B. A., Whitman College, Philosophy, 1965
M. A., Southern Illinois University, Philosophy, 1968
Ph. D., Southern Illinois University, Philosophy, 1974
Office: UW1 131
Phone: 425.352.5321
Email: mgillespie@bothell.washington.edu
Mailing: Box 358530, 18115 Campus Way NE, Bothell, WA 98011-8246
As a long-time philosophy professor, I am committed to bringing the ways of inquiry of philosophy into lively connection with contemporary life. Roughly, philosophy is, I think, a shared inquiry into how to live well through coming to a comprehensive understanding of certain basic questions: What is there? What can we experience? What can we know? How we may act? Philosophy is both a long tradition and an ever-new activity. But I am have also become convinced that philosophy is most fruitful when it engages the world -- gets outside of itself, so to speak. In my own case, I have tried, over the years, to relate my own thinking and teaching to the arts, our natural environment, social problems, and public school education. The Bothell campus, with its emphasis on interdisciplinary study and its willing and able students, provides exciting opportunities to relate philosophical inquiry meaningfully to contemporary lives.
BIS 305 Issues in Social and Political Philosophy
BIS 308 Issues in Philosophy and Culture: The Power of Images, Philosophy of Art
BIS 356 Ethics and Environment
BIS 359 Ethics and Society
BIS 430 Social Theory and Practice
My research and writing has tended to respond to issues that arise where philosophy joins other areas of study such as the arts, humanities and education. Recently, my work examines critically the influence of contemporary culture upon our ability to interpret and respond to what I think are the immensities of contemporary life, including, among others, the devastation of the earth's ecological systems through human impacts. At present, I find myself reflecting most about the cultural significance of the production, reproduction, and transmission of images in contemporary society. The combining of these themes leads me to inquire whether, in a society characterized by ubiquitous media and conceptions of things rooted in expectations of commerce and consumption, we are losing our ability to perceive the natural world. This, in turn, renews my longstanding interest in phenomenological, cultural, and cross-disciplinary understandings of the perception of the environment.
"Saving What We Love at Any Cost: The Rhetoric of Heroic Medicine as Diversion." Journal of Medical Humanities, vol. 23, no. 1 (Spring, 2002).
"Picturing the Way in Bae Yong-kyun's 'Why Has Bodhidharma Left for the East?" Journal of Religion and Film, vol. 1, no. 1 (Winter, 1997).
"A View From the Field: Discipline-Based Art Education for In-Service Teachers. Visual Arts Research, vol. 23, no. 2 (Issue 46), Fall, 1997. [with Martin Rosenberg, Frances Thurber-Talmadge, Joanne Sowell, and Gary Day of the Art and Art History Department, University of Nebraska-Omaha]
When we engage in philosophical inquiry together we open ourselves to really learning from one another as we examine assumptions we usually take for granted.
