Education:
Bachelor of Philosophy and Political Science, University of Maryland
Master of Philosophy, Cornell University
Ph.D., Cornell University
Contact Information:
(570) 321-4207
mayerp@lycoming.edu
Dr. Patrick Mayer
Philosophy: Visiting Assistant Professor
Dr. Patrick Mayer is a one-year visiting assistant professor of philosophy. He earned a bachelor’s in philosophy and political science at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, and a master’s in philosophy from Cornell University in New York. He recently completed a Ph.D. in philosophy at Cornell, with a dissertation titled “Some Problems and a Solution for Compatibilists.” Mayer also served as an instructor at Cornell. His areas of specialization include philosophy as metaphysics, moral psychology, and ethics.
"Dr. Mayer's interest in philosophy began with his interest in politics. However, he quickly realized that the proper resolution of policy debates almost always depended on knowledge of economics and knowledge of morality. His frustrations with mathematics inclined him towards the study of moral philosophy. As a graduate student he focused on questions concerning the nature of moral properties, moral knowledge, and moral expressions as these relate to moral responsibility. He now hopes to take on other issues in meta-ethics. And he has begun thinking seriously about issues in the philosophy of religion and personal identity.
His conclusions about most matters are tentative. But not these: the New York Yankees and Miami Heat deserve to fail, Radiohead is the reason for popular music, and all and only those who helped make a thing ought to own it and the resources necessary to make it. "