Who am I, and why do I live? What is happiness? Is lying always bad?

Montague Brown, a professor of philosophy and ethics courses, thinks about these questions. He encourages his students and the readers of his books to consider them, too.

"Every person is a philosopher, in the sense that we all wonder about the same kinds of things and ask the same kinds of questions about what is true, and good, and how we should live our lives," he says. "Asking ourselves the big questions helps us figure out who we are and understand our responsibility to the community. That is why it's an indispensable part of a liberal arts education. As Socrates said, the unexamined life is not worth living. "

Brown's courses are filled with lively discussion, as students bring their own experiences and questions to the table.

Besides teaching philosophy and ethics courses, Brown is one of the many faculty members in all disciplines who lecture and lead seminars in the required humanities course series, "Portraits of Human Greatness."

When he's not in the classroom, the professor spends time writing, skiing on the local cross-country trails, or providing the rock-steady beat of the bass in a faculty jazz quartet. In the summer, this philosopher might be hiking in his home state of Maine or presenting a paper in Rome.

Brown has published three academic books, one of which he sometimes assigns for his class. His books for general readers are The One-Minute Philosopher and Half Truths: What's Right (and What's Wrong) With the Cliché's You and I Live With.

Professor Brown's appointment to the college's first endowed academic chair (The Richard L. Bready Chair of Ethics, Economics, and the Common Good) allows him time to work on a new book about the importance of freedom in the thought of 13th century theologian-philosopher Thomas Aquinas.