A Conversation with Dr. Bowie: The Passing of Dr. James Montmarquet and the State of the Philosophy Department

Dr. James Montmarquet

I recently caught up with Dr. Charles Bowie, a Philosophy professor in our Language, Literature, and Philosophy Department. We discussed many things concerning the Philosophy facet of the department.

The passing of Dr. Montmarquet was devastating and he will be greatly missed by many who knew him.  Dr. Bowie explained that Dr. Montmarquet was more than a colleague, he was a friend.  “He was a great mentor and he always had your back,” he said. 

Dr. Bowie met Dr. Montmarquet at Vanderbilt University while he was a graduate student in 2002. He credits some of the foundations of his teaching at Tennessee State University to Dr. Montmarquet. Dr. Bowie said he personally will miss the intellectual conversations they had pertaining to philosophy and religion. 

Dr. Charles Bowie

Dr. Montmarquet has been in the Philosophy Department for a span of 31 years and his favorite courses to teach were Introduction to Philosophy, even though he specialized in Logic. "He felt that if he had sparked one person’s interest in Philosophy that he had done his job," Dr. Bowie said. 

Dr. Bowie would like to continue to build on this legacy by making the Philosophy minor stronger for interested TSU students. He wants to continue efforts that he and Dr. Montmarquet started, such as expanding the minor, creating more upper division Philosophy courses, and offering more religious studies classes. 

Dr. Bowie is currently teaching two Introduction to Philosophy courses, a Religious Studies course, and Special Topics: Black Comics and Graphic Novels with Dr. Field.  Eventually, Dr. Bowie would like to integrate more literature into the Philosophy courses that he teaches to improve the structure of the curriculum. 

Learn more about Dr. James Montmarquet (excerpt from obituary)

Dr. James Montmarquet

Dr. James Montmarquet taught at Tennessee State University in Nashville from 1986 to 2017, and was dedicated to both the field of philosophy and his students. He specialized in the Philosophy of Religion, Theory of Knowledge, and Moral and Analytic Philosophy. He authored three books, Epistemic Virtue and Doxastic Responsibility, Conversations on Moral Issues, and The Idea of Agrarianism. He co-authored Reflections: An Anthology of African American Philosophy with William H. Hardy.  Dr. Montmarquet wrote numerous articles and reviews for professional journals and publications, and was the recipient of many grants and awards.

In addition to teaching and writing, Jim was an avid runner, cyclist, and swimmer. During his time as an assistant professor at Washington State University in the late 1980s, Jim established a baseball league with the neighborhood children. He had the only lawn in town with designated bases and a pitcher’s mound. He was loved by all of the children there. He was a member of the Nashville Striders for many years, and enjoyed running 5Ks with his son, Michael.

Jim was blessed with a great sense of humor and the ability to tell a captivating story. He also possessed a robust memory and could recall minutia from books read long ago, as easily as he could recall stories from his childhood.