Teaching

Pedagogy

My goal in the philosophy classroom is to strike a balance between philosophical rigor and student engagement. While philosophical rigor involves setting aside one’s own philosophical motivations to adopt those of assigned philosophers, I have found that students are most engaged when discussing their own philosophical motivations. 

To achieve this balance, I place a strong emphasis on the historical contexts in which various philosophical questions arise. This is because the historical approach encourages students to view even the most prominent of philosophers as their interlocutors, who struggle with the same philosophy questions. This leaves space for students to develop their own insights to these fundamental questions. Furthermore, exploring the historical contexts of assigned material allows students to draw valuable contrasts between their own philosophical motivations and those reflected in the readings. 

I find that this pedagogical strategy works well not only in general introductory classes and classes in the history of philosophy, but also in more technical sub-fields of philosophy of language and logic.

Classes I've Taught

I regularly teach classes in introduction to philosophy, (propositional) logic, philosophy of language, and have taught classes in philosophy of literature. I enjoy trying out a range of teaching methods beyond the usual lecturing for the purposes of contextualizing class discussions. Flipped classroom activities I've employed include structured small-group discussions with reading prompts, in-class debates and collective mind-mapping, 'paper idea speed-dating', 'think-pair-share', 'exit tickets', and in-class individual reflections. 

Click on the titles of each class to download their respective syllabi. 

Queens College PHIL 101

Queens College PHIL 146/265/743

Smith College PHIL 262

Queens College PHIL 109

Smith College PHIL 220

Baruch College PHIL 1700

Sample Classes

Some class titles that I'm looking forward to teaching in the future.

Plato's Epistemology

This class explores Plato's distinction between episteme and doxa, translated as 'knowledge' and 'belief' or 'opinion', focusing on how interpretations of Plato's epistemology have changed given developments in twentieth-century analytic philosophy. This class is structured around Jessica Moss's recent book, Plato's Epistemology: Being and Seeming (2021), and incorporates readings from her philosophical interlocutors. 

Philosophy and Its Limits

This class discusses the limitations Bernard Williams sets for philosophy and ethical theorizing in Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy, situating his work within not only the larger corpus of Williams's work but also developments in ethical theorizing in the late twentieth-century. Why is ethical theorizing limited, according to Williams? Are there ways in which we might challenge these limitations by drawing from other philosophical traditions? 

Confucian Role Ethics 

What is the ethical significance of social roles? Readings for this class will draw primarily from the Confucian tradition and other historical treatments of the ethical significance of roles in Chinese philosophy. Supplementary readings will include contemporary debates over 'traditional' philosophical treatments on social roles more generally, e.g., care ethics and other feminist criticisms of 'Western' moral theories, communitarianism and cross-cultural criticisms of 'Western' moral theories. 

Plato and the Ancient Quarrel between Philosophy and Poetry

Plato famously claimed that there was an ancient quarrel between philosophy and poetry, yet granted the Form of Beauty a special honor amongst the Forms. What are Plato's views on issues concerning aesthetics, e.g., mimêsis, the banishment of poetry, poetic inspiration and knowledge through poetry, and his own incorporation of myths into his dialogues? This class will cover Plato's Republic, Ion, Phaedrus, and Symposium to examine the role of poetry and Beauty in Plato's philosophy.

Teaching Resources