faculty_and_staff


Sharon S. Wiese
Department Secretary
Office: Tower 716
Phone: 888-2320
E-mail: wieses@canisius.edu
Office Hours: Mon-Thurs: 7:30 a.m. - 2 p.m.; Fri: 7:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Full-time Professors
 
George Boger, PhD
Chair of Department of Philosophy
Professor of Philosophy
PhD, University of Buffalo

Office: Tower 710
Phone: 888-2339
E-mail: boger@canisius.edu

Areas of specialization:
  • Ancient Philosophy — natural law foundation of Plato’s & Aristotle’s moral & political philosophy, Protagoras, Hippocratic epistemology & early natural science
  • 19th Century Philosophy & Marxism
  • Logic & History of Logic — Aristotle’s ancient logic and philosophy of logic
Interests:
  • Environmental ethics & social justice
  • Dialectical logic & epistemology - Hegelian logic & its materialist interpretation
  • The notion of paradox & paradox in ancient philosophy
  • Informal logic & fallacy theory — a formal foundation for fallacy theory
  • The clash of two value systems — maximizing market utility vs. realizing personhood
Sample publications:
  • “Humanist principles underlying argumentation philosophy”. 2006. Informal Logic 26:2, pp 149-174.
  • “Subordinating truth — is acceptability acceptable?” 2005. Argumentation 19:187-238
  • “Aristotle's Underlying Logic”. 2004. In Handbook of the History of Logic v 1, D. Gabbay & J. Woods (eds.) Amsterdam: Elsevier, pp101-246.
  • “Aristotle on moral and social inequality”. 2000. In Political Equality and Justice in Aristotle and the Problems of Contemporary Society, D. N. Koutras (ed), Athens: Society for Aristotelian Studies, pp47-73.
  • “The Logical Sense of ‘paradoxon’ in Aristotle’s Sophistical Refutations”. 1993. Ancient Philosophy 13:1, pp 55-78.
 
Marianne Djuth, PhD
Professor of Philosophy
PhD, University of Toronto (Canada)

Office: HO 001D
Phone: 888-2322
E-mail: djuth@canisius.edu

Areas of specialization:
  • Augustine
  • Medieval Philosophy
  • Philosophy of Religion
 
Michael Forest, PhD
Associate Professor of Philosophy
PhD, Marquette University

Office: Tower 707
Phone: 888-2328
E-mail: forestm@canisius.edu

Dr Forest is a native of Detroit and was graduated from fellow Jesuit institutions The University of Detroit (B.A.) and Marquette University (Ph.D.). His scholarly interests are in the North American philosophical tradition, especially the theories of knowledge and cognition in Charles Peirce and Bernard Lonergan.

Dr Forest usually teaches multiple sections of the introductory course each semester. He also teaches the upper level AS 5 courses American Philosophy and Philosophy of Art & Beauty every year. He has also recently taught courses on Lonergan's Insight for the Philosophy programs and for the Honors Program.

Recent writings include the articles "Peirce and Semiotic Foundationalism" for Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, and "Lonergan and the Classical American Tradition" for Method: The Journal of Lonergan Studies.

Devonya Havis, PhD
Assistant Professor
PhD, Boston College

Office: Tower 707
Phone: 888-2605
E-mail: havisd@canisius.edu

Areas of specialization:
  • Philosophy of Race
  • African American Philosophy
  • Continental Philosophy
 
John Kelly, PhD
Professor of Philosophy
PhD, Catholic University of America

Office: Tower 708
Phone: 888-2324
E-mail: kellyj@canisius.edu

Dr. Kelly has been a member of the philosophy faculty at Canisius since 1966. A native of Buffalo, Dr. Kelly graduated from St. Joseph Collegiate Institute and received his undergraduate education at the University of Toronto. He earned his advanced degrees in the School of Philosophy, the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Dr. Kelly’s major academic interest is in metaphysics and ethics. His publications have focused on ancient Greek philosophy, the philosophy of medicine, and social political philosophy, with special emphasis on modern catholic social thought. He has presented numerous papers in the United States and at many international conferences in England at both the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford.

Sample publications:
  • “Virtue Based Ethics: A Unifying Moral Framework for the Physician-Patient Relationship,” in S. M. Natale and Mark Fenton (eds.), The Developing Professional: Maintaining Values in Practical Training, (Lanham, MD, New York, and London: University Press of America, 1997), 49-74
  • The “Institutional” Responsibility of Medical Practitioners in a Market Economy,” in S. M. Natale (ed.), Corporate Structures, Business, and the Management of Values, Chapter 14, (Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 1998), 209-237
  • The Subjectivity of Society and Vocational Relevance, in S. M. Natale (ed.), New Wine in Old Bottles, Chapter 15, (New York: University Press of America, 2000), 201-216
  • “Solidarity and Subsidiarity: Organizing Principles for Corporate Leadership in the New Global Economy,” Journal of Business Ethics, 52: 283-295, 2004, (The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers)
  • “The Changeable and Unchangeable Dimensions of the Common Good Tradition: Substantive Principles for the Transformation of the Labor Union Movement,” in S. M. Natale (ed.), The Fate of Empires: Education in a Consilient World, Chapter 19 (New York: Global Scholarly Publications, 2005), 279-307
George Lavere, PhD
Professor Emeritus
PhD, Laval University (Canada)

Areas of specialization:
  • Augustine
  • Ethics
  • Political Philosophy
 
Tanya Loughead, PhD

Associate Professor of Philosophy
Co-Director of the Ethics Minor and the Justice Minor
PhD, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium)

Office: Tower 715
Phone: 888-2329
E-mail: tanya.loughead@canisius.edu

Areas of specialization:
  • Contemporary Continental Philosophy
  • History of Philosophy
  • Phenomenology
  • Philosophy & Justice
  • Blanchot, Levinas, Weil, Marcuse
Courses Taught:
  • PHI 305 -- Contemporary Continental Philosophy
  • PHI 251 -- Love, Friendship & Moral Life
  • PHI 397 -- Philosophy & Film
  • PHI 402 -- Psychoanalysis  & Philosophy 
  • PHI 382 --  Gender and Philosophy 
  • PHI 358 -- Contemporary Philosophy 
  • PHI 499 --  Feminism and the ‘Third World’ 
  • PHI 404 -- Women & Work 
  • PHI 304 -- God and the World 
  • HON 120 -- Honors Philosophy 
  • PHI 101 -- Introduction to Philosophy 
Selected Publications:
  • “The Radical Praxis of Teaching for a Just Community: Marcuse and Kristeva on Liberating the Subject,”  Confronting Injustice and Creating Justice, Rodopi Press, forthcoming Summer 2010.
  • “More than Adequate Logic: Blanchot avec Sade,” British Journal of Phenomenology, January 2010.
  • “Shall I love you as my brother?  Deconstruction, Friendship and Our Shared Future,” ACPQ: Proceedings of American Catholic Philosophical Association: Forgivenness, Volume 82,  Fall 2009.
  • “The Happy Idiot in El Salvador, Jean-Luc Marion’s Phenomenology of Self-Love,” Quaestiones Disputatae, Fall 2009.
  • “Two slices from the same loaf?  Weil and Levinas on the Demand of Social Justice,” Ethical Perspectives: Journal of the European Ethics Network 14, no. 2 (2007): 117—138.
Selected Service
Dr. Loughead has given steadfast commitment to the following committees (list is not complete):  Core Curriculum Committee, Fulbright Committee (and chair, 2008-2009), Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, Educational Policy Committee, Advisory Board for Women’s Studies, Advisory Board for Service Learning, Ignatian Scholarship Day Committee, Mission & Identity Committee, Faculty Student Liaison Committee, in addition to dedicated service to the Department of Philosophy.  She has also participated in research and service trips to El Salvador and Guatemala. 

Loughead was the 2008 Dr. I. Joan Lorch Faculty Award winner. Presented annually by the college's Women’s Studies Program, the award recognizes individuals who have made a significant contribution to women on campus. She earned her Master’s and Doctorate in Belgium at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Recent papers delivered by Dr. Loughead include, “The Uselessness of Art to the Revolution: Marcuse and Blanchot,” “’Brotherly Love’ in Postmodern Times,” “Levinas and Weil on the demand of social justice” and “The Energy of Failure: on Revolution.” 

 
Herbert Nelson, PhD
Professor Emeritus
PhD, SUNY at Buffalo

Office: BH-103
Phone: 888-3140
E-mail: nelson@canisius.edu

Areas of specialization:
  • Philosophy of Religion
  • Philosophy of Law
  • American Pragmatism
 
Philip Reed, PhD
Assistant Professor of Philosophy
Co-Director of the Ethics Minor and the Justice Minor
PhD, University of Notre Dame
 
Office: Tower 702
Phone: 888-2609
E-mail: reedp@canisius.edu
 
Areas of Specialization:
  • Ethics
  • Political Philosophy
 
Janice Schultz-Aldrich, PhD
Professor of Philosophy
PhD, SUNY at Buffalo

Office: Tower 703
Phone: 888-2321
E-mail: schultzj@canisius.edu

Areas of specialization:
  • Mediaeval philosophy, especially the thought of St. Thomas Aquinas
  • Ethics
  • Logic
Her publications include a book, written with Edward A. Synan:
St. Thomas Aquinas, An Exposition of the “On the Hebdomads” of Boethius, Introduction and Translation (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2001). Thomas Aquinas in Translation Series. Forthcoming is a book of the late Msgr. Synan's previously unpublished papers, edited and with an introduction by Dr. Schultz-Aldrich (Rodopi publishing house)

A few of the many articles she has published are:
  • “Revisiting Aquinas on ‘Naturalism’: A Response to Patrick Lee,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 77.1 (Winter 2003), pp. 113-131
  • “Love of Friendship and the Perfection of Finite Persons in Aquinas,” in Medieval Masters: Essays in Memory of Msgr. E. A. Synan, ed. R. E. Houser (Houston, Texas: Center for Thomistic Studies, 1999), pp. 209-232
  • “An Abelardian Reconstruction Reconsidered,” American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly 70.2 (Spring 1996), pp. 275-286
  • “Thomistic Metaethics and a Present Controversy,” The Thomist 52.1 (January 1988), pp. 40-62
  • “‘Ought’-Judgments: A Descriptivist Analysis from a Thomistic Perspective,” The New Scholasticism 61.4 (Autumn 1987), pp. 400-426.
Stanley Vodraska
Professor Emeritus of Philosophy
PhD, University of London

Office: Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Emeritus Faculty Suite
Phone: 888-2326
E-mail: vodrasks@canisius.edu

Professor Vodraska served in the United States Navy at First Naval District Headquarters, at that time in Boston, and at Fleet Intelligence Center, Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean, at that time in Morocco. Supported by the G.I. Bill he graduated B.A. egregia cum laude from Saint John’s University in Minnesota. Then as a J. William Fulbright Scholar he studied at the Higher Institute of Philosophy in the University of Louvain, in Belgium, and as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow he graduated M.A. from the University of Chicago. After teaching for several years, and supported by his wife and by a Canisius College Faculty Fellowship, he studied at the Warburg Institute School of Advanced Study and was awarded Ph.D. by the University of London.

Areas of Specialization:
  • Familial Philosophy
  • Hume’s Moral Philosophy
  • Medieval Moral Philosophy
  • Medieval Natural Philosophy
  • Modal Logic
Selected Publications and References:
  1. “The Flemish Octave Clavichord: Structure and Fretting”, Organ Yearbook 10 (1979) 117-25. See Francis Knights, “The Clavichord: A Comprehensive Bibliography”, Galpin Society Journal 48 (March 1995) 52-67.
  2. “Hume’s Moral Enquiry: An Analysis of Its Catalogue”, Philosophical Topics 12: 3 (Winter 1981) 79-108. Reprinted in Stanley Tweyman, ed., David Hume; Critical Assessments, The Routledge Critical Assessments of Leading Philosophers (London and New York: Routledge, 1995) 4: 12-40.
  3. “Against Blackstone and the Concept of Marriage as Contract”, Modern Schoolman 81: 2 (January 2004) 97-120.
  4. “Works of Mercy and the Principle of Familial Preference”, Faith and Philosophy 22: 1 (January 2005) 21-41.
  5. Professor Vodraska’s dissertation, “Pseudo-Aristotle, De causis proprietatum et elementorum: Critical Edition and Study”, has been cited repeatedly by scholars, e.g., Alberti Magni . . . De natura loci . . . De causis proprietatum elementorum . . . De generatione et corruptione . . . ed. Paulus Hossfeld. This volume constitutes . . .  Alberti Magni . . . Opera Omnia . . . Tomus V Pars II (Münster: Aschendorff, 1980); in this volume of the “standard edition”, i.e., the “Cologne edition”, of the complete works of Albert the Great the editor Hossfeld printed the work that Albert commented on from the critical edition of the (Latin) text that Vodraska established in his dissertation; Hossfield printed neither the studies nor the English translation that had also been parts of the dissertation. See also Charles B. Schmitt and Delwyn Knox, Pseudo-Aristoteles Latinus: A Guide to Latin Works . . ., Warburg Institute Surveys and Texts 12 (London: University of London Warburg Institute, 1985) 20; Peter Kingsley, Ancient Philosophy, Mystery and Magic: Empedocles and Pythagorean Tradition (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995); Godefroid de Callata˙, “World Cycles and Geological Changes according to the Brethren of Purity”, in Peter Adamson, ed., In the Age of al-Fârâbî: Arabic Philosophy in the Fourth/Tenth Century, Warburg Institute Colloquia 12 (London: Warburg Institute School of Advanced Study, 2008) 179-193; Albert the Great, On the Causes of the Properties of the Elements, tr. Irven M. Resnick, Mediaeval Philosophical Texts in Translation 46 (Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2010).
 
John Zeis, PhD
Professor of Philosophy
PhD, University of Pennsylvania

Office: Tower 714
Phone: 888-2588
E-mail: zeis@canisius.edu

Areas of specialization:
  • Philosophy of Religion
  • Epistemology

Adjunct Professors
Steven Halady

B.S. John Carroll University

E-mail: haladys@canisius.edu

Areas of specialization:
  • Contemporary Analytic Metaphysics
  • Applied Ethics
  • Social Philosophy
Dr. Alpana Mukherjee

Visva-Bharati (India)

E-mail: mukherja@canisius.edu

Areas of specialization:

  • Indian Philosophy
  • Philosophy of Religion
Richard Perkins, PhD

PhD, SUNY at Buffalo 

E-mail: perkinsr@canisius.edu

Areas of specialization:

  • 19th Century German Philosophy
  • Nietzsche
  • Existentialism
Heron Simmonds

M.A. SUNY at Buffalo

E-mail: simmondh@canisius.edu

Areas of specialization:

  • Social and Political Philosophy
  • Philosophy of Race
Michael Walsh, PhD

PhD, SUNY at Buffalo

E-mail: walsh5@canisius.edu

Areas of specialization:

  • Existentialism
  • Heidegger