David Skrbina
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David Skrbina (born June 11, 1960) is an American activist and philosopher, a pioneer of ecophilosophy. He stood for the office of Lieutenant Governor for the U.S. state of Michigan as the Green Party candidate in 2006, as the running mate of Douglas Campbell.
Contents
Early life and education
Skrbina was born and raised in the Detroit area. In 1993 he received his master’s degree in mathematics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He attended the University of Bath, gaining a doctorate in philosophy there in 2001. He is currently a professor of philosophy at the University of Michigan's Dearborn campus.
Career
He has developed an ecologically-centered worldview encompassing ethics, metaphysics, and cosmology. He is Deputy Director of the Eco-Philosophy Center. He has been active in the University of Michigan calling for divestment from Israel.[1]
Skrbina published his first book, Panpsychism in the West (ISBN 0-262-19522-4), in 2005. Addressing the themes of historical acceptance of panpsychism, its treatment in contemporary scientific and academic discussions, and the ethical implications of panpsychism, the book was well received by critics.[2][3]
Skrbina has also edited an anthology of panpsychist writings, Mind That Abides: Panpsychism in the New Millennium (Benjamins, 2009).
Skrbina has been in correspondence with Ted Kaczynski (aka the Unabomber) since 2003.[4] He helped compile Kaczynski's book Technological Slavery in 2010. Skrbina has stated that he aims to separate Kaczynski's crimes from his academic arguments and pints out that a similar ethical dilemma faces an individualshould they decide it is justified to kill someone as that which faces a government.[5] Skrbina includes discussions of Kaczynski's views in his classes.[6]
His most recent work includes a ground-breaking and critical analysis of technology. On Skrbina's view, technology is an evolutionary process that operates with the force of natural law. It is universal in extent, encompassing much more than mere human-made technological devices. Only such a conception, he argues, can explain its autonomous advance in the world. As such, technology is a profound threat to both humanity and the planet. See The Metaphysics of Technology (Routledge, 2015).
Selected publications
- Faculty Perspective: On the Question of Divestment from Israel/Palestine.
- "Participation, Organization, and Mind: Toward a Participatory Worldview", Doctoral Thesis, Centre for Action Research in Professional Practice, School of Management, University of Bath: England, 2001.
- "Panpsychism as an Underlying Theme in Western Philosophy: A Survey Paper" in Journal of Consciousness Studies Volume 10, No. 3, March 2003.
- Panpsychism in the West (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2005), ISBN 0-262-19522-4.
- "A Revolutionary for our Times." Published as Introduction to Technological Slavery: The Collected Writings of Theodore J. Kaczynski, a.k.a. The Unabomber (Port Townswend, WA: Feral House 2010), ISBN 1-932595-80-5
- The Metaphysics of Technology (Routledge, 2015), ISBN 978-0-415-71662-8
See also
References
- ↑ U of M-Dearborn student government demands divestment from Israel
- ↑ Review at Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.
- ↑ Review at Metapsychology Online Reviews.
- ↑ Quinn, Melissa (23 May 2012). "Michigan professor: Unabomber Ted Kaczynski ‘potentially a kind of savior’". The Daily Caller. http://dailycaller.com/2012/05/23/michigan-professor-unabomber-ted-kaczynski-potentially-a-kind-of-savior/. Retrieved 19 January 2015.
- ↑ Adams, Guy (2010). "Unabomber aims for best-seller with green book". The Independent.
- ↑ Young, Jeffery (2012). The Unabomber's Pen Pal. http://chronicle.com/article/The-Unabombers-Pen-Pal/131892/. Retrieved 18 January 2015.
External links
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