Primary Aim and Goals
My primary aim in teaching philosophy is to model—and thereby help to instill—a way of thinking both passionately and critically about one’s fundamental beliefs and values. In my teaching, I strive to make sure students see the big picture, how it all connects, and why it matters, while providing a model for how to approach these questions with curiosity, awe, intellectual rigor, and humility.
This aim drives two important teaching goals of mine: 1) to make abstract concepts and topics more relevant to the everyday life of my students and 2) to regularly include students actively in the learning process.
This aim drives two important teaching goals of mine: 1) to make abstract concepts and topics more relevant to the everyday life of my students and 2) to regularly include students actively in the learning process.
Courses Taught as Sole Instructor
UNC Chapel Hill
Introduction to Mathematical Logic (Fall 2024, Summer 2022, Summer 2021, Fall 2020)
Introduction to Ancient Greek Philosophy (Summer 2023, Spring 2021)
Making Sense of Ourselves [an Introduction to Value Theory] (Fall 2021)
Introduction to Moral Theory (Summer 2020)
Introduction to Mathematical Logic (Fall 2024, Summer 2022, Summer 2021, Fall 2020)
- In this course, we will study propositional and first-order predicate logic. We will examine both the syntax (grammar) and semantics (meaning) of each logical system. Topics will include translations between English and the logical formalisms, truth tables, models, and formal proofs.
Introduction to Ancient Greek Philosophy (Summer 2023, Spring 2021)
- In this course, we will explore the key philosophical views and ideas of the Presocratics, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. We will examine these philosophers’ views on (among other things) the nature of the world, the nature of knowledge, human virtue, the good life, and the just city-state. In order to do so, we will survey many of their central works, including selections from Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics.
Making Sense of Ourselves [an Introduction to Value Theory] (Fall 2021)
- In this course, we will examine some influential attempts to understand human beings, our lives, and our moral and political values. Topics will include happiness, virtue, the good life, justice, right & wrong, freedom, love, death, and the meaning of life. To do so, we will read works by authors such as Plato, Aristotle, Mill, Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, Sartre, and a selection of 20th century philosophers.
Introduction to Moral Theory (Summer 2020)
- In this course, we will survey and cover a variety of topics in moral theory. In doing so, we will critically reflect upon our judgments that various actions, goals, values, and ethical approaches are right or wrong (or good or bad). A) First, we will consider some “challenges to morality", including subjectivism, cultural relativism, and egoism. B) Next, we will consider several prominent approaches to ethics, including Utilitarianism, Kantianism, Virtue Ethics, and Feminist Ethics. C) After that, we will examine some political philosophy, including Libertarianism and Rawls’ Theory of Justice. D) Finally, we will examine several moral issues of current as well as perennial interest: these include economic markets and morals, world hunger, euthanasia, death, and the meaning of life.
Lakeland Community College Kirtland, OH (2015-2017)
- Introduction to Philosophy (3x)
- Thinking Critically (3x)
- Ethics
- Logic
Teaching Assistant
UNC Chapel Hill
UW Seattle
- Gateway to PPE (for Luc Bovens, 2x)
- Introduction to Philosophy (for Ram Neta)
UW Seattle
- Introduction to Logic
- Introduction to Philosophy
- Introduction to Medical Ethics
- Introduction to Philosophy of Religion
- Philosophical Issues in the Law