philosophical science
teaching
A Metaphor
If philosophy is a conversation defined by a set of questions and answers, then to learn philosophy is to learn about that conversation. And to learn how to do philosophy is to learn how to contribute to the conversation. Philosophers ask questions about knowledge, beauty, freedom, meaning, causation, responsibility, and many other things. Many of these questions overlap, as do the answers philosophers have offered. So perhaps it's better to think of philosophy as a set of conversations all going on at once, many of which overlap in their content and participants.
Metaphorically, I like to think of each philosophical conversation as a long twisting hallway, indeterminate in length. The footpath is the question being pursued and each archway a proposed answer, potentially the point at which you should stop your trek down the hallway. Along the way there are many corridors where other hallways, equally long and twisting, intersect the one you're on. A philosophy course introduces you to a hallway, highlights some of its most important and interesting features, and draws attention to some of the adjoining paths.
“A little learning is a dangerous thing.”
— Alexander Pope
Goals
I teach philosophy as both a conversation and a form of inquiry. I try to help my students appreciate the conversation and to improve at inquiry. Appreciating the conversation requires knowing the questions being asked and why they matter, and it requires knowing the answers being offered and the evidence that supports them. Becoming proficient at inquiry requires identifying and evaluating arguments, and talking and writing clearly about complex ideas.
Here is what you’d achieve if you took a course with me, depending on your level of study and dedication:
Beginner
You got a sense of what the conversation is about and started cultivating communication skills that will serve you well in any intellectual task. You were often surprised at the answers and arguments that philosophers give. You see the value in thinking carefully about these questions and might even be excited to continue thinking about them.
Intermediate
You achieved deeper understanding of what the conversation is about and sharpened some skills required to make your own contribution. You now feel at home in the give and take of a philosophical conversation. But there is a lot left to learn. Be patient, grasshopper, and remember that a little learning is a dangerous thing.
Advanced
You're experienced enough to productively think independently about the conversation. Only two things separate you from making a contribution of your own: a moment of creative insight that provides a promising idea, followed by many hours of hard work spent developing, defending, and contextualizing your idea. True mastery is yet to come, but you are on your way.
“Most learning is not the result of instruction. It is rather the result of unhampered participation in a meaningful setting.”
— Ivan Illitch
Courses
Here are some undergraduate courses I have taught:
Introduction to Philosophy
A sampling of philosophical problems: determinism, free will, personal identity, art, science, space, reasoning, and knowledge
Early Modern Philosophy
European philosophy c. 1600-1800 CE: Descartes, Princess Elisabeth, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, and Reid
Experimental Philosophy
A hands-on introduction to an exciting field of research at the intersection of philosophy and experimental science
Epistemology
knowledge, truth, belief, evidence, assertion, action, understanding, explanation, and skepticism
Metaphysics
change, time, attribute agreement, abstract objects, modality, and causation
Thomas Reid
Reid's epistemology, metaphysics and methodology; Reid’s relationship to Descartes, Berkeley, Locke, Hume, and Wittgenstein
Philosophy of Mind
dualism, physicalism, behaviorism, functionalism, consciousness, perception, cognition, mental content, the self, other minds
Metaethics
cognitivism, non-cognitivism, subjectivism, reductionism, nihilism, intuitionism, evaluative judgment, moral motivation
Supervision
I have supervised or served on the committee for the following work:
Concepts
An MA thesis reporting new research on concepts and conceptual analysis.
Ownership
An MA thesis reporting new research on the concept of ownership.
The Self
An MA thesis reporting theoretical and experimental work on the human sense of self.
Linguistic Relativity
A PhD research area covering theoretical and experimental work on the relationship between language and concepts.
Animal Minds
A PhD thesis covering theoretical and empirical work on how we do and should view animals.
Medical Epistemology
A PhD research area covering theoretical and empirical work relevant to the epistemology of medical judgment and decisions.
Pragmatism
A PhD thesis reporting theoretical work on Charles Peirce's philosophy.
Linguistic Comprehension
A PhD thesis defending a novel view of linguistic comprehension, combining insights from philosophy with techniques from machine learning.
Contingency Learning
A PhD thesis reporting experimental work on the mechanisms and consequences of learning associations based on correlations between stimuli.
Virtue Epistemology
An MA research paper reporting theoretical work on virtue epistemology.
Communication Cues
A PhD thesis reporting experimental work on how children judge a speaker’s credibility based on verbal cues, non-verbal cues, and their relationship.
Social Cognition
A PhD research area producing theoretical and experimental work on social cognition in primates and birds.
Identity and Traits
A PhD research area producing theoretical and experimental work on attributions of personal identity and character traits.
Trusting Science
A PhD research area producing theoretical and experimental work on trust in science.
Social Anxiety Disorder
A PhD thesis reporting an experiment designed to test how effectively, and why, imagery rescripting reduces social anxiety.
Avian Theory of Mind
An MA thesis synthesizing theoretical and experimental work to argue that some birds attribute mental states to conspecifics.
Homeostatic Epistemology
A PhD thesis synthesizing theoretical and empirical work to argue for a new theory of knowledge, incorporating elements of virtue theory and Bayesianism.
Experimental Philosophy
Postdoctoral research producing theoretical and experimental work in philosophy and cognitive science.
Theory of Evidence
An MA thesis reporting theoretical work on the nature of evidence and defending a new hybrid view.
Experimental Philosophy
A research area covering theoretical and experimental work on the role of counterfactual comparisons in moral judgment and knowledge attributions.
Ownership and Moral Judgment
An MSc thesis reporting theoretical and experimental work on the relationship between ownership judgments and utilitarian moral judgments.
Rationality
A PhD thesis reporting theoretical work on the nature of rationality.
Knowledge Norms
A PhD thesis defending the view that knowledge is the norm of assertion but not belief or action.
Knowledge and Skepticism
A PhD research area covering recent theoretical work on knowledge and skepticism.
Moral Encroachment
An MA thesis reporting theoretical work on the relationship between knowledge and morality, arguing that knowledge can depend directly on moral factors.
Free and Cued Recall
A PhD thesis reporting new theoretical and experimental work on memory tasks, with a focus on estimating the true effect of providing cues (hints).
Assertion
A PhD thesis criticizing the view that knowledge is the norm of assertion and defending an alternative contextualist view.
Conceptual Change
An MA thesis synthesizing theoretical and empirical work on how concepts and meanings change over time.
