Preston K. Covey, Jr. (29 August 1942 - 18 September 2006) was the head of the

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

department at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

, United States, during the later part of the twentieth century. Covey, who earned his

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

jointly through the philosophy department and the humanities graduate programs at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, founded the Center for the Advancement of Applied Ethics (CAAE). He joined the Carnegie Mellon faculty in 1973. Covey played a pivotal role in shaping the university's Philosophy Department, serving as its director and overseeing its transition to a full department in 1986. He received the Elliott Dunlap Smith Award for Teaching and Educational Service and helped establish the Ethics, History, and Public Policy major. Covey was a pioneer in integrating computing into philosophy, leading innovative projects like interactive logic tools and multimedia software on ethical dilemmas. As the director of the Center for the Advancement of Applied Ethics, he explored topics ranging from bioethics to democratic responsiveness, mentoring students and philosophers worldwide. The

Covey Award {{use mdy dates, date=September 2013 The Covey Award was established in 2008 by the International Association for Computing and Philosophy, to recognise "accomplished innovative research, and possibly teaching that flows from that research, in the f ...

, for contributions to the field of computing and philosophy, is named after him. Beyond academia, Covey contributed to law enforcement as a deputy sheriff and ethics trainer, exemplifying his commitment to applied philosophy and practical service.

References

1942 births 2006 deaths Carnegie Mellon University faculty 20th-century American philosophers {{US-philosopher-stub