101.
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Teaching Philosophy:
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Renée Smith,
Dennis Earl
Getting Started:
A First-Day Activity in Philosophical Thinking
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Given the inexperience, misconceptions and misgivings students often bring to a first course in philosophy, we present an activity that acquaints students with the main areas of philosophical inquiry and the tools philosophers use. Students engage in philosophical thinking by reflecting on and answering questions, defending and discussing their answers, and modifying or rejecting views in light of this discussion. The activity introduces students to conceptual analysis, argument, thought-experiment, and the use of counterexampleswhile simultaneously emphasizing and illuminating students’ natural tendency to think philosophically.
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102.
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Robert Boyd Skipper
Aliteracy in the Philosophy Classroom
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For whatever reasons, students seem more resistant than ever before to reading. Educators have catered to this trend, introducing learning activities other than reading. I argue that, in philosophy at least, nothing can substitute for reading and discussion. I further argue that the best readings are famous, intellectually challenging, and substantial enough to reward the student with a memorable philosophical experience. I have noticed that students appreciate meaty, classical, philosophical works that challenge them, but are bored by dumbed-down textbooks or summaries. After considering some obvious objections, I relate two successful techniques I have used to raise the level of student engagement in class.
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103.
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Scott Woodcock
Pedagogy and People-Seeds:
Teaching Judith Jarvis Thomson’s “A Defense of Abortion”
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Judith Thomson’s “A Defense of Abortion” is one of the most widely taught papers in undergraduate philosophy, yet it is notoriously difficult to teach. Thomson uses simple terminology and imaginative thought experiments, but her philosophical moves are complex and sometimes difficult to explain to a class still mystified by the prospect of being kidnapped to save a critically ill violinist. My aim here is to identify four sources of difficulty that tend to arise when teaching this paper. In my experience, these four sources of difficulty create significant problems for undergraduate students, yet each one is easy for instructors to underestimate. My objective is therefore to identify the problems, explain why they tend to occur and warn other instructors about their potential impact in the classroom.
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104.
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Teaching Philosophy:
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Michael Goldman
Teaching Philosophy:
Theoretical Reflections and Practical Suggestions
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105.
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Teaching Philosophy:
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Michael W. Austin
The Story of Ethics:
Fulfilling Our Human Nature
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106.
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Irfan Khawaja
Consequentialism
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107.
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Dale Murray
The Affirmative Action Debate
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108.
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Brian Soucek
Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art—The Analytic Tradition:
An Anthology
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109.
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Diane Williamson
Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit:
New Critical Essays
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110.
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Teaching Philosophy:
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Jeffrey M. Jackson
Continental Philosophy:
A Critical Approach
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111.
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Teaching Philosophy:
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John Protevi
Gilles Deleuze’s Difference and Repetition:
A Critical Introduction and Guide
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112.
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Teaching Philosophy:
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Alison Stone
Luce Iriguray:
Key Writings
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113.
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Teaching Philosophy:
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Barbara S. Andrew
Simone de Beauvoir’s Philosophy of Lived Experience
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114.
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William J. Rapaport
Philosophy of Computer Science:
An Introductory Course
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There are many branches of philosophy called “the philosophy of X,” where X = disciplines ranging from history to physics. The philosophy of artificial intelligence has a long history, and there are many courses and texts with that title. Surprisingly, the philosophy of computer science is not nearly as well-developed. This article proposes topics that might constitute the philosophy of computer science and describes a course covering those topics, along with suggested readings and assignments.
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115.
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Lisa Cassidy
Teaching Kant’s Ethics
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This pedagogical study analyzes and attempts to solve some difficulties of teaching Immanuel Kant’s Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals. Even though there are obstacles to teaching Kant’s ethics, I argue that active learning techniques can overcome such obstacles. The active learning approach holds that students learn better by doing (in hands-on exercises) than just by listening (to a professor’s lectures). Twelve lesson plans are outlined in this article. The lesson plans are activities to explore and learn, then evaluate, and finally reflect and review Kant’s ethics.
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116.
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David Waller
Pedagogical Pilgrim:
What the Arts Taught Me about Philosophy
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This paper describes my return to community college to get a hands-on education in music and art; the experience resulted in unanticipated improvements in my own teaching. Specifically, I learned the benefits of letting students have more access to each other’s written work—as in a ceramics class, where one cannot hide the pot one is working on, or a counterpoint class, where one of the regular activities involves students writing out their own fugues on the board for class discussion. I discovered that an analogousapproach in a course driven by reading and writing is an efficient way to address common writing problems, helps students take their writing more seriously, and results in an atmosphere that is at once earnest and playful.
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117.
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Edward Halper
Freshman Seminar Film Courses
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The aim of this paper is to explain how to design and teach a course that meets the special requirements of Freshman Seminar programs by using feature films to examine philosophical themes. Two such courses are discussed. By organizing each course around a theme, the teacher can use the films to illustrate and, sometimes, critique philosophical positions that she elaborates. Discussing the films, the students develop analytical and interpretive skills important for more rigorous philosophy courses as well as for work in other disciplines.
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118.
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Anthony F. Beavers
Searching for Philosophy:
A Review of Google Scholar and Google News
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Though the Internet has been around since the 1960s, the World Wide Web is now only ten years old. In that time, it has seen unprecedented growth. This review examines two tools that are part of this revolution, Google Scholar and Google News, and assesses their utility for teaching philosophy. While Google Scholar might at this time have limited classroom use, Google News is immediately useful for a variety of philosophy courses. This is due, in part, to the rich customization that the service provides and the global scope of the resources it documents.
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119.
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Nim Batchelor
The Blackwell Guide to the Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory
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120.
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Edmund F. Byrne
Violence and Democracy
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