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Further education Some Coursera, Udacity courses. Reading books, listening to podcasts, etc.
Favorite courses at Berkeley Oh so many. I didn't do uniformly well in these, but Mancosu's intermediate logic, MacFarlane's philosophical logic, Yalcin's form and meaning, Holliday's modal logic, Skokowski's philosophy of science were some of my favorites. It all started with Roush's intro to logic where I realized I love logic
Favorite professors Holliday, MacFarlane, Mancosu, Sluga, Roush, Buchak, among others. Also had so many great PhD students who've helped and inspired me: Justin Bledin, Justin Vlasits, Richard Lawrence, Tamar Lando, among many others.
How has your philosophical training influenced your life and career? I like to think because of my training in philosophy I'm able to put myself in different contexts, understand the assumptions, think about possibilities. Validity is what has always interested me, whether something follows from assumptions. Truth is important, but not as interesting to me. I care about people and their stories and experiences, even if they don't entirely match reality.
Any current engagement with philosophy? I have not
Email hunan131@gmail.com
Web http://hunan.io
Further education N/A
Favorite courses at Berkeley Philosophy of Mind, Perception, and Metaphysics
How has your philosophical training influenced your life and career? I continue to draw from concepts explored during my philosophical training at UC Berkeley in my art, particularly those of phenomenology, naive realism, and eternalism. I hope to continue my philosophical study of these concepts through a graduate program in the near future.
Email mweigel@berkeley.edu
Email julianetrapse@berkeley.edu
Further education Master of Divinity, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Current MPhil in Theology (Christian Ethics) student at the University of Oxford.
Favorite courses at Berkeley Philosophy of Religion, Ancient Philosophy, Ethical Theories, Medieval Philosophy, Heidegger.
Favorite professors Lara Buchak, Tim Crockett, Kristin Primus.
How has your philosophical training influenced your life and career? The philosophical questions, traditions, and training I encountered at Berkeley (along with a certain "philosophical spirit") helped to lead me to my current vocation in academic theology. Theologian David Bentley Hart, in his description of theology as a "pitilessly demanding discipline," mentioned that one of the qualifications of a "properly trained Christian theologian" should be a "thorough philosophical training." In this way my philosophical education very directly prepared me for my career in theology.
Any current engagement with philosophy? Since the boundaries between theology and philosophy are rather porous and contested, I often work through undeniably philosophical texts (e.g. Aristotle, Wittgenstein, Kant) in the course of my studies.
Email nathanielhodson@gmail.com
Further education Perhaps a Masters in Education or History in the future!
Favorite courses at Berkeley Phil 2, 108, and 117AC
Favorite professors Prof. Clarke, Prof. Campbell GSIs of exception: Tyler Haddow, Jes Heppler
How has your philosophical training influenced your life and career? Studying Philosophy gave me the opportunity to understand, comprehend, and question current and political events on a deeper philosophical and analytical level. Being able to think critically on both sides of an issue is proving more important given our already polarized society.
Any current engagement with philosophy? Given that I teach Ethnic Studies to High School students, many of the curricula that I have learned about in Phil. of Race, Ethnicity, and Citizenship come to play!
Email xavierliubcp2017@berkeley.edu
Further education Theology studies at General Theological Seminary (NYC) The University of the South (Sewanee, TN) and Yale Divinity School
Favorite professors Paul Feyerabend; Wallace Matson; Karl Popper (visiting 1962) and, yes, John Searle. Both Feyerabend and Searle were my faculty advisors.
How has your philosophical training influenced your life and career? Large. Learned how to think coherently and ask probing questions.
Any current engagement with philosophy? Yes. Largely informally but with an lifelong interest in Wittgenstein, especially his remarks on religion and the meaning of life. Others: William James; D.Z. Phillips; Ralph Waldo Emerson; Marcus Borg; Norman Malcolm; Rush Rhees and David Hume.
Email MICHAEL.CRAIN.COLLINS@GMAIL.COM
Further education I completed a single subject teaching credential program at San Jose State (English).
Favorite courses at Berkeley Philosophy of Mind, Aesthetics, Spinoza, and Plato were among my favorite courses.
Favorite professors Niko Kolodny, Alva Noë, Geoffrey Lee, Tim Crockett, and Klaus Corcilius.
How has your philosophical training influenced your life and career? Philosophy taught me how to write and critically think. As a sports journalist, those are two skills that you really need. It's also helped me craft interesting questions to athletes and coaches. I've found it to be one of the best majors to study for journalism. UC Berkeley's philosophy department did a fantastic job preparing me. In education, I feel like I've been able to better connect with the students I've taught because of the great professors I had at UC Berkeley. A lot of the methods they used with me have been effective with my students as well. Lastly, since graduation, I've found an interest in studying Asian languages: Chinese and Japanese. I think studying symbolic logic has really helped with that as logic introduced me to reading symbolic based languages, which is the foundation of both Chinese and Japanese writing due to all the characters that they use. That's been a fun connection to see as well.
Email ben.parker406@berkeley.edu
Further education For life-support, I worked in industry, but I continued to read philosophy when conditions and energy would permit. I was unable to get reading materials through customs in Saudi Arabia; in a bookstore I passed selling romantic fiction for women in Al Kobar (nothing at all graphic), I wondered why all the women were dressed in black evening gowns that covered arms and legs. Closer inspection showed that the standard black was magic-marker covering any exposed skin. In Singapore, I saw the film Chinatown and was baffled by it for years after, until I happened to see it again and realized that all the scenes that had anything to do with incest had been cut out. Travel per se as education by direct experience is disappointing since, as one might expect, getting past what reflects light in experience, i.e., what accounts for the form of observed content, leads an observer to the realization that he understands little, or wrongly, what is causally happening. At some point, I was driven to the conclusion that my employers were robbing me of the best hours of my days and the best years of my life. I had left UCB with the thought I might return to do graduate work or law after a break from the general state of chaotic agitation on, and all around the 1970's social-action campus. Instead of returning to higher education, I ended up living twenty years in France.
Favorite courses at Berkeley I have mostly been able to follow the courses of Mike Martin recently. I sat in on Barry Stroud's courses on perception, knowledge and mind. Barry was very kind with over-the-hill groupies happily lost far away from a golf course. I continue to see a hole in space where Barry lacks matter but not energy.
Favorite professors Mike Martin, John Campbell, Burt Dreyfus, Katharina Kaiser, Hannah Ginsborg, Hans Sluga, John MacFarlane. These are persons I have had some contact with.
How has your philosophical training influenced your life and career? Even if I did not follow a career path in academic philosophy, since returning to Berkeley in 2011 at age 65, I have come to appreciate more than I anticipated the work of the kind professors who permit me to audit courses and seminars. A graduate seminar with Mike Martin, John Campbell or Barry Stroud provided enough follow up reading for a whole year.
Any current engagement with philosophy? I certainly continue to challenge my thinking following new developments that have freed me somewhat from the seductive charm of Wittgenstein unconditioned by enriching nuance. That said, the role of seduction in philosophy explains why it's richer reading Plato putting words in Socrates' mouth than it is studying an assembly instructions for putting together a bed frame. Searle disappointed me somewhat—very edifyingly—when he refused to even hear me out about the great cost of assuming realism and a physical world composed of particles going about in fields of force. I'm more and more inclined to keep matter tied to energy: what is the case seems hopelessly abstract without considering where it is the case. I also keep thinking that biology imposed autonomy plays a much bigger role in experience than it is given credit for. But, I'm ready to be shocked once more into the realization I've missed something completely.
Email mikecassady23@gmail.com
Favorite courses at Berkeley Ethics, Philosophy of Mind, Descartes, Nietzsche
Favorite professors Sluga, Kolodny, Searle
Email aaron.wasserman@berkeley.edu
Favorite professors Samuel Shepherd, John Searle, Donald Davidson, Barry Stroud
How has your philosophical training influenced your life and career? excellent training in rigorous reasoning
Email cxssf@yahoo.com
Further education Masters in Theology (focus in Old Testament)
Favorite courses at Berkeley Philosophy of the Mind, Ethics, and Philosophy of Language.
Favorite professors Searle, Wallace, and MacFarlane.
How has your philosophical training influenced your life and career? Careful attention to how we use words. Thorough analysis of arguments both ones I pose and those offered by others. Better at reading and comprehending difficult texts.
Any current engagement with philosophy? My Masters in Theology is traditionally a branch of Philosophy. But also informally engaging in everyday conversations about God and the state of the world, in the Socratic tradition.
Email melkaashur@gmail.com
Further education Philosophy has broadly informed my own subsequent teaching of professional development courses, for example at UC Santa Cruz Extension and in the LLNL Education Program.
Favorite courses at Berkeley Philosophy and history of science, philosophy of mathematics
How has your philosophical training influenced your life and career? My Philosophy Ph.D. launched a satisfying, interdisciplinary, impactful career, first in user support and documentation at USDOE's National Energy Research Supercomputer Center, then as editor-in-chief of an international journal sponsored by a cross-disciplinary organization (Assoc. for Computing Machinery), and finally as leader of a social justice project that brings practical literacy skills to underperforming K-12 students through teacher workshops and online support.
Email trgirill@gmail.com
Peter Speliopoulos
BA 1979
Marketing and communications (Marketing Manager, Industrial Internet of Things at Xerox PARC)
BA 1979
Marketing and communications (Marketing Manager, Industrial Internet of Things at Xerox PARC)
Favorite courses at Berkeley Philosophy of language; philosophy of mind; history of philosophy, particularly Spinoza; Hume; and later Wittgenstein)
Favorite professors John Searle; Wallace I. Matson; and Barry Stroud
How has your philosophical training influenced your life and career? More to come!
Any current engagement with philosophy? More to come!
Email speliopoulos@berkeley.edu
Further education Law Degree, Advanced courses in Mediation, and Negotiation
Favorite courses at Berkeley While I must admit that I don't remember the exact courses I took, I know that I cared deeply about logic, political philosophy, ethics, Wittgenstein, and phenomenology.
Favorite professors I can't recall most of my professors, but I remember John Searle as a favorite.
How has your philosophical training influenced your life and career? My Philosophical training was the best foundation that I could have to understand the law and ethics. I have been very involved in the highest levels of government, including as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Obama administration, the Chair of the Federal Election Commission, and the Chair of the California Fair Political Practices Commission. Philosophy made me aware of the importance of various ethical issues as well as the importance of analysis of issues and the ability to think about issues in new ways.
Any current engagement with philosophy? I have continued the study of philosophy by revisiting many of the books that I read as a student.
Further education Cognitive Science, MA (University of Helsinki, 2022); Philosophy, PhD (University of Helsinki, in progress).
Favorite courses at Berkeley Chinese Philosophy, Spinoza, Theory of Meaning
How has your philosophical training influenced your life and career? I think about topics in philosophy every day.
Any current engagement with philosophy? I continued my study of philosophy in an MA program in Cognitive Science (University of Helsinki) with a philosophically-oriented thesis, and in my current position as a doctoral researcher in philosophy at University of Helsinki.
Favorite courses at Berkeley Philosophy of the Mind and Aristotle
Favorite professors John Searle and a visiting professor whose name I no longer remember who taught a class on Aristotle
How has your philosophical training influenced your life and career? Philosophy gave me a broader perspective for viewing the world, and also set into focus which problems deserved more attention.
Any current engagement with philosophy? I read a lot and in a wide variety.
Email brian@brianmascarenhas.com
Further education As a result of a serious illness, I had to leave Berkely and spent three months at UCSF. That experience increased my interest in health care. I received a BSN from UCSF after healing and specialized in wound and ostomy care. When I was unable to work I want back to UCB and received an MBA and an MPH in 1984 - which was, for me, a mistake since that was not where my heart was.
Favorite courses at Berkeley Hubert Dreyfus changed my life with Husserl, Kierkegaard, and the Nazi professor Martin Heidegger. Paul Feyerabend married science and philosophy and it helped me to understand that even the truths by which we choose to live have their own pitfalls.
Favorite professors Hubert Dreyfus, Paul Feyerabend, and the philosophers of the Vienna Circle - there was a wonderful professor who was close to Moritz Schlick and I cannot recall his name - So Logical Positivism was also something that kept me going as well.
How has your philosophical training influenced your life and career? My philosophical training has meant a great deal to me. It influcenced my approach to patient care (which is to be human and not hide behind a stethascope), it helped me to work with hospice patients such that life and death were always at the edges of everything. I felt that sharing space with those who are dying can be a very good service and a source of enormous gratitude. I'm a lucky guy cause I took philosophy - and it appears that I have managed to survive my death ... so far.
Any current engagement with philosophy? I almost always continue to read philosophy. I am most involved in the ethics of health care and normally read medical journals relating to life and death decisions. But my interests go further. For me, great literature is often great philosophy. I read the Man Without Qualities twice, completed all of Proust, and I am now focusing on the philosophy of the stoicism.
Email valterescu@gmail.com
Dominic Lusinchi
BA 1973
Retired independent social research consultant and instructor at UCB Extension
BA 1973
Retired independent social research consultant and instructor at UCB Extension
Further education Ph.D. Sociology, University of Paris, Paris VIII: Vincennes-Saint-Denis; Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies, Sociology, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris; Diploma, Sociology, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris
Favorite courses at Berkeley History and philosophy of science
How has your philosophical training influenced your life and career? Provided a broad training in research and writing and introduced me to a wide range of thinkers. It allowed me to find a more specialized field of study: sociology.
Any current engagement with philosophy? Peripherally. For instance, if I am studying a topic in sociology (e.g., emotions) which has also been studied by philosophers (e.g., Sartre).
Email dominicl@berkeley.edu
Further education J.D.
Favorite courses at Berkeley Heidegger taught by Professor Hubert Dreyfus Wittgenstein taught by Professor Barry Stroud
Email amir.khedmati@berkeley.edu
Further education Physics and architecture
Favorite courses at Berkeley Philosophy of Mind, Logic, Existentialism…
Favorite professors George Myro & John Searle
Email cherylhoppe@berkeley.edu
Further education Certificates in Data Science and Project Management
Favorite courses at Berkeley 12A Intro to Logic Intro to Modal Reasoning Intermediate Logic Plato
Favorite professors Holliday and Mancosu
How has your philosophical training influenced your life and career? I view business and management as applied philosophy. Profits are a logical consequence of having the right systems in place. Business is also fundamentally normative. Ethical dilemmas left and right. The logic and critical thinking skills I learned through the philosophy program play a major role in how I view the world and live my life. I'm till searching for Eudaimonia.
Any current engagement with philosophy? I still pursue self study on a regular basis. I usually have a philosophical book or two open at any given time.
Email ekbautista@gmail.com
Further education Master's in Critical Pedagogy
Favorite courses at Berkeley Heidegger, Hume, Ethical Theories, Ancient... I'm sure there are others!
Favorite professors Michael Martin, Timothy Crockett, Katharina Kaiser, Hans Sluga, R. Jay Wallace
How has your philosophical training influenced your life and career? With philosophy, I feel as though I'm continually caught in a trance of worldly wonder. There is so much that I don't know, things I will never know (like how to pay off student loans!), and so much to be gained through the pursuit itself. I thank philosophy for its ability to consistently illuminate my life and place into new light that which is often ordinary.
Any current engagement with philosophy? I am currently completing a master's program in critical pedagogy, which requires continued study of critical theory and the Frankfurt School of thought. But I think most of my engagement with philosophy is an informal re-engagement with previous books, papers, and intellectual figures!
Email im_confused@berkeley.edu
Favorite professors John Searle
How has your philosophical training influenced your life and career? In the midst of an aerospace engineering career, I pursued a prior interest in artificial intelligence to become a practitioner of AI. This proved interesting as a practical test to add to my understanding of the philosophical issues of minds and machines.
Any current engagement with philosophy? Followed the more popular books on philosophy of mind (Nagel, Dennett, Searle, Alva Noe).
Email peter.fargo@alum.calberkeley.org
Further education Law
Favorite courses at Berkeley Heidegger, Nietzsche, Later Wittgenstein
Favorite professors Hubert Dreyfus, Hans Sluga, Barry Stroud
Email cameron.jcmackenzie@gmail.com