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by Joyce Fang '27 for Silver Quest
When you think of the Magnet Program, you typically think of the STEM fields. From computer science to mechanical engineering, there’s a plethora of fields that you could imagine a magnet student being in. However, philosophy isn’t typically one of them.
Jeremy Goodman ‘06 is an associate professor of philosophy at Johns Hopkins University and previously taught for several years at the University of Southern California. Even though philosophy is typically categorized into a humanities occupation, Goodman often uses a lot of the skills he learned at Blair for his current occupation.
Experience at Blair
When Goodman was growing up, his favorite subject was physics, and accelerated in math, which inspired him to apply and ultimately be part of the magnet program at Blair. While Goodman attended Blair, he actively participated in a lot of extracurriculars, as part of Silver Chips and jazz band. Goodman’s SRP project was on the cognitive neuroscience of language laboratory, which gave him a general sense of research and improved his intuition, which is still being used today. “It’s given me a certain sensibility for what kinds of things to trust and what kinds of things to be skeptical of,” he says. “I feel that it sort of shaped my general gestalt about science and it would have been different if I hadn’t done any research like that.”
Looking back, Goodman also realizes how unique the culture was in the Blair Magnet Program one. “It was a special group of people and a lot of them are still some of my closest friends,” he states. “There was kind of a culture of excellence, and you know, just being able to be interested in ideas in a way that just felt natural.”
Interest in philosophy
Goodman wasn’t sure what he wanted to do until a couple years into college, but knew what his general interests were. One of the biggest influences was a pre-college summer course at Brown called Science Perception and Reality, which covered topics surrounding space and time. “I just got sucked into the philosophy aspect of it,” he says.
In addition to the pre-college summer course, Goodman also developed an interest through the Philosophy Club and the Origins of Ccience class. Mr. Bunday was his biggest source of inspiration, as he taught Goodman in a lot of courses and also lent The Emperor’s New Mind, which was very influential for him. “It has a great exposition of big questions in science and philosophy and [how things are] related to each other” he says. “They were very influential for me.”
What helped steer Goodman towards philosophy in university was his previous knowledge. Although many students’ first experiences in philosophy were in university, because he had a lot more extensive experience in the subject. “The weird thing about philosophy as a discipline is that for most people, they don’t encounter it until university,” he says. “I definitely feel like I’ve been a beneficiary of having been lucky enough to get excited about it pretty early.”
Career
Goodman has had a very straightforward progression in roles, from being a college graduate student to an assistant professor, and now being an associate professor. Goodman’s first job was at the University of Southern California (USC), which offered a very special department for the kind of philosophy that he does, and included esteemed faculty.
After working at USC for seven and a half years, he was invited to work at Hopkins as part of their expansion in the philosophy department following a $75 million donation by Bill Miller, an American investor who was in the PhD program at Hopkins. This job gave him an opportunity to come back to Maryland and be closer to family and old friends. “Draws [included] being able to be back in Maryland, close to my family, close to some of my closest friends,” he says. “My best friend from college, Chaz Firestone, is now my colleague in psychology, and we’re [supervising] a student together.”
Combining STEM and philosophy
Even though his position is technically assigned as one in the humanities, he has always grown and thought scientifically, which has served him well in his position. “I sort of grew up with a STEM identity, and I’ve just kept it,” he explains. “Those sorts of ways of thinking about theories in science [and] setting up a question carry over the kind of research I do because of the sort of approach that I take.”
Goodman also encourages Magnet students to also explore philosophy. “Magnet students might be pleasantly surprised how much certain kinds of philosophy classes encourage thinking in ways which are analytical and systematic and create in ways that appeal to sort of STEM parts of them,” he says.
So, if you’re thinking of thinking a little deeper or just looking for a new subject to learn more about, consider taking a philosophy class!
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