photo by Dennie Eagleson '71 Scott Warren Associate Professor of Philosophy and Political Science; BA, University of Virginia; MA, PhD, The Claremont Graduate School "Scott's courses promote a critique of a legitimation of the systems in which we live. Studying Marx, Rousseau, and Marcuse in his class emphasizes equality, the power of the human spirit, and our obligation to recognize and reform oppressive institutions." -Aerin Willey '07 Existentialism: Existentialism became a self-conscious, powerful movement in philosophy specifically around the middle of the 20th century and after World War II. It has not only been a powerful force in philosophy, but has influenced the areas of ethics, politics, literature, religion, and art as well. We will try to explore as many of these dimensions as possible. Eight years ago things came to a head for Dr. Scott Warren. He was working as Dean of Students and Professor of Philosophy at Denison University in nearby Granville, Ohio. After leading the charge to abolish the fraternity system at Denison, Scott decided it was time to get out of higher education altogether. "There was a riot of 500 or more students on fraternity row. They were burning houses and throwing pianos out windows," Scott recalls. Police and fire fighters were too scared to go into the crowd, but Scott felt someone had to. "Two guys I'd never seen before grabbed me and started dragging me toward the fire. They were going to barbecue me! A bunch of other students grabbed them and pulled them off saying at least he has the guts to be in here talking to us." Scott went home that morning to his ten-year-old son and his wife, Kay, and said, "that's it. I quit. I'm going to go work for a nonprofit and work out my values that way unless a job opens up at a place like Antioch, Hampshire or Reed." Two weeks later the job of Dean of Students and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Antioch opened up. In 2002, Scott stepped down from the position of Dean of Students. "I had always been teaching, just not full time," Scott explains. Scott has in fact been teaching nonstop for 28 years (with the exception of a particularly rough term at Denison). "I started at Occidental College in California when I was 24. I was one of those early bloomers. I was barely older than the students." After Occidental Scott became a Dean at Pomona as a one-year favor. That year turned into 20. Still, every place Scott worked as Dean, he also earned a faculty appointment. "When I was hired at Antioch in 1996, I was also hired as an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Political Science." Scott has always thought of himself as an educator before an administrator, and two years ago, he decided once again to put teaching first. "What I love about it here is that I've never worked with students who were so intellectually motivated, intellectually curious, truly authentic in their expressions and their relationships." During Scott's first quarter at Antioch, he taught a course, Radicalism and Political Philosophy, which he had created at Pomona and then taught at Denison. The course went from Socrates to postmodernism, looking at ten versions of feminism, ecofeminism, Marxism and critical theory. "So I'm teaching this course at Antioch and a student asks, 'How come there isn't any black Marxism in this course?' It was a good question. I had never thought about that before…Now we look at Afro-Caribbean, African, feminist and Asian Marxism and existentialism." Scott, like much of the Antioch faculty, is a real believer in active learning. "In all my classes, I require the students to form small groups that become like panel presenters. After a couple of weeks of me laying the groundwork for the course, they then take turns leading the classroom discussion." The nature of the subject matter covered in Scott's classes is challenging and Scott has found that most of his students are up to that challenge. For the past six months, Scott has been working on a new project. 20 years ago, he wrote a book called the Emergence of Dialectical Theory, which explored philosophy and political inquiry. He's written numerous articles in the meantime but really wants to write a book that looks at the landscape of political philosophy 20 years later. In the time left, after his teaching and research are under control, Scott secretly loves to read psychopathic serial killer novels, composes sentimental piano music, and had a brief career as a commercial actor. by Rachel Moulton '97 Read Dr. Warren's faculty page on www.antioch-college.edu. page last updated: July 25, 2004 |
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