Pessin plays piano and guitar for fun, though songwriting and informal performing have taken a back seat to rolling around the living room floor with two young sons, Eitan and Nadav.

Pessin and his wife, Gabriella Rothman, who recently completed post-doctoral studies at Brown University and is now a psychologist in Providence, are expecting their third son in September.

Even as a high school student, the 46-year-old professor who now lives with his family in Coventry, was interested in physics, math and philosophy, citing Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pirsig as a classic.

“It introduced me – and so many others – to the idea that philosophical thinking could take place any time, anywhere and with respect to any subject,” said Pessin. “It led me to pursue philosophy courses in college.”

The author of the newly-published The 60-Second Philosopher, Expand your Mind on a Minute or so a Day, and The God Question, What Famous Thinkers from Plato to Dawkins Have Said about the Divine, Pessin explained that these books, like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, are accessible to a wide readership.

The God Question, in particular, said Pessin, “contains short, self-contained essays that offer something for all kinds of readers – committed believers, disbelievers and those on the fence leaning one way or the other. It could help [a reader] make up his or her mind about the nature and existence of this being.”

And, he added, The 60-Second Philosopher is meant to be fun and scintillating, while challenging to common sense. “I think the world is a lot stranger and more interesting than people realize,” said Pessin.

Surprisingly, Pessin’s membership in Mensa, an organization for the very brainiest among us, earned him an unexpected appearance on “The Late Show with David Letterman.”

As a graduate student, he’d joined Mensa, he confessed, to meet women and instead, was one of several “nerdy guys” who spent a couple of evenings looking at one another. A year or two later, though, Letterman wanted to do a skit about a super-hero “genius” and contacted Mensa; Pessin was one of the “nerdy guys” who made the cut.

Declining to identify which philosophers he most closely identifies with, Pessin said, “There are so many smart people out there – you can learn from so many of them.”

Asked who he’d like to have at his Shabbat dinner table, Pessin was quick to answer: “Maimonides – he’s such a towering figure in Jewish theological circles and in philosophical circles. Interestingly, his philosophical works were condemned and maybe even burned by religious authorities, yet his commentaries in the Torah were revered.”

Maimonides suffered, Pessin continued, “the same fate as other medieval theological philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas. These devoutly religious philosophers recognized that, as one thinks rationally about God, those thoughts are not always particularly well-reflected in common sense or mainstream religious belief.”

Does Pessin, who has researched others’ views on the question, believe that God exists? “ I think my personal view doesn’t matter,” he said. “There’s a danger of a professor having too much influence, especially in the classroom. I see my job as laying out the information and then letting individuals make up their own minds. Philosophers don’t take anything for granted – even with profound faith, they recognize that there are all sorts of puzzles and problems they must grapple with if they believe in God.”

For more information about Pessin, see: www.andrewpessin.com. The books are published by One World Publications. The 60-Second Philosopher is $9.95; The God Question is $14.95.