The Paideia Archive: Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy

Volume 43, 1998

Teaching Philosophy

Garth Kemerling
Pages 54-59

Teaching Philosophy on the Internet

I defend the practical value of teaching undergraduate philosophy courses in the Internet. Three important objectives of philosophical education can be achieved as effectively by electronic means as in the classroom. First, information about the philosophical tradition can be conveyed by hypertext documents on the World-Wide Web. Second, philosophical dialogue can be conducted through participation in an electronic forum. Third, close supervision of student writing can be achieved by means of e-mail submission of written assignments. In each case, I argue that the electronic method offers significant advantages to student learning.