Meet Susan Blake of philosophy, whose teaching and research interests include theory of knowledge, early Chinese philosophy, philosophy of perception, philosophy of language, and philosophy of mind.
Assistant Professor Susan Blake comes to Occidental from Skidmore College, where they were a teaching professor of philosophy. Blake has a Ph.D. from Indiana University, a master’s from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a B.A. from Bryn Mawr College—all in philosophy. Blake has been published in The Senses and the History of Philosophy (Routledge) and the Journal of Chinese Philosophy.
What attracted you to Occidental?
Occidental takes seriously the need for ongoing conversations about social justice, both in classes and in the community at large. I especially value the ways that the philosophy department lives these values through classes that focus on topics of social justice, and the ways the department asks students to act on the ideas we discuss in class.
Do you have a favorite class that you are teaching, and why?
I’m thrilled to say that I love all the classes I’ll be teaching at Oxy! But there is something special about classes where many students are first discovering philosophy. I remember how exciting my first exposures to philosophy were—how they challenged my ways of thinking about the world and gave me the ability to think through new ideas on my own.
How did you develop an interest in philosophy?
I was lucky to have a course in high school that introduced me to philosophy.