Overview
While I work primarily in philosophy of mind, I have a variety of teaching interests. In particular, I love teaching critical thinking and technology/data ethics courses, as well as courses that lay at the intersection of the two (e.g., courses that focus on using issues that arise in the context of social media use as opportunities for students to develop important critical thinking skills). A list of courses I’ve taught and example syllabi can be found below. I’ve also included a brief note, and some resources, on helping students engage more fruitfully with the materials we assign to them.
Courses Taught
Introduction to Philosophy (Syllabus)
May include units on philosophical methodology, epistemology, philosophy of religion, metaethics, normative ethics, free will, moral responsibility, philosophy of mind, personal identity and applied ethics
Contemporary Moral Issues (Syllabus)
May include units on ethical theory, ethical relativism, moral status of animals, world hunger, abortion, capital punishment, income inequality and theories of justice, genetic modification, sports ethics, speech ethics, sexual ethics, family ethics, and affirmative action
Reason in Communication (Syllabus)
May include unites on propositional logic, rhetoric, informal fallacies, media bias and credibility, analogical arguments, inductive arguments, and scientific reasoning
Ethical Questions Raised by Emerging Technologies (Syllabus)
Units on video games, social media, information privacy, algorithms, automation, genetic modification, artificial intelligence, and existential risk
Sample Courses
Below are outlines for a few courses I would love to teach, outside of my AOS.
Critical Thinking and Social Media (Course Outline)
Units on Echo Chambers, epistemic bubbles, fake news, media bias, cancel culture, de-platforming, conspiracy theories, infographics and memes
Data and Internet Ethics (Course Outline)
Units on algorithmic bias and fairness, the impact of algorithms on justice and racism, information privacy and surveillance, and the impact of social media on democracy and interpersonal relationships
Asking Good Philosophical Questions
My goal as an instructor is for my students to develop and hone their critical thinking skills. To help them do this, I de-emphasize my role as Knowledge Giver and, instead, emphasize their role in philosophical inquiry. This process should begin with some amount of puzzlement on their part about the course material and ideas we are discussing. However, I often find that, at this point, students struggle to to turn their puzzlement into a fruitful engagement with our course content, in large part because many students don’t know how to turn their puzzlement, or frustration, into a question that will enable them to carefully think through that puzzlement, or to engage in dialogue with others about their puzzlement.
This made me realize just how important it is to help our students understand how to ask Good Philosophical Questions, and so I have put together two documents that aim to aid them in this process. By pushing our students to better articulate and make explicit their puzzlement, my hope is that it results in them gaining a better understanding of how the moving parts of a reading hang together, and to make clear what they see as a problem (or confusing) in a reading and why.
This first document, I give my students at the beginning of a semester, to help introduce them to the basic kinds of questions a philosopher might ask.
This next document, I give to my students part way through the semester, once they’ve sufficiently internalized the basic habits above, in order to help them engage with the text, and their own ideas, more deeply.
Good Questions: Graduate Edition
Feel free to use and modify the above documents as you see fit!