Ted Humphrey

Ted Humphrey is an Emeritus Professor at Arizona State University. He retired in May 2015. He was affiliated with Barrett, the Honors College at ASU as President’s Professor and Barrett Professor, the Lincoln Center as a Lincoln Professor of Ethics and Latin American Intellectual History, and the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies as professor of philosophy. His current scholarly focus is Latin American intellectual history. With Professor Janet M. Burke, he published two anthologies of writings by Spanish-speaking Latin American thinkers, "Nineteenth Century Nation Building and the Latin American Intellectual Tradition" (Hackett, 2007) and "Liberty in Mexico," ed. José Antonio Aguilar Rivera (Liberty Press, 2012). Their translation with introduction, timeline for the conquest and notes of Bernal Díaz del Castillo’s "The True History of the Conquest of New Spain," also published by Hackett Publishing Company, appeared in March, 2012. Three additional projects of theirs include an abridged version of "The Essential Diaz: Selections from The Conquest of New Spain" (Hackett Classics, 2014) and "Moral Voices of Latin America," is a follow up to the 19th-century nation building anthology, and the other, a new translation of Hernan Cortés's "Cartas de Relación" will pair with the translation of Bernal Díaz.

The Latin American figures to which Professor Humphrey devotes particular attention include, Andrés Bello, Juan Montalvo, Carlos Vaz Ferreira and Jose Vasconcelos. His previously published scholarship includes essays on problems of reason and will and space and time in classical modern philosophy, as well as Kant's epistemology, late metaphysics, and moral and political theory. His translations of Kant's Enlightenment writings have become standards in the field, and his translation of Kant's, "Perpetual Peace" appeared in a new edition in September, 2003.

Professor Humphrey chaired ASU's Philosophy Department from 1974 to 1983, during which time he was responsible for appointing several now internationally eminent philosophers, including Jeffrie G. Murphy, Jane Maienschein, J. Richard Creath and Michael J. White. From 1983 he directed ASU's Honors Program, guiding it to collegiate status, becoming the founding dean of the Barrett, the Honors College in 1988, a position he held until 2003. He is past president of the National Collegiate Honors Council. Professor Humphrey is a member of Arizona State University's Distinguished Teaching Academy. Numerous organizations have awarded him their highest honors for teaching excellence, and the Arizona Republic cited him as a force for excellent undergraduate education in Arizona.

During the 2009-10 academic year, under the auspices of grants from Amazon and the Office of the Provost at ASU and the support of Hackett Publishing Co., Inc., Professor Humphrey conducted a pilot program using the Kindle DX reading device for teaching HON 171-272, The Human Event. The pilot sought to evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of providing primary text materials for use in seminar level humanities courses.