Robert Lane, Ph.D.

Professor of Philosophy
School of Humanities College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

678-839-4745
rlane@westga.ed5RnADTgIu

Technology Learning Center - Room 3207
Office Hours
Monday 12:30–1:45pm
Tuesday (most weeks) 9:30am–2pm
Wednesday 12:30–1:45pm

In addition, I am usually available for online meetings between 11am and 5pm on Thursdays and most of the day on Fridays. To make an appointment for an online meeting, email me at rlane@westga.edu.

Download curriculum vitae for Robert Lane, Ph.D. in PDF
Robert Lane, Ph.D.
  • Ph.D., Philosophy, University of Miami, 1998

Spring 2025 Sections

Fall 2024 Sections

Spring 2024 Sections

Fall 2023 Sections

Spring 2023 Sections

Fall 2022 Sections

Spring 2022 Sections

Fall 2021 Sections

Summer 2021 Sections

Spring 2021 Sections

Fall 2020 Sections

"Susan Haack and Worldly, Realist Pragmatism." In The Routledge Companion to Pragmatism, ed. Scott Aikin and Robert B. Talisse. Routledge, 2023. [View Publication External Resource]

"Peirce on Reality and Existence," in The Oxford Handbook of Charles S. Peirce, ed. Cornelis de Waal. Oxford University Press, forthcoming.

"Truth as Representation, Not Will: How Peirce’s Modest Correspondence Theory Can Complement Haack’s Innocent Realism." Cosmos + Taxis 8 (4+5), 2020, pp.73-81. [View Publication External Resource]

“‘A Sharply Drawn Horizon’: Peirce and Other Correspondence Theorists,” Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 54 (3), 2018. [View Publication External Resource]

Peirce on Realism and Idealism. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018. [View Publication External Resource]

“Peirce’s ‘Entanglement’ with the Principles of Excluded Middle and Contradiction,” Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 33 (3), Summer 1997. [View Publication External Resource]

“Why Bacon’s Method is not Certain,” History of Philosophy Quarterly 16 (2), April 1999. [View Publication External Resource]

“Peirce’s Triadic Logic Revisited,” Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 35 (2), Spring 1999. [View Publication External Resource]

“Why I Was Never a Zygote,” Southern Journal of Philosophy 41 (1), 2003. [View Publication External Resource]

“On Peirce’s Early Realism,” Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 40 (4), Fall 2004. [View Publication External Resource]

“Safety, Identity and Consent: A Limited Defense of Reproductive Human Cloning,” Bioethics 20 (3), June 2006. [View Publication External Resource]

“Synechistic Bioethics: How a Peircean Views the Abortion Debate,” Contemporary Pragmatism 3 (2), December 2006. [View Publication External Resource]

“Peirce’s Modal Shift: From Set Theory to Pragmaticism,” Journal of the History of Philosophy 45 (4), October 2007. [View Publication External Resource]

“Peirception: Haack’s Critical Common-sensism about Perception,” in Susan Haack: A Lady of Distinctions. The Philosopher Responds to Her Critics, ed. Cornelis de Waal, Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY, 2007. [View Publication External Resource]

“Persons, Signs, Animals: A Peircean Account of Personhood,” Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 45 (1), Winter 2009. [View Publication External Resource]

“The Final Incapacity: Peirce on Intuition and the Continuity of Mind and Matter, Part I,” Cognitio 12 (1), January-June 2011. [View Publication External Resource]

“The Final Incapacity: Peirce on Intuition and the Continuity of Mind and Matter, Part II,” Cognitio 12 (2), July-December 2011. [View Publication External Resource]

“Peircean Semiotic Indeterminacy and Its Relevance for Biosemiotics,” in Peirce and Biosemiotics, ed. Vinicius Romanini, Springer, 2014. [View Publication External Resource]

Pragmatism / American Philosophy

Pragmatism is the only major tradition of philosophy indigenous to the United States. It is thus the primary topic of books, classes, and other works dealing with "American Philosophy." Classical pragmatists include Charles Peirce, William James and John Dewey. More recent "neo-pragmatists" include Richard Rorty and Susan Haack. Despite great differences among the views of the various pragmatists, what unifies them is their concern to understand traditional philosophical concepts and issues (including truth, reality and knowledge) in terms of human action and experience.

Medical Ethics

Bioethics is the area of ethics that deals with concrete issues arising within the medical professions and sciences. My specific expertise includes the moral debates surrounding abortion and human cloning.

Metaphysics

Metaphysics is the area of philosophy that asks basic questions about how the world is. Within this area, my specializations are questions about truth and reality.