Sinclair Macrae, Ph.D. Email & Phone Number

I won the career lottery. I am a professional philosopher who is paid to read, think, write, speak, and engage inquiring minds in exploring an array of endlessly fascinating topics, puzzles, and questions. (I am an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Mount Royal University in Calgary, where I have worked for the past 27 years.) I don’t think I have been bored since the 1970s. I have learned that the intrinsic value of an education does not just consist in the appreciation of knowledge. It mainly involves the acquisition and exercising of various self and other-regarding virtues, qualities, and dispositions, the most important of which is the capacity to think and care well for oneself. Betrand Russell observed that “Most men would rather die than think; in fact, they do.” Thinking is work and thinking well is harder work. But it is the path we must patiently learn to take to liberate ourselves from both the unhelpful heteronomous influence of others, and the natural impulses that lead us to promoting the interests of our genes at the expense of ourselves. The goal of helping people think and care better for themselves, so that they can live more rational lives and become better professionals, guides my work as a teacher. It has motivated me as an expert in professional and business ethics and axiology (value theory) to step outside of the university to work with many engaged and engaging professionals to help them strengthen their ethical understanding, self-confidence, and judgment. To this end I have delivered seminars and workshops, and written professional codes of ethics and conduct, for a range of professional associations and businesses over the past 20 years. This work leaves me doubly fortunate: not only is helping others in these ways endlessly interesting but it makes my working life worth living. For the meaningfulness of our work, just like the meaningfulness of our lives, is determined by the positive impact we have on others.