Philosophy embodies all that is unique and special about a liberal arts education as it avoids supplying students with ready-made answers but compels them to ask the most difficult - and yet most important - questions: What does it mean to be human? What constitutes the good life and how can I achieve it? Is knowledge really possible? What counts as beautiful? Does my immediate experience alone constitute reality or is there something more? As a teacher of philosophy, I take great pleasure in getting students to ask such questions and take even more pleasure in witnessing, firsthand, their attempts to answer them. While I take teaching philosophy to be a tremendous privilege, I believe that being a philosopher is a possibility open to all.
Of course I also take David Hume's advice to heart when he says that we must, amidst all our philosophy, be human beings as well. As such, I am an overly passionate fan of the New York Yankees and New York Giants, consider myself a J.R.R. Tolkien geek, and am an avid movie-watcher, my favorite films including "The Godfather," "Rocky," the original Star Wars trilogy and "Pulp Fiction" (to name but a few). Bruce Springsteen and Led Zeppelin are the pillars of my music collection and I love cooking - and eating - anything Italian, though my musical and culinary tastes remain perpetually open.