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Erik A. Anderson, (2001) Associate Professor. Dr. Anderson received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in philosophy from the University of Connecticut. His research interests are in social and political philosophy and the philosophy of religion. In 2003-2004, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at The Center on Religion and Democracy at the University of Virginia. His publications include "The Paradox of Public Secularism: A Critical Assessment of Robert Audi's Religious Commitment and Secular Reason," Faith and Philosophy (2006) and "Public Reason, State Neutrality, and the Recognition of Religious Differences under the Establishment Clause," in Civility and Its Discontents: Essays on Civic Virtue, Toleration, and Cultural Fragmentation (University of Kansas Press, 2004). At Furman he teaches courses in introduction to philosophy, logic, ethics, philosophy of law, social and political philosophy, and philosophy of religion, and a First Year Seminar on the ethics of sex.
Office: Furman Hall 125B
Office phone: (864) 294-3278
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Eiho Baba, (Rong-Fong Chang) (2008) Assistant Professor. Dr. Baba received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy, and M.S. (M.P.S.) in Travel Industry Management with specialization in Hotel Management from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa. His research interests include Chinese philosophy, comparative philosophy, metaphysics, and epistemology. He is currently working on a monograph on an 11th century Neo-Confucian philosopher Zhu Xi and a book chapter on the process metaphysics of li and qi for the forthcoming anthology Zhu Xi Now: Contemporary Encounters with the Great Ultimate (SUNY Press, 2009). At Furman, he teaches introduction to philosophy and Chinese philosophy. He plans to offer courses in metaphysics, epistemology, and a series of courses in Chinese philosophy from the 20th century New Confucian movement to the exciting new archeological finds on Pre-Qin philosophers.
Office: Furman Hall 125A
Office phone: (864) 294-2389
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Tom Buford, Louis G. Forgione Professor Emeritus. Dr. Buford received his B.D. degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and his Ph.D. in philosophy from Boston University. His research interests are in metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of education. He is the author of a number of books and articles including Personal Philosophy, the Art of Living (1984), In Search of a Calling (1995), and Personalism Revisited (2002). At Furman he teaches courses in introduction to philosophy, philosophy of religion, and logic.
Office: Furman Hall 225
Office phone: (864) 294-3139
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Carl Ehrett, Visiting Assistant Professor. Dr. Ehrett specializes in the philosophy of language and epistemology. He also has interests in philosophy of mind, cognitive science, and metaphysics. He is at Furman for the academic year 2011-2012.
Office: Riley Hall 109J
Office phone: (864) 294-3573
Email: carl.ehrett@furman.edu
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James C. Edwards, (1970) Louis G. Forgione Professor Emeritus. Dr. Edwards received his M.A. in philosophy from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research interests are in Wittgenstein, bioethics, philosophy of religion, and contemporary continental philosophy. His publications include Ethics Without Philosophy: Wittgenstein and the Moral Life (1982), The Authority of Language: Heidegger, Wittgenstein, and the Threat of Philosophical Nihilism (1990), and The Plain Sense of Things: The Fate of Religion in an Age of Normal Nihilism (1997), which won the John Findlay Prize from the Metaphysical Society of America. In 1975, he was awarded the Alester G. and Janie Earle Furman Award for Meritorious Teaching. He is currently at work on a book titled Reason, Ritual, and Belief: Wittgenstein on Religion. At Furman he teaches courses in introduction to philosophy, ancient philosophy, ethics, continental philosophy, and 20th century philosophy.
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M. Carmela Epright (1999) Professor. During the 2012-13 academic year she is also serving as a visiting scholar for the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, where she is studying with the Forensic Psychiatry fellowship program. Dr. Epright received her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in philosophy and an M.A. in applied ethics from Loyola University, Chicago. She teaches courses in ethics, bioethics, feminist philosophy and the philosophy of psychology. In 2004 she was awarded the Alester G. Furman, Jr. and Janie Earle Furman Award for Meritorious Teaching at Furman University. In addition to her work as a professor, Dr. Epright serves as a clinical ethicist and ethics consultant to numerous medical entities, including the Medical University of South Carolina, South Carolina Medical Association, and the University of South Carolina School of Medicine. She has published articles in bioethics, feminist philosophy, moral theory, and moral psychology. Her current research focuses upon ethical issues in forensic psychiatry as it relates to the psychiatric evaluation and treatment of the criminally mentally ill.
Office: Furman Hall 125D
Office phone: (864) 294-2288
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David I. Gandolfo, (2004-05, 2006) Associate Professor. Dr. Gandolfo received his M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy from Loyola University Chicago, and his M.A. in International Affairs from Columbia University.~ His research interests include globalization, international justice, poverty, and Latin American philosophy.~ He teaches courses in all of these areas as well as in African philosophy and 19th Century Philosophy.~ His recent publications include: "Liberation Philosophy," in The Blackwell Companion to Latin American Philosophy (Blackwell, 2009, forthcoming); “Global Standpoint Aesthetics: Towards a Paradigm,” co-authored with Sarah Worth, in The Continuum Companion to Aesthetics (Continuum, 2009, forthcoming); "The Past, Present and Future of Globalization: Colonialism, Terrorism, and the Need for Democratic Supranational Governance," Review Journal of Political Philosophy (2009, forthcoming); "A Role for the Privileged? Solidarity and the University in the Work of Ignacio Ellacuría and Paulo Freire," Journal for Peace and Justice Studies (2008); "The Ethical Threshold: Democratic Supranational Governance As A Necessary Condition for Non-Neocolonial Globalization," Philosophy in the Contemporary World (Spring 2008); and "Ignacio Ellacuría: Liberation Struggles and the Question of Non-Violence,@ Journal for the Study of Peace and Conflict (2004).~ Recent presentations include: “What’s the Right Price? Ethical Lessons for a Globalizing World,” South Carolina Society for Philosophy (2009); “The Ethical Threshold: Minimum Requirements for a Non-Neocolonial Globalization,” Society for Philosophy in the Contemporary World (Morelia, Mexico, 2007); “An Ethical Evaluation of Globalization? Only From the Perspectives of the Poor and Oppressed,” North American Society for Social Philosophy (2007); “Evaluating Religious and Non-Religious Arguments in Favor of a Preferential Option for the Poor,” Society for Christian Philosophers (2007); “American Liberation Philosophy: Reforming the Center by Taking Account of Critiques from the Margins,” North American Society for Social Philosophy (2006); and “Human Responsibility and the Moral Status of the Invisible Hand,” Conference on Value Inquiry (2006). Dr. Gandolfo did his doctoral research on the Latin American Liberation Philosophy of Ignacio Ellacuría at the Universidad Centroamericana, where he has also taught. Prior to his work in philosophy, he spent many years engaged in grassroots “development” work in West and Southern Africa. The thread that ties his research and teaching interests together is an interest in what the Global center has to learn from critiques of the status quo offered from the standpoints of the Global margins.
Office: Furman Hall 125E
Office phone: (864) 294-3238
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David Edward Shaner, (1982) Professor (Retired). Dr. Shaner received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Hawaii specializing in Japanese Buddhist philosophy. He is the founding editor of the Philosophy and Biology book series with the State University of New York Press (37 volumes published). He is the author of The Bodymind Experience in Japanese Buddhism (SUNY, 1985), Science and Comparative Philosophy [with Shigenori Nagatomo and YUASA Yasuo] (E. J. Brill, 1989) and two new books on personal development and organization development.
Office: Furman Hall 125H
Office phone: (864) 294-3141
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J. Aaron Simmons (2011) Assistant Professor. Dr. Simmons received his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in 2006. His research interests are in 19th and 20th Century European Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, and Environmental Philosophy. In addition to publishing articles in such journals as History of Philosophy Quarterly, Philosophical Forum, Symposium, and Journal of Religious Ethics, Dr. Simmons is the author of God and the Other: Ethics and Politics After the Theological Turn (Indiana UP, 2011), the co-author (with Bruce Ellis Benson) of The New Phenomenology: A Philosophical Introduction (Bloomsbury, 2013), and the co-editor of Kierkegaard and Levinas: Ethics, Politics, and Religion (Indiana UP, 2008). Dr. Simmons is also the Philosophy of Religion Section Chair for the American Academy of Religion (Southeast Region - SECSOR) and is a member of the Central Regional Committee of the Society of Christian Philosophers.
Office: Riley Hall 109N
Office Phone: (864)294-3526
Email: aaron.simmons@furman.edu
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Mark Stone, (1997) Associate Professor. Dr. Stone received his M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy from Vanderbilt University. His research interests are in modern philosophy and the philosophy of Descartes. At Furman he teaches courses in introduction to philosophy, environmental ethics, American philosophy, and the history of philosophy. He currently has a manuscript for a logic book on writing arguments under review for publication. Mark served as president of the South Carolina Philosophical Society in 2003.
Office: Furman Hall 125G
Office phone: (864) 294-3344
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Sarah Worth, (1999) Professor. Dr. Worth received her M.A. in philosophy from the University of Louisville and her Ph.D. in philosophy from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Her research interests are in aesthetics and the philosophy of literature and narrative. She has published articles in the Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, The British Journal of Aesthetics, The Journal of Aesthetic Education, The Norwegian Journal of Philosophy, Philosophy in the Contemporary World, has written and reviewed articles for the Philosophy and Popular Culture series, and has recently co-authored an article with David Gandolfo on Global Standpoint Aesthetics. Currently she is working on a paper exploring the seeming necessity for accuracy in autobiography and the phenomenon of fraudulent memoirs. At Furman she teaches courses in introduction to philosophy, ancient philosophy, aesthetics, Brain and Mind (team-taught with a biologist) and recently she team-taught a class with another biologist on Disease and Culture.
Office: Furman Hall 125F
Office phone: (864) 294-3140
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