Dr. Leo Groarke

Contact Information

Email: lgroarke@wlu.ca
Phone: 519.756.8228 ext.5702

Office Location: St. Andrews Community Centre 300A

Languages Spoken

English

Biography

Not to be confused with my brothers Paul and Louis, I have been at Wilfrid Laurier University for over twenty years. My interest in education and the humanities, sprouted during a second try at university, when I stumbled on to a philosophy course at Simon Fraser University, which I was attending on an athletic scholarship (I took the course by accident, because it matched a blank space in my timetable).

Perhaps because I have inherited an Irish temperament, I was intrigued by philosophy's refusal to take things for granted, its willingness to ask pointed questions, and its interest in what is right and wrong, and real and not. I remain a student of philosophy, though my interests have broadened to include questions about the history of ideas, art and aesthetics, education, reasoning and the usefulness of the relevance of the liberal arts to contemporary issues and concerns. As at Laurier Brantford, I try to apply my convictions in a practical way which extends beyond the realm of theory and speculation.

On the home front, I have three teenagers -- Scott, Jazz and Katie - who keep me busy partaking in an endless variety of new adventures. In Brantford, you may see me running along the trails on the banks of the Grand River.

Degrees:

• PhD, Philosophy, University of Western Ontario
• MA, Philosophy, University of Calgary
• BA (Hons.), University of Calgary

Research and Teaching:

My academic interests include ethics, aesthetics, and the history of ideas. My work in all three areas is motivated by an interest in the limits of rationality and science and an emphasis on concrete ethical and aesthetic questions, as opposed to abstract theoretical disputes. 

Selected Publications:

"Skepticism, Ancient" and "Logic, Informal" -- articles in the Stanford World Wide Web Encyclopedia of Philosophy  

“Can Capitalism Save Itself? Some Ruminations on the End of Capitalism,” concluding chapter in John Bishop, ed. Ethics and Capitalism, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000. 

“The Fox and the Hedgehog: On Logic, Argument and Argumentation Theory,” ProtoSociology, Vol. 13, 1999.

The Ethics of the New Economy: Restructuring and Beyond. (Edited Anthology) Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1998. 

Good Reasoning Matters! new, revised ed. Leo Groarke, Christopher Tindale, Linda Fisher. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1997.