First comes love, then comes marriage…then for about 50 percent of us … it’s divorce.
Navigating these major events can bring out the best and worst in us. Tuesday on Up to Date, the Ethics Professors, UMKC philosophy professor Clancy Martin, Ph.D. and UMKC School of Arts & Sciences Dean Wayne Vaught, Ph.D. examine the behavior boundaries during these times. While some take the stance that all is fair in love and war, we’ll learn what other philosophies apply in coming together and breaking apart.
Joining the discussion is family law attorney Rebecca Martin, who also is the soon-to-be ex-wife of one of the professors. Together we look at why our principles seem to go out the window when passions run high.
Wayne Vaught is dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, professor of philosophy and medicine, and director of the Center for Applied and Professional Ethics at UMKC. His primary research focus is in the area of biomedical ethics, with an emphasis on ethical issues in pediatrics. He received a bachelor's degree in philosophy, psychology and religion at Georgetown College in Georgetown, Ky., a master's in philosophy at Baylor University, and a Ph.D. in philosophy with a concentration in medical ethics from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Clancy Martin is a professor of philosophy at UMKC. He works on 19th and 20th Century European philosophy, the intersections of philosophy and literature, and the ethics of advertising and selling. Clancy has authored, coauthored and edited several books in philosophy, including Love, Lies, and Marriage, Honest Work with Robert Solomon and Joanne Ciulla, and The Philosophy of Deception. He has published more than two dozen articles and reviews on Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Romanticism and the virtue of truthfulness and has also translated Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Clancy also publishes fiction in Noon, McSweeneys and elsewhere. Clancy earned his Ph.D. in 2003 from the University of Texas at Austin. Rebecca Martin received her BA from The University of Texas at Austin in philosophy before moving to Lawrence, Kansas to attend law school. Upon graduating, she practiced at a local firm, first drafting contracts and then as defense counsel in the litigation section. After a couple of years, she decided to return to academia, and taught undergraduate courses in the philosophy department at the University of Missouri at Kansas City. She found social issues to be particularly compelling and incorporated subjects ranging from ethical eating to racism in Kansas City into her Contemporary Moral Issues courses. Additionally, she taught upper division courses in social and political philosophy and Asian philosophy. Beginning in 2011, she returned to private practice, specifically to practice in the area of family law. Rebecca lives in Kansas City, Missouri with her two daughters, Margaret and Portia, her frequently visiting stepdaughter, Zelly and two dogs, Bunny and Poodleful.
