Curriculum Vitae
Robert G. Wengert
Born: Chicago, Illinois, February 22, 1938.
Education
B. A. (Summa cum laude) Capuchin Seminary of St. Mary (Crown Point, Indiana) Affiliated with the Catholic University of America, 1961.
Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto, Canada, 1961-1964.
University of Toronto, 1964-1966, Ph. D. 1971.
Professional Experience and Positions:
Instructor, University of Toronto, 1965-1966
Instructor, University of Illinois, 1966-1971.
Assistant Professor, University of Illinois, 1971-1987.
Vice-Chairman, Department of Philosophy, 1972-73, 1978-80.
Associate Professor, University of Illinois, 1987-
Acting Assistant Director, School of Humanities, 1986-1987
Acting Chair, Department of Philosophy, University of Illinois, 1987-89
Acting Director, Language Learning Laboratory, University of Illinois, 1991
Acting Chair, Department of Philosophy, University of Illinois, 1994-96
Chair, Department of Philosophy, University of Illinois, 1996-2001
Areas of Interest:
History of Medieval Philosophy
History of Ancient Philosophy
Logic: informal, and the relationship of formal to informal
Logic Programming and Prolog; Logic and XML
Practical Ethics
Courses Taught:
Introduction to Ethics
Introduction to Logic
Logic for Auditors, for the Office of the Auditor General of the State of Illinois.
Applied Logic--Logic and Accounting Theory.
Introductory Symbolic Logic.
Advanced Formal Logic.
Logic, Logic Programming, and Prolog.
Problem Solving with Prolog.
Seminar in Modal Logic.
History of Ancient Philosophy.
Plato
Aristotle
Sextus Empiricus
Seminars in Medieval Philosophy
History of Anglo-American Philosophy.
Have five times been asked to teach seminars for the Cohn Scholars program.
Undergraduate Instructional Award, Summer, 1988.
Teaching Awards:
Humanities Award for Excellence in Teaching, 1991
LAS Prokasy Award for Excellence in Teaching, 1991
Departmental Committees, etc.:
Chair of Department, 1996-2001
Acting Chair of the Department Aug. 1987-9, 1994-6
Vice-Chairman of the Department 1972-73, 1978-1980
Director of Undergraduate Studies 1992-1994
Chairman or member of Prelim Committee regularly
Chairman or member of Financial Aid and Admissions Committee - regularly.
Headed the Search Committee for a new Departmental chairman 1980.
Chairman of the 102 committee which developed and directed the new informal logic course, 1977-
Undergraduate Advisor, several times earlier and 1982-
Undergraduate Awards committee, 1979-
Capricious Grading Committee--elected to this several times.
Executive Committee-- a number of times
Search committees for hiring,- regularly.
Tenure Committee, regularly.
Philosophy Department CSO contact person for networking
Philosophy Department AISS security contact person
Departmental Computer Committee, 1983-, Chairman 1983-84, 1985-
University Functions:
Champaign-Urbana Campus Senate, 1973-1977
Conference on Conduct Governance, 1975-1977
Chairman of Conference on Conduct Governance, 1976-1977
LAS Elections and Credentials Committee 1977-1979
Ad Hoc Religious Studies Committee 1978
Religious Studies Advisory Committee, 1979-1981, 1983-87
Ad Hoc Cohn Scholarship committee (School of Humanities), 1979-1981. This became the permanent Committee on Scholarship and Honors of which I was a member until 1984 zand Chairman 1983-1984.
Chairman of the Honors Council of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, 1982-3 (member from 1981).
Pre-Law Committee 1979-1980
Acting Assistant Director of the School of Humanities (1986-7)
Excel Steering Committee (1986-7)
Supercomputer Committee (1986-7)
Campus Honors Advisory Committee (1987-9)
Humanities Council (1987-9)
Language Learning Laboratory Executive Committee (1987-1993)
World Heritage Museum Advisory Committee (1988-9)
Educational Technologies Board (1987-9, 1993-6), Vice Chairman 1993, Chairman (1994-5).
Senate Library Advisory Committee (1989-1992), Vice Chairman (1990-91).
Council on Undergraduate Education, Advising Subcommittee Chair (1990-1992)
LAS Policy and Development Committee (1990-92)
Senate Task Group on Instructional Facilities (1992)
Chair, Ad Hoc Committee on Equipping Classrooms for Foreign Language Instruction (Fall, 1990, 1993)
Acting Director, Language Learning Laboratory (Spring, 1991)
LAS Ad Hoc Committee on Technology Policy (1993-5)
LAS Committee on Committees (1993-4)
Chancellor's Partnership Illinois Council (1995-6)
Campus Commencement Committee(1996-7)
Chair, Humanities Council (1996-7)
LAS ad hoc CFAC Committee (1997-9)
LAS ad hoc Religious Foundation Review Committee (1998-9)
University-wide Teaching at an Internet Distance Seminar (1998-2000)
Campus Sub-committee considering ERP software (1998-9)
Chancellor's Conference Planning Committee (2000-1)
Decision Support Steering Team (2000-2002)
UI-Integrate Faculty Advisory Committee (2000-2002)
Search Committee: LAS Associate Dean for Student Affairs (2000-2001)
Senate Information Technology Committee (2001-2002)
Publications:
"The Development of the Doctrine of the Formal Distinction in the Lectura Prima of John Duns Scotus," The Monist, Vol. 49, n. 4 (1965), 571-587.
"The Logic of Essentially Ordered Causes," Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, Vol. XII, n. 4, (Oct., 1971), 406-422.
"Schematizing DeMorgan's Argument," Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, Vol. XV, n. 1 (Jan., 1974), 165-166.
"The Sources of Intuitive Cognition in William of Ockham," Franciscan Studies, Vol. 41, (1981), 415-447.
"Three Senses of Intuitive Cognition: A Quodlibetal Question of Harvey of Nedellec," Franciscan Studies (Forthcoming)
"The Paradox of the Midwife," History of Philosophy Quarterly (Jan., 1988).
"Necessity of the Past: What is Ockham's Model?" Franciscan Studies (1987)
"Does Science Promote the Growth or Decay of Ethics?" Phytopathology NEWS February 1995 Volume 29/number 2 pp. 40-42.
Issue editor of the January 2001 issue of Library Trends Volume 49, Number 3, pp. 391-540, Winter 2001. The topic of this issue was "Ethical Issues of Information Technology."
Introduction, Library Trends Volume 49, Number 3, pp. 391-394.
"Some Ethical Aspects of Being an Information Professional," Library Trends Volume 49, Number 3, pp. 486-509.
Review of Oliver Leaman's book An Introduction to Medieval Islamic Philosophy in Canadian Philosophical Reviews (1991).
Review of Ethics and Higher Education ed. William W. May, 1990 for the National Academic Advising Association Journal.
Software:
Philo the Logician (1986, 1990). Demonstrated at the AAS conference Washington, Jan 1987; Boston IBM AEP conference, June 1987; Madison AEP conference, October 1987 and Eastern Division Meetings of the APA, December 1987 (all these by request). Presently distributed by the University of Wisconsin's WISCWARE and the National Collegiate Software Clearinghouse at North Carolina State University.
In 1989 Philo won second prize in a contest sponsored by The Philosophical Archives for the best software in philosophy. (First prize was won by a team of six computer scientists from St. Andrew's, Scotland).
A JAVA version of Philo is now running on a Web Server in the Philosophy Department
Barbara the Syllogizer (1988, 1989). Invited for demonstration and presentation at the IBM AEP conference, Anaheim, June 1989. Presently distributed by WISCWARE.
Java Development Initiative Presentation (May 8, 1997) sponsored by ETAG/OIR
"Interactive Logic Exercises over the Web," 12th International Workshop Conference on Teaching Philosophy, Mansfield, PA, July 30 – August 3, 1998
Presentations
Applied and Professional Ethics
Recurring Presentations:
Educational Development Program (1980-84,1986-1992) annually.
Water Resources Program (1987-1997) annually in the Fall.
Business Administration Seminar on Ethics -- Opening speaker each spring(1990-4)
Take the Lead (Feb. 20, 1990; Oct. 2, 1990; Feb. 12, 1991; Feb 23, 1993)
College of Agriculture 100 Course in fall (1991-2000)
Crop Sciences Seminar (Cleo D'Arcy's course Nov. 26, 1996-2002)
Other Presentations to student and professional groups:
Twin Cities Women's Business and Professional Club (Mar. 18, 1989)
"Ethics in Society" Continuing Education Program (Mar. 28, 1989)
Central Illinois Women's CPA Club (Sept. 14, 1989)
Allerton Library Conference on Ethics (Oct. 1989)
Davenport Public Library System (Aug. 30, 1990)
Program for Ethics and Cultural Values (Feb. 27, 1990)
Chicago & South Consortium of Hospital Librarians (Mar. 7, 1990; Mar. 18, 1993)
Phi Gamma Nu Business Honor Society (Mar. 31, 1990)
Covenant Medical Center (Apr. 4, 1990)
Argonne National Laboratory (May 3, 1990)
North Suburban Library System (Aug. 2, 1990)
Cooperative Extension Service Conference (Oct. 24, 1990)
Analytical Laboratory Managers Association Conference (Research Triangle Park, NC, Oct. 25, 1990)
Illinois County Officials Conference (Mar. 26, 1991; Mar. 24, 1992)
Analytical Technology Conference, Amoco Research Center,(Naperville, IL, April 30, 1991)
Illinois Library Association, (Chicago, May 3, 1991.)
Iowa Library Association Conference (Oct. 17, 1991)
Keynote Speaker and presenter.
College of Agriculture Alpha Zeta honors society (Mar. 25, 1992).
College of Agriculture Faculty Seminar (Apr. 16, 1992)
Campus Honors (Mar. 25, 1993)
International MBA students (May 14, 1993)
Engineering Grad students (July 6, 1993)
Entering MBA students (Aug. 26, 1993)
Classified Employees Association (March 3, 1994)
Bioethics Conference (May 17, 1994)
Rotary Regional Conference (Urbana, June 4, 1994)
American Phytopathological Society (Albuquerque, NM, Aug. 7, 1994)
U of I Cooperative Extension (Sept. 14, 1994)
Danville Rotary (Oct. 3, 1994)
Savoy Rotary Club (Savoy, Oct. 13, 1994)
Armory House (Nov. 1, 1994)
Agriculture 199 (Jan. 17, 1995)
Cooperative Extension (Princeton, IL, Jan 24)
Lead for Illinois (Union Jan 31, 1995)
Phi Eta Sigma speaker (Mar. 27, 1995)
College of Veterinary Medicine (Apr. 18, 1995)
MBA Orientation Speaker (Jan. 11, 1996)
Secretariat Speaker (Jan. 17, 1996)
Arthur Andersen Conference on Business Ethics, Inaugural Speaker (Feb. 20, 1996)
Read paper "A Survey of Classical Ethical Theories," Bioethics Institute (Mar. 29, 1996)
Carle Hospital, Bioethics Seminar Series, Speaker (May 7, 1996)
Cooperative Extension Services Region IV Staff Development, Springfield, Illinois (Full day workshop on Professional Ethics, Feb. 27, 1997).
Friends of the Champaign Public Library (Apr. 30, 1997)
Carle, College of Medicine, Clinical Lecture Series (Feb 18, 1998
Animal Sciences Graduate Students and Faculty (Apr. 22, 1998)
The Association for Office Professionals (May 4, 1998)
Bettendorf Public Library system, "Ethics in Libraries" (Jan 29, 1999)
Professional Ethics: University of Illinois Medical School, Provena-Covenant, Aug 18, 1999
First year Medical Students, "Professional Ethics," Dec. 7, 1999
Graduate Student NIH program, "Professional Ethics," March 9, 2000
Panelist on WGN call-in show on Ethics, January 19, 2001
Campus Business Managers "Professional Ethics," March 20, 2001
"Commenting, Debating and Quibbling: Lectures, Disputed Questions and Quodlibetal Questions in the Medieval University" Lectures March 25 and 27, 2002 for Medieval Studies 410.
Computer Software
AAS Conference, Washington, Jan. 1987
IBM AEP Conference, Boston, June, 1987
IBM AEP Conference, Madison, Oct., 1987
IBM Conference, Anaheim, June 1989
American Association of Philosophy Teachers, July, 1998
Other
Organizer of and Presenter in Fall Lecture Series: "Encounters with the Humanities" (1988) for Continuing Education
Panelist, Allerton Engineering Conference (Mar. 10, 1989)
Society for Academic Achievement, Invited speaker, Effingham (Apr. 27, 1989)
Guide to Freshman Success Orientation Program, (1989, 1991, 1994-2002);
Appeared on WGN talk show, "Extension 720" at request of U of I News Bureau (Mar. 26, 1991)
Cohn Scholars Seminar, Nov. 13, 1995
Indiana State University Philosophy in Action Conference (March 21, 1997) speaker on "How useful can technology be in teaching and learning critical thinking?"
Reviewing of Manuscripts for Publishers
1983 reviewed the proposal and then was asked also to review the entire text of M. Salmon's Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking for Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
1984 reviewed a 1000 page manuscript on deductive reasoning for the State University of New York Press.
1985 reviewed manuscript material for a book on How to Evaluate Reasoning in Natural Language for Prentice_Hall.
1985 reviewed a manuscript on Basic Logic for West Publishing Co.
1985 reviewed Irving Copi's Informal Logic for Macmillan
1986 reviewed proposed manuscript on Making Sense by Craig Walton for Prentice Hall.
1986 reviewed a proposed manuscript Formal Logic With Applications for Wadsworth.
1987 reviewed a proposed manuscript Critical Thinking by Bayley for Prentice-Hall
1998 ?Wilson's Critical Thinking for McGraw Hill