Truth and Its Deformities is the 32nd volume in the Midwest Studies in Philosophy series. It contains major new contributions on a range of topics related to the general theme of the volume by some of the most important philosophers writing on truth in recent years.
Dr. Peter A. French is the Lincoln Chair in Ethics and the Director of the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics at Arizona State University. He was the Cole Chair in Ethics, Director of the Ethics Center, and Chair of the Department of Philosophy of the University of South Florida. Before that he was the Lennox Distinguished Professor of the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. He has taught at Northern Arizona University; the University of Minnesota; Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, and served as Exxon Distinguished Research Professor in the Center for the Study of Values at the University of Delaware.
Dr. French has a BA from Gettysburg College, an MA from the University of Southern California, a Ph.D. from the University of Miami. He received a Doctor of Humane Letters (L.H.D.) honorary degree from Gettysburg College in 2006.
Dr. French has an international reputation in ethical and legal theory and in collective and corporate responsibility and criminal liability. He is the author of nineteen books including The Virtues of Vengeance, Cowboy Metaphysics: Ethics and Death in Westerns, Ethics and College Sports, Corporate Ethics, War and Border Crossings: Ethics When Cultures Clash, Responsibility Matters, Corporations in the Moral Community, The Spectrum of Responsibility, Collective and Corporate Responsibility, Corrigible Corporations and Unruly Laws, Ethics in Government, and The Scope of Morality. He is currently writing a book with the working title Our Better Angels Have Broken Wings While the Pukin Dogs Are Flying Overhead, that concludes with a memoir of his experiences at bases around the world teaching ethics to Navy and Marine chaplains who were either returning from the war in Iraq or about to be deployed there. Dr. French has lectured at locations around the world. Some of his works have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, German, Italian, French, and Spanish. Amazon.com lists 48 books credited to him as author, editor, or co-editor published by major commercial and university presses.
Dr. French is a senior editor of Midwest Studies in Philosophy. He was the editor of the Journal of Social Philosophy and general editor of the Issues in Contemporary Ethics series. He has published dozens of articles in the major philosophical and legal journals and reviews, many of which have been anthologized. He is a member of the Board of Governors and a Founding Fellow of the Arizona Academy of Science, Technology and the Arts.
Howard K. Wettstein is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Riverside. He holds a B.A. degree in Philosophy from Yeshiva College, an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the City University of New York. Wettstein has published two books, The Magic Prism: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language (Oxford University Press, 2004) and Has Semantics Rested On a Mistake?, and Other Essays (Stanford University Press, 1991) and a number of papers in the philosophy of language, one focus of his research. Another and current focus is the philosophy of religion, publishing papers on topics like awe, doctrine, ritual, the problem of evil, and the viability of philosophical theology. He is currently at work on a book in the philosophy of religion. He is a senior editor (with Peter French) of Midwest Studies in Philosophy, and has edited a number of other volumes including Themes From Kaplan (Oxford University Press, 1989, co-edited) and Diasporas and Exiles: Varieties of Jewish Identity (University of California Press, 2002).
