Michael Anker - Biography

Michael Anker, Ph.D., is an American philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at The College of New Rochelle, School of New Resources, John Cardinal O’Connor Campus in NYC. He also teaches a workshop entitled “Research for Dissertations” and is presently a Visiting Professor at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. Michael Anker was born in New Jersey, in 1965, and he was raised in Iowa. He completed his B.A. in Comparative History of Ideas at the University of Washington. He then pursued his Masters in Liberal Studies at CUNY Graduate Center, NYC. Upon this completion he followed a philosophical path that led him to mountains of Saas-Fee. There he had the opportunity to study with, and under the guidance of, renowned philosophers Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Nancy while completing his Ph.D. in Philosophy, Media and Communications at The European Graduate School.

Michael Anker recently published his first book, The Ethics of Uncertainty: Aporetic Openings with Atropos Press (January 2009). This book is not only, in part, a culmination of an enriched and inspired academic experience at The European Graduate school but, more fundamentally, The Ethics of Uncertainty: Aporetic Openings offers an alternative framework and a refreshing perspective on an otherwise dogmatic and too often misunderstood concept of uncertainty. Michael Anker invites us to (re) consider a notion of possibilities, or aporia, an opening for opportunities inherent in and contingent on uncertainty. With each illusory or temporary “certainty” there will always-already-be an endless set of possibilities. Therefore, it is through indecision that decision occurs, and it is this act itself, the act of deciding, that is ethical:

The experience of aporia allows a true decision to emerge – a decision without measure and without predetermined criteria. …

Any decision which does not simultaneously open itself up to other possibilities risks the danger of becoming totalized and absolute. A decision must be made in an aporia but the decision must also not fall into a totalized path of identity or unity. In short, a decision must on one hand make its passage out of aporia but on another hand it should never find its home in absolute certitude outside the aporetic terrain.

The Ethics of Uncertainty: Aporetic Openings continues to receive great reviews for its philosophical insight, and perhaps most importantly, for its ability to move across academic disciplines, thus not only discussing philosophy, but the activity of thinking itself. Michael Anker’s philosophy and continuous desire to illuminate possibilities for thinking is transposed in his interactions with his students. However, the recent publication of his book has provided more opportunities to expand his dialogue with those beyond the Philosophy Department. His first lecture on his book was at his school, The College of New Rochelle, where he presented to students of all disciplines:

Well, first and foremost, I thought to myself, why would anyone wish to come out for a lecture which asks of them to think not only about uncertainty in and of itself, but more so to think of it in a seemingly paradoxical relation to ethics. In other words, I thought of the potentially unsettling nature of thinking on uncertainty, and furthermore on the anxiety of thinking of ethics in a terrain of indeterminacy. In relation to this, I thought of the comforts which come with notions of certitude and determinacy. I thought of how much easier and attractive it is to think not only about certainty, but within the psychological landscape of certitude itself. In short, I thought that perhaps a paradoxical suggestion about the relationship between ethics and uncertainty would simply scare away an audience. But then I thought of my students here at CNR; all of them, the present, past, future, and even those students at CNR with whom I will never have the pleasure of being in a classroom. I thought of them, and you all here tonight, and I realized that not only can you handle the anxiety and difficulty of thinking within paradoxical relations, but that many of you actually relish the task– for this is the very task of thinking itself.

Wishing to continue his work in relation to this topic and others, Michael Anker continues to present his ideas through lectures, papers, essays, and conference presentations. More recently, he has been asked to speak at the Camden Philosophical Society, “Thinking about The Good” conference (July 2010). In continuity of his book, Michael Anker’s presentation “Poetic Becomings: A Sensing of the Good” draws upon our understanding of uncertainty as it may illuminate a more fundamental sensibility of an experience, rather than a fixed or separate idea. That is a relation with “the good”. In this experience, this continuous activity of becoming and moving towards the good, we are enacting the rhythms and cadences of poetry. As such, this symbiotic dialectic allows one to continuously engage with forms of the good, without the good necessarily having a “fixed or stable concept.” It is this dialectic that, once again, may be ethical:

I was talking last night about love and for me it's not so much a ... it's kind of like the concept of the good … it's not really a fixed idea for me. It's something I have to work in relation-to. So I am very interested in the idea of relation. So, in a phenomenological sense, for me, the relation to the good is of importance today. Which is why in my title, I say sensing the good.

I want to try to open our thinking, tonight, toward thinking as a relation to the good itself. With the time of absolutes very far behind us, I believe, we can find meaning in the world perhaps without a reference to a fixed or stable concept of the good.

Presently, while teaching at the College of New Rochelle, Michael is a member of numerous committees, but perhaps most importantly, the curriculum committee, where he is able to make progress in his ongoing commitment to the integration of philosophy and ethics across the curriculum. As co-chair of the Humanities department, Michael has also been able create and teach a series of philosophy courses for undergraduate students, which includes Introduction to Philosophy, Existentialism, and Ethics. This series of philosophy courses at the School of New Resources in the South Bronx has proven to be highly successful, now serving hundreds of inner-city adult college students. Michael’s goal and belief is to encourage philosophy as a way of life; to teach philosophy as a process of thinking, which empowers not only the individual in relation to the formation of a rejuvenated identity, but furthermore, how this identity relates in an ethical manner to others in the world.

His ongoing work in relation to a core seminar at the college entitled “Experience, Learning, and Identity” highlights this philosophical and pedagogical work in progress. When Michael is not teaching he finds time to enhance his research, writing, and theoretical skills in all areas of philosophy. It is through this unique combination of practice (teaching philosophy to inner-city students in the South Bronx) and theory (writing, research, and academic presentations), that Michael continues to find his particular philosophical stance. His current research is not only a reflection of this unique position, but furthermore, a place where Michael continues to explore the pedagogical possibilities of philosophy as such.