Pathways Mentors

Geoffrey Klempner

Geoffrey Klempner took a 1st Class Honours degree in Philosophy from Birkbeck College in 1976, and went on to gain the B.Phil and D.Phil at Oxford University for his thesis, 'The Metaphysics of Meaning'. Fascinated by the problems of metaphysics, his research finally culminated in 1995 in the publication of his book Naive Metaphysics: a theory of subjective and objective worlds.

Taking his inspiration from the Greek Sophists, he gave up his academic teaching posts in order to found his own school of philosophy, Pathways. In 1999, he wrote in the introduction to his Glass house philosopher notebook:

"I am one of a new breed. Call us the Internet Sophists. I believe the university departments have had their day. Time has come for a more democratic arrangement. The world wide web offers a paradigm for a radically new approach to teaching and publishing. Whether the universities like it or not, the changes have already begun. If they want to survive, it is time to get on board."

Since those words were written, the number of universities offering online courses has increased steeply and continues to rise. Yet still there is comparatively little provision for high quality online courses in academic philosophy, and Pathways continues to be the leading philosophy school on the world wide web.

Apart from the day to day running of Pathways, his main activity is still writing to his many Pathways students all over the world. His responsibilities also include supervising other Pathways mentors taking the ISFP Fellowship Award. He estimates that the letters and emails he has written in response to Pathways students since 1995 total close to 3 million words.

While continuing to be gripped by the ultimate questions of philosophy, his research interests have since expanded to include ethics, political philosophy and most recently the philosophy of business, which raises the questions, 'Why do we work?', 'What is trade?' and 'How is business possible?'