By Randy Fiedler

Baylor University has announced the appointment of Dr. Timothy O’Connor, currently professor of philosophy at Indiana University, as Distinguished Professor of Philosophy. O’Connor, whose chief academic interests include metaphysics, philosophy of mind and philosophy of religion, will join the Baylor faculty in the fall.

“I am pleased that Dr. O’Connor will be joining us,” said Dr. Michael Beaty, chair and professor of philosophy. “He is superb philosopher, a skilled scholar and excellent teacher, and he will be a wonderful colleague. His intellectual expertise, with its breadth and depth, will strengthen our department considerably. The excitement about his joining us is palpable among our faculty members and graduate students.”

“Baylor University is seeking to become a premier Christian research university suited to the 21st century,” O’Connor said. “They have made great strides over the past two decades, and all indicators point toward accelerating progress. There are highly talented and energetic people in the philosophy department with a high degree of unity of purpose. It’s a very exciting time to be at Baylor.”

O’Connor earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in philosophy from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and went on to complete M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in philosophy at Cornell University. He joined the Indiana University faculty in 1993 and served as chair of the philosophy department from 2006 to 2012.

He served as a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Notre Dame and was a Gifford Research Fellow at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. While at Indiana University he received four teaching awards, including the Indiana University Teaching Excellence Recognition Award in 1999 and 2000.

O’Connor is the author of two books –– “Theism and Ultimate Explanation: The Necessary Shape of Contingency” (Wiley-Blackwell, 2008) and “Persons and Causes: The Metaphysics of Free Will” (Oxford, 2000). He has edited or co-edited six books and has written numerous academic papers on the topics of free will, emergence, philosophical theology and epistemology. He also writes online reviews for Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.

While at Baylor, O’Connor said he will continue to research and write in his main areas of interest.

“My interests in philosophy are wide-ranging, from grand questions about how reality as a whole ‘hangs together’ as one unified system to much more specific questions about the nature of human persons and human rationality, including the relationship of faith, religious belief and reason,” he said. “I also enjoy teaching a wide range of courses. Teaching for me is in part a way of keeping my own thinking fresh, so I enjoy the challenge of exploring topics and periods that range outside my scholarly expertise.”

O’Connor said he is excited by the level of excellence he has seen in undergraduate education at Baylor.

“I’m very impressed by the care and attention given to undergraduate students at Baylor. And it seems to be attention given in the right sort of way — holding students to high standards while mentoring them to a degree that enables them with effort to succeed,” he said.

Another aspect of Baylor’s academic character that has impressed O’Connor is the value placed on interdisciplinary conversation in the humanities.

“Ideally, humanities scholars are conscious of the place of their own particular discipline within the much wider spectrum of human learning and culture. But the relentless march towards specialization often causes scholars to stop paying attention to that wider conversation. The result can often be a fragmented multiversity of isolated communities, rather than a university,” O’Connor said. “Baylor is a place that resists that trend to an impressive degree, with overlapping programs and institutes that encourage truly communal conversation. There are at least a half dozen scholars here outside philosophy whose books and articles I’ve read and whom I’m excited to be able to get to know.”

Leading philosophers praise O’Connor and his work.

Dr. Eleonore Stump, the Robert J. Henle Professor of Philosophy at Saint Louis University, said O’Connor “has an international reputation for his excellent and widely discussed philosophical work. Baylor’s philosophy department, which is already well established in the profession, will be considerably strengthened through this hire.”

“Tim O’Connor’s profound contributions to philosophy of mind and action, the metaphysics of modality, and the philosophy of religion have made him a leading figure in these fields,” said Dr. Dean Zimmerman, professor of philosophy at Rutgers University. “His move to Baylor will have a tremendous impact, building on the department’s strengths but bringing a new perspective as well.”

“This is great news for Baylor,” said Dr. Michael Bergmann, professor of philosophy at Purdue University. “Tim O’Connor’s work in metaphysics and philosophy of mind is widely known and highly respected and his strengths nicely complement those already on display in Baylor’s philosophy department.”

O’Connor’s future colleagues at Baylor also commend him.

“Tim O’Connor is an internationally recognized metaphysician, and will do much to strengthen the reputation and visibility of Baylor’s already well-recognized philosophy department,” said Dr. C. Stephen Evans, University Professor of Philosophy and Humanities.

“I am delighted with the appointment of Tim O’Connor. He has an international reputation as a philosopher of mind and action and his recruitment by Baylor represents a further strengthening of an already fine department,” said Dr. John J. Haldane, Distinguished Professor of Ethics and The J. Newton Rayzor, Sr., Distinguished Professor of Philosophy.

O’Connor is married to Gail, and they have three children. He said he is looking forward to relocating to Texas.

“I grew up in Chicago and have lived in the Midwest almost my entire life, so I think of moving to Texas in part as entering a new culture. There is challenge in that, but also excitement, because I like personal challenges,” O’Connor said. “Learning to adapt to the rhythms of a new and very different place will push me to continue to grow. It helps that people tend to be very open and warm here. And of course there is a dynamism in Waco right now, with plenty of other newcomers like me.”