Robert Frodeman

Frodeman attended St. Louis University, where he gained degrees in History and Philosophy (1981), Pennsylvania State University, where he obtained a Ph.D. in Philosophy (1988), studying with Stanley Rosen and Alphonso Lingis, and the University of Colorado, where he then obtained a M.S. degree in Geology (paleoclimatology, 1996).[1]

From 1993 to 2001 he consulted for the US Geological Survey on questions of science policy[2] and in 2016 served as a member on an Expert Committee for the European Commission. [3] In 2001-2002 he was the Hennebach Professor of the Humanities at the Colorado School of Mines; in 2005 he was the ESRC Fellow at Lancaster University in England. [4] Since retiring he has written on environmental questions in the American West.[5][6]

Frodeman is also the editor of the Oxford Handbook of Interdisciplinarity (2010), second edition 2017. Frodeman’s research has focused on environmental philosophy and public policy, science and technology, and the future of knowledge. Along with others, his work emphasizes 'field' approaches to philosophy where philosophers work with scientists, engineers, and policy makers (Brister and Frodeman, 2020). He has criticized academic philosophy for having been captured by disciplinary interests, where philosophers mainly work on technical problems only of interest to other philosophers (Frodeman and Briggle, 2016). On his account, philosophy and the humanities should never have become specialties at all: the natural and social sciences are regional studies, while the arts and humanities are domains that cross over all the disciplines (Frodeman, 2021).

In more recent work (e.g., Transhumanism, Nature, and the Ends of Science, 2019) Frodeman widens his critique beyond philosophy to all of contemporary knowledge culture. He challenges our endless focus on scientific and technological progress, arguing that the program of the modern scientific establishment is implicitly the same as transhumanism – to use science to lift humanity to a position similar to a deity. He sees this as raising both practical and philosophical problems: artificial intelligence and genetic enhancement increase the possibility of authoritarian control over the populace, multiply the risks of catastrophic accident, and encourage terrorist acts by malevolent actors, while also promoting a society devoted to endless entertainment and amusements (Frodeman, 2019).

As an alternative, Frodeman offers a naturalistic philosophy based in the idea of pace. Science and technology push us to live life at the speed of an electron. Instead, we should attend to the natural speeds and rhythms of human activities as show in activities like eating, conversing, and spending time with one another (Frodeman 2021).

• Frodeman, R. (2000). Earth Matters: The Earth Sciences, Philosophy, And The Claims Of Community. Upper Saddle River, NJ.: Prentice Hall. ISBN 978-0-13-011996-4.
• Frodeman, R. (2003). Geo-Logic: Breaking Ground Between Philosophy And The Earth Sciences. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-5601-9.
• Foltz, B.V.; Frodeman, R. (2004). Rethinking Nature: Essays In Environmental Philosophy. Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-34440-3.
• Callicott, B.; Frodeman, R. (2008). Encyclopedia of Environmental Ethics and Philosophy. Detroit, MI.: Cengage. ISBN 978-0-02-866137-7.
• Frodeman, R.; et al., eds. (2010). Oxford Handbook of Interdisciplinarity Sustainable Knowledge. Oxford University Press.
• Frodeman, R. (2014). Sustainable Knowledge: a theory of interdisciplinarity. Palgrave MacMillan.
• Frodeman, R.; Briggle, A. (2016). Socrates Tenured: the institutions of 21st Century Philosophy. Rowman & Littlefield.
• Frodeman, R. (2019). Transhumanism, Nature, and the Ends of Science. Routledge.
• Brister, E.; Frodeman, R. (2020). A Guide to Field Philosophy. Routledge.
• Frodeman, R. (2021). Interdisciplinarity and the Dilemmas of Knowledge’, in : Bridging Research Disciplines to Advance Animal Welfare Science: A practical guide. CABI Publishing.

• Monaghan, Peter (2003-04-18). "Earth Sciences Through the Lens of Humanities, Arts, and Theology". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 2007-11-06.
• Briggle, Frodeman (2014-07-16). "Wanted: a future for philosophy". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Retrieved 2014-08-03.
• Frodeman, Briggle (2016-01-11). "When Philosophy Lost its Way". New York Times. Retrieved 2021-04-09.

• Personal website