Statement of Teaching Philosophy

My approach to teaching is reflected in the goals I set for myself in the classroom and the instructional methods I use to achieve them. My primary goals are to increase the students’ interest in philosophical issues and to provide them with the conceptual resources and critical skills required to productively engage with these issues. The main strategy I use to generate interest is to draw the students into philosophical debates by challenging certain deeply held beliefs on philosophical grounds or confronting them with perplexing philosophical problems. In the course of the debate, I press the students to make precise distinctions and provide arguments to support their claims. My courses are discussion-oriented because I find that students have greater interest in the course material and better develop their ability to reason and to navigate philosophical issues when they play an active role in class. To encourage the participation of each student, I also break the class into small groups for discussions and projects. The Socratic method makes possible a more spontaneous approach to teaching and allows one to be more responsive to the strengths and needs of each individual student.

Ultimately, I want the students to leave my courses with an appreciation of the unique nature of philosophical thinking and the challenges that it presents. As an undergraduate, my interest in philosophy was sparked by the discovery that philosophy asks the hardest questions. Philosophy can be frustrating at times, but it can also be captivating because it continually generates new and exciting challenges. Although most undergraduate students in a philosophy course are not majors, they should leave with the knowledge that there is something important at stake in philosophical debates and that philosophical inquiry, like any challenging enterprise, has its own intrinsic rewards.

In the classroom, I present myself as a role model who participates in philosophical inquiry along with the students instead of an expert who has already resolved the issues with which we are dealing. I let the students know that I have my own views (though they are not fixed) and that these views will occasionally emerge in the course of the discussion, but that at the same time I am responsible for moderating the debate and playing devil’s advocate in order to defend unpopular positions. Since I structure most of my courses around debates, I make it a point to confront the common view that philosophical debate does not lead anywhere because the issues are not conclusively resolved. Students should appreciate the value of being reflective about one’s assumptions; in addition, though philosophical debates are rarely settled, they contribute to the creation and further articulation of ideas, and one can often find good reasons for preferring one position over another. Nevertheless, I avoid resolving the debates we discuss in class since I think it is important for the students to draw their own conclusions.

Concerning other aspects of my teaching methodology, I prefer primary texts and sometimes include literature and film. In my introductory courses, variety is added by covering a number of topics and reading shorter selections. When students need additional encouragement to read the assigned texts, I give short, relatively easy quizzes. Because philosophical texts can be difficult for majors and non-majors alike, I provide a series of study questions to highlight the central issues in the reading. I include writing assignments in my courses, such as papers of varying lengths and essay exams, because I believe that developing a student’s writing skills is one of the central objectives of undergraduate education. Depending on the course, I use a variety of testing procedures, such as essay exams, medium to short answer exams and quizzes; I avoid multiple choice or true/false questions (except on reading quizzes) because they do not test the students’ ability to state philosophical points and other types of questions encourage more careful reading and note-taking. I let the students know from the beginning that I have high expectations for them, like they should of me, and it is my experience that students rise to the occasion when they are asked to do so.