Dale Jamieson

Philosopher/Writer/Speaker

I’m Professor Emeritus of Environmental Studies and Philosophy at New York University, where I continue to serve as Affiliated Professor of Law, Medical Ethics, and Bioethics.  While at NYU I led the creation of the Department of Environmental Studies and the graduate program in Animal Studies, and was the Founding Director of the Center for Environmental and Animal Protection.  In the United States I have held appointments at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, Cornell University, Princeton University, Stanford University, the University of Oregon, North Carolina State University, Arizona State University, SUNY—Fredonia, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of California at San Diego;  in the United Kingdom at Oxford University and Kings College, London; in Australia at Monash University and the University of the Sunshine Coast; and in Italy. LUISS University.  Among the honors that I have received, I am most proud of the William R. Freudenburg Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences.

Now here’s a taste of the real story.  I grew up in a working class neighborhood in San Diego, and my primary ambition was to spend as much time in the ocean as possible.  None of my parents finished high school (though the father who raised me got a GED after returning from World War II).  I benefited enormously from the educational opportunities offered by the Lutheran Church, and then later from the system of almost free public higher education that existed in California in the 1960s.  I discovered philosophy in an ethics class offered by Anita Silvers at San Francisco State, and fell in love with the discipline as a whole from Marx to Quine.  As a graduate student I was taught ethics and political philosophy by W.D. Falk, and everything else by Paul Ziff.  I didn’t realize at the time how amazing and eccentric this trinity was, even by the normal standards of philosophy (please do click on the links). I began my professional life as a philosopher of language, but my enthusiasms soon outran the limits of the discipline.  Notable moments on my path include meeting ethicists Tom Regan and Peter Singer, climate scientists Mickey Glantz, Steve Schneider and Warren Washington, and biologist Marc Bekoff.  Many others have helped along the way. You can find out what I’ve thought and written about over the years by clicking around on this site.  What I’m mostly thinking about these days is what it is to be me (or anyone), having discovered late in life that I am not who I thought I was.  This has opened a window on some incredible characters, and what for me is a new way of understanding some of the history of the twentieth century.  It has also brought me back to one of the questions that has obsessed me for most of my life:  what is love, and how does it persist through good times and bad?

In case you want more professional stuff, here's a link to my CV.

And by the way, below is a picture of Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve, where I have spent many of the happiest days of my life.