Teaching Philosophy

My teaching aims chiefly to develop students’ skills in inquiry and argument. I try to teach such that by term’s end my students can:

• • immediately identify the main thesis for which any discourse is arguing;

  • immediately identify the main reasons and evidence the discourse offers to support the thesis;

  • reasonably evaluate and reasonably criticize the reasons and the evidence;

  • formulate a clear question to research;

  • formulate a thesis which gives a clear and interesting answer to the question;

  • give relevant reasons and evidence supporting their thesis;

  • formulate and reply to the strongest objections to their thesis.

I also try to communicate to students the thrill of serious argument and inquiry, to foster a respect for relevant evidence and data, and to foster the determination and patience necessary for successful problem-solving and reasoned argument.

These are skills and attitudes that students will find useful no matter where they go or what they do. For living requires problem-solving, discussion, and negotiation. These skills and attitudes make whoever possesses them adept at all three.

Moreover, possessing and using these skills and attitudes has other benefits. They broaden one's sympathies, widen intellectual and emotional horizons, expand one's imagination, decrease dogmatism, and increase tolerance for complexity and uncertainty.

I try to develop these skills and attitudes by practice, precept, and example. My courses center on argumentative writing, engaged reading, and discussion. I ask students to write one-page response papers for most course readings, in which they identify the reading's main thesis and the chief reasons by which the reading defends its thesis. I usually devote a course module to the basic form of argumentative writing: question--thesis--reasons--objections to thesis--replies to objections. I familiarize students with the form by asking them to find it in course readings and other argumentative pieces: newspaper op-eds, for example.

In class discussions, I ask students to formulate objections to the reading's thesis. I ask them for their own views on the question, and for reasons by which they justify those views. We then examine those reasons. I sometimes present my own views and reasons, and ask students to criticize them.

At Yale, I have taught undergraduate seminars on "Collective Choice and Political Morality," "Classics of Ethics, Politics, & Economics," and "Environmental Ethics."

At UNAM's Philosophy Institute, I taught a seminar for MA and PhD students on "Justice and Oppression." I taught a 300-level course at Johns Hopkins on "Equality: Philosophical Approaches."

I have designed two 100-level courses: "Introduction to Political Theory" and "Foundations of Environmental Politics." I have designed a 200-level course introducing students to "The History of Modern Political Theory." 300-level courses include "The Philosophy of Human Rights," "Rights," and "The Nature of Law." I have also designed 400-level seminars on "Oppression," "Theories of Racism," "Constitutional Theory," "Justice by Agreement," "Utilitarianism," "Inquiry in the Humanities," and "Art, Morality, and Politics."

At Johns Hopkins, I worked as a teaching assistant or grader for "Theories of Justice," "American Constitutional Law I," "Introduction to International Relations," and "Introduction to Comparative Politics."