Donald Jenner

Donald Jenner is a university teacher of philosophy, history, management and marketing, and a teacher of and widely published authority on the use of small systems, especially in business and graphics applications, and was for 25 years an active consultant on small systems implementations in business and educational environments.

Teaching Background

Jenner presently teaches marketing and management classes at Borough of Manhattan Community College, one of New York's city colleges. He teaches philosophy to distance learning students at Mercy College. Jenner has also taught at New York University, Hofstra University, Seton Hall University and, occasionally, for other small private and public colleges in the New York City area.

Computer Small Systems Work

An interest in small systems led Jenner to working with the newly emerging microcomputers in the early 1980s. His ability to develop easy, practical and relatively cost-effective solutions using off-the-shelf products won him consulting positions with a number of companies, including Selchow & Righter, Visual Business Systems, Overdo Productions, Qi Shu Fang Peking Opera Company, Tribal Arts Publishing, Blackstar, and YuYu Yang Lifescape Sculpture Museum, among others.

The ability to write cogently about computers led to an invitation from the editor of "Computer Graphics Today" to write about computer graphics issues, in a variety of contexts. Between 1986 and 2001, Jenner subsequently published at least one by-lined article a month in one or more computer graphics oriented publications including "Corel Magazine", "Computer Pictures", "Audio Visual Communications", "Videography", "AEC Canada" and "CAD Systems", as well as unattributed material. He was also a featured speaker at various trade events in New York and elsewhere. Jenner authored "Learn Desktop Graphics & Design on the PC", published by Addison-Wesley in 1994.

Academic Publications

Jenner's academic publications include "Human Habitat" (Man's Heritage Press, 1995), articles on social and political philosophy ("Cogito", various numbers) and occasional reviews (e. g., in Philosophy East & West). He was a panelist or presenter at the 1980 InterAmercan Congress of Philosophy in Tallahassee, the XVIIth and XXth World Congresses of Philosophy, and other more local conferences, mostly involved with comparative philosophy, a special interest during the 1980s.

Upbringing and Education

Born in New York to Ernest J. Jenner, lawyer and commercial real estate broker, and Myrtle K. Schwarz, school teacher and librarian, Jenner and his sister were raised in Plandome, Long Island until 1955. His father's decision to accept employment with the J. C. Penney Co. led to the family moving to Minneapolis, then Pittsburgh, then Los Angeles and Palo Alto, moving back to Port Washington 10 years later.

Jenner graduated from Pembroke Place Boys' School, then attended the experimental New College at Hofstra University. He transferred to Unity College in Maine a year later, where he eventually completed the first degree in philosophy and history with a minor in psychology. After an academic year as a visiting student at Bangor Theological Seminary and three years in Heidelberg, Jenner continued his graduate studies in philosophy, politics and economics at the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research and at Fordham University.

Scholarly Publications:

"Human Habitat": Garden City (Man’s Heritage Press), September, 1995

Review of D. H. Bishop (ed.), "Chinese Thought, An Introduction" (Delhi &c. [Banarsidass] , 1985) in "Philosophy East & West" – August, 1987

“Questions of Revolution in Chinese & Western Thought”, in "Philosophie et culture": Montreal, 1986

Review of A. I. A. Bookbinder, "Computer Assisted Investment Handbook" for "Journal of Finance" (with Hubert Roosma) – September, 1985

“Preliminary Remarks for a Study of Modern Cities: A Problem with the Social Scientific Accounts”, "COGITO" – March, 1985

“Mo Tzu & Hobbes: Remarks on Chinese & Western Political Thought”, "COGITO" – March, 1984 Translation of Bandmann, “Das Problem der Gegenständlichkeit in der modernen Kunst”, in Winters & Kelly, "Continental Philosophy & the Arts": University Press of America, September, 1983

“Hermeneutic Philosophy: History as the Singular Ground of Thought”, "COGITO" – June, 1983

Letters:

Financial Times, July 5, 2003

Financial Times, July 19, 2003

eWeek, December 22, 2003

Conference Presentations:

“A Definition of University Teaching: A Perhaps-Swiftean Modest Proposal”, contributed paper for the Philosophy of Education section of the XXth World Congress of Philosophy, Boston, August, 1998

"How is Teaching Possible?" Roundtable organized for and chaird at the XXth World Congress of Philosophy, August 1998

“Hermeneutic Dualities” at the 4th International Congress of Chinese Philosophy, July, 1985

“Can Heidegger's Ontology Ground an Ethics?” at the 3rd Dharmanivas Conference on Intercultural Dialogue, March, 1984 “‘Life’ as a Culturally Variable Ethical Concept”, organized for and chaired at the XVIIe Congrès mondial de philosophie, Montreal, August, 1983 “Questions of Revolution in Chinese & Western Thought”, invited paper for Oriental Philosophy section, XVIIe Congrès mondial de philosophie, Montreal, August, 1983 “Problems of Talking About Life”, keynote address for the 1st Dharmanivas Conference on Intercultural Dialogue, June, 1983 “Non-victimization as Civic Duty”, Wednesday Evening Society, U. C. L. A., December, 1981

“Human Rights & Cities”, Xth Interamerican Congress of Philosophy, Tallahassee, October, 1981

Panelist, discussant, 2nd Victims of Crime Conference, Pace University, May, 1981

“In-vitro Fertilization and Rational Choice”, Symposium Series on Reproductive Ethics, North Shore University Hospital, January, 1981 “Ethics & Managers”, Graduate School of Management & Urban Programs, New School for Social Research, June, 1979

Website

[http://www.jenner.org www.jenner.org]

Miscellaneous

[http://www.citigraphics.net/jenner/djenner/archive/CritiqueAndCriticalThinking.pdf What "Critical" means in "Critical Thinking"] : Donald Jenner, BMCC/CUNY