Curriculum Vita
John W. Powell, Associate Professor, Philosophy
Humboldt State University
Arcata CA 95521
E-mail: powellj@axe.humboldt.edu
(707) 826-5753
Education
B.A. University of Missouri, English, extensive honors course work, 1968
Graduate work, University of Missouri, English, 1968-69, 1971
Graduate work, University of Oregon, English, Psychology, Philosophy, 1975-1988
M.A. Univ. Oregon, Philosophy, 1985
Ph.D. Univ. Oregon, Philosophy, 1988
Dissertation: Language as Signs (begun under supervision of F. Ebersole, finished under Don S. Levi)
Academic Work Experience
Assoc. Prof., Philosophy, Humboldt State University, 1999-present
Assist. Prof., Philosophy, Humboldt State Univ. 1995-1999
Lecturer, Philosophy, Humboldt State Univ. 1993-1995
Instructor, Senior Instructor, Coordinator; Educational Opportunities Program, University of Oregon, 1978-1993. This included teaching a variety of writing, study skills, critical thinking, and literature courses.
Miscellaneous teaching: Graduate Teaching Fellow, Univ. Oregon, in writing, literature, and philosophy courses; Part time instructor, Oregon State Univ., mostly in logic; Part time instructor, Oregon State Correctional Institution for Chemeketa Community College, survey courses in American, English, and world literature, prose and poetry writing, including composition courses focusing on arguments. Not included is service as grader and discussion section leader for various philosophy courses.
Courses Taught
Critical Thinking; History of Ancient Philosophy; Wittgenstein; Aesthetics; Perspectives on Sciences, Social Science, Humanities; Existentialism; Intro to Philosophy; Philosophy of Sex and Love; Madness and Human Nature; Elementary Logic; The Meaning of Life. I taught for the Native American Studies dept. their Native American Literature course fall of 2003.
I teach (as an overload) a one-credit seminar each semester on contemporary philosophical issues with a recent emphasis on philosophical methods: recent semesters’ titles include On Certainty; Dichotomies; Rorty; Challenges to Semantics; Philosophical Methods; Searle vs. Derrida; Intentionality; Pinker’s How the Mind Works; Examples and Abstractions.
Research Projects, Publications, Presentations (Selected)
Refereed
"Productivity in Higher Ed; What's Education For?" Thought and Action, Nov 1998.
Unrefereed
“The Very Idea of Language,” invited paper, Oregon Philosophy Alumni research group’s monthly meeting in Eugene, OR, June, 2004.
“How Not To Prevent Evils of Privacy in Language,” commentary on paper by Yanni Nevo of Ben Gurion University at the annual meeting of the North American Wittgenstein Society, held in conjunction with the Pacific Division, American Philosophical Association, Los Angeles, March 2004.
“On the Nonexistence of Perceptions,” paper delivered at the annual meeting of the North American Wittgenstein Society, held in conjunction with the Pacific Division, American Philosophical Association, San Francisco, March 2003.
“American Pragmatism’s Roots in Native American Philosophy,” solicited review of Scott L. Pratt’s Native Pragmatism (Indiana Univ. Press, Bloomington: 2002), in American Indian Culture and Research Journal, Spring 2003.
“Editor’s Introduction: Wittgenstein’s Accomplishment is Most Importantly One of Method,” Essays in Philosophy, vol 1, no. 2. I edited this volume of essays for the web-based journal, found at www.humboldt.edu/~essays, under the General Editorship of Prof. Michael Goodman. January 2002.
“George Fox as Embodying Wittgenstein’s Idea of Religion,” commentary on paper by Prof. Newton Garver, State Univ. of New York, at annual meeting of the North American Wittgenstein Society, held in conjunction with the Pacific Division American Philosophical Association, San Francisco, 28-31 March 2001.
“Wittgenstein on Frazer’s The Golden Bough and Limits of Science,” commentary on paper by Prof. A. Turnali of Instanbul Technical University, at Northwest Conference of Philosophy, Pacific University, Forest Grove, OR, 9-11 November, 2000.
“Sharing Seeds: Dine Thinking about Art,” Navajo Studies Conference, San Juan College, Farmington, NM; 27-30 September 2000.
“Being a Philosopher: The First Step,” commentary, Pacific Division Meeting, American Philosophical Association, 3 April 99, Berkeley, CA;
“What Searle, Derrida and Austin Should Have Said about Context,” invited paper, Univ. Minnesota, 2 June 1998, Minneapolis, MN;
“Six Characters in Search of a Fact.” commentary, Wittgenstein Session, Pacific Division Meeting, American Philosophical Association, 25-28 March 1998, Los Angeles CA.
“I Say Obvious, You Say A Priori.” commentary, Pacific Division Meeting, American Philosophical Association, 27-29 March, 1997, Berkeley, CA.
”Telling the Truth vs. Being Frank: Searle's Retreat from the Assertion Fallacy,” invited paper, conference honoring Frank Ebersole, Where the Action Is, 25-26 May, 1996, Coos Bay, OR.
”A Plague on Realists and Anti-Realists,” commentary on two papers, Society for Contemporary Assessment of Platonism, Pacific Division Meeting, American Philosophical Association, 3-6 April, 1996 Seattle, WA. I also chaired this session.
I’ve also presented workshops on teaching critical thinking in the sciences (to the Univ. Oregon’s Summer Seminar for Science Teachers); papers on choosing critical thinking textbooks and uncritical theorizing and methods in the critical thinking discipline; on using critical thinking skills to help in minority student retention and success; on political implications of values in science (at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology); as well as inservices for school teachers on critical thinking.
Scholarship in Progress
"Blackburn's Quasi-Wittgensteinianism," “Pacifism and Ethical Theory,” “When Does a Human Life Begin?” “Mightn’t Language be Inadequate to Express our Thoughts?” are drafts in submissible form. “Things Only Philosophers Can See and Hear” will be submitted to the journal Philosophical Investigations this summer. “Anti-Platonism Gets the Last Word in Plato’s Symposium” is being revised in response to commentary after a local presentation. “How to Take What Indians Say” is being revised and resubmitted by invitation to UCLA’s American Indian Culture and Research Journal.
Service
University-wide Committees: Committee in Support of Instructional Technology; CSU Strategic Planning Conference (Cornerstones); Humboldt State University Strategic Planning Task Force on Curriculum; Technology Fee Allocation Committee;
Other University Committees: College Personnel Committee; College Computing Committee; Native American Studies Search Committee; Appropriate Use Committee (computing); Scholastic Review Committee; Minority Retention Task Force; Departmental Personnel Committee.
Community Service: Board of Directors, Pacific Dunes High School, two years; Founding member, Board of Directors, The Studio (art instruction and activities for persons with disabilities); workshops for high school students on critical thinking and on sources of the U.S. Constitution.
Service to Profession: Chair, Program Committee, North American Wittgenstein Society, March 2004-present.
Miscellaneous
I’ve also published poetry and short stories. I’ve drafted grant proposals, including helping draft a proposal for the Educational Opportunities Program at the Univ. Oregon which was rated among the top ten in the country out of several hundred received, and a grant to streamline and make intelligible the social services maze for new clients in Eugene OR for a nonprofit agency, Directions Services. I am working on Navajo sandpaintings as an example to show several received views in contemporary aesthetics are problematic, a project which has required trips to the Southwest and attendance at annual Navajo Studies Conferences in addition to my presentation listed above.