Faculty & Staff
Email: rotts@lclark.edu
“My goal in teaching is that my students leave class each day with a greater love and understanding of the Real, the One, the True, and the Beautiful.”
I earned a BA in the Classics and Philosophy with honors from St. Louis University. I then received an MA in philosophy also from St. Louis University writing my master’s thesis on “The Object of the Intellect in St. Thomas’ Commentary on Peter Lombard’s Book of the Sentences.” After teaching Latin and Mathematics in a high school for three years, I obtained a Licentiate in Sacred Theology, from St. Louis University. I then acquired a MS in physics from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Finally, I earned a PhD in philosophy from Boston University, writing my dissertation on “Ordinary Knowledge in the Scientific Realism of Wilfrid Sellars,” under the direction of Abner Shimony.
My research has focused on the topics in philosophy of science, philosophy of religion, epistemology, metaphysics, the biological and psychological bases of moral agency, and the epistemic relationships between science and religion. I have published in a number of journals including Philosophy of Science, Biology and Philosophy, Behavior and Philosophy, The Journal of Consciousness Studies, The Southern Journal of Philosophy and Zygon. Cambridge University Press published my book, The Biology and Psychology of Moral Agency.
I was named the teacher of the year in 2002. I retired after the 2003 spring semester, but I continue to teach regularly on a part time basis.