Prof publishes WYSU segments

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Tom Shipka, professor emeritus of philosophy and religious studies at Youngstown State University, has compiled his commentaries on WYSU-FM into a book.

“Commentaries: 162 Essays on WYSU” is available on Amazon.com. Royalties from the sale of the book will go to WYSU, and Shipka has made a donation to the station to purchase books to use as promotional items.

The commentaries were broadcast from 2005 to 2015 on the university’s public radio station.

A professor at YSU from 1969 to 2015, Shipka was a regular listener of commentaries on NPR and decided to try his hand at writing them.

“I chose topics based on reading that I was doing at the time or issues which I believed deserved attention, especially the common failure of people to evaluate the popular beliefs and practices which they learned as they grew up,” he said.

The essays cover a wide range of issues, including the philosophical roots of the U.S. system of government, separation of church and state, the impact of social conditioning, free will versus determinism, religious extremism, the “new atheists” and their critics, the Golden Rule, terrorism, the role of the individual in social and political progress, the status of women, the problem of evil, family fragmentation in the U.S., conflicts between science and religion and the rising cost of higher education.

Among his favorites are “A Lesson from the YSU Strike,” “Are You a Critical Thinker?,” “Science and Intercessory Prayer – the STEP Study,” “Funny Moments,” “A Day With Ted Williams,” “Whatever Happened to Jefferson and Madison?,” “Is Socialism Coming?,” “Religion and the Founders” and “Faith.”

Shipka was born in Youngstown in 1943, one of four children of Al and Anne Shipka. His father, a steel worker after high school, became a prominent labor leader.

He joined the YSU faculty in 1969, spearheaded its unionization and served as its principal leader until 1986, when he was appointed chairman of the department of philosophy and religious studies.

He has written two books: “Philosophy: Paradox and Discovery” (2004) and “Beliefs and Practices: Taking a Fresh Look” (2016).