Thomas F. Wall
Chair, Department of Philosophy; Professor of Philosophy
Office Hours
Office: Administration Building, Room 452
Office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:15 a.m.-10:45 a.m., 12:15 p.m.-1:15 p.m.; by appointment also
Education
Ph.D., M.A., Boston College; B.S., College of the Holy Cross
Bio
Professor Wall received his Ph.D. from Boston College in 1970. His special areas of interest are ethics (especially applied ethics) and the philosophy of mind. Recently he has been interested in how critical thinking skills might more explicitly be interwoven with philosophical content, so that students learn how to think well as they attempt to solve philosophical problems.
Courses I Teach
- PHIL1101 - Problems of Philosophy
- PHIL1115 - Recent Moral Issues
- PHIL2104 - Theories of Human Nature
- PHIL2105 - Ancient and Medieval Philosophy
Publications + Presentations
- Thomas F. Wall, Thinking Critically About Philosophical Problems. Wadsworth, 2001.
- Thomas F. Wall, Thinking Critically About Moral Problems. Wadsworth, 2002.
- Thomas F. Wall, Theories of Human Nature. Wadsworth, 2005
Research Focus
The result of his research has been the three textbooks referred to below - books that have had a very positive reception in the philosophical community. Professor Wall's latest book is on human nature. Understanding what sorts of beings we are and why we behave as we do has always been at the center of the philosophical enterprise, though there has been surprisingly little written on how the central questions of philosophy - questions of reality, knowledge, good and evil, God, free will and the meaning of life - all may be understood in relation to this central subject.
