I have a PhD in Evolutionary Biology from the University of Connecticut and a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Tennessee. I am currently the K.D. Irani Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York. My research interests include the philosophy of science, the nature of pseudoscience, and practical philosophies like Stoicism and New Skepticism.
I have been elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science “for fundamental studies of genotype by environmental interactions and for public defense of evolutionary biology from pseudo-scientific attack.”
In the area of public outreach, I have published in national and international outlets such as the New York Times, Washington Post, and the Wall Street Journal, among others. I am a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and a Contributing Editor to Skeptical Inquirer. I write on practical and general philosophy on Substack.
At last count, I have published 178 technical papers in science and philosophy. I am also the author or editor of 16 books, including the best selling How to Be A Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life (Basic Books). Other titles include Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk (University of Chicago Press), and the most recent The Quest for Character: What the Story of Socrates and Alcibiades Teaches Us about Our Search for Good Leaders (Basic Books).
Social media:
- My author profile at Goodreads.
- The Global Agora meetups, where I announce my events.
Active sites:
- Figs in Winter, my Substack newsletter.
- My PhilPapers profile, where you will find links to my technical papers.
- My professional page at the City College of New York.
- Philosophy Day at CUNY-City College, which I have organized since 2014.
Archived sites (posts still available):
- My almost daily Stoic Meditations podcast (1,094 episodes).
- Philosophy as a Way of Life podcast with Rob Colter (37 episodes).
- Philosophy as a Way of Life on Medium (406 posts + some bonus ones).
- How to Be a Stoic, my personal guide to practical Stoicism for the 21st century (425 posts).
- Footnotes to Plato: essays on philosophy, science, and a bunch of other stuff (353 posts).
- Scientia Salon: essays on philosophy, science, and all interesting things in between (151 posts).
- Rationally Speaking: my first blog, which run from August 2005 to March 2014 (1,206 posts).
- The first 132 episodes of the Rationally Speaking podcast, which I initially co-hosted.