[3] He was a teacher at Lake of Two Mountains and Sorel, Quebec, before moving with his family to the United States to pursue a doctorate at the University of Connecticut.
[1] He served as department chair from 1991-1994 and retired from Bowling Green State University as a professor emeritus of Educational Foundations and Inquiry.
The pragmatic approach to and application of transactionalism in Phillips' work was primarily based on the theories and writings of John Dewey designed to advance a democratic way of life and learning.
[5] His dissertation was a historical and interpretative study of the life-work of John Dewey substantiated by additional scholarly thought from Aristotle, Arthur Bentley, Hadley Cantril, Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, C. Wright Mills and several others working in the fields of philosophy, psychology, physics, and epistemology.
In five chapters, Phillips gathers information scattered throughout various articles and books to provide a systematic philosophical inquiry into the origins and development of transactionalism.