Teaching
One of the best parts of my job is that I get to share some of the profound philosophical questions that I am interested in, with students, and learn from their ideas and arguments.
I have two central goals in teaching philosophy. The first is to have sophisticated discussions with my students about some of the deep problems and ideas that animate philosophical research. My second goal is to contribute to my students’ intellectual development, both by exploring these problems and ideas, and by helping them to acquire and sharpen some of the powerful reasoning and writing skills that are distinctive of philosophy.
If you are a student considering taking one of my classes, welcome! I have been told that my classes are a bit more work than average, but I do not believe in wasting your time. A good philosophy class does not dispense bottled wisdom; it teaches you a set of skills: careful reading, critical thinking, and incisive writing. It usually does this in the context of wrestling with questions that have puzzled brilliant thinkers for centuries. To develop these skill takes a lot of practice, and that is just what I hope that you will do in my classes. You can get a sense of what I expect by looking at my past syllabi, posted below.
Resources
This is a collection of my resources for beginning philosophers, organized as a short book. It includes guidance on reading philosophy, preparing for class, discussion, arguments, using sources, exegesis, and writing short philosophy papers.
How to argue for (and against) ethical veganism
If you are trying to figure out how to write a philosophy paper, this is a resource for you: it provides a model short philosophy paper, and then explains and illustrates several of the most important basic strategies that philosophers use to make and respond to objections.
Syllabi for my past courses:
(These are the syllabi for the most recent iteration of each topically distinct class I have taught)
Introductory
Introduction to Ethics (Introductory Undergraduate, Ohio State, Fall 2017)
Advanced Undergraduate
Gateway Seminar (New Undergraduate Majors, Ohio State, Spring 2022)
Biomedical Ethics (Advanced Undergraduate, Virginia Tech, Spring 2015)
Ethical Theory (Advanced Undergraduate, Virginia Tech, Spring 2014)
Twentieth Century Philosophy (Advanced Undergraduate, Minnesota Duluth, Spring 2011)
Theory of Knowledge (Advanced Undergraduate, Minnesota Duluth, Spring 2011)
Birth of Modern Philosophy (Advanced Undergraduate, Minnesota Duluth, Spring 2010)
Political Concepts (Co-taught with Amy Shuster; Advanced Undergraduate, Minnesota Duluth, Spring 2010)
Current Social and Political Philosophy (Advanced Undergraduate, Minnesota Duluth, Spring 2009)
Undergrad/Grad
Teaching Philosophy (Advanced Undergraduate/Graduate, Ohio State, Spring 2022)
Advanced Theory of Knowledge (Advanced Undergraduate/Graduate, Ohio State, Fall 2016)
Metaethics (Advanced Undergraduate/Graduate, Ohio State, Spring 2016)
Graduate
Epistemology of the Normative (Graduate, Ohio State, Fall 2021)
Proseminar for new Graduate Students (Co-taught with Richard Samuels; Graduate, Ohio State, Fall 2020)
Metaphysics of Normative Realism (Graduate, Ohio State, Spring 2020)
Proseminar for new Graduate Students (Co-taught with Declan Smithies; Graduate, Ohio State, Fall 2018)
Normative Realism and Normative Authority (Graduate, Ohio State, Spring 2018)
Moral Epistemology (Graduate, Ohio State, Fall 2015)
Normative Realism (Graduate, Virginia Tech, Spring 2015)
Moral Epistemology and Methodology (Graduate, Virginia Tech, Fall 2013)
Semantics of Normative Realism (Graduate, Virginia Tech, Spring 2012)