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I am Affiliate Professor of
Philosophy and a member of the
Faculty of
the Department of Philosophy of The Pennsylvania State University and of the
Faculty of the Fayette Campus in Uniontown.
Philosophy is the
pursuit of knowledge -- roughly, justified true belief -- that is basic
in the sense of being presupposed by or beyond the reach of the more specific
disciplines. Virtually everyone raises philosophical questions -- e.g., a famous
artist in a profound painting -- and many of us do seek justified
answers to them. Philosophy -- as well as its name -- was invented, in the
West, by Socrates,
and reached early peaks with Plato and Aristotle.
In modern philosophy,
which started in the 17th century, one of the most important and
original figures is the philosopher in whom I have come to specialize, Immanuel Kant.
Even though many of his views no longer hold up to scrutiny, the immense power
of his intellect continues to amaze those who study his works. For more
information on this philosopher, please travel further down this page, and also
see my page of philosophy links.
A modern philosopher
of a very different cast is Friedrich Nietzsche,
known for his original and iconoclastic views, many of which I deeply share,
even as I find others quite objectionable. For more information, view the curriculum vitae
of Weaver
Santaniello, my good friend and colleague at Penn State's Berks Campus. Weaver there lists, among
other works, her Nietzsche, God, and the Jews, a very illuminating book
about Nietzsche, in which she clearly establishes, for example, that his
objectionable views definitely do not include antisemitism, but that, on
the contrary, Nietzsche was an anti-antisemite.
To find out more
about philosophy, please visit my page of philosophy links by clicking
anywhere inside this box:
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To find out more
about me as a philosopher, please browse through this page or use these
shortcuts:
Basic professional data
Areas of expertise and interest
Main specialty and publications
Other
specialties
Additional areas of competence and
interest
Courses
taught at Penn State - Fayette, Fall
Courses taught at Penn State - Fayette, Spring
Concluding
advice concerning Kant
To Werner
Pluhar's personal page
Back to Werner
Pluhar's homepage
Email: WPluhar@psu.edu
To Evelyn Pluhar's website
To Werner
Pluhar's experimental pages
- Name: Werner Schrutka Pluhar
- Title: Affiliate Professor of Philosophy
- Email: WPluhar@psu.edu
- Website: http://www.personal.psu.edu/wsp5/
- Office Address: 112 Williams Bldg., Pennsylvania State University -
Fayette, The Eberly Campus, University Drive, Uniontown, PA, 15401-0519
- Office Phone: 724-430-4249
- Office Fax: 724-430-4184
- Undergraduate Degree: B.A. in philosophy,
University of California, Berkeley
- Graduate Degree: Ph.D. in philosophy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
- Foreign Languages:
- Ancient: Greek, Latin
- Modern: German (native
speaker), French, Spanish, Italian; and reading knowledge of Portuguese,
Dutch, Russian
AREAS
OF EXPERTISE AND INTEREST
MAIN SPECIALTY AND PUBLICATIONS
Main specialty:
Immanuel
Kant (1724-1804).
Main publications:
New, annotated
translation of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Judgment
of 1790, including Kant's First Introduction to the work. Translated and
introduced by Werner S. Pluhar. Foreword by Mary J. Gregor. Editorial
notes by Werner S. Pluhar. Indianapolis and Cambridge, Mass.:
Hackett Publishing Company, 1987. 688 pp.; 641 notes; extensive
bibliography; German-English glossary;100-pp. analytical index with
English-German translations.
New,
annotated translation of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
of 1781 and 1787 (first and second original editions). Translated by Werner S.
Pluhar. Introduced by Patricia W. Kitcher. Editorial notes by Werner S. Pluhar
and James W. Ellington. Indianapolis and Cambridge, Mass.: Hackett Publishing
Company, 1996. 1096 pp.; ca. 5000 notes; extensive bibliography; German-English
glossary; 188-pp. analytical index with English-German translations.
Abridgment of
my translation of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
Translated by Werner S. Pluhar. Abridged, with an introduction and an index, by
Eric Watkins. Indianapolis and Cambridge, Mass.: Hackett Publishing Company,
1999.
New,
annotated translation of Immanuel Kant's Critique of Practical Reason
of 1788. Translated by Werner S. Pluhar. Introduced by Stephen
Engstrom. Editorial notes by Werner S. Pluhar and James W.
Ellington. Indianapolis and Cambridge, Mass.: Hackett Publishing Company,
2002. Copious notes; extensive bibliography; German-English glossary;
analytical index with English-German translations.
Translation in
progress (text and notes completed, apparatus to follow):
New, annotated translation of
Immanuel Kant's Religion Within the Bounds of Bare Reason
of 1793. Under contract with Hackett Publishing Company of Indianapolis
and Cambridge, Mass. The translation itself is finished. To my delight,
Professor Stephen Palmquist, Hong Kong Baptist University, who is an expert in
precisely this area—in fact, it is he who convinced me, by pointing to solid
evidence in the book itself, to use Bare rather
than Mere in the title—has agreed to
write the introduction to this translation. I expect to complete the auxiliary
materials (preface, glossary, index, bibliography) in the summer of 2008. Publication of the work is targeted for September
2009.
- Ethics - including Applied, especially Biomedical
- Aesthetics
- Asian Philosophies
ADDITIONAL AREAS OF COMPETENCE AND INTEREST
- Introduction to Philosophy
- History of Philosophy
- Traditional Logic, especially Applied
- Symbolic Logic
- Epistemology
- Metaphysics
- Philosophy of Mind
- Philosophy of Religion
- Phenomenology and Existentialism
COURSES TAUGHT at Penn State - Fayette, Fall 2007
- Phil 007 Asian Philosophies
- Phil 010 Critical Thinking and Argument
- Ger 003 Intermediate German
COURSES TAUGHT at Penn State - Fayette, Spring 2008
- Phil 007 Asian Philosophies
- Phil 010 Critical Thinking and Argument
- Phil 012 Symbolic Logic
CONCLUDING ADVICE CONCERNING
KANT
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Warning! |
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Reading Kant, even in a fine translation, can be a
harrowing
experience!
Back to the top of this page
To Werner
Pluhar's personal page
Back to Werner
Pluhar's homepage
To Evelyn Pluhar's website
Email: WPluhar@psu.edu
To Werner
Pluhar's experimental pages