Jonathan Jacobs understands the importance of the endurance of both mind and body. As a philosophy professor specializing in the area of metaphysics, Jacobs tosses his mind into the obstacle course of abstract thought on a daily basis. When he is not contemplating the nature of being, however, Jacobs works on his own form.

“I started weight lifting about three years ago, after I had kids,” Jacobs said.

He believes he has found the perfect combination of weight training moves: a medley of 310-pound squats below parallel, 360-pound dead lifts, overhead press, bench press, pull-ups and power cleans.

“I lift so I can be strong, which is a fairly useful thing to be in life – lifting heavy things, throwing my kids in the air or avoiding getting injured,” Jacobs said. “It’s not much, but I’m happy if I’m stronger each week than I was before.”

Jacobs said he spends as much time with his family as he can. A father of four, he spends a lot of his time playing the role of parent, taking his kids to soccer and dance recitals. In the office, however, he is a philosopher with some very unique ways of approaching the subject.

“No, I don’t think time travel is possible,” Jacobs said, “but if I were to think it was possible, it would not be like the time travel in movies. So in ‘Back to the Future,’ he goes back, and he changes things and messes stuff up so he might not exist anymore. That doesn’t make philosophical sense. If he messes things up so he doesn’t exist, then he wasn’t there in the first place to mess things up.”

Jacobs teaches a metaphysics course related to the philosophy of science fiction. While the discussions in class have little real backing, Jacobs encourages his students to construct valid arguments as if they were really possible.

“There are some ways to think about time travel that make more sense than others. It depends on abstract arguments and thinking about the nature of time,” Jacobs said. “It’s the same thing with tele-porting. So like with ‘Beam me up, Scottie,’ and the body disappears and reappears somewhere else. Why isn’t that killing you and just recreating someone a lot like you? It depends on your theory of personal identity and what it takes to persist over time.”

He is also working on a course that addresses the philosophy of sports, asking questions like what makes a team a team.

Jacobs became interested in philosophy when he began contemplating important theological questions.

“I thought about the nature of God and the nature of human persons,” Jacobs said. “I was interested in the nature of God, like how can there be three divine persons but one god. How is it that Jesus is both human and god? And that leads you to think about very abstract metaphysical thoughts, like what is the nature of being?”

As part of a grant he received, Jacobs just finished a conference on the subject of causal power. He stated he was pleased with the turn out, as there were close to 80 people at every event, some from as far away as Australia.

Jacobs’ passion for the subject really shows through his own philosophy about what makes philosophy a subject everyone can enjoy.

“Philosophy is just an unusually sustained effort to think critically,” Jacobs said. “What’s unique about philosophers is that we do it in a sustained manner and in a much more in-depth way. But everybody thinks deeply sometime or other.”