Richard Farr is an author, teacher, and philosopher.
He provides private intellectual mentoring
to students and adults.
The unexamined life is not worth living.
~ Socrates
Education is what remains when
what has been learned has been forgotten.
~ B.F. Skinner
Richard grew up in England and has a Ph.D. in philosophy from Cornell. The author of six books, including the award-winning true story Emperors of the Ice, he has taught at Colgate, the University of Hawaii, North Seattle College, and the University of Washington's Robinson Center for Young Scholars.
He provides private intellectual mentoring for students and adults - and spends a great deal of time kayaking in the San Juan islands, north of Seattle.
“My daughter said you were one of the greatest tutors she ever met.”
“An engaging instructor with a vast depth of knowledge.”
“Kind and patient.”
“I really enjoyed learning from him.”
“Extremely knowledgeable.”
“Richard spent two hours with me and I learned more in those
two hours than I did in 14 weeks with my professor in college.”
“Wow did you get my brain thinking!”
“Such an awesome class.”
“Fantastic tutor.”
“Interesting and enjoyable.”
“Every time I have a presentation and we meet beforehand it has gone well.”
“Richard is super kind, helpful, patient, funny, and he
makes philosophy interesting and explains it very clearly...
Honestly I wish I had him as my actual philosophy professor!”
“Very supportive and communicative.”
“Thank you Richard for the awesome class!”
“Richard you are a gem.”
Mentoring
A Growth Medium for the Whole Mind
A tutor can help you get through algebra, third-year Spanish, or any other specific subject area. Richard's style of intellectual mentoring aims at something fundamentally different.
Drawing on his experience as a teacher, philosopher, and novelist, Richard focuses on your meta-cognition - your thinking about your thinking - and uses this technique to create deep changes in the way you approach, think about, and communicate about, well, everything.
This is not a fix for specific academic or professional problems. Actually, it can transform performance in a wide range of disciplines - but that's a side-effect of cultivating a growth medium for the whole mind.
Books
Click on any cover image for more information.
At each page for the three volumes of The Babel Trilogy (The Fire Seekers + Ghosts in the Machine + Infinity's Illusion) you'll find the end-notes from the published books. Subjects range from Sherlock Holmes and philosophical zombies to what Socrates might have said to the Archangel Raphael in the Garden of Eden.
At the page for Emperors of the Ice, you can find more than you probably ever wanted to know about the history of scurvy.
“I was falling in love with the sentences.”
“Masterful and spell-binding.”
“Leaves you gasping for more.”
“This story is so compelling, you won't want to put it down.”
“A real page-turner.”
“Gripping.”
“Wonderful.”
“An utter joy.”
“Incredible... read it.”
“One of the best books I've read in a long time.”
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