Curriculum Vitae

Dennis Potter

Dept. of Philosophy and Humanities, 173

Utah Valley University

Orem, UT 84058

801.863.8817

potterde@uvsc.edu

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Education:

Areas of Specialization: Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Logic, Philosophical Theology.

Areas of Competence: Philosophy of Language, History of Analytic Philosophy, Social and Political Philosophy.

1990-1993 Brigham Young University, Philosophy, B.A.
1993-1995 Florida State University, Philosophy, M.A.
1995-1997 University of Notre Dame, Philosophy, ABD, M.A.

Positions held:

Associate Professor, Utah Valley University, 2007 – Present.

Assistant Professor, Utah Valley State College, 2004 - 2007.

Instructor, Utah Valley State College, 2000-2004.

Adjunct Lecturer, Indiana University South Bend, 1997--1999.

Publications:

Partakers of the Heavenly Gift: A Political Reading of Mormonism, Forthcoming from Kofford Books.

ìThe Sacramental World View: A philosophical comparison of Joseph Smithís magical view of ordinances with a Liberation view of sacraments,î Sunstone, December 2006, pp.48-52. 2006 R.L. ìBuzzî Capener Memorial Writing Contest in Comparative Religious Studies, Second Place Winner.

ìDiagrammatic Representation,î Dialectica 60:4, 2006, pp.369--382. (Note: This is Chapter 2 from my doctoral dissertation.)

ìLiberation Theology in the Book of Mormon,î in The Proceedings of The Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology, forthcoming from Kofford Books.

ìThe Global Church: Exploring the Problem of Religious Diversity from a Mormon Context,î in Spheres of Globalization, ed. David Keller, Utah Valley State, 2006.

ìRestored Epistemology: A Communicative Pluralist Answer to Religious Diversity,î element: the journal of the society for mormon philosophy and theology, Vol.I: No. 2, Fall 2005.

ìToward a New Reading of the Book of Mormon,î Sunstone (Issue 139) November 2005.

ìWhat Does God write in His Franklin Planner? The Paradoxes of Providence, Prophecy, and Petitionary Prayer,î Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol. 37 No. 2 (Forthcoming in Summer 2004).

"Moral Dilemmas and Inevitable Sin," Faith and Philosophy, Vol. 20 No. 1 (Jan. 2003): 63Ò71.

"Defending Magic: Explaining the Necessity of Ordinances," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol. 35 No. 2 (Summer 2002):139-146.

"Finitism and the Problem of Evil," Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol. 33 No. 4 (Winter 2000): 83-96.

"How Deep the Chasm? A Reply to Owen and Mosser's Review," FARMS Review of Books, Vol. 11, No. 2 (1999) pp. 221-64.

"Did Christ Pay for Our Sins?" Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Vol. 32 No. 4 (Winter 1999): 73-86.

"Review of Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education," Sunstone, Vol.22:2 (1999), Issue 144.

"Wong On Davidson," in Philosophical Papers, Vol. XXIV, No.1 (1995), pp.75--81.

Conference Presentations (most recent last):

• "The Subjective Universality of Kant's Aesthetic Judgment" at Discipuli: A Graduate Student's Philosophy Conference at The University of Southern California, March 1992;
• "Hegel's Theodicy" at The Society of Christian Philosopher's Inter-Mountain Regional Mtg, March 1992;
• "On Learning the Holist's Language" at The Northwest Conference on Philosophy at Boise State University, Nov. 1992;
• "Socrates and Moral Truth" at Philosophy Club BYU, Feb. 1993;
• "The Empirical Foundations of Holism" at Discipuli. The University of Southern California, March 1993.
• "The Elenchus and Ineradicable Truth" at the Thirty-Ninth Annual Meeting of The Florida Philosophical Association, Nov. 1993.
• "Can Plato Have His Cake and Eat It Too?" at the Fortieth Annual Meeting of The Florida Philosophical Association, Nov. 1994.
• "Truth Theory Limited" at The Limits of Philosophy: The Third Annual Philosophy Conference at DePaul University, May 1996.
• "Truthmakers and Theories of Truth" at the Indiana Philosophical Association's annual conference, Nov. 1997.
• "Moral Dilemmas and Inevitable Sin" at the Pacific APA divisional meeting, April 1999.
• "A Particular Argument against Diagrams" at the Indiana Philosophical Association, April 1999.
• "The Standard Argument against Diagrams" at the Society for Exact Philosophy's annual conference, Lethbridge, Canada, May 1999.
• "Finitism and The Problem of Evil," 25th Annual Sunstone Theological Symposium, Salt Lake City, July 1999.
• "Locke and Berkeley on Abstraction and Infinite Divisibility," American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division Meeting, December 2001.
• ìRecollecting God,î Annual Sunstone Theological Symposium, 2001.
• ìDefending Magic,î Annual Sunstone Theological Symposium, 2002.
• ìLiberation Theology in the Book of Mormon,î Sunstone Theological Symposium, August 2003.
• ìWar and the Book of Mormon,î Mormon WomenÌs Forum, University of Utah, 2003.
• ìCollective Sin and Communal Grace,î Sunstone Theological Symposium, August 2004.
• ìLiberation Theology in the Book of Mormon,î The Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology, March 2004.
• ìThe Politics of Formalization,î The Radical Philosophy Association, Nov. 2004.
• ìRestored Epistemology,î The Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology, March 2005.
• ìPost-mortem Materialism,î Sunstone Theological Symposium, August 2005.
• ìMormonism and the Death Penalty,î Ethics Awareness Week, Fall 2005.
• ìMormon Cultural Studies: South Park,î Sunstone Symposium West, Claremont Graduate School of Religion, April 2006.
• ìThe Viper Defanged: Radical Mormon Theology vs. Conservative Mormon Practiceî presented at The Latin American Association for Religious Studies, Sao Paulo, Brazil, July 2006.
• ìMormon Cultural Studies: South Park,î Sunstone Symposium SLC, UT, August 2006.
• ìThe Sacramental World View: A Philosophical Comparison of Joseph Smithís Magical View of Ordinances with a Liberation View of Sacraments,î Sunstone Symposium SLC, UT, August 2006.
• ì ëThe poor is god on earthí: Religious Discourse in Hardt and Negriís Post-Marxian Theory,î Radical Philosophy Association, Creighton University, Omaha, Nov. 2006.
• Guest Lecture at Adams State College in Alamosa, Colorado on Mormon Studies.

Professional Activity:

… Mormon Studies Coordinator, The Center for the Study of Ethics, Utah Valley State College. 2001-2006.

… Founding Board Member of the Society for Mormon Philosophy and Theology, 2003-Present.

… Editorial Board, Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, 1999-2003.

… Compositor for The Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic. May 1996--May 1998.

… Research Assistant; Philosophy Department (BYU), Dr. David L. Paulsen---History of Christian theology. 1995.

… Research Assistant, Philosophy Department (BYU), Dr. David L. Paulsen---Philosophy of Religion. 1998.

Awards and honors:

• 1987 Academic Scholarship, BYU.
• Phi Kappa Phi (inducted1992).
• 1993 David H. Yarn Essay Prize, Dept. of Philosophy, BYU.
• 1993 The Florida Philosophical Association Graduate Student Essay Award (sponsored by Harper Collins Pub.), The University of Tampa.
• 1994 The Florida Philosophical Association Graduate Student Essay Award, The University of Florida.
• 1995 FSU University Fellowship.
• 2006 R.L. ìBuzzî Capener Memorial Writing Contest in Comparative Religious Studies, Second Place Winner for the essay ìThe Sacramental World View: A Philosophical Comparison of Joseph Smithís Magical View of Ordinances with a Liberation View of Sacraments,î

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Teaching Experience:

Courses taught (University of Notre Dame):

• Introduction to Philosophy
• Images of Humanity in Modern Philosophy

Courses taught (Indiana University South Bend):

• Elementary Logic
• Introduction to Ethics
• Introduction to Philosophy

Utah Valley State College:

• Ethics and Values
• Introduction to Philosophy
• Formal Logic
• Philosophy of Science
• History of Analytic Philosophy
• Philosophy of Language
• Philosophy of Religion
• W.V.O. Quine

Graduate Courses Taken:

• History: Plato (R. Dancy), Aristotle's Ethics (R. Dancy and M. Morales), Aristotle's Logic: Prior Analytics (R.Dancy), Aquinas and Suarez on Creation (F. Freddoso), Kant (P. Matthews), Hegel (J. Faulconer), Sidgwick (M. Morales), Donald Davidson (D. Packard), 20th Century Ethics (D. Solomon).
• Topics in Analytic Philosophy: Metaphysics (M. Loux), Epistemology (A. Plantinga), Anti-Realism (R. Dancy), Theories of Truth (A. Yaqub), Philosophy of Language (D. Jung), Formal Semantics (S. Shin), Philosophy of Language: Brandom (M. Kremer), Analyticity (M. David), Philosophy of Science (D. Howard).
• Logic and Philosophy of Mathematics: Mathematical Logic (D.Packard), Modern Logic II (A. Yaqub), Set Theory (P. Wright), Basic Modern Logic I: Model Theory (P. Cholak), G–del's Theorems (M. Detlefsen), Basic Modern Logic II: Computability (P. Cholak), Philosophy of Mathematics: Structuralism (A. Yaqub), Philosophy of Logic: Logicism (D. Jung), Philosophy of Mathematics (M. Detlefsen), Philosophy of Logic: Logical Consequence (P. Blanchette).

Graduate Courses Audited: Modern Logic I (A. Yaqub), Kant: On Freedom (P. Matthews), Anti-Realism and Skepticism (R. Dancy), Free Will (P. van Inwagen), Contemporary Philosophy of Mathematics (P. Blanchette), Christian Theism and Philosophy (A. Plantinga).

Languages: Portuguese (conversational) and French (reading).