My Approach to Teaching Philosophy
There aren't many uncontroversial metaphilosophical theses, but I think most would agree that philosophy is not a spectator sport; the only way to really learn philosophy is to do it yourself. As a teacher of philosophy, my basic aim is to foster genuine philosophical engagement, such that students don't simply learn about philosophy but to really do it themselves. I see this engagement as coming in a few key forms. First, I aim to provide my students with the confidence to critically engage with primary texts through their written assignments, entering into dialogue with the various philosophers we are reading. Second, I work to create an inclusive environment where they can productively engage in philosophical conversation with one another. Finally, I am sure to open myself up to my students as someone with whom they can engage; I make myself accessible to them at every stage of the process of thinking or writing about philosophical issues, giving support and guidance while always encouraging them to exercise their own intellectual freedom.
There aren't many uncontroversial metaphilosophical theses, but I think most would agree that philosophy is not a spectator sport; the only way to really learn philosophy is to do it yourself. As a teacher of philosophy, my basic aim is to foster genuine philosophical engagement, such that students don't simply learn about philosophy but to really do it themselves. I see this engagement as coming in a few key forms. First, I aim to provide my students with the confidence to critically engage with primary texts through their written assignments, entering into dialogue with the various philosophers we are reading. Second, I work to create an inclusive environment where they can productively engage in philosophical conversation with one another. Finally, I am sure to open myself up to my students as someone with whom they can engage; I make myself accessible to them at every stage of the process of thinking or writing about philosophical issues, giving support and guidance while always encouraging them to exercise their own intellectual freedom.
Courses Taught
Appearance and Reality: Perspectives Across Philosophical Traditions (Spring 2024, University of Chicago)
Is the world really as it appears to be in everyday experience, or is the world of everyday experience really a world of mere appearances, radically unlike the reality that lies behind it? This is arguably the most fundamental philosophical question that one can ask, and it has occupied a central place in perhaps every philosophical tradition that has arisen across the globe. In this class, we will consider how this question arises across two distinct philosophical traditions—Classical and Modern European Philosophy, on the one hand, and Classical Indian philosophy, on the other—seeking to compare and contrast the different philosophical impulses, approaches, and answers to this question across these traditions. We’ll primarily concern ourselves with the existence and nature of two sorts of things: (1) material objects, such as tables and chairs, and (2) persons or “selves,” such as you or me. Historical readings will be from key figures in the different philosophical canons, such as Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Hume, and Kant in Europe, and Vasubandhu, Dharmakīrti and Nāgārjuna Candrakīrti, and Śaṅkara in India. Historical readings will be supplemented by works by contemporary philosophers. pdf of syllabus course site (with handouts and recordings)
Doing Things with Words (Winter 2023, University of Chicago)
Words, it might seem, are for saying things, communicating bits of information. And, of course, they are for that. However, there all sorts of things that we can do with the use of language that go beyond simply saying things. We can, for instance, make a promise, forbid someone from doing something, or exclude someone from our community. These are all different kinds of “speech acts” we might perform, and they form the topic of speech act theory. This class, a venture into speech act theory, will look at these different types of speech acts while seeking to develop a unified framework for thinking about them based on the thought, variously spelled out by the theorists we’ll read, that speech acts work by shifting the norms to which speakers take themselves to be bound. We will start with the philosophical foundations of speech act theory, starting with the pioneering work of Ludwig Wittgenstein before turning to J.L. Austin’s seminal How to Do Things with Words. We will then turn to contemporary developments of speech act theory, focusing on one area where it has been most fruitfully applied and developed in recent years: social, and especially feminist, philosophy. Specific topics in this part of the course will include subordination, silencing and other forms of discursive injustice, discriminatory speech, and gender identification. We will finally turn back to think about the speech act of simply saying something with the conceptual tools we’ve developed in thinking about the various other things we do with words. Beyond Wittgenstein and Austin, readings will be from contemporary sources with work from Rae Langton, Jennifer Hornsby, Cassie Herbert, Quill Kukla, Mary Kate McGowan, Mark Lance, and Robert Brandom among others. pdf of syllabus, course site (with handouts)
Philosophy and Science Fiction (Fall 2022, University of Chicago)
How do we know whether our perceptual experiences really are of a real world outside of us? What determines the identity of a person over time? What does it take to be conscious, and how can we tell whether someone or something is? Could radically different languages lead to radically different forms of experience and thought? These are key questions in the philosophical fields of Epistemology, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Mind, and Philosophy of Language. In this course, we’ll explore these questions (and more) as they arise in works of science fiction and consider the main philosophical proposals for tackling them with an eye to these works. The main works with which we’ll engage will be the films “The Matrix,” “Moon,” “Ex Machina,” and “Arrival,” though there will be many supplementary works of science fiction. Philosophical readings will be drawn from both historical and contemporary sources. pdf of syllabus, course site (with handouts)
Consciousness and Language (Spring 2020, University of Chicago)
Contemporary philosophers of mind often speak of the “phenomenal character” of different sorts of conscious experiences. This phrase is meant to express “what it’s like” to have an experience of a particular sort. For instance, when you see something red—a tomato, say—there’s something that it’s like to have an experience of the sort that you’re having. Someone who is color blind from birth might know a lot of things about how color vision works, but they won’t know what it’s like to see something red; that is, they won’t know what the phenomenal character of an experience of seeing something red is.
In this class, we will explore both a negative and a positive thesis about the relationship between this aspect of conscious experience and language. We will start by considering the claim that the phenomenal character of a conscious experience is really “ineffable”—it cannot be expressed in public language. We will consider strategies for trying to make sense of this idea as well as arguments, both belonging to and influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein, to the effect that there is no way to make sense of it. We will then turn to a corresponding positive thesis that we cannot make sense of phenomenal character of conscious experiences apart from its expression in public language, focusing particularly on the development of this thesis by Wilfrid Sellars and those influenced by him in various ways. In addition to Wittgenstein and Sellars, readings will be from contemporary philosophers including, among others, Frank Jackson, Thomas Nagel, David Chalmers, Paul Horwich, Daniel Dennett, John McDowell, Susanna Schellenberg, Robert Brandom, David Rosenthall, and Paul Churchland. pdf of syllabus
In this class, we will explore both a negative and a positive thesis about the relationship between this aspect of conscious experience and language. We will start by considering the claim that the phenomenal character of a conscious experience is really “ineffable”—it cannot be expressed in public language. We will consider strategies for trying to make sense of this idea as well as arguments, both belonging to and influenced by Ludwig Wittgenstein, to the effect that there is no way to make sense of it. We will then turn to a corresponding positive thesis that we cannot make sense of phenomenal character of conscious experiences apart from its expression in public language, focusing particularly on the development of this thesis by Wilfrid Sellars and those influenced by him in various ways. In addition to Wittgenstein and Sellars, readings will be from contemporary philosophers including, among others, Frank Jackson, Thomas Nagel, David Chalmers, Paul Horwich, Daniel Dennett, John McDowell, Susanna Schellenberg, Robert Brandom, David Rosenthall, and Paul Churchland. pdf of syllabus
Introduction to Logic (Winter 2024, University of Chicago)
This course is an introduction to the concepts and techniques of symbolic logic. We will learn how to represent sentences and arguments in symbolic notation, how to think systematically about the meanings of these symbolic sentences, and how to establish the validity or invalidity of the arguments consisting in such sentences, using both semantic methods and the method of natural deduction. We'll start with the simple logical system of sentential logic, acquire mastery of the basic concepts and techniques there, and then move on to the more powerful logical system of first-order predicate logic. In developing these logical systems, we will occasionally venture into philosophical issues that arise, but our main focus will be to develop competence with the concepts and techniques of symbolic logic as such. pdf of syllabus, course site (with handouts), textbook
What is the value of knowledge or understanding? From Socrates’s famous pronouncement that “the unexamined life is not worth living” to Aristotle’s claim that the contemplative life is the happiest, the idea that knowledge or understanding is a distinctive human good—indeed, perhaps the highest of all goods—is a founding thought of Ancient philosophy which animates the whole of the Western philosophical tradition. In this course (the first in a sequence of three courses jointly aimed at introducing students to this tradition), we will explore this thought as it is developed in the work of the three greats of Ancient Greek Philosophy: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. We will also look at a tragic counterpoint to it in Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex. Classical readings will be supplemented by several more recent writings relevant to or reflecting on the Ancient philosophical tradition. pdf of syllabus, course site (with handouts)
How is it possible for us to have knowledge of the world and of others with whom we seem to inhabit it? From Descartes’ doubt of everything with the lone exception of his own self to Hume’s questioning of even that, radical doubts about our knowledge of the world animate the modern era of philosophy in the 17 and 18 centuries. In this class, we will consider these skeptical questions, as they arise in the work of Descartes and Hume, as well as in Shakespeare’s Othello. We will also briefly look at issues of Cartesian in the information age, with fake news and deep fakes, we’ll compare Hume’s denial of self to the Buddhist theory of no-self, and we’ll conclude with a brief consideration of Kant’s famous responses to Humean and Cartesian skepticism. pdf of syllabus, course site (with handouts)
Courses Assisted
Philosophy of Religion, with Ben Callard (Winter 2021, University of Chicago)
Elementary Logic, with Michael Kremer (Winter 2021, University of Chicago)
Forms of Philosophical Skepticism, with James Conant (Spring 2019, University of Chicago)
Consciousness, with David Finkelstein (Fall 2019, University of Chicago)
Cognition, with Jason Bridges and Chris Kennedy (Spring 2018, University of Chicago)
Formal Logic, with Aron Edidin (Fall, 2013, New College of Florida)
Philosophy of Religion, with Ben Callard (Winter 2021, University of Chicago)
Elementary Logic, with Michael Kremer (Winter 2021, University of Chicago)
Forms of Philosophical Skepticism, with James Conant (Spring 2019, University of Chicago)
Consciousness, with David Finkelstein (Fall 2019, University of Chicago)
Cognition, with Jason Bridges and Chris Kennedy (Spring 2018, University of Chicago)
Formal Logic, with Aron Edidin (Fall, 2013, New College of Florida)