Michael E. Zimmerman was voted by the members and visitors of Universe Spirit as our Philosopher Artist of the Fall Quarter 2006.
After receiving his PhD in philosophy in 1974, Michael E. Zimmerman spent 31 years teaching at Tulane University (New Orleans), where he was chair of his department for three terms, co-director of environmental studies, co-director of Asian studies, and clinical professor of psychology in psychiatry department of Tulane Medical School. Michael has published two books on the philosopher Martin Heidegger (Eclipse of the Self [1981] and Heidegger’s Confrontation with Modernity [1990], a book on environmental philosophy,Contesting Earth’s Future, and most recently a book co-authored with Sean Esbjorn-Hargens, Integral Ecology. In 2006, Michael accepted the position of director of the Center for Humanities and the Arts at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
Michael has a long-standing affinity with the natural world, an affinity that was deepened by years spent in the creeks and woods of small-town Ohio as a boy. Out of this affinity grew his interest in environmental philosophy. The sense of wonder evoked by natural phenomena overlapped with spiritual interests that have taken many different directions. Raised in the Catholic faith, Michael dropped his religious practice in college, where he became a secular humanist attracted to Nietzsche and Heidegger. A decade later, after reading Ram Dass’s book, Be Here Now, Michael began to explore Asian religions, especially Buddhism, and to re-embrace Christianity in a way informed by his encounter with non-Western spiritual traditions. In the early 1990s, Michael began teaching a Buddhism class that included a one-hour per week meditation lab. Moreover, he now begins each day of all his classes with a few minutes of “awareness practice,” designed to all students to situate themselves in the here-and-now of class discussion.
Michael first encountered Ken Wilber’s remarkable work in 1981. Subsequently, Michael began using Ken’s works in courses and research. With the publication of Sex, Ecology, Spirituality in 1995, Ken opened up a whole new domain of discourse that has influenced Michael’s thinking about environmental problems and a host of other issues. After meeting Ken in 1998, Michael began to attend meetings in Boulder and Denver that led to the formation of the Integral Institute, of which Michael is co-director (with Sean Esbjorn-Haargens) of the Integral Ecology wing. At the University of Colorado, Michael hopes to introduce a version of the AQAL model to help articulate the importance of multiple perspectives to people both within and without the University.
Michael is married to Teresa Toulouse, a professor of American Literature, and has an eight-year old daughter, Lizzie.