• Philosophy 125C: Great Philosophers 

I have not yet chosen a theme for Fall 2024, but in the past we have focused on love, anger, utopia, obedience, and living well. Whatever theme we focus on, we will study how five or more "great philosophers" (generously defined) address that theme (among other topics).

• Philosophy 347C = Classics 347C = Religious Studies 356: Ancient Philosophy (once every other year)

The goal is to appreciate how Greek philosophy tackled big questions about how the world works and about how to live. We start with answers to these questions from early Greek culture, in Hesiod's poems, and after a quick glimpse at surviving fragments of some "Presocratic" philosophers, we focus on Plato, Aristotle, and then, for sharp contrast, Epicurus. Here is a recent version of the syllabus; in Fall 2024, the syllabus will closely resemble that.

• Humanities 203C: Early Political Thought (once every other year)

This small "Great Books" seminar for first-years always includes Thucydides, Plato's Republic, and Machiavelli. Over the past decade or so, I've co-taught this in a special section that is merged with a section of the "Classical to Renaissance Literature sequence." See, for example, this syllabus.

• Philosophy 125C: Great Philosophers (once or twice a year)

This changes from semester to semester. There is always a theme; there are always five or more "great philosophers" (generously defined) addressing that theme (among other topics); and Plato is always one of them. Recent iterations have focused on love, anger, utopia, obedience, and living well.  

• Philosophy 120: Problems in Philosophy (occasionally)

I've taught this in a few different ways, including as an introduction to philosophical reflection on the meaning of life and as a class on paradoxes. In Fall 2021, I taught it more conventionally, with readings covering a broad range of philosophical problems, and that is the way I did it the last time, too, in Fall 2022 (syllabus). 

• Philosophy 131F: Present Moral Problems (occasionally)

Here is my most recent syllabus for this course. It will be something like that next time, but not exactly like that. 

• Philosophy 347C = Classics 347C = Religious Studies 356: Ancient Philosophy (once every other year)

I feel a stronger sense of obligation to cover certain texts and topics in this class than in most of my undergraduate courses, so the syllabus does not change so much. The goal is to appreciate how Greek philosophy tackled big questions about how the world works and about how to live. We start with answers to these questions from early Greek culture, in Hesiod's poems, and after a quick glimpse at surviving fragments of some "Presocratic" philosophers, we focus on Plato, Aristotle, and then, for sharp contrast, Epicurus. Here is a recent version of the syllabus.

• Philosophy 451: Plato (every three years)

The reading list varies. It typically includes the Republic, either with a few Socratic dialogues or with a couple of allegedly later dialogues. The primary themes of the course depend on which dialogues are assigned, but the primary questions of the Republic are never ignored.

• Philosophy 452: Aristotle (every three years)

It's not easy to offer a responsible survey of Aristotle's philosophy in one semester. The logical and biological works get short shrift in my surveys, which divide roughly into one half that is primarily metaphysics—focusing on Categories, Physics I-II, De Anima, and Metaphysics— and one half that is primarily ethics.   

• Philosophy 4530: Hellenistic Philosophy (every three years)

Another impossible survey, but we try to cover the highlights of Epicureanism, Stoicism, the Academy, and Pyrrhonism. The goals are to get some sense of the philosophical views and reasoning that we can reasonably attribute to these schools but also some sense of what our sources for these attributions are, and how to handle those sources. 

I've done independent studies, undergraduate seminars, and graduate seminars on many different topics, including akrasia; Aristotle's metaphysics (co-taught with Scott Berman); consequentialism, for and against (co-taught with Julia Driver); cosmopolitanism (co-taught with Pauline Kleingeld); Epicureanism; eudaimonisms; friendship (co-taught with Michael Sherberg); rhetoric and anti-rhetoric (co-taught with Ryan Balot); Plato's Ethics (co-taught with Scott Berman and Eric Wiland); Socratic ethics; and Stoic ethics.