{"id":271,"date":"2020-02-24T16:07:40","date_gmt":"2020-02-24T21:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transy.edu\/academics\/faculty\/pfosl\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T11:52:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T15:52:21","slug":"pfosl","status":"publish","type":"faculty","link":"https:\/\/www.transy.edu\/academics\/faculty\/pfosl\/","title":{"rendered":"Fosl, Peter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Peter S. Fosl is a past winner of the Acorn Award as Kentucky\u2019s outstanding professor. As a teacher, he strives to make sure students are involved in the class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Teaching is to some extent creating lovers. The word philosophy means love of wisdom. So there\u2019s a kind of love of learning and inquiry and reflection that I try to ignite in students.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve found that teaching is not just about conveying a body of information, but it\u2019s cultivating certain passions and sentiments in the students, so that students find the material interesting, important, and something they can invest their own passions in,\u201d he says. \u201cOne thing that is delightful and very satisfying to me is to see that passion for learning take root in students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Fosl\u2019s two-year Bingham-Young Professorship on Liberty, Security, and Justice brought prominent guest speakers who focused the Transylvania community on heightened issues of liberty, security, and justice in the era following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve devoted a great deal of my professional energy to coming to terms with the history of western philosophy,\u201d Fosl says. \u201cI think understanding where we\u2019ve been, how we got where we are, and perhaps what we\u2019ve mistakenly left behind is essential to a strong education and a life of reflection.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns faculty-accolades is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Academic History<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Ph.D., Emory University, 1992<br>M.A., Emory University, 1990<br>B.A., Bucknell University, 1985<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Courses Taught at Transy<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>History of Early Modern Philosophy<br>Environmental Philosophy<br>Practical Logic<br>Just War Theory<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Areas of Specialization<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>David Hume<br>Skepticism<br>Early modern philosophy<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Awards<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>John William Miller Fellow, Williams College, 2017-18<br>Pushcart Creative Non-Fiction Prize finalist XXXVIII, 2014<br>David Hume Fellowship, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh, 2013\u201314<br>Acorn Award, Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education and the Governor\u2019s Conference on Postsecondary Education Trusteeship for outstanding professor at a Kentucky public or independent college or university, 2006<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Recent Publications<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Hume\u2019s Scepticism, Pyrrhonian and Academic (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2020)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Philosopher&#8217;s Toolkit, third edition (Malden, Massachusetts: Wiley-Blackwell Ltd., 2020)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>David Hume on God (Edinburgh: Luath Press, 2019)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Critical Thinking Toolkit (Malden, Massachusetts:Wiley-Blackwell, 2017)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Commonplace Commitments: Thinking through the Legacy of Joseph P. Fell (Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2016)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAmerican Despair in an Age of Hope\u201d in Salmagundi 176 (2012)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Editor, The Big Lebowski and Philosophy: Keeping Your Mind Limber with Abiding Wisdom (Wiley, 2012)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Professional Memberships<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>American Philosophical Association<br>Hume Society<br>American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">More Information<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Editor-in-Chief of Cogent Arts &amp; Humanities academic journal<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Website: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.peterfosl.com\">PeterFosl.com<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3701,"template":"","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"academic_division":[5,13,45],"class_list":["post-271","faculty","type-faculty","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Fosl, Peter - Transylvania University<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.transy.edu\/academics\/faculty\/pfosl\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fosl, Peter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Peter S. 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