I received my Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania in 1993 and then spent ten years teaching in the Philadelphia area. Most of the time I taught at the University of Pennsylvania, but I also did some teaching at LaSalle University, Bryn Mawr College, and Haverford College. In 2003 I stopped teaching and became an independent scholar.
My research interests include the history of German philosophy, aesthetics, and contemporary continental thought. For many years my written work mostly concentrated on Kant and his contemporaries. Three substantial translation projects, among other things, came out of this focus on late 18th century Germany.
First, in 2005 Paul Guyer, Fred Rauscher, and I published Notes and Fragments, volume 13 of The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Immanuel Kant.
Second, in 2010 Yolanda Estes and I published J. G. Fichte and the Atheism Dispute (1798-1800), a volume of translations and commentary devoted to an important episode in Fichte's philosophical career.
Third, in 2011 Brandeis University Press brought out an anthology entitled Moses Mendelssohn: Writings on Judaism, Christianity, and the Bible. I provided the new translations from German.
After I finished my Mendelssohn translations I made a conscious decision to move into other areas of German philosophical culture. I'm currently preparing, slowly but surely, a new translation of Richard Wagner's Opera and Drama. I'm also writing a commentary on Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment. Both books are under contract with Routledge.
My CV contains a complete bibliography of my published writings. As you can see for yourself, I've not limited myself to working as a translator.
If you're still curious to know more about me, then you can also read my academic autobiography. Be forewarned, though, my story is not for the faint-hearted. ;-) It's also rather long, roughly 15,000 words in its current form.
If you read my autobiography, then you'll learn the details of my philosophical career going back forty years or so. In particular, you'll learn why I reluctantly left professional philosophy and set up on my own. But if you're too busy right now, then here's the short version of my decision to become an independent scholar: I was tired of being treated like garbage. Clear enough?
It should be obvious from my blog that I'm interested in other things besides my own writing and research. I post as time and energy allow, and sometimes I even manage to write up my thoughts on what I've been reading. I've assigned these posts to the category of my book notes.
Last updated on September 1, 2024.