Teaching
I am, first and foremost, a teacher in the liberal arts tradition. I see the highest goal of education as intellectual liberation: helping students develop the critical tools to reason freely and fairly about the world, and to develop the creativity required for genuine truth-seeking. On this page, you can find a list of my current courses, as well as resources for students looking to improve their abilities to research, read, and write philosophy.
Resources for Students
Current Courses
- Intro to Philosophy
- A launch-course into the wide world of philosophical inquiry that approaches the field through consideration of such perennial problems as ultimate reality, free will, knowledge, morality, political obligation and the existence of God. Depending on instructor, this course may also explore some aspects of social identity, such as race and gender, from a philosophical perspective.
- Environmental Philosophy
- What obligations, if any, do we have towards the environment? What changes should we make in our own lives in light of those obligations? How does material consumption relate to our happiness? If we can be happy consuming less, why do so many of us continue to consume so much? How do our attitudes towards the environment reflect our social position? What is the difference between the natural and the artificial? This course examines such questions in order to come to grips with our relationship with the environment, and what these ideas mean for the way we lead our lives. Students will explore these questions in relation to the global community, to our local community, and in relation to their own lives and choices.