GEORGE E. PANICHAS, James Renwick Hogg Professor of Moral and Mental Philosophy, was a member of the faculty for 41 years.
He received a Bachelor of Arts from University of Rhode Island in 1969 and Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from University of Arizona in 1972 and 1975, respectively.
Panichas joined the faculty as assistant professor of philosophy in 1980, was promoted to associate professor in 1987, was promoted to professor in 2000, and was named James Renwick Hogg Professor of Moral and Mental Philosophy in 2004.
He often attracted maximum student enrollment and waiting lists as he taught courses such as Ethics, Applied Ethics, Political Philosophy, Aesthetics, The Philosophy of Law, and several seminar courses on a range of topics. He received the Student Government Superior Teaching Award, Marquis Distinguished Teaching Award, Jones Lecture Award for excellence in teaching and scholarship, and Crawford Award for a high standard of classroom instruction.
He published a number of articles on rights, political philosophy, and philosophy of law in journals including Law & Philosophy, The Journal of Social Philosophy, Social Theory and Practice, The Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Noûs, and Analysis. He is the editor of Marx Analyzed: Philosophical Essays on the Thought of Karl Marx and co-editor of Sex, Morality, and the Law.
He served a total of nearly three decades as head of the Philosophy Department and was the founding and longtime director of the Ethics Project at Lafayette. He served on many faculty committees, chairing the Enrollment Planning Committee, Committee on Appeals, Joint Committee on Student Conduct, and Curriculum Committee.