Pennsylvania; M.A., University of Notre Dame

Mitch's primary interests center around the philosophy of language and the philosophy of mind, from the turn of the last century to the present.  He is particularly intrigued by the writings of Ludwig Wittgenstein, and some of the heirs of his later work.  Mitch is also very puzzled by, and teaches about, the nature and justification of criminal punishment.

Office: Olin E126 
Phone: 509-527-5853
Webpage: http://people.whitman.edu/~clearfms/ 

Julia Ireland

B.A., Whitman College; M.A., Ph.D., DePaul University

Office: Olin E125 
Phone: 509-522-4388

Tom Davis

B.A., University of California-Santa Cruz; Ph.D., Vanderbilt University

Main interest: the genealogy of radical thoughtlessness and the sources for nonviolence. 

Historical interests: Socrates and Greek tragedy, Jesus' Galilean ministry, Shakespeare, American Romanticism from Emerson

Office: Olin E128
Phone: 509-527-5164

Patrick Frierson (Department Chair)

B.A., Williams College; M.A., Ph.D., University of Notre Dame.

Prof. Frierson's areas of interest include Kant, Adam Smith, Modern Philosophy more generally (roughly from Montaigne to Nietzsche), Ethics, Environmental Ethics, and Philosophy of Science.  In addition to these areas, he teaches courses in Symbolic Logic, Philosophy of Religion, and other areas.  

Recent publications include an essay on "Smithian Intrinsic Value" in The Philosophy of Adam Smith, and essay on "Kantian Moral Pessimism" in Kant's Anatomy of Evil, and an edited edition of Kant's Observation on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime and Other Writings.  He is currently at work on the modest project of answering the question "What is the Human Being?"

Office: Olin E124 
Phone: 509-527-5243
Email: frierspr (at) whitman (dot) edu
Webpage: http://people.whitman.edu/~frierspr/

Professor Rebecca Hanrahan (Division Chair)

B.A. Smith College, 1989; M.A., Ph.D. UNC 1998

Professor Hanrahan specializes in modal epistemology.  She also has teaching and research interests in philosophy of mind and applied ethics.  And she really, really, really likes her dogs.  Her cats are just okay.

Office: Olin E205 
Phone: 509-527-4956

Michelle Jenkins   

B.A. Franklin & Marshall College, 2003; Ph.D. University of Arizona, 2010

Professor Jenkins' primary area of focus is ancient philosophy.  Her current research focuses on Plato's account of the philosopher and his views on education.  She also has teaching and research interests in ethics, epistemology, and philosophy in literature.

Office: Olin E127
Phone: 509-527-5808
Webpage: http://people.whitman.edu/~jenkinmk/

Emeritus Faculty

David Carey (teaching Ethics, fall 2011)
Holly Phillips