Phil Gasper

Professor of Philosophy and Chair, Department of Philosophy and Religous Studies

Office location:	Campus Center 2
Office hours:	Tuesdays 2-3p.m, Wednesdays 12-1p.m.
Phone number:	(650) 508-3732
Fax:	(650) 508-3736
Email:	pgasper@ndnu.edu

Phil Gasper is chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion. Before coming to NDNU in 1995, he previously taught at Cornell University, the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), Middlebury College, the University of California, San Diego, and Stanford University. In addition to his academic publications, his writings have appeared in the New Abolitionist and Socialist Worker, and on the CounterPunch, MRzine and ZNet web sites. He is a member of the editorial board of the International Socialist Review and writes the magazine's bimonthly Critical Thinking column.

Education History

• B.A. Cambridge University
• M.A. University of Calgary
• Ph.D. Cornell University

Courses Taught

• PL 001/100 Ancient Greek Philosophy
• PL 002/102 Modern Philosophy: Descartes to Kant
• PL 006 Introduction to Philosophy
• PL 007/107 Moral Problems
• PL 012/112 Logic and Critical Thinking
• PL 017/117 Philosophy of Science
• PL 018/118 Philosophy of Mind
• PL 023/123 Law, Morality and Society
• PL 121 Political and Social Philosophy

• PL 128 Ethics and Professional Responsibility

• PL 131 Bioethics
  Current Research and Interests

Research and Interests

• Main research interests are in the philosophy of science (particularly issues arising from evolutionary biology) and social and political philosophy.

Recognitions

• N/A

Professional Affiliations

• American Philosophical Association
• Association of American University Professors
• National Writers Union

Workshops & Presentations

• "Historical Materialism vs. Evolutionary Psychology," New Directions in Historical Materialism Conference, University of London, December 2006
• "Tookie Williams and the Politics of the Death Penalty: Right or Wrong?" Hofstra University, Long Island, New York, February 2006
• "Evolution, Psychology and Human Nature," Scholar-OLLI Program, California State University, East Bay, November 2005
  "Science, Pseudoscience and Creationism", Department of Philosophy Colloquium, California State University, Hayward, March 2003
• "Is the 'War on Terrorism' a Just War?" Terror and Justice: A Conference of Bay Area Academics Responding to the Events of 9/11, California State University, Hayward, May 2002
• "Marxism and Political Activism", Society for the Philosophical Study of Marxism Symposium on "Is There a Future for Marxism?" American Philosophical Association, Central Division Meeting, Chicago, April 2002
• "Globalization and the Politics of the Death Penalty", Radical Philosophy Symposium on "Globalization and the Death Penalty", Socialist Scholars Conference, New York, April 2000
• "Comments on the Kosovo War", Symposium on "Wars Over Kosovo", Conference on "Secession, Transitional Justice and Reconciliation", University of San Francisco, October 1999
• "Capitalism, Socialism and Environmental Justice", joint presentation with Eric Ruder (University of Wisconsin, Madison), Conference on Projecting Marxism into Y2K, University of Nevada, Reno, October 1999
• "Against the Death Penalty", Radical Philosophy Association Symposium on "Violence in Contemporary Society", American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division Meeting, Berkeley, April 1999
• "Environmentalism, Social Justice and Capitalism", Symposium on Tom Athanasiou's Divided Planet, 3rd International Radical Philosophy Association Conference, San Francisco, November 1998
• Comments on Henry Cribbs, "Why Can't Biological Teleology Be Naturalized?" American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division Meeting, Philadelphia, December 1997
• "Science and Rationality: Comments on the Sokal Affair", Radical Philosophy Association Symposium on "The Sokal Affair and Radical Critiques of Science", American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division Meeting, Berkeley, March 1997
• "Meaning, Speakers' Intentions and the Causal Theory of Reference", American Philosophical Association, Pacific Division Meeting, Berkeley, March 1997

Major Seminars

• N/A

Community Activities

• N/A

Publications

• The Annotated Communist Manifesto: A Road Map to History's Most Important Political Document (Chicago: Haymarket Books, November 2005).
  

  
  "This new edition of the Communist Manifesto, with its excellent informative notes and commentaries, enables the reader to appreciate this document both historically and theoretically, both in relation to its own time and in relation to the realities around us." -Allen Wood (Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Professor, Stanford University)

  "Gasper brings alive one of the great classics of modern political thought, an indispensable addition to anyone's library." -Howard Zinn (Professor Emeritus, Boston University; author A People's History of the United States)

• The Philosophy of Science, co-edited with Richard Boyd and J.D. Trout, (Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press, 1991), 816pp.
  Articles
• "Palestinian Armed Struggle" (with Snehal Shingavi, University of California, Berkeley), in Cheryl A. Rubenberg (ed.), Encyclopedia of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, forthcoming).
• "Leninism" and "Proletariat," in William A Darity (ed.) International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences 2nd edition (Macmillan, 2007).
• "Communist Manifesto," "Darwin, Charles," "Luxemburg, Rosa" and "Plato," in Gary L. Anderson and Kathryn Herr (eds.), Encyclopedia of Activism and Social Justice (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Reference Publications, 2007).
• "On the Morality of Not Crossing Picket Lines", Hypatia Volume 20, Number 4, Fall 2005
• Foreword to Paul N. Siegel, The Meek and the Militant: Religion and Power Across the World (Chicago: Haymarket Books, September 2005)
• "Afghanistan: A History of the CIA, bin Laden and the Taliban," in Carl Mirra (ed.), Enduring Freedom or Enduring War? Prospects and Costs of the New American 21st Century (Washington D.C.: Maisonneuve Press, July 2005)
• "Genes, Evolution and Human Nature", International Socialist Review 40, March-April 2005. http://www.isreview.org/issues/40/genes2.shtml
• "Is Biology Destiny? " International Socialist Review 38, November-December 2004. http://isreview.org/issues/38/genes.shtml
• "Anti-realism" and "Social Constructivism," in Robert Audi (ed.), The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, 2nd edition (Cambridge University Press, 1999).
• "Marxism and Science," International Socialism 79, Summer 1998.