Graduation Year: '95

Email address: frierson.1@nd.edu

After graduating Williams, I went to the University of Notre Dame for graduate school, and ended up writing a dissertation with Karl Ameriks (the platonic form of an excellent advisor) on "Anthropology and Freedom in Kant's Moral Philosophy: Kant's Response to Schleiermacher's Dilemma." A version of this dissertation, with some expansions and all the Schleiermacher stuff cut out, was published in 2003 as _Freedom and Anthropology in Kant's Moral Philosophy_, by Cambridge University Press. (You can find it on Amazon.) Basically, I explore the issue of how to reconcile Kant's insistence upon a very strong sort of freedom of the will with his attention to empirical influences (such as education) on character development.

After graduating Notre Dame, I went out West to teach at Whitman College, in Walla Walla, Washington. Whitman is a lot like Williams, in that it has small classes, well-rounded students, and close prof-student interactions (though we lack the metaphor of the Log). I've been able to teach a wide range of courses, many of the syllabi of which can be found on my web page (marcus.whitman.edu/~frierspr). There you can also find more info about what I've been up to research-wise, which involves two main projects. First, I'm working on developing a complete account of Kant's empirical psychology. Second, I'm working on a book on Adam Smith's moral philosophy and its implications for environmental ethics. (For those of you alums who knew Sam Fleischacker, his influence on both projects is pretty profound!!)

Finally, I've had ample opportunity to play since leaving Whitman, which play mostly involves climbing mountains at home (Mt. Shasta, Mt. Whitney, Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood, etc) and abroad (Everest base camp, Torres del Paine), travel, enjoying good food and wine (Walla Walla is probably the best wine region in the country!), and even learning how to make a bit of wine myself.

Any students interested in graduate school at Notre Dame (or at the University of Chicago, where I was a student-at-large for several years) are welcome to contact me. And I'd love to hear from alums as well!