Comparative political theory is at best an embryonic and marginalized endeavor. As practiced in most Western universities, the study of political theory generally involves a rehearsal of the canon of Western political thought from Plato to Marx. Only rarely are practitioners of political thought willing (and professionally encouraged) to transgress the canon and thereby the cultural boundaries of North America and Europe in the direction of genuine comparative investigation. Border Crossings presents an effort to remedy this situation, fully launching a (...) new era in political theory. Thirteen scholars from around the world examine the various political traditions of West, South, and East Asia and engage in a reflective cross-cultural discussion that belies the assumptions of an Asian "essence" and of an unbridgeable gulf between West and non-West. The denial of essential differences does not, however, amount to an endorsement of essential sameness. As viewed and as practiced by contributors to this ground-breaking volume, comparative political theorizing must steer a course between uniformity and radical separation--this is the path of "border crossings.". (shrink)

When we ask whether something exists, we expect a yes or no answer, not a further query about what kind of existence, how much of it, whether we mean existence for you or existence for me, or whether we are asking about some property which it might have. In this book, this simple requirement is defended and pursued into its various and sometimes surprising implications. In the course of this pursuit, such questions arise as `Do appearances exist?' `Do unknowable (...) things exist?' `Do past and future exist?' `Does God necessarily exist?' This novel and non-technical approach to important philosophical questions will be of interest to senior students of philosophy and, indeed, to all general readers with philosophical interests. (shrink)

Bourdieu’s thought is disturbing. Provocative. Scandalous even, at least for those who do not easily tolerate the unmitigated truth about the social. Nonetheless his ideas, among the most important and innovative of our time, are here to stay. This thought has taken form in the course of a career and through works on diverse subjects that have constructed a far-reaching analytical model of social life, which the author calls more readily an anthropology rather than a sociology. In their totality, (...) they constitute today an original and powerful proposal to explain human practices. In the face of criticisms commonly leveled at Bourdieu’s thought (notably the charge that it reduces everything to a single schematic model), it is important to identify the spirit of his enterprise. Early on, it is true, his thought drew on a few fundamental concepts—the trilogy habitus, field (champ), practice (pratique)—to which it constantly returned, and followed a clearly defined trajectory. At the same time, however, he continually reformulated, adapted, and refined his analytical model, depending on the operations to which he subjected new objects of inquiry. The regenerative and transformative force of his thought was supported by two convictions. First, that there being nothing more vain than theory for theory’s sake, it is preferable that theoretical production originate in the study of concrete and occasionally very specific cases. Second, that in order to escape stereotypical classifications, boundaries separating disciplines are best transgressed, thereby favoring new constructions of the object of inquiry. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Books ReceivedAndrianou, Dimitra. The Furniture and Furnishings of Ancient Greek Houses and Tombs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. xvi + 213 pp. 24 black-and-white figs. Cloth, $80.Andrisano, Angela Maria, and Paolo Fabbri, eds. La favola di Orfeo: Letteratura, immagine, performance. Ferrara: UnifePress, 2009. 255 pp. 41 black-and-white figs. Paper, €15.Bartsch, Shadi, and David Wray, eds. Seneca and the Self. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. ix + 304 pp. 1 (...) black-and-white ill. Cloth, $99.Bers, Victor. Genos Dikanikon: Amateur and Professional Speech in the Courtrooms of Classical Athens. Hellenic Studies 33. Washington, D.C.: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2009. Dist. by Harvard University Press. ix + 159 pp. Paper, $15.95.Bowie, Ewen, and Jaś Elsner, eds. Philostratus. Greek Culture in the Roman World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. xii + 401 pp. 14 black-and-white ills. Cloth, $135.Bowlby, Rachel. Freudian Mythologies: Greek Tragedy and Modern Identities. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. viii + 251 pp. Paper, $49.95.Calame, Claude. Poetic and Performative Memory in Ancient Greece: Heroic Reference and Ritual Gestures in Time and Space. Hellenic Studies 18. Washington, D.C.: Center for Hellenic Studies, 2009. Dist. by Harvard University Press. xii + 267 pp. 9 black-and-white figs. Paper, $19.95Collins, Paul. Assyrian Palace Sculptures. With photographs by Lisa Baylis and Sandra Marshall. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2009. 144 pp. Numerous color ills. Cloth, $45.Coltman, Viccy. Classical Sculpture and the Culture of Collecting in Britain Since 1870. Classical Presences. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. xiv + 315 pp. 85 black-and-white figs., 32 color plates. Cloth, $99.Comoth, Katharina. Gott selbst und die Idee. Beiträge zur Philosophie. Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag Winter, 2009. 86 pp. 2 black-and-white ills. Paper, €10.Connelly, Joan Breton. Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2007. xv + 421 pp. Numerous black-and-white figs., 27 color plates, 3 maps. Paper, $35. [End Page 345]Eezzuduemhoi, James. I. A. A Fundamental Greek Course. Ed. Glenn Storey. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2009. xxxv + 547 pp. Paper, $65.Erskine, Andrew, ed. A Companion to Ancient History. Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World. Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009. xxxvii + 693 pp. 27 black-and-white figs., 5 maps. Cloth, $199.95.Flower, Harriet I. Roman Republics. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2010. xv + 204 pp. Cloth, $29.95.Föllinger, Sabine. Aischylos: Meister der griechischen Tragödie. Munich: C. H. Beck, 2009. 224 pp. 5 black-and-white ills. Cloth, €24.90.Goldhill, Simon, and Edith Hall, eds. Sophocles and the Greek Tragic Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. xvi + 336 pp. Cloth, $99.Grethlein, Jonas, and Antonios Rengakos, eds. Narratology and Interpretation. Trends in Classics 4. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2009. vii + 630 pp. Cloth, €93.41.Haziza, Typhaine. Le Kaléidoscope hérodotéen: Images, imaginaire et représentations de l'Égypte à travers le livre II d'Hérodote. Études anciennes 142. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2009. 393 pp. 7 black-and-white figs. Paper, €45.Jouanna, Jacques, and Franco Montanari, eds. Eschyle: À l'aube du théâtre occidental. Entretiens Hardt 55. Geneva: Fondation Hardt, 2009. Dist. by Vandoeuvres. xi + 510 pp. Cloth: SFr 85.Johnson, Mark J. The Roman Imperial Mausoleum in Late Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. xviii + 296 pp. Numerous black-and-white figs., 16 color plates. Cloth, $95.Kronenberg, Leah. Allegories of Farming from Greece and Rome: Philosophical Satire in Xenophon, Varro, and Virgil. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. xi + 223 pp. Cloth, $99.Loukopoulou, Louisa D., and Selene Psoma, eds. Thrakika Zetemata. Vol. 1. In collaboration with Athéna Iakovidou. Meletemata 58. Athens: Research Centre for Greek and Roman Antiquity of the National Hellenic Research Foundation, 2008. Dist. by Boccard. 175 pp. Numerous black-and-white figs. Paper, price not stated.Lowrie, Michèle, ed. Horace: Odes and Epodes. Oxford Readings in Classical Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. viii + 472 pp. Cloth, $199; paper, $75.Martin, Gunther. Divine Talk: Religious Argumentation in Demosthenes. Oxford Classical Mongraphs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. ix + 345 pp. Cloth, $125. [End Page 346]Mendoni, Lina G., and Sophia B... (shrink)

El siguiente artículo revisa brevemente diferentes aspectos de los Comentarios Acerca del alma, dictados por el franciscano chileno fray Juan de Fuica, en mayo de 1689, en el Colegio San Diego de Alcalá de Santiago de Chile. Presentamos, primero, una nota biográfica del fraile con información relativa a su trayectoria académica y administrativa dentro de la orden franciscana. Luego, analizamos en cinco categorías los aspectos fundamentales de este curso inédito: características generales, características del lenguaje, estructura, método de enseñanza y contenidos (...) ad mentem Scoti. Creemos que con la edición de este testimonio exclusivo de la enseñanza filosófica de la época, visibilizamos el patrimonio filosófico colonial del país y, en consecuencia, llenamos una gran laguna en la historia de la filosofía chilena. This article briefly reviews the different aspects of the Commentaries On the Soul, dictated in 1689 by Chilean Franciscan Friar Juan de Fuica at San Diego de Alcalá College, Santiago de Chile. First, we present a biographical note on the Friar with information concerning his academic and administrative career within the Franciscan order. Second, we analyze in five categories the fundamental aspects of this unreleased manuscript: general features, language features, structure, teaching method and ad mentem Scoti contents. We believe that with the edition of this exclusive testimony of philosophical teachings at that time, we give visibility to the colonial philosophical heritage of the country and, thereby, fill a gap in the history of Chilean philosophy. (shrink)

The challenge of updating the existing curriculum to meet the requirements of blended, interactive and gamified approaches is complex. This article presents the design and results of the application of a gamified activity that was used to enrich a blended Philosophy course taught for two years and taken by more than 450 sophomore students in a large public university in Russia. The combination of social search with multilingual communication became an important educational experience for the participating students.

This paper recounts two university professors' experiences teaching a high school philosophy course for gifted students. The authors trace the differences between gifted high school students’ and standard undergraduates’ comprehension of philosophical concepts, general philosophical curiosity, and classroom participation in problem solving. The authors then offer recommendations on planning philosophy courses for gifted students and speculate on the value of philosophy in gifted programs.

The Possibility of Philosophy presents the notes Maurice Merleau-Ponty prepared for three courses he taught at the Collège de France. Two of these courses were the last he taught before his unexpected death in 1961.

This paper details methods for teaching a topic-based approach to an introductory philosophy course. The problem with course surveys is that they sacrifice depth because of their fast pace, which often leaves students behind. Students are unable to grasp the scope of survey courses and only high functioning students appear to benefit from the structure. The single topic method can serve as a point of entry to the history of philosophy and students can gain a more (...) intimate relationship with the material. The author outlines the benefits of teaching a topic-based course centered on the problem of evil. The course allows students to immediately gain an intimacy with the material because it has intellectual and emotional connections to their lives. This approach to philosophy on a personal level also allows students to branch out into larger philosophical issues, such as justice, epistemology, politics, and metaphysics. (shrink)

There are two main ways to teach a course online: synchronously or asynchronously. In an asynchronous course, students can log on at their convenience and do the course work. In a synchronous course, there is a requirement that all students be online at specific times, to allow for a shared course environment. In this article, the author discusses the strengths and weaknesses of synchronous online learning for the teaching of undergraduate philosophy courses. The author (...) discusses specific strategies and technologies he uses in the teaching of online philosophy courses. In particular, the author discusses how he uses videoconferencing to create a classroom-like environment in an online class. (shrink)

A number of colleges and universities offer writing intensive courses that emphasize writing as a primary means of learning. This paper presents an approach to teaching undergraduate philosophy courses that makes an effective use of writing as a means to teach students philosophy. The paper begins by discussing the aims and requirements of writing intensive philosophy courses and the nature of philosophical writing. In addition, five course activities (classroom discussion, in-class writing assignments, paper assignments, in-class peer (...) review, tutorials) are discussed along with a summary of the work required by both the student and the instructor. (shrink)

Philosophy of science has traditionally focused on the epistemological dimensions of scientific practice at the expense of the ethical and political questions scientists encounter when addressing questions of policy in advisory contexts. In this article, I will explore how an exclusive focus on epistemology and theoretical reason can function to reinforce common, yet flawed assumptions concerning the role of scientific knowledge in policy decision making when reproduced in philosophy courses for science students. In order to address this concern, (...) I will argue that such courses should supplement the traditional focus on theoretical reason with an analysis of the practical reasoning employed by scientists in advisory contexts. Later sections of this paper outline a teaching strategy by which this can be achieved that consists of two steps: the first examines idealized examples of scientific advising in order to highlight the irreducible role played by moral reasoning in justifying policy recommendations. The second employs argument analysis to reveal implicit moral assumptions in actual advisory reports that form the basis for class discussion. This paper concludes by examining some of the wider benefits that can be expected from adopting such an approach. (shrink)

Philosophy courses help students develop logical reasoning and argument skills or so it is widely assumed. To test if this is actually the case, we examined university students’ familiarity with the basic tools for argument. Our findings, based on a sample of 651 students enrolled in philosophy courses at six Greek universities, indicate that students who have prior experience with philosophy are more familiar with the basic tools for argument, and that students who have taken philosophy (...) courses at the university have stronger argument-recognition and argument-evaluation skills compared to university students with no prior experience with philosophy. Moreover, our findings suggest that students get more familiar with the basic tools for argument as their level of engagement with philosophy increases, and that they get significantly better at evaluating arguments when they become graduate students in philosophy. However, our findings also suggest that the majority of students in philosophy classrooms haven’t developed fluency in basic argument-related concepts and skills. To remedy this, we argue that philosophy instructors need to re-think the place that the teaching of argument has in philosophy courses, and the way that they teach students about argument. (shrink)

I designed and executed an environmental ethics course intended to provide a useful product to a municipal partner. In teaching the course I had an opportunity to get concrete experience in experiential teaching. I share my experiences with being a philosopher in an applied program and tie it to the models of experiential learning. My experience indicates that the important work is not the abstract conceptualization or the concrete experience, but the bridging between them.

Although philosophy courses are not known for hands-on learning activities in which students use, manipulate, or touch objects with their hands, there are simple hands-on activities that teachers can use to liven up their classrooms and foster active learning. In this paper I describe four activities I developed to attempt to improve student learning: GoldiLocke and the Three Buckets, The Argument From Disagreement Box, The Trolley Problem Reenactment, and The Lego Man of Theseus. I argue that such activities are (...) effective for two main reasons: they are fun; and they involve embodied learning. Finally, I offer some advice for developing hands-on learning activities for philosophy courses and share some of the ideas generated by session participants when I presented this material at the American Association of Philosophy Teachers Twentieth Biennial Workshop/Conference. (shrink)

This article describes my ongoing attempts to more successfully engage the full linguistic repertoires and cultural identities of undergraduate students at a “Hispanic Serving Institution” (HSI) in South Texas by teaching a bilingual Introduction to Latin American Philosophy course in the “Language, Philosophy, and Culture” area of Texas’ General Education Core Curriculum. By uncovering the diverse identities, worldviews, and languages of those who were historically excluded from the Eurocentric discipline of philosophy through the conquest and colonization (...) of the Americas, Latin American philosophers offer us new ways of thinking and living by challenging Anglocentric language, philosophy, and culture. As part of the new B3 (Bilingual, Bicultural, and Biliterate) vision of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, the course is designed to draw upon the richly varied bilingualisms and biliteracies of predominantly Latinx students in order to help them honor, theorize, and cultivate their bicultural identities by “philosophizing in tongues” rather than being forced to assimilate to the monolingual and monocultural ideology that prevails across both mainstream Anglophone philosophy and the system of higher education in the United States of America. (shrink)

In this paper, I describe a variety of psychology experiments that may be used in introductory philosophy courses not only to grab students’ attention, but also to generate philosophical discussion or to make a philosophical point. The experiments attempt to capture students’ interest in two ways: (1) by posing interesting challenges to students, thereby provoking more active thought in class and (2) by doing something different, thereby increasing attention that naturally follows from change. Although the experiments are psychology experiments, (...) they may still be used to emphasize certain philosophical points or to introduce philosophical topics. The philosophical import of each experiment is quite general, so these exercises are most appropriate for students enrolled in introductory courses. (shrink)

Generating group interaction is a necessary part of teaching philosophy, but there are many obstacles to creating it in a traditional classroom. We propose that philosophy courses can be improved by turning to hybrid models that integrate classroom discussion with online message boards, or forums. Using anecdotes and a comprehensive survey, we argue that using forums helps instructors overcome time constraints in the classroom, helps some students overcome anxiety over contributing, improves discussion, reduces the need to review, and (...) gives instructors a better view of how their students encounter philosophy. We also provide examples of how to use forums and forum assignments. (shrink)

As the percentage of U.S. citizenry over 65 years of age rises, people of old age will become increasingly present both in and out of the classroom. This paper recommends several methods for incorporating philosophical reflection about old age into several philosophy courses and various leading questions to help thematize how old age figures into philosophical texts. For an epistemology course, the author explores the question of epistemological authority (whether living a full human lifespan really imbues one with (...) greater perspective or insight into matters of importance) and epistemological conflict (by what common criteria can one evaluate one’s earlier and later judgments on something when they conflict?). For an ethics course, the author explores one factual question (viz., Do healthy, aging people gradually lose interest in the goals they held when younger and do they acquire different, contemplative priorities?) and one normative question (viz., Ought the elderly to turn towards contemplation?) and relates both questions to the broader philosophical themes of human nature, the nature of activity or action, and what it means to live well. The author relates these questions to a number of philosophical texts and figures, including Hindu classics, Plato, Cicero, and Montaigne. (shrink)

This article argues that integrating philosophy courses and the first-year experience can address the problem of attracting students to the philosophy major and make philosophical material more accessible and engaging. Through a reflection on teaching a first-year honors seminar on the topic of meaning in life, I show how we can use the philosophical tradition to help students with the transition into the university environment and, in the process, give them a sense of the value of philosophy (...) as a tool to think through and evaluate their current experiences. The article demonstrates the value of philosophy to first-year students and shows how philosophy faculty and departments are well-suited to contribute to first-year programming at their institutions. Furthermore, it shows how addressing these issues can help departments recruit students into their major and minors while also sparking a genuine interest in philosophical inquiry. (shrink)

I explore methods for the explicit instruction of critical thinking in a topics-based philosophy course. These methods make the classroom more experiential and less didactic and involve students in the philosophical process, allowing them to learn content while using the methods of philosophy to work through, explain, or produce similar content. Experiential learning—approaching learning as a “continuous process grounded in experience” involving the acquisition of practices, the specialization in those practices, and the integration of oneself into the (...) learning process—enhances traditional philosophy classrooms, and explicitly teaching critical thinking skills involves the methods of experiential learning. After an overview of relevant aspects of experiential learning and addressing how experiential learning methods can be used for the explicit teaching of critical thinking skills, I explain four methods I use to explicitly teach critical thinking in my introductory classes. (shrink)

One of the greatest challenges in teaching an introductory philosophy course is convincing students that there are, indeed, reliable standards for the evaluation of arguments. Too often introductory students criticize an argument simply by contesting the truth of one of its claims. And far too often, the only claim in an argument that meets serious objections is its conclusion. For many students, the idea that an argument displays a structure which can be evaluated on its own terms is (...) not very difficult to grasp. Unfortunately, the idea is grasped only in an abstract way, with insufficient appreciation of how structural problems manifest themselves in concrete arguments, and without the vocabulary for formulating structural criticisms. But this paper is not simply about teaching logic, it is about pedagogy. Our task is to instill in the student the habit of clear thinking. When we send our students out into the world, we have to ensure that they are prepared for it. (shrink)

Despite the growing interest in collaborative teaching in higher education, there is a paucity of research on its use and effectiveness in phi­losophy curricula. The research that does exist focuses almost exclusively on interdisciplinary collaboration or student and faculty attitudes regarding the practice. This paper aims to address these gaps by describing a semester long, multi-section study designed to assess the impact of team teaching on student classroom performance and related variables in an Introduction to Philosophy course. The (...) results of the study show that students overwhelm­ingly prefer team teaching to individual instruction and think that it positively impacts their learning and classroom experience. However, the results also show that there is no statistically significant relationship between delivery method and students’ classroom performance. The paper concludes with a discussion of some limitations with the research design and the potential benefits and challenges of implementing team teaching within introductory philosophy courses. (shrink)

Since the 6thCentury B.C., Philosophy was defined as the love of wisdom in Ancient Greece. And it has always discussed of truth, wisdom and the metaphysics of existence. Nowadays, courses on philosophy have been an integral part of the curriculum since the establishment of faculties of Theology (FoTs). However, the presence, significance and objective of those courses are, they unfortunately are still under discussion despite their almost seventy-year old history.Based on this problem, our study aims to determine whether (...) FoTs students’ attitudes towards philosophy courses differ from their beliefs in the relationship between religion and philosophy. This study`s sample group consists of FoTs students of Kastamonu University, Kyrgyz-Turkish Manas University and Osh University. The study`s sample consisted of 276 students from these universities. The data were collected using a “Philosophy Attitude Scale” (PAS) and a “Scale ofBeliefs in Philosophy–Religion Relationship” (SBPRR) which was developed for this study. T test, one-way analysis of variance and Pearson Correlation were used for the data analysis. Participants’ arithmetic mean scores on some PAS and SBPRRsubscales differed by gender, college, grade level, mother’s education level, number of philosophy courses taken at college but not by father’s education level and religious education and philosophy education before college. Many factors affect the negative attitude of the students toward the philosophical courses and issues; like the methods of teaching it and the contents of the courses and etc. For altering this negative conception towards philosophy, we should focus on two main things; teaching the future-parents and those potentially future teachers philosophy in a right manner. (shrink)

This article describes why I used to teach Introduction to Latin American Philosophy monolingually in English, why I stopped, and how I am now teaching it using a flexible bilingual pedagogy, also sometimes called a translanguaging pedagogy, that has been transformative for my students and for me. By drawing upon the ventajas/assets y conocimientos/knowledge of our richly varied bilingualisms and biliteracies, the revised course contributes to the B3 (bilingual, bicultural, and biliterate) vision of the University of Texas Rio (...) Grande Valley (UTRGV). Students have the opportunity to honor, theorize, and cultivate their bicultural identities by “philosophizing in tongues” rather than being forced to assimilate to the monolingual and monocultural ideology that prevails across both mainstream Anglophone philosophy and the system of higher education in the United States of America. (shrink)

Teacher Education and the Pursuit of Wisdom takes its readers into the deep waters of investigating teaching not simply as a profession but as a precious "way of life." The author begins by investigating the nature of teaching as both an "active" and a "contemplative" endeavor and inquires into the resonance between the nature of teaching on the one hand and what has been said classically about genuine philosophizing on the other hand. Having laid the groundwork for students to be (...) able to recognize this intimate connection, readers are next challenged to take up the notion of teaching as a "way of life" in the pursuit of wisdom experimentally and to record their observations in a personalized journal format. Thorough explanations are provided concerning the value of journaling for self-knowledge, and exemplar texts by master journal writers are discussed. This book is designed for use as a primary textbook in philosophy of education courses. Instructors will find it helpful as a means to organize engaging classes at both the undergraduate and graduate levels for genuine philosophic practices and inquiry. It contains a well-defined program of work that is modelled upon the latest research concerning "authentic task design." Its rich experimental approach is replete with a broad array of learning tasks, assessment tools, and practices that are aligned with the competencies-based approach taken in most professional certification and BEd Programs. (shrink)

L’effort récent pour diversifier les cours de philosophie est souvent motivé par le désir d’inclure les étudiants sous-représentés. Bien que l’incorporation de la philosophie non-occidentale permettrait d’atteindre une plus grande diversité, il ne semble y avoir aucune raison particulière de choisir des traditions non-occidentales à cette fin. Je soutiens que cette apparence est trompeuse. Les données suggèrent qu’une absence de contenu non-occidental dans le programme d’études provoque l’aliénation de certains de nos étudiants de couleur. Étant donné le fardeau minimal que (...) cela imposerait aux instructeurs de philosophie de faire face à cette souffrance, nous avons de bonnes raisons d’inclure du contenu non-occidental dans nos cours d’introduction, où il est susceptible d’avoir le plus grand impact. (shrink)

Benet Perera started his philosophical career with lecturing philosophy at the Jesuit college in Rome in 1558. Although numerous documents reveal that his lectures were highly appreciated by his listeners, it seems that around the year 1564 Perera’s teachings were criticized by two of his colleagues at Rome, Diego de Ledesma and Achille Gagliardi. They feared Perera would give too much value to the Arab philosopher Averroes and that Perera’s method of teaching would pose a danger to Christian doctrines (...) by raising doubts whether those pious doctrines can be demonstrated within the framework of an Aristotelian philosophy. This article will shed light on the background of this affair by analyzing the questions of how Perera might have provoked the criticism and why his accusers were so keen on putting forward an investigation against Perera. It will become clear that Perera had rather philosophical motives for his method of teaching, whereas especially Ledesma had an explicitly pedagogical rationale for his criticism. By sketching this particular affair this article will also deliver an insight into early Jesuit efforts for and against censorship in teaching philosophy. (shrink)

It is easy to think of philosophy as being something abstract, something that academics study in isolation from the real world. Yet we make decisions based on philosophical debates every day--why is your money yours and not ours? Why shouldn't you lie? Or is it ever acceptable to lie? Philosophy: A Crash Course will guide you through the key concepts and theories, from logic to justice and from art to censorship. But it also tackles the philosophical side (...) to today's essential issues, including climate change and what disability really is. Together, you will have a fresh understanding of the world around us. This accessible introduction to philosophy includes: 52 topics explaining the key ideas and concepts timelines to show how the study of philosophy has developed from the past to the pre sent biographies of key people. (shrink)

In the Fall of 1983, I offered a junior/senior-level course in Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence, in the Department of Philosophy at SUNY Fredonia, after returning there from a year’s leave to study and do research in computer science and artificial intelligence (AI) at SUNY Buffalo. Of the 30 students enrolled, most were computerscience majors, about a third had no computer background, and only a handful had studied any philosophy. (I might note that enrollments have subsequently increased (...) in the Philosophy Department’s AI-related courses, such as logic, philosophy of mind, and epistemology, and that several computer science students have added philosophy as a second major.) This article describes that course, provides material for use in such a course, and offers a bibliography of relevant articles in the AI, cognitive science, and philosophical literature. (shrink)

Students often have difficulty connecting theoretical and text-based scholarship to the real world. When teaching in Asia, this disconnection is exacerbated by the European/American focus of many canonical texts, whereas students' own experiences are primarily Asian. However, in my discipline of political philosophy, this problem receives little recognition nor is it comprehensively addressed. In this paper, I propose that the problem must be taken seriously, and I share my own experiences with a novel pedagogical strategy which might offer a (...) possible path forward. Recent scholarship has championed an active learning approach, where students engage in their own research, and deliver outward-facing products that have a meaning and purpose beyond the confines of the student-professor relationship. In this spirit, I have put into practice a strategy of course design, where active learning is used to overcome students' disconnection with the course content. In particular, as a major component of course assessment, students are required to write an 'opinion piece', which is then showcased on a public website. The opinion piece must address a real-world issue which the student himself or herself selects and deems important; furthermore, it must build on the theoretical tools of the course and be written in a style which makes it accessible to a wider audience. I discuss the implementation of this strategy in two political philosophy courses, including strategies to avoid 'dumbing down' and ‘diluting’ the process of critical thinking. While no formal analysis of impact of the strategy on learning outcomes has been conducted, an anonymous pedagogical survey has yielded an overwhelmingly positive response for students' self-reported perceptions of the curricular innovations. (shrink)

The present narrative describes and problematizes one year of Educational and philosophical work with illiterate adults in contexts of urban poverty in the Public School Joaquim da Silva Peçanha, city of Duque de Caxias, suburbs of the State of Rio de Janeiro during 2008. The project, “Em Caxias a Filosofia En-caixa?!”, consists of a teacher education program in which public school teachers study and practice the art of composing philosophical experiences with their students, and the realization of actual experiences of (...) philosophy in classrooms with children and students in an adult literacy class. This narrative is concerned with the latter aspect of the project, more specifically experiences working with adult students practicing philosophy. The thirty students and three teachers involved in the course do not study the history of philosophy, nor do they create philosophical systems or theories. Rather they participate in a philosophical experience that might best be able to understand by examining Pierre Hadot’s concept of philosophy “as a way of living”. (shrink)

This paper describes an attempt to introduce philosophy and history of science to pre-service science teachers. I argue briefly for the view that science in the schools cannot be taught without implicitly assuming a particular philosophy of science. Therefore, both philosophy and history of science are necessary components of undergraduate science education courses.

This essay fills in some historical, conceptual, and pedagogical gaps that appear in the most visible and recent professional efforts to “revive” Philosophy as a Way of Life (PWOL). I present “American Philosophy and Self-Culture” as an advanced undergraduate seminar that broadens who counts in and what counts as philosophy by immersing us in the lives, writings, and practices of seven representative U.S.-American philosophers of self-culture, community-building, and world-changing: Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790), Frederick Douglass (1818–1895), William Ellery Channing (...) (1780–1842), Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862), Margaret Fuller (1810-1850), Henry Bugbee (1915–1999), and Gloria Anzaldúa (1942–2004). Students enter the class with preconceptions about who philosophers are, what they do, how they write, and the languages in which they write. Students walk out with new senses of self, place, and language that emerge through new ways of seeing, doing, and writing philosophy. (shrink)

The author recounts and reflects on the experience of building and teaching a course designed to show students the relevance of philosophy to their daily lives. For a course consisting mostly of students who were women, many of whom were non-traditional students, the author attempted to avoid an excessively arid or abstract presentation of philosophical material. To this end, the selected course themes were friendship, romantic love, and obligations of grown children to their parents. The author (...) discusses, defends, and critiques several trade-offs that resulted from this course’s unique structure: an explicitly non-adversarial approach to pedagogy was helpful and perhaps necessary, but also very demanding of both students and teacher; students selected and developed their own important philosophical questions to research and write a term paper on, but the course did not cover as much material as was desired; students reflected a deep personal attachment to the material and the experience of studying it, but this made evaluation of their work difficult. The author urges professional philosophers to think seriously on the role of philosophy in an undergraduate education and ends this paper with a pedagogical dilemma that philosophers face arising from their position on the emotion/intellect dichotomy. Included is a course outline. (shrink)

Many philosophers of science think scientific practice can benefit from philosophical concepts, and as such philosophy of science should play a direct role in science and engineering education. In this paper we consider a highly integrative course design strategy for integrating philosophy of science in specific disciplinary educational programmes through adaptation, operationalization and embedding of philosophy of science material to fit both the scientific and educational structure of a programme. The goal of the strategy is to (...) help encourage students to recognize the value of philosophical concepts to scientific decision making and to apply them in their own scientific practice. We use the example of a 7.5 ECTS civil engineering course which implements this design at a European technical university, to elaborate these concepts, and present some evidence on how students receive the course. We discuss some of challenges and limitations of implementing this kind of strategy for teaching philosophy of science. (shrink)