Teaching Assistant Professor
I have a BS in physics and a BA in philosophy from the University of Arizona. My PhD in philosophy is from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Once, my interests revolved around epistemology and philosophy of physics. At that time, to paraphrase Stephen Hawking, my goal was simple: to understand where the universe came from and why it exists at all. In recent years I’ve mostly been teaching classes in and wrestling with issues in applied ethics, like Environmental Ethics and War and Morality and so on. My goal now is more complicated. I’m trying to figure out why people kill each other, and whether and in what circumstances killing is justified. What is the value of pristine nature. Stuff like that. I taught philosophy for many years in Asia (China, Mongolia, Nepal) where I thought a lot about Asian philosophies and their differences from Western approaches. I sometimes teach classes on Eastern philosophy.
I am the faculty undergraduate mentor. I teach in the department, I am here to discuss questions about which philosophy classes might be interesting to take, questions about what different faculty are like, questions about graduate study in philosophy, for advice on how to convince your parents that being a philosophy major really is a good idea, or maybe just for a reading recommendation or to discuss a philosophical idea. I am also the person who approves the "Allied Fields" requirement for those on the Values and Social Policy Track of the major.
My office is in Hellems 186 and for Fall 2016, for advising purposes, I will be in there on T/Th from 11-12:15. You can email me at david.youkey@colorado.edu to make an appointment at other times.