Department of Management and Marketing

Robert Walsh, Ph.D.

Philosophy Instructor

Contact

Office
Bitterroot College / Hamilton
Phone
406.600.1932
Email
robert.walsh@mso.umt.edu
Office Hours

By appointment, email: Robert.Walsh@mso.umt.edu

Website
http://www.RDwalsh.net
Curriculum Vitae
View/Download CV

Personal Summary

Most of my adult life has been spent either going to school, teaching school, or working as a counselor with handicapped populations. I taught at the high school level for five years and have been teaching at the college and university level for 27 years.  I have taught Philosophy, Phenomenology, and Ethics at the University of Montana, Western Oregon State University, Montana State University-Bozeman, Carroll College, and elsewhere.

Teaching Business Ethics has become a specialty area.  I have taught courses in Business Ethics numerous times in the past at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and have always enjoyed working with business students.  I believe that Ethics is the backbone of successful business practice. I especially enjoy discussing the various aspects of case studies, joining with students in friendly discussion, and assisting students to achieve moral excellence in their personal and professional lives.  I have written a two-volume Business Ethics textbook entitled Entrepreneurial Ethics.

My areas of academic expertise are in 19th and 20th century French and German Continental Philosophy, especially Phenomenology and Existentialism with a focus on Ethics.  I have published numerous academic articles in scholarly journals on the work of philosophers in the Continental tradition, including Hegel, Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Gadamer, Merleau-Ponty, and Levinas.  My research and written work, along with works-in-progress, is available at RDwalsh.net for reading and downloading.  I have presented papers at professional philosophy conferences extensively over the years in the U.S. and abroad.  I spent a year in Brussels, Belgium and Paris, France on a Smith Family Fellowship completing my Ph.D. dissertation entitled "The Priority of Responsibility in the Philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas."  I had the privilege of interviewing Professor Levinas personally at his home in Paris.  I also have academic competence in the History of Philosophy, Philosophical Counseling practice, the interface of Psychology and Philosophy, and Aesthetics.

In addition to my formal academic training, I have also worked extensively with various populations of persons with special needs, including socially and emotionally maladjusted adolescents; autistic children (at Bruno Bettelheim's Orthogenic School at the University of Chicago); victims of head trauma (at Elwyn Institute, Elwyn, PA); elderly developmentally disabled persons (at the Devereux Foundation), etc.  While studying for my Ph.D. at Marquette University, I conducted anger management classes for perpetrators of domestic violence.  Earlier in my career, I was a mental health counselor, and, later, the Director of Rehabilitation and Inmate Services at a large correctional facility in New Jersey.  At one point, I even taught a preschool class for a year in San Francisco!  In order to support my academic training, I sold pipe and tubing on the international market, designed educational programs for residential treatment centers, and have had numerous small businesses of my own, including a full-service painting company registered in Montana.

I am a member of The American Philosophical Association (APA); The Society for Business Ethics (SBE); and The Society for Existential and Phenomenological Philosophy (SPEP), and the American Catholic Philosophical Association (ACPA).

Lleisure activities I enjoy include mountain biking and road biking, camping in the vintage '67 Aristocrat camper-trailer I rebuilt (towed by a 1976 F-150 that I also rebuilt), golf, skiing, fly fishing, snowshoeing in the back country, working out at the gym, ballroom dancing, and choral singing.

Education

  • Ph.D. Philosophy, Marquette University, 1989
  • M.A. Philosophy, Villanova University, 1982
  • M.A. Educational Psychology, The University of Chicago, 1972
  • B.A. Philosophy / Theology, Villanova University, 1970
  • Certificate in Advertising, Charles Morris Price School, 1967

Courses Taught

CURRENTLY TEACHING
Intro to Philosophy
Business Ethics and Social Responsibiliy
Intro to Psychology
Intro to Ethics

FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF COURSES DESIGNED AND TAUGHT - Please see my CV

Teaching Experience

Please see my CV

Research Interests

Ethics
Ecological Ethics
Phenomenology
Phenomenological Psycholgy

Projects

Please see my CV

Field of Study

19th & 20th century Continental Philosophy
Phenomenology & Existentialism
Ethics

Selected Publications

Please see my CV

Publications

Please see my CV

Affiliations

Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP)

American Catholic Philosophy Association (ACPA)

Specialized Skills

Please see my CV

Professional Experience

Please see my CV

International Experience

Please see my CV