DAVID J LEICHTER

Persistent leader eager to lead and grow organizations. Skilled in strategic planning, problem-solving, and communication with good understanding of business principles, project management and team leadership. Collaborative with relentless work ethic.

• Marian University (Fall 2013 – Present) PHI 100: Protest, Civil Disobedience, and Nonviolence 2 sections
• A 1.5 credit, 7-week course in which we raise the following questions: What does it mean to resist injustice
• Can social systems be reformed adequately or is revolution required
• Is violent resistance ever permissible
• When, if ever, are we justified in resisting or even attempting to overthrow the political state we find ourselves under
• In this course we will explore answers to those questions, focusing in particular on the contrast between non-violent resistance movements and violent liberatory struggles, through the dual lenses of historical activism and philosophical theory
• Our goal will be to better understand what is required of us in order to realize social justice
• PHI 109: Medicine and the Self 1 section
• This 1.5 credit course is an introduction to philosophical thinking about persons, subjectivity, and selfhood
• Throughout our brief survey, we will try to make some philosophical sense out of the concept and experience of illness
• While illness is often thought to be a biological and natural phenomenon, this course will explore how the subjective experience of illness offers a different point of view on our understanding of medicine and health
• In particular, we will explore how the experience of illness changes our experience of our bodies, our social world, and informs the meaning of our lives
• We’ll consider the following questions: What is health
• What is illness
• What concepts of personhood underlie our health discourses
• Do we need to rethink our concepts of health and illness
• How should the medical field thematize the body
• What is an ethical medical relationship?
• PHI 105: Introduction to Ethical Reasoning 14 sections
• A brief, 1.5 credit introduction to the philosophical study of morality, including the processes whereby one reasons through choices concerning what we ought to do/ought not to do, what kind of person we are/ought to be, and which institutions help us to cultivate a just life with and for others
• Besides providing familiarity with the primary questions addressed within moral philosophy and the most influential answers given by well-known philosophers, this course is designed to help students develop their abilities to read, explicate, analyze, and evaluate philosophical literature, write and express themselves well about their own ethical positions, and think critically and analytically about ethical issues
• PHI 110: The Ethics of Human Enhancement 1 section
• In this 1.5 credit course, we will examine ethical issues surrounding human enhancement
• What does it mean to be human
• Must we stay that way
• Can we use genetic, robotic, information, and nanotech to make ourselves better than human
• This course explores the technological enhancement and ultimately transformation of human capabilities
• We have the means to alter and enhance our biological endowments, increase our lifespan, improve our physical, cognitive, emotional, and moral abilities like no generation before
• Should we change ourselves to such an extent that we are no longer human (becoming posthuman or transhuman)
• What are the dangers and moral/ethical considerations in play, and how are we to adjudicate them?
• PHI 130: Knowledge, Values and Society 6 sections
• This course examines and practices critical thinking as the primary vehicle for understanding and appreciating the value of living the “examined life.” Various areas of philosophy and philosophical texts are studied with the intention of facilitating familiarity with and participation in the philosophical process
• Much attention is given to articulating, examining, and integrating fundamental assumptions, values, and beliefs in an effort to develop self-knowledge, meaningful dialogue, social responsibility, and compassionate understanding
• PHI 132: The Examined Life 30 Sections
• This course is a thematic introduction to the Western philosophical tradition
• This course encourages students to raise questions and explore possible answers regarding the scope and limits of human knowledge, and the existential and personal dimensions of human life
• The primary goals of this course are to promote students’ (1) ability to critically interpret and evaluate philosophical texts, positions, and arguments, and (2) to promote an awareness of philosophical questions from antiquity to the present
• PHI 204H/HIS 204H: Memory and History of the Holocaust Spring 2022/Spring 2024
• This course will enhance students’ understanding of the Holocaust as a significant event in human history by encouraging them to recognize the complexity of choices made by individuals, to consider how everyday practices of dehumanization lead to catastrophes, to define and contemplate the meaning of responsibility and justice, and to come to terms with the way that individuals, families, ethnic groups, and nations remember, distort, and forget the past
• This is team-taught, interdisciplinary course
• Students will have two instructors, one from the history program and one from the philosophy program and will learn about the Holocaust from both historical and philosophical perspectives
• Importantly, this is a faculty-led short-term study abroad course
• All students enrolled in the course are required to take part in a two-week trip to Poland
• Our trip to Poland will help us to address the following questions: how do we pass on knowledge of the Holocaust from one generation to the next
• How do we relate our present lives to the events of the Holocaust
• Which parts of the past to we claim as our own – which, also, do we or others disavow – and how do they become part of who we are
• How might remembering Holocaust lead to new forms of collective engagement and solidarity?
• PHI 220: Bioethics 12 Sections
• This applied ethics course is an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of bioethics and examines how biomedicine is practiced in the west
• Students analyze medical practice as a cultural system, focusing on the human, rather than the biological, side of things
• In the course, students are encouraged to raise questions about the nature of health, the significance of life and death, and the relationship between social critique and ethics
• Topics for discussion include reproductive technologies, genetics, euthanasia, and resource allocation
• PHI 220H: Bioethics Fall 2017
• This is a course on social justice and the role that empathy can play in helping both to reinforce and undermine oppression in biomedical contexts
• The course will be divided into three parts
• In Part 1, we will introduce the ways that doctors and patients experience and understand the meaning of health and illness
• In particular, we will analyze connections between identity, illness, and narratives
• To do so, we will first define empathy, and determine the connections between it, sympathy, and compassion
• In Part II, we will explore gaps in healthcare: gaps in communication, in empathy, in knowledge, in experiences, and in ourselves
• In particular, we will focus on the ways that the oppression, ideology, the relationship between ignorance and privilege, and hermeneutical gaps (gaps in our collective understanding) structure our understanding of medicine, the human body, and thereby affecting healthcare
• In the final part of the course, we will give ourselves the opportunity to reflect on whose pain is ignored, why we ignore their pain, and what we can do in order to address their suffering We will address how standpoint theory – the position that argues some social locations are privileged perspectives from which we can gain knowledge – can give certain people from specific “social locations” can see the world differently from a different standpoint via tools like compassion and empathy
• We will also consider some problems with these tools and will complicate the project of coming to see the world from a perspective that is not your own
• PHI 220H: Bioethics Spring 2019
• This is a course on narrative medicine and the prospects and limits of narrative medicine
• While normative ethical theory has been the primary way ethicists have engaged in the critical scrutiny of the biomedical project, recent years have seen philosophers, physicians, nurses, and ill people develop an alternative to this often-abstract approach
• Focusing on the experience of illness, the social dimensions of illness, narrative ethics, and the cultivation of empathy in the clinical encounter, these perspectives open up the human side of medicine and the moments where a genuine encounter can occur
• We will explore how narrative helps to construct a sense of self through reading several exemplary illness narratives, as well as philosophical works that explore the features of the narrative self before moving to an account of the ways that narrative can help to cultivate empathy in the clinical encounter
• We will think about what it means to live in light of death, to struggle with depression or bipolar tendencies, and to be disabled by one’s environment
• To do so, we will examine philosophical concepts such as epistemic injustice and empathy and explore how the phenomenological method and narrative techniques can help to illuminate and challenge traditional ways of thinking about medicine and medical practice
• In the second half of the semester, we will explore how we might creatively and thoughtfully engage with new forms of biotechnology that challenge, destabilize, and transform what it means to be human
• Here, we’ll consider what the terms “normal” and “natural” mean when confronted with different kinds of biotechnologies, including genetic modification, human enhancement, and cloning
• While considering this dimension, we will explore how the self or person is changed – for better and worse – through these technologies
• PHI 220: Jewish Bioethics Fall 2019
• This course will thematically explore the engagement of Jews with medicine, public health, and bioethics
• Over the course of the semester we will look at the ways that Jews imagined health, illness, and the body, as well as the way that non-Jews imagined the Jewish body and health
• Of particular interest are those moments and places where ideas of Jewishness, and Judaism are relevant to the question of medicine, conceptualizations of health and wellness, nutrition, and the idea of the Jewish body
• Some of the topics to be explored are Jewish folk medicine, race science, and Jewish responses to bioethics questions such as abortion and euthanasia
• PHI 306: The Philosophy of Love and Friendship Spring 2017
• This seminar examines the nature of romantic love, friendship, and desire
• Our joint inquiry will lead us to question many different aspects of these experiences
• Guiding questions include: What is love
• What are the proper objects of love
• How is the love of our parents and siblings different from the romantic love between friends
• How do we experience our love and sexuality through our bodies
• Does pornography turn people into objects
• Is being sexually objectified always an element of desire
• How can we treat those we love and lust ethically
• What effects does our culture have on our desires
• How has social media transformed how we love and are friends
• If true mutuality between lovers were possible, what would it look like
• Is love essential to the good life
• Exploring ancient and contemporary texts that often defend radically opposite views on love will help us to develop precious skills such as intellectual flexibility, critical attention, and analytic rigor
• PHI 312: Existentialism Spring 2015, Fall 2016, Fall 2019
• This discussion-based course that examines the historical roots of existentialism and its implications for philosophical thinking more generally
• We will examine how existentialism responds to a set of particular concerns: the way that human freedom is one of our most valued possessions but something we also seek to avoid; an account of the role that other people play in our lives that treats those others as both deeply significant and yet highly problematic in terms of our ability to live as we would choose to; a probing investigation of the significance of anxiety, an emotion that seemed to become central to human existence in the twentieth century; a more complete understanding of the nature of human finitude than that developed by previous philosophers; a recognition of the limitations of human reason for understanding the nature of reality and the importance of recognizing the absurd as an element in human life; an account of the possibility of living a more full and authentic life by acknowledging all the difficult and troubling aspects of human existence
• PHI 320: Philosophy of Law Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2021
• This course is organized around the idea of using law to right social and political wrongs
• We will explore the sometimes complementary, sometimes conflicting issues that arise in society between law, ethics, and social change, with an emphasis on activism
• The course will begin by exploring what the relationship between law and justice is
• Included in this discussion will be what the relationship between ethics and the law is, as well as hermeneutic issues of interpreting and applying the law
• When we come back from Spring Break, we will consider the uses of the law, first focusing on the criminal justice system
• What does the law do and what are the social uses of the law
• In our discussion of the penal system, we’ll consider what the meaning of punishment is and what effects it has
• Are prisons obsolete
• The class will then move into a deeper discussion on how law is used today
• This section includes how the law can be used to either perpetuate societal beliefs and stereotypes (immigration laws) or to change societal beliefs (civil unions); and how law can be used to right past wrongs
• The final section will explore the limits of using the legal system to effect justice
• In this section, we will examine transactional justice, reparative justice, and restorative justice as alternatives to the criminal justice system
• PHI 404H/HIS 404H: Monuments, Memorials, and Memory Fall 2018
• This course, co-taught with a colleague in the History department, examines the way that memorialization shapes the way we imagine the past
• What is memory
• What is the relationship between memory and history
• What has been the place of the past in American society
• Do monuments and various forms of memorialization reinforce national myths or produce deeper understandings of where we’ve come from
• Are these projects a valid way to make sense of history
• To fully explore these questions, this course is organized around the theme of public memorials and monuments in the United States
• We will begin our survey with the question of what exactly is a monument and what distinguishes it from a memorial
• From there, we will investigate the role monuments and memorials play in societies and examine the politics of memorialization
• Throughout, we will broaden our conception of monuments as texts beyond stone statues to include paintings, abstract sculpture, graphic novels, poetry, fiction, film and other memorial forms
• As such, we will analyze formal commemorations such as war memorials, museums, and national parks as well as popular culture commemorations in music, movies, art and on the web
• The course will focus on examples of American monuments, including the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the United States Holocaust Museum, and memorials to slavery, the Civil War, the Triangle Fire, Japanese Internment and 9/11 among others
• The aim of the course is to understand the way in which individuals and the cultures go about making sense of events that would seem to defy comprehension, to examine how they attempt to preserve the memory of what has been lost, and how to respond to historical injustices through practices of narration, memorialization, and commemoration
• Niagara University (Fall 2012 – Spring 2013) PHI 105: Introduction to Philosophy 1 Section
• An introduction to the critical method of philosophy and the logic which lies at its base
• This method is taught by studying some of the classic problems in philosophy and being exposed to several of the most important philosophers in history
• Topics may include: proofs of God, free will/determinism, problems of knowledge, metaphysics, personal identity, and the meaning of life
• PHI 206: Ethics 2 Sections
• An introduction to, and study of, the rival philosophical theories that claim to provide a foundation for our ethical outlooks
• Topics include: utilitarianism/consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics
• In addition, a study of some applied ethical issues (abortion, euthanasia, death penalty) in light of these theories may be included
• Canisius College (Fall 2012 – Spring 2013) PHI 101: Introduction to Philosophy 2 Sections
• This course is designed to help students develop thinking skills to help them understand, articulate and evaluate the values, principles and assumptions on which decisions are made
• This course encourages students to raise questions and explore possible answers regarding the scope and limits of human knowledge, and the existential and personal dimensions of human life
• The primary goals of this course are to promote students’ (1) abilities to raise critical questions and use reasoned argumentation to develop normative standards for guiding their relationship to your community and (2) abilities to reason about human nature and about human values to help provide bridges between religious belief and contemporary intellectual directions
• PHI 241: Ethics – Traditions in Moral Reasoning 1 Section
• This course is a survey of principal traditions in moral reasoning with attention to moral principles inclusive of utility, deontology, and virtue, and their applications to contemporary social realities
• The course raises questions about the nature of freedom and responsibility, justice and social action, happiness and the good life
• Texts include readings from Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Mill, and de Beauvoir
• Bryant & Stratton College (Fall 2010 – Spring 2012) PHI 250: Practices in Analytic Thinking and Critical Reasoning 16 Sections
• Students explore and analyze contemporary ethical, social, cultural, and political topics using analytic methods and metacognitive strategies
• Emphasis is on the application of these strategies within the dynamic communities of college, career, and life
• Students are also expected to complete a career based ethical research paper
• PHI 310: Logic and Reasoning 1 Section
• In this course, students are introduced to the study of the rules of argumentation, inductive and deductive logic, the recognition of formal and informal fallacies, and the application of logical thinking in work and social settings
• Marquette University (Fall 2005 – Spring 2010) PHIL 50: The Philosophy of Human Nature
• This course will examine various philosophical responses to the question: what does it mean to be human
• Through critical examinations and discussion of classic Western philosophers, we will discover the importance of knowing how we know
• We will also ponder the questions: Do we need others in order to be fully human
• Am I merely a body, or is there something more
• If I am more than my body, how do I relate to my body
• Can we even speak of a human essence
• Additionally, we will reflect upon what it means to be a human according to Eastern philosophical orientations, among other non-traditional philosophies
• This course will familiarize students with the basic subjects and methods of philosophical query
• PHIL 104: Theory of Ethics
• This course extends our understanding and exploration of being human into the moral dimension human existence
• Over the course of the semester we will ask basic questions concerning our moral well-being including but not limited to: What is morality
• What do “right,” “wrong,” “good” and “bad” mean
• What is the good life
• In our attempts to answer these questions, we will explore various historical perspectives—virtue ethics, deontology, natural law, and utilitarianism—as well as critically investigate our own processes of ethical decision making
• College of DuPage (Fall 2003-Summer 2004) HUMNT 1102: Introduction to the Humanities – Ideas and Values
• An exploration of the nature of humankind, primarily as reflected in the disciplines of philosophy, history, literature and religious studies
• Particular attention is paid to individual and communal identities, to questions of values, and to the struggle for personal fulfillment
• Emphasis on students' consideration and development of their own personal, moral and ethical values
• Attendance at outside events may be required
• RELIG 1100: Introduction to Religious Studies
• This course provides a study of religion by examining representative cultural religious phenomena in a global world
• In analyzing commonalities and differences among religious traditions and contexts, students develop an understanding of personal, communal and universal dimensions of religion as characterized through various religious phenomena including philosophical formulations, sacred writings, religious experiences, ethics, rituals and art
• Waubonsee Community College (Fall 2003 – Spring 2004) PHIL 100: Introduction to Philosophy
• This course provides an overview of the major fields of philosophy including metaphysics, epistemology, logic and ethics
• Fundamental questions may include: What is the meaning of life
• Does God exist
• Are we free
• What can we know
• What makes a good argument
• How should we live?
• PHIL 120: Introduction to World Religions
• This course gives a philosophical introduction to the comparative study of the major world religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

• AWARDS AND HONORS , Marquette University: Full tuition waiver, Fall 2004 – Spring 2011 Philosophy Department, Marquette University: Schuenke Teaching Fellow. Award given by the department in recognition of teaching excellence. Fall 2007-Spring 2008. Philosophy Department, Marquette University: Research Assistant Fellowship Fall 2004 – Spring 2005. Northern Illinois University: Full tuition waiver, Fall 2001 – Spring 2003. Northern Illinois University: Research Assistant Fellowship, Fall 2001 – Spring 2003.
• PHI 324: The Philosophy of Food Fall 2021 Our choices about what to eat, what not to eat, with whom to eat, and what even counts as food express some of our deepest, and also unquestioned, values. This course is a critical reflection on and assessment of the assumptions, attitudes, and practices about our food values. Topics include the ways that science and the media contribute to, and distort, our understanding of health and nutrition; the social and environmental consequences of our eating habits; what, if any, moral obligations we have to adopt specific eating habits; and the ethical, social, and political significance of our cultural culinary traditions. Research will be conducted through a careful reading of philosophical texts, trips to restaurants, community gardens and farms, and, of course, by eating together. PHI 324H: The Philosophy of Food Spring 2018 Same description as above, with the addition of a service-learning opportunity. During our spring break, we will take a trip to visit several the urban farms and gardens in Detroit, Michigan. This trip will help us see how individuals, neighborhoods, and cities have addressed injustice in food systems and the particular strategies that they have developed to create more just, sustainable, and autonomous food systems. Upon our return from this trip, we will present the lessons we learned at the 2018 Academic Symposium, which is titled Food for Thought: Food Science, Food Security, and Food Sovereignty. We will also turn our eyes to our own communities to see how the lessons we have learned from our trip have changed how we think about our own responsibilities to our neighbors. PHI 404H: Eating Cultures: The Philosophy of Food Fall 2014 This discussion-based course critically reflects on and assesses our attitudes and practices about our food values by examining the social and cultural practices that influence our relationship to food and the choices that we make as a result of those choices. We’ll look at questions about individual food choices and values as well as broader questions about cultural practices and social policies in which individuals make those choices. We will do through a careful reading of philosophical texts, trips to restaurants, community gardens and farms, and, of course, through eating together. PHI 404H: Disturbing Memories: Memory, Violence, and Justice Fall 2015 This course explores how political institutions order and regulate memory (and forgetting) in order to establish and reinforce social identities, and, conversely, how practices of memory and forgetting can be used to resist oppression and dominant ideologies. The questions with which we will be concerned include the relationship between individual testimonies and public narratives, the conflict between historical documentation and artistic representation, the impact of trauma on memories (both personal and collective), the difficulties of drawing analogies between individual and collective memories, and the troubled relationship between “history” (i.e., the study of past events) and “memory’ (i.e., the way in which the past reaches into the present). The aim of the course is to understand the way in which individuals and the cultures go about making sense of events that would seem to defy comprehension, to examine how they attempt to preserve the memory of what has been lost, and how to respond to historical injustices through practices of narration, memorialization, and commemoration. BIO/CMG 404H: Food, Politics, Power Spring 2016 This interdisciplinary course, co-taught with a biologist, explores the philosophical and biological basis for societal attitudes towards food consumption and dietary practices. The course will delve into culturally determined diets, as well as the impact of politics on food choices. Students will be asked to critically reflect upon and assess their own food values by raising questions about attitudes and food choices, and about the social and cultural practices that influence our relationship to food. Topics include: media representation of food and science, the influence of politics on food, environmental and social consequences of eating habits, and the impact of regional diet on long-term health. Labs will explore methods in fermentation, food safety, additives, caloric content and other relevant topics. Other activities will include trips to restaurants, community gardens and farms, and, of course, through eating together.