Peter S. Wenz
Peter S. Wenz is a self-described aging, leftist, feminist, atheist, environmentalist vegetarian who can frequently be found loitering near universities. In other words, he is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Illinois at Springfield. He was chosen as a University Scholar of the University of Illinois on the basis of his more than forty published articles as well as eight books, with publishers Oxford University Press, McGraw-Hill, MIT Press, Temple University Press, SUNY Press, Prometheus Press, and Wiley-Blackwell. One of those books, Environmental Ethics Today, is published in Chinese and another, Environmental Justice, is published in both Chinese and Korean.
His field is practical philosophy, the application of philosophical concepts and methods to matters of individual and public concern in such areas as medicine, law, politics, economics, religion, animal rights, and environmental protection. His specialty is examining the clash of reasonable opinions - the opposition of views that have merit - with the goal of mutual understanding and appreciation among people with different perspectives.
After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he taught in Wisconsin before moving to Springfield. He has also taught at South Bank University in London, England; at Aberdeen University in Scotland; at Oxford University in England; and three times at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. In addition to England, Scotland and New Zealand, he has given invited lectures overseas in Australia, Ireland, England, France (in French), Spain, Germany, and China.
He teaches regularly at the Chautauqua Institution in Western New York State, and in 2025 had two additional books published. Philosophy of Religion for a STEM Generation, the only funny book about the existence of God that pokes fun at no one but the author, and Abortion Rights as the Free Exercise of Religion, which explains that the Supreme Court's current understanding of the Free Exercise Clause entails a constitutional right to religiously motivated abortions.