Philosophy Faculty and Staff

Thaddeus Robinson ‌ Department Chair Professor of Philosophy Moyer Hall 307 Phone: (484)664-3071

Background

B.A., Luther College
M.A., Northern Illinois University
Ph.D., Purdue University

Thaddeus “Tad” Robinson joined Muhlenberg’s faculty in 2007. Robinson’s academic and teaching interests fall into three main categories. The first category is Applied Epistemology and the Ethics of Information. Robinson has explored this interest through two different first-year seminars (“Persuasion, Manipulation, Deception” and “Ignorance”) both of which focus on the relations between knowledge and power.  In addition, he served as the Director for the Center for Ethics programming series “Influence and Information” in 2015-16, and directed the Dana Forum programming for the theme “Troubling Truth” in 2017-8. Moreover, he is the author of the Open Textbook Arguments in Context: An Introduction to Critical Thinking. The text is available at https://open.muhlenberg.pub/arguments-in-context/. The second category is 17^thand 18^thcentury European philosophy with an emphasis on the philosophical system of Baruch Spinoza. Robinson regularly teaches a course in Modern Philosophy, and has taught senior seminars on Spinoza, as well as on systems of David Hume and Thomas Reid. Robinson’s published work on Spinoza has appeared in the History of Philosophy Quarterly, Dialogue, and the Journal of Modern Philosophy. A third category of academic interest and teaching is the philosophy of religion from a global perspective. Robinson regularly teaches Philosophy of Religion, and has taught iterations of this course with faculty from Religion Studies. He is currently developing a course called “Problems of Evil,” and his publications in the philosophy of religion have appeared in Religious Studies and Sophia.