Current Graduate Students

Judith Abeles

Email: ja_llm@yahoo.com

Carol Aguilar

Email: claguilar2003@yahoo.com

I fell in love with philosophy as a teenager when I discovered my most important question:  What is true?  Later my urgent questions became: Who am I?  How can I best contribute? I have pursued my questions wholeheartedly with books and friends, in nature, in family life, and through spiritual study. 

The accomplishments of which I am most proud are:  raising two wonderful children to adulthood, building my house with my own hands, hitch-hiking by myself over 5,000 miles up the coast and across the country, co-founding a Zen meditation center, and owning my own business for 25 years.       

Currently I am living in a three-generation household with my daughter and 86 year-old mother, whom I look after.  Half the week I work as a Buddhist minister teaching Zen meditation and classes in Buddhism.  I am also involved in prison ministry and peace activism.  At SDSU I hope to pursue how Zen meditation and practice can help to heal our world.  I am interested in Zazen as a learning environment for the study of the Self, and how freedom and liberation coexist with compassion and responsibility.

Nick Doenges

Greetings! I come from Minneapolis, Minnesota. My interests, in addition to philosophy, are travel, film, literature, and gustatory delights. I was awarded my BA in December 2005 from the University of Minnesota, having majored in philosophy. My favorite philosophical works are The Republic (Plato), A Theory of Justice (Rawls), and Brave New World (Huxley). Off the cuff, I’ll say I’m primarily interested in the relationship between the individual and his or her political and cultural environments. How, and to what degree, do (or should) these environments assist or inhibit the individual? Should an individual’s liberty or the group’s welfare be emphasized, and to what degree? Why does it seem plausible that Thoreau is correct when he says in Walden, “The mass of men live lives of quiet desperation”? It’s questions like these and my esteem for great minds and great ideas that compels me to study philosophy, and as far as social institutions are concerned, I consider universities fairly benign, and the life of a student to be largely devoid of quiet desperation, so I must say I’m pleased to be a graduate student at SDSU. 

Aaron Elliott

I was born and raised in Berkeley, California and, though I loved it, I promptly left to go to college at Northern Arizona University, in Flagstaff.  While at NAU, I became involved in many new activities ranging from backpacking and river rafting to philosophy.  I started my undergraduate career with a major in sociology, which lead me to be both a moral relativist and a determinist, two positions that were not held in high esteem by my fellow philosophy majors.  I would be perfectly happy to be dissuaded from either of these positions, but I have not come across sufficiently powerful arguments as of yet.  These are currently the two issues that I find to be most pressing.  The faculty at NAU were extremely supportive, encouraging me to present a paper in a conference on Ancient philosophy (hosted by NAU, and where I met Dr. Mark Wheeler), as well as providing the opportunity for me to have three essays published in the department student journal.  I always enjoy discussing other people's work as well as receiving feedback on my own.  I am really eager to take my studies to this next level as I work towards admittance into a PHD program, and eventually a tenure track position. 

Matthew Hebert

Originally from outside Boston, I completed my BA in philosophy in 1999 from Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, PA. After stepping away from the classroom
for a number of years, I returned to pursue my MA in 2006 and tentatively aim to complete the program in fall 2008.

My areas of interest include logic, ontology, existentialism, aesthetics, a-theology, the philosophy of biology and post-structuralism (especially in regards to women’s studies and gender theory). Additionally, I have a strong interest in film theory and colonial and 19th-century American history with an emphasis on the Civil War.

My favorite and/or influential philosophers include Nietzsche, Georges Bataille, Bertrand Russell, Wittgenstein, Heidegger, Judith Butler and Kerry S.Walters.

Aside from intellectual pursuits, my hobbies include photography, seeing films, suffering existentially, sleeping, hanging out at the beach, traveling, seeing and soaking up new places when I can.

In addition to being a student, I'm also employed as an enrollment counselor for undergraduate and graduate admissions to SDSU. If you are reading this as a prospective student (for Philosophy or any other program), please do not hesitate to contact me at the email address above for more information.

Jeff Hein

I entered the graduate program in philosophy one and half years after receiving my MS in Homeland Security at San Diego State University. My entire academic life has been devoted my career in Federal Law enforcement. I nevertheless decided it was time to study what truly interests me from an intellectual point of view. My interests are in the area of applied ethics, including just war theory, law enforcement, and, my true passion, animal philosophy. My research interest focuses on the question of whether or not certain animals should be accorded special moral status inasmuch as they are vulnerable beings and have the ability to suffer.

David Kuttruff

Email: dk777@verizon.net

I am currently back in school after having developed and built a successful business involving medical billing services and software systems for physicians.  Now I plan to do primarily what I want to do rather than what is economically expedient and practical.  I have attended seven different
undergraduate schools over the years - including CSU Humboldt, Cal Poly, and SDSU.  I plan to teach philosophy and comparative religion at the community college level after earning my MA.  A bit late in the game to go for a PhD, but who knows!?  I am particularly interested in ancient philosophy. Though certainly a novice at this point, I still find Plato more inspiring and thought-provoking than the modern philosophers that I have studied . . . but quite open and willing to be proved wrong.

Leonard Pollard

Email : lenpollard@hotmail.com

I was born and raised in San Diego and due to its proximity to the beach and traditionally good weather, I spent more time at the beach and outdoors than I did at school. In turn, I ended up at Grossmont Jr. college floating between literature and history courses when I ran into a Nietzsche-loving teacher and a copy of The Gay Science. The question marks that this book raised for me began to light up a long familiar world, and an interest quickly transformed into an obsession. After transferring to SDSU, I began to study philosophy in depth and then graduated cum laude with a B.A. in Philosophy and also as a member of Phi Betta Kappa.

I have, of course, developed other interests outside of Nietzsche studies. I am also interested in Ancient Greek philosophy (for which I am learning Attic Greek), aesthetics, Hegel, and phenomenology. However, with the recent discovery of Baudrillard and Umberto Eco, I have become drawn towards post-structuralism.

George F. Schieck

Email: gschieck@cox.net

My primary philosophical interest is axiology (ethics & aesthetics, economics, math, etc.), and especially the question of whether "value" might be inherent to something or anything, rather than (or in addition to) a property resulting from external associations and/or relationships.  Previous academic work includes: BA in philosophy (W.Va. Wesleyan, 1973); MA in religious studies (Boston University, 1978); MA in international relations (Naval Postgraduate School, 1992, double major in Far East/China and Middle East/Israel).

During the interval since Boston I flew for the Navy and my various assignments included duty in Japan (2 years), Saudi Arabia (1 year), and postings elsewhere in the Middle East (Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar).  Most recently I participated in the working groups that developed USN’s new Maritime Strategy and was the senior Fleet Rep for designing new doctrine on Operational Assessment (i.e.: what variables are important for planning and operating).  From 2002-06 I taught introductory undergraduate classes in Philosophy, Government, World Religions, and Basic Math.

My favorite philosopher is Kant.  The philosopher with whom I am probably most familiar is Bertrand Russell.  Other philosophers whom I respect and enjoy include Hume, Spinoza, Nietzsche, Whitehead, Peirce, Teilhard de Chardin, and Frege.  A philosopher whom I should try to understand is Plato.

Jeff Sharpless

Email:portlandsocrates@gmail.com

My study of philosophy began in 1994, while studying psychology at Southern Oregon University. At the time, my interest was to understand human nature. Many of the questions I asked of my professors were about the nature of self and belief, which inevitably elicited the defensive response, “Those are philosophical questions the field of psychology has already answered.” Unconvinced, I studied sociology, psychology, and philosophy. After receiving my B.S. in Psychology and a 56 credit minor in philosophy from Southern, I attended Oregon State University as a graduate student to study biomedical ethics. Upon finishing my coursework at OSU, the amazing opportunity to teach my own courses at Southern arose and for about three years I taught Introduction to Philosophy and Introduction to Ethics with the chance to teach upper division History of Philosophy and Moral Theory in my last year. During this time, I also worked in the psychological field with mentally ill youth. In the years that followed, my OSU thesis lay unfinished and the fortunes of parenthood blessed me two more times. Last year, my family and I moved to lovely San Diego from Portland Oregon to attend SDSU. I am currently in my second year of the MA and preparing to apply to PhD programs.

My areas of interest are moral philosophy, bioethics, political philosophy, history of philosophy – Classical (Plato & Aristotle), Hellenistic (Epicureans, Stoics, and skeptics), and Modern (Rationalist & Empiricists). Frankly, there is no aspect of philosophy that does not interest me.

My thesis is tentatively titled, “When is Evil: Secular Theories of Evil”
  
Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.
-  Marcus Aurelius

Tim Sparks

Email: taspar@gmail.com

Although I have never lived anywhere for more than four and a half years, I like to say that I am originally from Michigan.  In keeping with the sojourner theme, I attended college in Ohio at Cedarville University, studying philosophy.  While there, I had the inspiring opportunity to study at the University of Oxford.  I was an associate student at Keble College in Fall 2001 and an associate student at Trinity College in Spring 2003.  I credit my time there with reviving my philosophical interests, which are chiefly metaphysics and the philosophy of religion.  My time at Oxford also resulted in a lifelong love of libraries and all things English.  After graduating, I joined the US Marine Corps.  I would like to think that I am not your typical Marine, especially when it comes to my philosophical positions, but I would also like to point out that some of the greatest philosophers in history, did, at one time or another, serve in the military (Wittgenstein and Descartes).  Just as the experiences of many philosophers and authors in World War I greatly influenced their "worldview," so my time in Iraq had a strong impact on the way I view the world.  Ultimately, my goal is to become a professor of philosophy and spend loads of time in a library somewhere doing research and writing.  Unless you are a philosopher, that probably sounds insane, but to me it sounds like paradise.  For now, I am happy to be in California and at SDSU, and my wife and two children love it here too.

Tonya Warren

Email: toncha787@yahoo.com

I discovered my love of philosophy through the Martial Arts. The Korean art Soo Bahk Do derives its philosophy from Lao Tzu. After several years of training, a mentor gave me a copy of the Dao De Jing. Needless to say, it opened a whole new world to me, and I have been in love ever since.

Before coming to SDSU, I attended San Diego City, and Mesa Colleges focusing on Sociology. I changed my major to philosophy my first semester and SDSU, and earned my BA in May of 07. I am working on the Master’s degree in anticipation of being admitted to a Ph.D. program. Ultimately, I would like to become a Professor.

My academic interests are wide but include Eastern thought, especially Daoism and Buddhism. Within this emphasis I am doing comparative work, and looking at contemporary applications of Eastern philosophy. Some of my comparative work will be contrasting Buddhist doctrines with that of Existentialist thinkers such as Kierkegaard. Contemporary applications I have looked at are the effects of meditation on the brain and how that can be applied to treat maladaptive behaviors, as well as research on the philosophy of the Martial Arts. I am working on developing a course on the philosophy of the martial arts, but it will probably be a while…

I was recently (spring 2009) awarded the Fulbright Scholarship, and will be going to Taiwan to study a Buddhist drug rehabilitation program in a prison there for one year on a full research grant. Also, in March 2009 I was invited to present at the Uehiro Cross Currents Philosophy conference in Hawaii and was awarded Best Presenter. I'm not one to brag, but I look at it as a success for the whole dept! I also got the paper on Sartre published in Pandemonium. I wrote the paper for Professor Atterton’s Phil 508: Existentialism class. Amazing, I know, it wasn't that great in retrospect (the paper not the class : )).