I taught this course in Summer 2023. It is split into two units:

Unit 1 introduces students to metaphysics and epistemology via an exploration of our identity over time, authenticity, autonomy, and freedom.

Unit 2 introduces students to ethical theories and ends with their applying these theories to a contemporary issue of their choosing.

Syllabus:
Philosophy 101

Sample classroom handouts:
reflection, connection, and revision activity

paper planning practice task

Sample lecture slides:

Identity

Here are the slides and a follow-along worksheet for an undergraduate class I gave last year on transformative experiences

I taught versions of this course in 2020 (online) and 2022 (in person).

PHIL 356 is unusual in that it is an upper-level philosophy course with no philosophy pre-requisites. Most of the students enrolled had no background in philosophy and were majoring in STEM. Many were planning future careers in healthcare. I designed the syllabus with this in mind.

My pedagogical goals were:

1. To encourage students to reflect on underlying concepts and values that play a role in shaping healthcare institutions and practices, but that we often taken for granted in our day-to-day lives.

2. To motivate students to continue reflecting critically on ethical issues as they arise in their lives and careers, and to equip them with philosophical tools for doing so - tools that they can draw on and further develop outside of the classroom.

Here is a paper prompt I used for an assigned essay on the role and value of autonomy in advanced directives.

Here are the slides I used in Winter 2023 when teaching Travis Rieder’s “Procreation, Adoption and the Contours of Obligation”. For this course, I led two discussion sections of 25 students and I met each section twice per week.