I currently teach philosophy and interdisciplinary studies courses and I am Program Coordinator for Philosophy, Religion, and Interdisciplinary Studies at Park University.

I have been working to connect philosophy outside the university setting as well by doing ‘Philosophy for Children.’ (See my Philosophy for Children tab above for details).

You can download my teaching dossier (last updated in 2018) here. I have added links to quantitative course evaluations next to (most) of my courses below.

Courses I have taught:

Philosophy for Children [Syllabus]: Students are trained in the Lipman-Sharp approach to community of philosophical inquiry/Philosophy for Children. All students will facilitate philosophical discussions in a local school.

Topics in Theories of Knowledge [Syllabus]: An introduction to contemporary epistemology. Topics include: skepticism, defining knowledge, defining justification, virtue epistemology, and naturalized epistemology.

Philosophy of Religion [Syllabus]: A topical course covering classic arguments for and against God’s existence, with a focus on the problem of evil. (Quant. Eval.)

Social & Political Philosophy [Syllabus]: An historical overview, focusing on a systematic reading of Plato’s Republic. Additional readings include selections from Aristotle, Locke, Hobbes, Marx, Rawls, Nozick. (Quant. Eval.)

Metaphysics [Syllabus]: A topical course on contemporary metaphysics. We cover the nature of properties, substance versus bundle theory of particulars, time, causality, and free will.  (Quant. Eval.)

Problems of Ethics: Racism [Syllabus]: This course is divided into three parts: 1) two weeks on the metaphysics of race, 2) six weeks on critical race theory (two books, one by Appiah, one by Mills), and 3) six weeks on contemporary psychological work on implicit racism (readings from Saul and Brownstein). (Quant. Eval.)

Philosophy of Science [Syllabus]: A survey of central theories and problems within contemporary philosophy of science. We begin with logical positivism and the question of realism and demarcation. We then closely read Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions and Polanyi’s Tacit Knowledge. The topics is the nature of scientific explanation. As an application of the nature of scientific explanation, we consider science and religion, and how these two areas should interact. Finally, we consider natural kinds. (Quant. Eval.)

Introduction to Philosophy of Mind [Syllabus]: An introduction to metaphysical theories about the relationship between the mind and body. We examine Descartes’ mind-body dualism as well as 20^th century theories including: behaviorism, the identity theory, machine and causal functionalism, instrumentalism, eliminativism, and emergentism. (Quant. Eval.)

Introduction to Ethics [Syllabus]: We begin with metaethical questions (constructivism, relativism, egotism, sentimentalism, realism, etc.) by considering the ‘why be moral?’ question. Then we turn to normative ethics, focusing on utilitarianism, Kantianism, and virtue ethics. Finally, we look at contemporary moral psychology. Throughout the course we use classical and contemporary readings.

Introduction to Philosophy [Syllabus]: A topical introduction to philosophy from both classical and contemporary readings covering logic, metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, philosophy of religion, and normative theory.

Critical Thinking [Syllabus ‘Levels Approach’]: An introduction to deductive and inductive reasoning in natural language, focusing on argument identification, valid forms of inference, and formal and informal fallacies.

Personal and Professional Ethics: This course teaches students the basics of normative theory and then focuses on the application of these norms in a business and consumer setting.

• Note: This is a five-week night class for non-traditional students in an accelerated degree program. The class meets once each week for four hours.

Business Ethics Online: This online course on the philosophy of work focuses on how four virtues (truth, goodness, unity, and beauty) apply in the workplace and to the concept of work.

Business Ethics: This online course introduces students to three major normative ethical theories: Utilitarianism, Deontology, and Virtue Ethics, and then focuses on the application of these theories in a business setting.

Ancient Greek Philosophy: A reading intensive course. Assignments focus on close reading skills of philosophical texts. Readings include: Thales, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Democritus, Plato’s Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phadeo, Republic (selections), Aristotle’s Physics (selections), De Anima, Nichomachean Ethics, and Politics.

Philosophy of Psychology (Cross-listed with Psychology): We will examine theories within the philosophy of psychology, focusing on the nature and structure of cognition, concepts, and mind-reading.

Ethics of Belief Interdisciplinary Honors Seminar: (How) can we hold people responsible for the beliefs that they hold? Is it ever morally/epistemically permissible to believe without (or against) the evidence? In edition to classic articles on this issue, we we will read The Ethics of Belief (ed. Matheson and Vitz) and Believing Against the Evidence (by McCormick).

Ethics and Society: Applied ethics course.

Meaning of Life: Topical introduction to four types of response to the meaning of life: transcendent objectivitism, immanent objectivitism, subjectivism, and nihilism.

Introduction to Interdisciplinary Studies (Online): A course intended for Interdisciplinary Studies Majors at Park University. This course focuses on concepts such as: disciplinary approaches, disciplinary insights, types of interdisciplinary, integration, and synthesis.

Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies (Online): A course intended for Interdisciplinary Studies Majors at Park University. This course focuses on an individual research project using the skills, methods, and concepts from two disciplines chosen by the student.

Interdisciplinary and Integrative Capstone: Science and Religion in Dialogue: A capstone for Park University’s Liberal Education Program. This section focuses on the interaction between biological/cognitive science and religion.