Randall Auxier

Randall E. Auxier (born August 7, 1961) is a professor of philosophy and communication studies at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, a musician, environmental activist, union advocate, and candidate (2018) for the United States House of Representatives, nominated by the Green Party in the 12th Congressional District of Illinois. He is a radio host for WDBX Carbondale since 2001, a widely read author of popular philosophy, and also a co-founder and co-director of the AIPCT (The American Institute for Philosophical and Cultural Thought). Born in Leitchfield, Kentucky, Auxier is the younger of two children, the son of a veterinarian, Charles David Auxier (1931-) and a professional church musician, Eileen Gunter Auxier (1933-2016). Educated in the public schools of Memphis, Tennessee, he grew up during and was deeply affected by, the civil rights movement. He was one of the many students who were bused to integrated schools by court orders that resulted from Brown v. Board of Education. Auxier was in first grade when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, and the event had a continual impact on him and the region he lived in. In philosophy, Auxier specializes in classical American thought, process metaphysics and theology, intensive logics, aesthetics, philosophical anthropology, and the philosophy of culture, of science, of religion, and of education. He teaches and writes on Giambattista Vico, Immanuel Kant, Georg Hegel, J.J. Bachofen, Charles Peirce, Henri Bergson, Josiah Royce, William James, John Dewey, Alfred North Whitehead, Ernst Cassirer, Susanne Langer, Charles Hartshorne, Jaakko Hintikka, Arthur Danto, and Umberto Eco. Education and career Auxier attended Graves Road Elementary School (1967–73), Graceland Junior High School (1973–76), and Hillcrest High School (1976-79), all belonging to the Memphis City Schools. Court ordered busing commenced in January 1973, and Auxier remained (by his own choosing) in public schools while most of his white schoolmates were sent to all-white private schools. Auxier attended Memphis State University (now called the University of Memphis) from 1979 to 1981, majoring in Criminal Justice. He left school in the fall of 1981, playing bass guitar and singing professionally in several local bands. He returned to Memphis State in the fall of 1984 and received an undergraduate degree in philosophy and criminal justice (magna cum laude) in 1986.