Russell Wahl

Biography

I began my career working in the history of analytic philosophy and logic. My main teaching areas are logic, theory of knowledge, philosophy of science, and early modern philosophy. Most of my teaching at Idaho State has been in introductory courses. In these courses we often find students who have never had any exposure to philosophy and are then quite taken by the richness of the field and the benefits that come with careful thinking. I did my graduate work at Indiana University under Romane Clark. Nino Cocchiarella, Mike Dunn and Alberto Coffa were also members of my committee and people from which I learned a great deal. I taught at Wabash College in Indiana for five years before coming to Idaho State University in 1985. Since 1995 I have been director of the Philosophy Program here.

Research Interest

I was particularly interested in the theory of logic found in Russell’s and Wittgenstein’s work. Since then I have also developed an interest in Bertrand Russell’s theory of knowledge and the relation between science and philosophy. For the last twenty years I have also done research in early modern philosophy, particularly the rationalists of the seventeenth century. Mostly I have worked on the theories of ideas, perception and causation developed in this period, and again the relation between science and philosophy.