Teaching

My main goal in teaching philosophy is to get students to slow down when thinking. To do this, I encourage students to reflect upon their beliefs by asking them to construct and criticize arguments and engage in critical and careful readings of texts. Constructing arguments requires identifying beliefs, assumptions, and the justifications of beliefs, and recognizing the connections between these. Similarly, criticizing arguments requires charitably doing this with other people's arguments. Slow thinking allows for more constructive discussions and personal growth in helping to develop patience, creativity, and humility.

PHI 101: World Philosophies

Semester: Spring

Offered: 2025

Even though philosophy is something that everyone does, the aim of this course is to help you develop some methods of doing it well or better by exposing you to ideas and systems of thoughts from differing worldviews. These worldviews will include examples of philosophical systems that are rooted in North America, Central Europe, Southeast Europe, East Asia, South Asia, and Africa. Each of these systems of thought are not to be representative of an entire culture’s way of thinking. Rather, each system of thought is merely an example that comes from different lands. Studying these methods by looking at different worldviews will help us to better challenge our own ideas, understand how our ideas relate to each other, and how different systems of thought operate.

PHI 180: Introduction to Ethics

Semester: Fall

Offered: 2024

This course serves as an introduction to ethics, morality, and issues of diversity and oppression in western culture. Asking ethical questions presupposes a distinction between correct or good ways of conducting oneself and incorrect or bad ways of conducting oneself. Whereas ethics focuses on applying these standards to a person’s character or life, morality focuses on applying these standards to a person’s intentions with others. These two fields, ethics and morality, are intertwined and, as such, answering questions in one field requires answering (or assuming) answers in the other. Studying ethics and morality is the attempt to identify and understand these standards, as well as apply them to our lives and actions. In addition to reading and discussing prominent views about whether ethical standards are subjective or objective, we also discuss moral issues surrounding race, gender, disability, immigration, and class. The aim of this course is to help students develop skills to better think about moral problems and engage in dialogues about ethics.

PHI 190: Introduction to Logic

Semester: -

Offered: -

Philosophy often deals with argumentation. When making arguments, there are certain rules or conditions that must be met for an argument to be “good.” Logic is the study of these rules. Overall, the aim of this course is to help students better understand what constitutes a “good” or well-structured argument, as well as become better at structuring arguments of their own.

PHI 203: Introduction to Indigenous Philosophy

Semester: -

Offered: -

This course serves as an introduction to Indigenous thought with an emphasis on Lenape philosophy. West Chester University occupies the land of the Lenape. This land, known as Lënapehòkink (Lenapehoking), is the source of Lenape beliefs, practices, and stories. As such, throughout the course we will be reading Lenape stories, while also focusing on Lenape history and culture to provide context for the ideas and morals found in those stories. The aims of this course are two-fold: first, to introduce students to contemporary Indigenous thought, and second, to better familiarize students with the history, practices, and ideas of the land they now occupy.

PHI 412: Ethical Theories

Semester: -

Offered: -

In this course, we’ll discuss which aspects of moral problems are morally relevant by discussing prominent ethical theories as they relate and apply to contemporary issues. We’ll be looking at issues to understand the prospects and limits of these theories, as well as which aspects of these problems are morally relevant. Overall, the aim is to discuss the usefulness of ethical theories by seeing how they can help us to address contemporary ethical issues.

PHI 434: Contemporary Indigenous Thought

Semester: -

Offered: -

The aim of this course is to help students better understand how Native American ideas and values have been adapted to address the ongoing process of colonization. Despite forced removals (e.g., people from land, children from parents, practices from people, etc.) and forced attempts at assimilation (e.g., U.S. board schools for Native children, “Kill the Indian, Save the Man” policies, etc.), Native American philosophical frameworks weren’t eradicated. Rather, these frameworks still exist and have been adapted to address the new forms of colonization. In this course, we will look at the philosophical underpinnings of contemporary issues faced by Native Americans.

Past Courses and Universities

Elon University North Carolina A&T State University Marian University

Phil 3730: Native American Philosophy Phil 266: Contemporary Moral Problems (Online, *3) Phil 320: Philosophy of Law

Phil 2150: Ethics and Decision-Making (*2) Phil 201: Business Ethics (Online, *11) Phil 220: Bioethics (*2)

Phil 2120: Ethical Practice (*3) Phil 104: Intro to Ethics (Online) Phil 132: The Examined Life (*7)

Phil 1120: How Should We Live? (*3)

Phil 1100: What Can We Know? (*2)

University of Wisconsin-Platteville University of Washington, Seattle Virginia Tech

Phil 113: Introduction to Philosophy (*4) Phil 242: Medical Ethics (Summer B-Term) Phil 2304: Global Ethics (*5)

Phil 120: Introduction to Logic (Summer B-Term, *2) Phil 1304: Morality & Justice

Phil 102: Contemporary Moral Problems (Summer B-Term,*2)

Phil 100: Introduction to Philosophy (Summer B-Term)

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