Thomas Blackson holds a B.A. from De Pauw University (1980) and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Univ. of Mass. (1988). He has been Associate Professor of Philosophy, Arizona State University since 1997. His research interests are primarily in ancient philosophy and in issues connected to artificial intelligence. Dr. Blackson is the Book Symposium Editor for Philosophical Studies, and has published numerous articles. This year will see the publication of "Early Work on Rationality: the Lorenz-Frede Interpretation" in the History of Philosophy Quarterly and Ancient Greek Philosophy: From the Presocratics to the Hellenistic Philosophers, to be published by Wiley-Blackwell.

This was your chance to speak up! Our members shared their thoughts.

The Humanist Book Club meets on the fourth Saturday of each month at 10:30 a.m. at the Mesa Main Library, 64 East 1st Street (East of Country Club Way at the intersection of N. Centennial Way -- N.W. corner)


Don Quixote is a middle-aged gentleman from the region of La Mancha in central Spain. Obsessed with the chivalrous ideals touted in books he has read, he decides to take up his lance and sword to defend the helpless and destroy the wicked. After a first failed adventure, he sets out on a second one with a somewhat befuddled laborer named Sancho Panza, whom he has persuaded to accompany him as his faithful squire. In return for Sancho’s services, Don Quixote promises to make Sancho the wealthy governor of an isle. On his horse, Rocinante, a barn nag well past his prime, Don Quixote rides the roads of Spain in search of glory and grand adventure. He gives up food, shelter, and comfort, all in the name of a peasant woman, Dulcinea del Toboso, whom he envisions as a princess.

Alan Proctor is the president of the Arizona State University chapter of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. A Michigan native, he and his parents moved to Peoria, AZ when he was 12. After graduation from Centennial High School, where he played basketball and maintained a 3.8 GPA, he enrolled at ASU, where the 19-year-old is currently a freshman, studying Civil Engineering. His true passion is entrepreneurship. He started the NORML chapter at ASU in September 2009.

Alan writes, "I believed the general exaggerations and lies about cannabis until my Junior year in high school, which was when I first tried marijuana and started looking into the history of the plant. I've learned a lot and heard many fascinating stories from being involved with cannabis education."

Dr. Peter de Marneffe is Professor of Philosophy and Head of the Faculty of the Philosophy School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies at ASU. Dr. de Marneffe writes about liberty and liberalism, individual rights, government paternalism and government neutrality toward conceptions of a good life. His new book, Liberalism and Prostitution, has just been published by Oxford University Press. Other recent publications include “Avoiding Paternalism,” Philosophy & Public Affairs (Winter 2006) and The Legalization of Drugs (with Doug Husak; Cambridge University Press, 2005). He received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Harvard University in 1989, and wrote his dissertation, "Liberalism and Education," under the direction of John Rawls and Thomas Scanlon. He has been a visiting fellow at the Princeton University Center for Human Values, the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics at Harvard University, and a visiting assistant professor at Stanford University.

Robert J. McWhirter is Assistant Federal Public Defender, District of Arizona. He received his Juris Doctorate from Arizona State University College of Law in 1988. Upon graduation, Bob clerked for then Vice Chief Justice Stanley G. Feldman of the Supreme Court of Arizona. He has been an Assistant Federal Public Defender since 1989, representing Native Americans and other clients in a broad range of Federal cases including homicide, sexual abuse, and bank robbery. In addition, Mr. McWhirter has developed a specialty in criminal immigration law, having published articles in the Georgetown Immigration Law Review and the Criminal Practice Law Report. The American Bar Association has published his book The Criminal Lawyer's Guide to Immigration Law: Questions and Answers. Mr. McWhirter also teaches criminal immigration law and immigration consequences of criminal convictions nationally for Criminal Justice Act Panel Attorneys (with the program sponsored by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts), as well as the history of the Fourth Amendment.

Bob McWhirter is one of our most fascinating speakers, and we are thrilled to welcome him back for a sixth time!

The Humanist Book Club meets on the fourth Saturday of each month at 10:30 a.m. at the Mesa Main Library, 64 East 1st Street (East of Country Club Way at the intersection of N. Centennial Way -- N.W. corner)

From Amazon.com:

When Lorenzo de' Medici seized control of the Florentine Republic in 1512, he summarily fired the Secretary to the Second Chancery of the Signoria and set in motion a fundamental change in the way we think about politics. The person who held the aforementioned office with the tongue-twisting title was none other than Niccolò Machiavelli, who, suddenly finding himself out of a job after 14 years of patriotic service, followed the career trajectory of many modern politicians into punditry. Unable to become an on-air political analyst for a television network, he only wrote a book. But what a book The Prince is. Its essential contribution to modern political thought lies in Machiavelli's assertion of the then revolutionary idea that theological and moral imperatives have no place in the political arena. "It must be understood," Machiavelli avers, "that a prince ... cannot observe all of those virtues for which men are reputed good, because it is often necessary to act against mercy, against faith, against humanity, against frankness, against religion, in order to preserve the state." With just a little imagination, readers can discern parallels between a 16th-century principality and a 20th-century presidency. --Tim Hogan

Our HSGP member Marc J. Victor is an attorney in private practice in Chandler. He last spoke to us two years ago, and we are delighted to welcome him back as a guest speaker.

Marc graduated Summa Cum Laude from ASU in 1992 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Justice Studies, and received his law degree in 1994 from Southwestern University of Law in Los Angeles.

Marc has represented clients in more than a thousand major felony cases including first and second degree murder, sex cases, gun cases, major drug cases, complex white collar cases, federal appeals, and other complex state and federal matters. Jury trial experience includes several murder trials including death eligible matters as well as complex sex cases. Marc has represented clients in many high profile and media attention cases.

In addition, Marc Victor is a member of, and advisor to the Freedom From Religion Foundation, especially on matters of church/state separation here in Phoenix area. Visit his website at: http://www.attorneyforfreedom.com