For almost half a century I made my living as a professional teacher as well as researcher, and I like to think of myself as in some ways still in the teaching and mentoring business.
I began teaching as an assistant in introductory philosophy classes at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I then spent almost three years teaching introductory philosophy courses at North Carolina State University. The next two years I taught a wide range of courses at the State University of New York at Fredonia, including a two-semester sequence in film history (beginning with silent films, then talkies, and then full on color). It was a real joy having a 16 millimeter projector and stacks of film cannisters in my small apartment. From there I went to the University of Colorado at Boulder where I team-taught interdisciplinary courses in “Values and Global Policy,” “Individual and Collective Responses to Global Change,” “Philosophy and Biological Theory,” and “Advances in Animal Behavior,” as well as more traditional course in ethics and aesthetics. At Carleton College I co-taught a course on climate change as well as an experiential “Introduction to Environmental Studies, in addition to courses on ethics and philosophy of mind. At NYU I taught in philosophy, environmental studies, and the law school, and my courses ranged from global environmental politics to team taught graduate seminars with Alice Crary, Bill Ruddick and Peter Singer. There have been lots of other bits and pieces along the way (e.g., graduate seminars on love, and on animals, science, and philosophy), but environmental ethics has been the real constant. I taught courses under that title to thousands of students at six different universities on three continents.
I have never made much of a distinction between teaching and research. I can’t do either unless I am fully engaged, and being fully engaged with anything means it takes over your life. So for me what happens in the classroom is research and research involves talking with anyone who will listen. Students have to at least pretend to listen, and they are often the most interesting interlocutors. (I remember once when I was a teaching assistant for Paul Ziff and he asked a class what had gone wrong in the Sorites Paradox. A student replied that there was nothing wrong with the argument (“You don’t make a rich person poor person by taking away penny”), as long as you don’t use the argument too often. I’ve always thought that there is something profound with that response though I’m still not sure what it is.)
Over the years I have been blessed with dozens, even hundreds of gifted students. In their adult lives they have become mothers, fathers, Buddhist monks, environmental activists, tradespeople, park rangers, lawyers and academics (in some cases even professional philosophers). They have been a huge part of what has given my life meaning.
If you would like syllabi from my classes or bad advice about teaching (e.g., once you get tenure never look at standardized teaching evaluations”), please reach out.