Fiala earned his B.A. in Philosophy from UCLA and a Master’s Degree in Philosophy from California State University, Long Beach.  He earned his Ph.D. at Vanderbilt University where his primary focus was Ethics and Political Philosophy, as well as 19^th and 20^th Century Philosophy. 

Fiala came to Fresno State from the University of Wisconsin—Green Bay, where he taught in an Interdisciplinary Humanities Program.  This experience left him with an abiding interest in interdisciplinary education.  While in Wisconsin, Fiala studied the craft of teaching as a Wisconsin Teaching Fellow.  And he obtained several grants from the Wisconsin Humanities Council to organize public forums focused on the war on terrorism and the war in Iraq.

Fiala is the author of The Philosopher’s Voice (State University of New York Press, 2002), Practical Pacifism (Algora Publishing, 2004), Tolerance and the Ethical Life (Continuum, 2005), and What Would Jesus Really Do? (Rowman and Littlefield, 2007).  His latest project is The Just War Myth, a book that will also be published by Rowman and Littlefield.  Fiala has published articles on pacifism, just war theory, and other topics in ethics and political philosophy.  And he has published op-ed pieces in the Fresno Bee and in the San Francisco Chronicle.  Fiala is also the general editor of the journal, Philosophy in the Contemporary World.

His current research focuses on applied topics in ethics and political philosophy: tolerance, just war theory, pacifism, the death penalty, abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide, and other issues in bioethics.  He is also interested in animal issues and environmental ethics. 

Fiala’s most recent work, What Would Jesus Really Do? is a critical encounter with Christian ethics.  Fiala was raised Presbyterian.  But his philosophical training led him toward humanism.  He views the Bible as an important but fallible source of ethical wisdom.  He views Jesus as a moral teacher.  But he is agnostic about claims about Jesus’ divinity.  While admiring the heart of Jesus’ moral teachings—love, charity, tolerance, pacifism—Fiala argues that Jesus and the Biblical tradition are of only limited value when confronting the tough ethical issues of contemporary life: homosexuality, abortion, euthanasia, war, politics.  Fiala believes that humanists, Christians, and other religious believers need to enter into dialogue with one another.  His hope is that through this sort of interaction we can discover better, more rational solutions to today’s moral problems.