John Shook, Ph.D.

Dr. John R. Shook is a scholar and professor living in Washington, D.C. His recent book is The God Debates: A 21st Century Guide for Atheists and Believers (and Everyone in Between).

Shook was professor of philosophy at Oklahoma State University from 2000 to until 2006, when he moved to Buffalo to join the Center for Inquiry and the faculty at the University at Buffalo. He is Research Associate in Philosophy and faculty member of the Science and the Public EdM online program at the University at Buffalo, New York; Associate Fellow at the Center for Neurotechnology Studies in the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies in Arlington, Virginia; and Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

His service to secular organizations presently includes two positions, as Director of Education and Senior Research Fellow for the Center for Inquiry, and the Education Coordinator for the American Humanist Association. He also is President of the Society of Humanist Philosophers.

Shook publishes on philosophical topics about science, naturalism, neurophilosophy, ethics, democracy, secularism, and religion. Shook is an editor for three philosophy journals: Contemporary Pragmatism, Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism, and Philo: A Journal of Philosophy, and he also assists the editing of Philosophy and Public Policy. Among his books are Dewey’s Empirical Theory of Knowledge and Reality (authored, 2000), Pragmatic Naturalism and Realism (edited, 2003), Blackwell Companion to Pragmatism (co-edited, 2005), Ectogenesis: Artificial Womb Technology and the Future of Human Reproduction (co-edited, 2006), The Future of Naturalism (co-edited, 2009), John Dewey’s Philosophy of Spirit (co-authored with James Good, 2010), The God Debates: A 21st Century Guide for Atheists, Believers, and Everyone in Between (authored, 2010), and The Essential William James (edited, 2011).