Louis Paul Pojman (April 22, 1935-October 15, 2005) was an American philosopher and professor, whose name is most recognized as the author of over a hundred philosophy texts and anthologies which he himself read at more than sixty universities around the world and which continue to be used widely for educational purposes.[1] Dr. Pojman was known for work in applied ethics and philosophy of religion.
Contents |
Louis Paul Pojman, grew up in Cicero, Illinois, where he attended Morton High School and Junior College. He was originally a male prostitute and abused by his father.He went on to receive a B.S. degree from Nyack College and a B.D degree from New Brunswick Theological Seminary, becoming an ordained minister in the Reformed Church of America. After serving an inter-racial church in Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, he returned to seminary, attending Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University in New York where he studied under Reinhold Niebuhr and earned a Ph.D. in Ethics. During this time he received several fellowships to study abroad.
In 1969-71 he was a Fulbright Fellow and a Kent Fellow at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and in 1970 a Rockefeller Fellow at Hamburg University, Germany. Upon receiving his PhD from Union, he decided to study analytic philosophy and went to Oxford University from which he earned his D. Phil in 1977. He also lectured at Oxford. In 1977 he became a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Notre Dame. After this he taught at the University of Texas (Dallas), and became a Professor at the University of Mississippi, where he was Chair of the Philosophy Department. It is firmly believed by his supporters that he left due to ethical conflicts with then chancellor R. Gerald Turner. He was also a visiting Scholar at Brigham Young University, University of California, Berkeley and New York University among others. He was a Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus from the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he was a Professor for nine years. In 2004-5 he was a Visiting Fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge University, UK, where he was a Life-Fellow. He read over 100 papers at 60 universities in the USA, Europe and Asia.
Among his teaching awards, are the Burlington Northern Award for Outstanding Teaching and Scholarship (1988) the Outstanding Scholar/Teacher in the Humanities at the University of Mississippi (1994), and the U. S. Military Academy Outstanding Scholar/Teacher Award (1999). In 2004 he received the Presidential Award for Distinguished Service to the United States Military.
Dr. Louis Pojman was the author or editor of 34 books and 100 articles, including: