and assistantship to pursue doctoral work at Emory University, completing the Ph.D. in 1992. His dissertation examined the theories of signs and symbols that applied to the language of metaphysics, discussing principally the works of Cassirer, Langer, Peirce, and Eco. In the fall of 1992 he became assistant professor and chair (1992–97) of the philosophy department at Oklahoma City University, and was the founding director of the OCU Institute of Liberal Arts (1994–99). While at OCU, he also taught philosophy courses for several years at the nearby public high school Classen School of Advanced Studies. In 2000, he accepted a position at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, in the philosophy department, where he remains. While he maintains his affiliation with the philosophy department at SIUC, his primary assignment moved to the department of communications studies in the fall of 2017. In 2016, Auxier was a visiting professor at the American Studies Center of the University of Warsaw, and in 2017 and 2018, he was visiting professor of philosophy in the Institute of Philosophy of the University or Warsaw. The Pluralist Auxier's interest in philosophical personalism led him to become editor of The Personalist Forum in 1997. The original publisher, Mercer University Press, dropped the publication that year, and Auxier was obliged to raise funds to keep the publication afloat until 2005, when the University of Illinois Press took on the publishing responsibilities for the journal. It was at this time that the title of the journal changed to The Pluralist and gained monetary support from both Oklahoma State University and Southern Illinois University Carbondale. At that time John Shook and Scott Gelfand from OSU became co-editors. After five years of publishing under the new name, The Pluralist became the official journal of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy in 2010. After this transition, Auxier continued to edit the journal until 2012. The Library of Living Philosophers In 2001, Auxier was appointed editor of the Library of Living Philosophers, the third in its history, following series founder Paul Arthur Schilpp (1938–1981), and Lewis Edwin Hahn (1981–2001). This series is important to scholars because it provides an opportunity to critics and supporters of a valuable philosophical figure to address the thinker, while still alive, regarding any problems or ambiguities that may have arisen around his or her thought over the course of his or her career. The central thinker then responds