Philip Slater

Template:Short description Template:Wikidata image Philip Elliot Slater (May 15, 1927 – June 20, 2013) was an American sociologist and writer. He was the author of the bestselling 1970 book on American culture, The Pursuit of Loneliness (1970) and of numerous other books and articles.

He 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 was a merchant seaman, actor, business consultant, cookie salesman, marriage officiant, and president of a theatre. He collaborated with filmmaker Gene Searchinger on Paradox on 72nd Street, a one-hour TV documentary aired nationally by PBS, and 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.

Born in 1927 in Riverton, New Jersey, Slater served in the United States Merchant Marine during World War II. He died of cancer in Santa Cruz, California at 86.

External links

• Official site at philipslater.org (original philipslater.com no longer available)
• Writings at The Huffington Post
• "The World According to Slater", an article at the Harvard Magazine
• Harvard Magazine
• Wallace Baine, "An unconventional man: Harvard-educated sociologist Philip Slater came to Santa Cruz in pursuit of happiness" at the Santa Cruz Sentinel
• Amazon.com: Philip Slater: Books
• CS Pakarbet