Philip Slater

Who was Philip Slater?

Philip Elliot Slater was an American sociologist and writer. He was the author of the bestselling 1970 book on American culture, The Pursuit of Loneliness and numerous other books and articles.

Philip Slater had an A.B. and Ph.D. from Harvard and taught sociology at Harvard, Brandeis, and University of California at Santa Cruz. He was Professor and Chairperson of the Brandeis Sociology Department in 1971 when he resigned to found—with Jacqueline Doyle and Morrie Schwartz—Greenhouse, a non-profit growth center, where he led encounter groups and personal growth workshops. He has been a merchant seaman, actor, business consultant, cookie salesman, marriage officiant, and president of a theatre. He co-wrote and narrated PARADOX ON 72nd STREET, a one-hour TV documentary aired nationally by PBS, and has acted in over 30 plays and films. In 1982 he was chosen by MS. Magazine as one of its "male heroes". Slater taught writing and playwriting at UCSC and in private workshops starting 1989. He returned to academia in his eighties, teaching in the doctoral program in Transformative Studies at the California Institute for Integral Studies.