Courses

In the following I introduce the courses that I have taught at the University of Melbourne, the University at Albany, SUNY, at Bowling Green State University, and at the University of St Andrews.

Introductory undergraduate courses

Introduction to Philosophy

Bowling Green State University, Fall 2012 (35 students) and Spring 2013 (30 students).

Introduction to philosophical questions concerning knowledge, skepticism, mind-body relation, free will, ethics, and philosophy of religion.

The Mind and the World

University at Albany, SUNY, Fall 2013 (2 sections, 50 students each) and Spring 2014 (50 students).

Introduction to to philosophical questions concerning knowledge, skepticism, mind-body relation, personal identity, free will, and philosophy of religion in the Western and Eastern tradition.

Philosophy: The Great Thinkers

University of Melbourne, 2014 Semester 2 (230 students), co-taught with Christopher Cordner and Greg Restall; 2015 Semester 2 (220 students), co-taught with Christopher Cordner and Andrew Inkpin; and 2016 Semester 2 (240 students), co-taught with Christopher Cordner and Dana Goswick.

Introduction to selected texts by Plato, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Marx and/or Wittgenstein.

Philosophy: The Big Questions

University of Melbourne, 2015 Semester 1 (395 students), co-taught with Howard Sankey and Peter Singer, and 2016 Semester 1 (450 students), coordinator, co-taught with Howard Sankey and Peter Singer.

Introduction to philosophical questions concerning ethics, epistemology and personal identity.

Intermediate undergraduate courses

History of Modern Philosophy

University of Melbourne, 2015 Semester 1 (15 students) and 2016 Semester 2 (13 students).

University at Albany, SUNY, Spring 2014 (30 students).

Bowling Green State University, Spring 2013 (32 students).

Introduction to the works of important philosophers in the period from Descartes to Kant. The course focuses particularly on questions concerning knowledge and skepticism, the relation between mind and body, different metaphysical accounts of substance, and theories of the self and personal identity and aims examine how the philosophers develop their views in dialogue and in response to their predecessors. Students are asked to participate in role plays which bring to life the historical debates.

Teaching Method: Team-Based Learning (since 2014)

University of St Andrews, Spring 2011, course assisted for James Harris.

Introduction to the epistemology and metaphysics of Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, Berkeley and Hume, to the British moral philosophers Mandeville, Hutcheson, Butler, Clarke, Hume and Smith, and to Kant's theoretical and practical philosophy.

Philosophy of Mind

Bowling Green State University, Fall 2012 (25 students) and Spring 2013 (30 students).

Study of topics including the relation between mind and body, the relation between the mental and behaviour, the question whether machines can think, consciousness, the extended mind hypothesis, and implications for personal identity.

Ancient Philosophy

University at St Andrews, Fall 2010, course assisted for Sarah Broadie.

Introduction to the epistemology, metaphysics, ethics and political philosophy of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and the Epicureans, Stoics and ancient skeptics.

Advanced undergraduate courses

Theory of Knowledge

University at Albany, SUNY, Fall 2013 (14 students)

Study of the following questions: (1) What is knowledge? (2) Is knowledge possible? (3) How do we get knowledge? In addition to the study of these questions in traditional epistemology, the course also includes recent discussions in social epistemology.

Early Modern Philosophy: Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature

University of Melbourne, 2014 Semester 2 (9 students)

Close study of Books 1, 2 and 3 of Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature.

Early Modern Philosophy: Locke and Leibniz on Human Understanding

University of Melbourne, 2015 Semester 2 (5 students)

Close study of selections from Locke's Essay concerning Human Understanding, Leibniz's New Essays on Human Understanding and other relevant texts by Locke, Leibniz and their contemporaries. Focus on topics such as innate ideas, perception, modes and substances, freedom, identity, persons and personal identity, nominal and real essences, knowledge and its limitations, and the role of morality and religion.

Personal Identity in Early Modern Philosophy

University of Melbourne, 2016 Semester 2 (15 students)

Close study of theories of personal identity from the seventeenth century to the present. The course focuses on Locke, eighteenth century responses to Locke including responses by Leibniz, Edmund Law, Catharine Trotter Cockburn, the Clarke-Collins Correspondence, Butler, Reid, Shaftesbury, Hume, and contemporary responses to Locke.

Graduate courses

History of Modern Philosophy

Bowling Green State University, Fall 2012 (15 students)

Advanced study of theories by Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, Hume and Kant, with particular focus on topics such as the relation between mind and body, substance, personal identity, freedom, and moral responsibility.

Topics in the History of Philosophy: Personal Identity

University at Albany, SUNY, Spring 2014 (5 students)

Advanced study of theories of personal identity from the seventeenth century to the present. The course focuses on Locke, eighteenth century responses to Locke including responses by Leibniz, Edmund Law, Catharine Trotter Cockburn, the Clarke-Collins Correspondence, Butler, Reid, Hume, and different contemporary responses to Locke such as Neo-Lockean theories and Carol Rovane’s theory of rational agency.

Teaching Interests

I look forward to developing new courses in the future. I am enthusiastic about integrating my research and teaching, for instance, in courses on the early modern theories of mind and body, British Philosophy from Locke to Reid, courses on the self and personal identity, courses on consciousness, perception, and memory, or advanced topics in metaphysics such as persistence. Besides my research expertise, I am happy to teach undergraduate courses on topics including, but not restricted to, metaphysics, social epistemology, skepticism, ethics, including history of ethics, and philosophy of religion.