Noam Cook’s Details

Noam Cook

Noam Cook

Professor (emeritus), San José State University

Email: noamcook@gmail.com
Website: http://www.sjsu.edu/people/s.d.noam.cook

Biographical Info: My interests lie at the intersection of traditional areas of philosophy with current applied issues. Accordingly, my publications, research and consulting focus on: social and technological change, learning in social systems, and the interdependence of human, artefactual and natural systems; the generative interaction of knowledge and practice, the nature of know-how, and the functions of judgment and expertise; and, social, professional, and environmental ethics.

Being trained in both philosophy and social science, I’ve pursued these interests though research involving interviewing, consulting, participant-observation, and ethnographic studies. My work has entailed collaboration with practitioners in several fields, including science and engineering, public policy, creative arts, education, social work, and business. I have given invited presentations on my work to academic, industrial and governmental institutions in the US and abroad.

I hold a Ph.D. from M.I.T., and BA and MA degrees from San Francisco State University. After my doctoral work, I spent two years on the research staff of Harvard Business School working in the area of business ethics. I then returned to the Bay Area to join the philosophy faculty at San Jose State University in the heart of Silicon Valley (I am now emeritus). While at SJSU, I was also for ten years a consulting researcher at Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Centre). Since 1997 I have been a member of the San Francisco Symphony Chorus.