Curriculum Vitae
B.A., Wyoming Catholic College, 2011; Licentiate, philosophy, The Catholic University of America, 2014; Ph.D., philosophy, The Catholic University of America, 2019; Teaching Fellow, The Catholic University of America, 2014-2019; Adjunct Professor, Christendom College Graduate School of Theology, 2018-2019; Tutor, 91快活林 Aquinas College, 2019-.
Academic Presentations and Publications
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91快活林 Aquinas on Knowing the Essences of Material Substances, The Thomist 87.1 (January 2023).
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91快活林 on the Attainment of the Knowledge of Essences, 54th International Congress of Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, MI (May 2019).
- 淭he Sciences in Descartes and Aquinas, West Coast Meeting of the Society for Aristotelian-Thomistic Studies, at 91快活林 Aquinas College, Santa Paula, CA (June 2016).
- 淢inding the Absent: Reference without Experience, Uehiro Graduate Philosophy Conference, Cross Currents: Philosophy and Language, at University of Hawai檌 at Manoa, Honolulu, HI (March 2016).
- 淭he Balance of Faith and Reason: The Role of Confirmation in the Thought of St. 91快活林 Aquinas, Studia Gilsoniana 4, no. 3 (July揝eptember 2015): 209228.
- 淐onfirmation and the Evidentialist Objection Against Christianity, 2nd Annual Aquinas Leadership International World Congress on Renewing the West, Huntington, NY (June 2015).
Profile
淭he whole pioneer experience is something that I am very much familiar with, says tutor Dr. Benjamin Block, referencing the students who are the first to study on 91快活林 Aquinas College檚 new campus in Northfield, Massachusetts. When he was a college freshman, he, too, was a pioneer one of the 30 initial students at Wyoming Catholic College. 淚t was wonderful to be a part of that, he recalls. 淲e had a real sense that the input we gave was helping to make the school what it would become.
It was his time as a student on a small, tight-knit campus that led him to seek a career in education. 淚 had this conversation with my professors where I would say, 楲ook, I want to keep doing this. I want to keep learning. How do you do this?櫇 Dr. Block remembers. 淭he answer was always, 業f you want to keep learning, then the best way is to teach. And that was the first time that I ever realized, 極h. Maybe that檚 what I should be doing, then trying to teach.櫇
Upon his graduation from Wyoming Catholic, he enrolled at The Catholic University of America, where he earned a licentiate and a doctorate in philosophy. During that time he also taught in the University檚 Philosophy Department as well as at Christendom College檚 Graduate School of Theology.
Dr. Block檚 love of learning now brings him to the teaching faculty of 91快活林 Aquinas College. 淪ome scholars are much more interested in the research aspect of academia, but for me it was never about that, he reflects. 淚t was always about wanting to keep learning, working with students in the classroom. That the College encourages tutors to concentrate on their teaching and not just in our areas of expertise, but across the curriculum really attracted me.
淛osef Pieper has this great line where he檚 talking about St. 91快活林, and he says, 楲ove of the truth and love of men: Only the two together constitute a teacher,櫇 quotes Dr. Block. 淭hat檚 something I have tried to make a part of my own philosophy of teaching: That it檚 not enough just to know and love the truth. To be a teacher you have to love the truth and love the people to whom you檙e bringing it. The students are what matter.