I teach history and social studies…the most important subjects you can study.

My Interests and Influences

Existentialism, phenomenology, personalism, German idealism, dialogical philosophy (Soren Kierkegaard, Nikolai Berdyaev, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Karl Jaspers, Martin Buber, Lev Shestov, Viktor Frankl, Karol Wojtyła, Edith Stein, G.W.F. Hegel, Friedrich Schelling, Kitaro Nishida, Hajime Tanabe, Keiji Nishitani)

Greek philosophy (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zoroaster, Plotinus, Proclus, Cato the Younger, Cicero, Musonius Rufus, Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Philo of Alexandria, John Philoponus, Heraclitus, Pierre Hadot, Richard Sorabji)

Asian philosophy (Confucius, Mencius, Xunzi, Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Pudgalavada, Zhu Xi, Wang Yangming, Yi Hwang, Chong Yagyong, Sato Naokata, Mou Zongsan, Boston Confucianism)

Scholasticism, Medieval Jewish/Arabic philosophy (St. Thomas Aquinas, John Duns Scotus, Elizabeth Anscombe, Alasdair MacIntyre, John Scotus Eriugena, St. Gregory Palamas, Maimonides, Solomon ibn Gabirol, Avicenna, Averroes, Omar Khayyam, Ibn Arabi, Suhrawardi, Mulla Sadra)

Theology (Psuedo-Dionysius, St. Justin Martyr, Meister Eckhart, Henry Suso, John Tauler, The Theologia Germanica, The Cloud of Unknowing, Vladimir Lossky, Bernard McGinn, C.S. Lewis, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Alvin Plantinga)

Enlightenment era philosophy, Political philosophy (Edmund Burke, John Locke, Thomas Paine, Rene Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, David Hume, Russell Kirk, Hannah Arendt, Robert Nozick)

Philosophy of mind, Philosophy of language, Psychology (David Chalmers, Thomas Nagel, Ludwig Wittgenstein, William James, Lawrence Kohlberg)

Words to Live By

“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.” - Soren Kierkegaard

“To pray is to think about the meaning of life.” - Ludwig Wittgenstein

“The universe is change; Our life is what our thoughts make it.” - Marcus Aurelius

“Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions which they form concerning things.” - Epictetus

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” - Socrates

“Truth is the ultimate end of the whole universe.” - St. Thomas Aquinas

“Accept the truth from whatever source it comes.” - Maimonides

“There is one river of truth, but many streams fall into it.” - St. Clement of Alexandria

“The study of history is the best medicine for a sick mind.” - Titus Livy

“Do not do to others what you wouldn’t want done to yourself.” - Confucius

“Love thy neighbor as thyself.” - Jesus Christ