For Samuel Underwood, pursuing philosophy was an instinct.
“I didn’t feel like I could have chosen to do something else,” Underwood said. “It was just something that I had to do.”
Now a Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Colby, Underwood began his journey toward becoming a professor in Wichita Falls, TX, where he was homeschooled for most of his childhood alongside his two sisters. Today, two of his three siblings are educators.
Underwood also participated in semi-structured programs where homeschooled students gathered for weekly classes taught by outside instructors. He remembers those classes as an early introduction to the educational environment he would eventually pursue as a career.
It was not until college, however, that he began seriously focusing on philosophy. Underwood attended Midwestern State University before pursuing graduate studies at Gonzaga University and the University of Newfoundland. “I got to university and started taking philosophy classes, and I was just, like, ‘This is it,’” Underwood said. “This is the thing I want to be doing.”
Underwood taught his first college class as a Ph.D. student at the University of Newfoundland in 2020. His introduction to teaching, however, was far from typical. It came during the height of COVID-19, and it coincided with a historic blizzard in St. John’s, Newfoundland. “It was a disaster,” Underwood said. “It was an absolute mess.”
Despite that experience, Underwood has continued to develop his teaching style. He describes it as a “semi-formal lecture discussion style,” combining structure with open-ended conversation. His approach is partly shaped by his own experience as a student. “The things that I didn’t like as a student, I have a really hard time doing as an instructor,” Underwood said.
Haley Hegarty `28, a student of Underwood’s, said she appreciates his availability outside the classroom and his ability to encourage discussion.
“I love taking classes with Professor Underwood. He is always available in office hours to discuss the readings, and he prompts interesting questions that make for great in-class discussions,” Hegarty said. “He also gives good feedback on assignments, allowing students to improve their writing and philosophical thinking for future assignments.”
Underwood also points to the College’s philosophy students as a highlight of teaching on Mayflower Hill. He describes them as “exceptional,” particularly because of their willingness to engage with difficult material.
“I just love that the students are good at being proper nerds,” Underwood said. “I’m teaching an advanced seminar on phenomenology right now, and we’re doing some really weedy stuff. But the students here are really involved, so that’s awesome.”
Underwood says his students have also influenced his research. He defended his dissertation in February and is now considering whether to develop it into a book or use it as the foundation for articles.
Much of his research interest traces back to his master’s degree at Gonzaga, where his supervisor introduced him to the philosopher Paul Ricœur. Underwood eventually wrote his dissertation on Ricœur, whom he says was someone he could learn a great deal from about “how to [become] a good philosopher.”
Teaching and research continue to inform each other. Underwood said the questions that emerge in his upper-level seminars also lead him back to his own research. “There’s something really different about teaching an upper-level seminar,” Underwood said. “I feel like I’ve learned more from teaching than from writing my dissertation.”
For Underwood, that connection between philosophy and teaching comes from his own experience with the discipline. He said philosophy “unequivocally changed my life for the better.”
He remains sympathetic to the classical idea of philosophy as a “way of life” and a “therapy for the soul,” seeing philosophy as something that can shape how people live rather than simply an academic subject.
That belief also shapes his advice to students considering philosophy as a major. For Underwood, the decision to study philosophy often begins with questions that are difficult to ignore.
“What are the questions that literally or metaphorically keep you up at night?” Underwood said. “And if they’re philosophical questions, then you are probably not going to be satisfied if you don’t really spend some time pursuing those questions.”
Underwood connects this idea to Hannah Arendt’s writing on thinking: he explained that thinking, as an activity, is satisfied by thinking itself.
“So if you feel like you need to do philosophy, then you’re only going to satisfy that need by doing philosophy,” Underwood said.
For Underwood, philosophy began as a subject he could not ignore. Now, as a professor, he hopes to create a classroom where students can pursue the questions they cannot stop asking.
~ Summer Woo `28
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