Raymond Dennehy is a professor of philosophy at the University of San Francisco where he teaches social and medical ethics and epistemology. A first generation American, he was born in San Francisco in the South of Market district in 1934. After serving from 1954-58 as a radarman in the U.S. Navy aboard the heavy cruiser, USS Rochester, principally in the South China Sea, he attended the University of San Francisco, earning a B.A. in philosophy. He continued his studies in philosophy in the graduate school at the University of California, Berkeley and obtained a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Toronto. His teachers included Karl Popper, C.B. MacPherson, and Anton Pegis. He is a frequent guest on radio and television talk and news broadcasts and regularly lectures and debates on university campuses law schools. He is married to Maryann Dennehy, has four children and eleven grandchildren.

In addition to many scholarly articles, Dennehy has written the books, Soldier Boy: the War Between Michael and Lucifer, Anti-Abortionist at Large: How to Argue Intelligently About Abortion and Live to Tell About It, Reason and Dignity and edited Christian Married Love. His essay, "The Illusion of Freedom Separated From Moral Virtue," won the Oleg Zinam award for best essay in the Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in 2007.