In recent years, universities throughout the People’s Republic of China have begun actively seeking foreign professors to work full-time in their philosophy departments. This, coupled with the decrease in the number of job openings in philosophy across western Europe and North America, might very well lead to a sharp rise in the number of foreign faculty members in philosophy departments across mainland China. In this article I will outline three of the major difficulties facing philosophy teachers (...) who have little or no experience in the Chinese education system, and provide suggestions for dealing with them. The first two are general and apply to a broad range of courses; namely, initiating class discussion and teaching students how to understand philosophical arguments. The third is specifically related to those who teach or engage with Chinese thought. These professors should be prepared to encounter a surmountable but pronounced skepticism among many Chinese students (and professors) against the ability of foreigners to truly comprehend Chinese philosophy. (shrink)

This paper reviews goals, content materials, and other essential elements of a new, experimental philosophy course on the built environment of cities now being developed in Buffalo, New York. Applying traditional philosophical methods, the course adds experiential components and expands philosophy’s scope in ways that promote deep learning about the city. A model unit on the work of Frederick Law Olmsted receives special attention here, as Olmsted’s work in Buffalo and elsewhere invites philosophical treatment—analysis, critical examination, and so (...) on—from scholars, students, and city residents alike. We shall see that the distinctive character of philosophy can encourage teaching in new areas where philosophical study might promote learning and understanding, thus inspiring curricular innovation and a wide range of powerful student learning experiences. (shrink)

This paper provides arguments to philosophers, scientists, administrators and students for why science students should be instructed in a mandatory, custom-designed, interdisciplinary course in the philosophy of science. The argument begins by diagnosing that most science students are taught only conventional methodology: a fixed set of methods whose justification is rarely addressed. It proceeds by identifying seven benefits that scientists incur from going beyond these conventions and from acquiring abilities to analyse and evaluate justifications of scientific methods. It concludes (...) that teaching science students these skills makes them better scientists. Based on this argument, the paper then analyses the standard philosophy of science curriculum, and in particular its adequacy for teaching science students. It is argued that the standard curriculum on the one hand lacks important analytic tools relevant for going beyond conventional methodology—especially with respect to non-epistemic normative aspects of scientific practice—while on the other hand contains many topics and tools that are not relevant for the instruction of science students. Consequently, the optimal way of training science students in the analysis and evaluation of scientific methods requires a revision of the standard curriculum. Finally, the paper addresses five common characteristics of students taking such a course, which often clash with typical teaching approaches in philosophy. Strategies how best to deal with these constraints are offered for each of these characteristics. (shrink)

In this paper, I offer a skillful performance approach to teaching philosophy based on the ideas of late phenomenologist Hubert L. Dreyfus. For this, I reconstruct the main contributions of Dreyfus’s phenomenological approach to skillful action as a reaction against the cognitivist view of perception and cognition, and I apply these ideas to the issue of teaching philosophy. I conclude that the Dreyfusian approach to teaching philosophy is based on two main ideas: first, that (...) teaching is a skillful action in which the teacher engages with students in a feedback loop relation so that the teacher aims to achieve what I call the maximal teaching grip; second, that this maximal teaching grip is accompanied by a particular experiential state that Hubert L. Dreyfus and Sean D. Kelly named “aliveness,” and that can be traced back to the Heideggerian idea of Augenblick. (shrink)

According to the World Bank, South Africa is the most unequal society in the world. It follows that teaching philosophy takes on a unique character in this country. During the initial COVID-19 outbreak, all universities were compelled to move online, entailing that the teaching of philosophy also moved online. However, because of their socio-economic realities, students faced many barriers, and this served to further marginalise already marginalised students. The university campus provides structural support to many of (...) these students that they do not have at home—computer labs, internet access, and residences. With campuses shutting down and learning to move online, many (if not most) of our students faced significant challenges. This paper explores the challenges encountered during this time through empirical research. Five interviews were conducted with philosophy lecturers, and the data was analysed using Atlas.ti. This article therefore provides empirical insight into the challenges faced by philosophy lecturers as they taught philosophy during a pandemic in the “most unequal society in the world.”. (shrink)

Some students find philosophy engrossing; others are merely bewildered. How can professors meet the challenge of teaching introductory-level philosophy so that their students, regardless of initial incentive or skill, come to understand and even enjoy the subject? For nearly a decade, renowned philosopher and teacher Steven M. Cahn offered doctoral students a fourteen-week, credit-bearing course to prepare them to teach undergraduates. At schools where these instructors were appointed, department chairs reported a dramatic increase in student interest. In (...) this book, Cahn captures the essence of that course. Yet many of the topics he discusses concern all faculty, regardless of subject: a teacher's responsibilities, the keys to effective instruction, the proper approach to term papers, examinations, and grades; and suggestions for how administrators should demonstrate that they take teaching seriously. Such matters are covered in the first seven chapters and in the final, fourteenth chapter. The intermediate six chapters focus on teaching introductory philosophy and, in particular, on critical thinking, free will, philosophy of religion, ethics, and political philosophy. Cahn's writing is lucid and lively, using vivid examples and avoiding educational jargon. In sum, this book is not only a guide on how to inspire students but also an inspiration for teachers themselves. (shrink)

In this article I describe my experience teaching a moral problems course to first-year students within a Learning Community model. I begin with the learning goals and the mechanics of both my Learning Community and my moral problems course. I then focus on the experiential learning requirement of my Learning Community which is based on a field trip model instead of a service learning model. I describe how two field trips in particular—one to an Arab American community in Brooklyn, (...) New York, and the other to a Black American community in West Harlem, New York—primed my students to more effectively engage in philosophical discussions about terrorism, war, and affirmative action. I conclude that experiential learning on a field trip model helped my students to have more sophisticated conversations about complex and emotionally charged moral issues. (shrink)

This book presents a case for teaching philosophy in schools. It develops two original arguments for teaching philosophy to all students at some point over the course of their education. Gatley argues that teaching philosophy is the best way to help students to think clearly using ordinary, or non-specialist concepts such as 'good', 'truth', or 'happiness'. She goes on to argue that teaching philosophy is the best way to help students to make (...) sense of the different conceptual schemes used by different school subjects. Combining these two arguments, Gatley suggests that these two roles for philosophy are central to the task of educating people, and so philosophy ought to be included on school curricula. Building on the work of philosophers of education including Richard Stanley Peters, Harry Brighouse, Matthew Lipman, Mary Midgley and Martha Nussbaum, the book covers a range of topics including Philosophy for Children (P4C), the aims education, religious education, curriculum design and education policy. (shrink)

Second Life is a free, three-dimensional, multi-user, online virtual world program created in 2003 by Linden Research Inc. In this paper, I recount the Introduction to Philosophy course I taught in Second Life for the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and address five areas of interest: (1) traditional vs. non-traditional learning environments, (2) communication, (3) illustrative props, (4) student feedback, and (5) and potential concerns. My conclusion is that philosophy courses can be taught online in Second Life effectively and that (...) philosophy instructors need to be more aware of the educational possibilities of Second Life as education becomes increasingly more digital. (shrink)

In the article, I analyze the current situation in the field of teaching philosophy and also other social sciences and humanities. The point is that in higher school, under various pretexts, many departments and philosophy councils are closed, hours for teaching philosophical courses and seminars are reduced. Teachers of philosophy and other disciplines in higher education, in addition to being overwhelmed, have to spend a lot of time on unnecessary reporting, which for the most part (...) does not reflect the essence of the matter. The policy of education officials and their belief in the need for such reporting and reduction of hours are critically reviewed. I show that in addition to the well-known functions of philosophy, teaching philosophy is of crucial importance today is due to three important circumstances: we live, firstly, in a period of double transition and, secondly, in a period of an anthropological crisis and a crisis of reality, thirdly, due to a crisis of morality and ethics. Only philosophy, based on the methodology, as well as the humanities and social sciences can comprehend modern conditions. The question is about a new start to the practice of teaching philosophy. I propose to introduce a temporary moratorium on the compilation of new teaching programs and start a broad discussion in the philosophical and pedagogical community of the goals and content of the teaching of philosophy. In this regard, I offer my own understanding of the problems and the essence of the teaching of philosophy. I also share my personal experience in teaching philosophy, which includes lecturing and organizing the creative work of small groups of students. (shrink)

Teaching philosophy at pre-tertiary levels faces some fundamental challenges, including the misconception that philosophy is an abstract and esoteric field of study. This mind-set hinders teaching philosophy at all levels, particularly in the pre-tertiary stage. Nonetheless, philosophy holds significant cognitive values when taught to children. Therefore, it is crucial to find ways to simplify the process of learning philosophy, especially when children are in their formative years and have a greater capacity for learning. (...) Children possess qualities necessary for engaging with philosophy, such as curiosity. Leveraging these qualities makes it less daunting to introduce philosophy at pre-tertiary levels. Additionally, children have a visual and imaginative mind, enabling them to quickly grasp ideas and concepts through the use of modern technology. Integrating pictures, movies, and cartoons into philosophy education can enhance comprehension. For example, the movie “Divergent” contains philosophical themes that aid in understanding Plato’s concept of societal stratification. This article seeks to compare “Divergent” with Plato’s “The Republic” in terms of society’s hierarchical structure. Its objective is to demonstrate the value of movies and visual aids in teaching and learning philosophy, while also advocating for sensitivity to the underlying class dynamics in contemporary society. (shrink)

I defend the practical value of teaching undergraduate philosophy courses in the Internet. Three important objectives of philosophical education can be achieved as effectively by electronic means as in the classroom. First, information about the philosophical tradition can be conveyed by hypertext documents on the World-Wide Web. Second, philosophical dialogue can be conducted through participation in an electronic forum. Third, close supervision of student writing can be achieved by means of e-mail submission of written assignments. In each case, (...) I argue that the electronic method offers significant advantages to student learning. (shrink)

Wittgenstein's conception of philosophy raises two questions about the teaching of philosophy and its place in a liberal arts curriculum. First, Wittgenstein denies that philosophy is a body of doctrine, affirms that it is an activity, and assumes that the two alternatives are incompatible. This implies that teaching a body of content is not teaching philosophy and leaves open the question whether there is any relevant sense of "teaching" appropriate to the activity. (...) On the other hand, Wittgenstein understands ethics to be an autonomous inquiry, separate from philosophy, into what is most valuable and important. This view suggests that concerns about our human condition and future are beyond the reach of philosophy, and leaves open the question whether insight into them through philosophy is possible at all.I discuss central features of Wittgenstein's conception of philosophy to explore answers to these questions and to reject the suggestion that philosophy could turn out to be utterly irrelevant in the education and life of students. I propose that the value of philosophy resides in what we do and take Wittgenstein's eloquent metaphor from Philosophical Investigations as a point of reference: "what we do is to bring words back from their metaphysical to their everyday uses". Philosophy, therefore, is not something we can teach, even though it is an activity we should encourage. (shrink)

Teaching philosophy is doing philosophy. This medium gets students doing it from day it.

Addresses the complex issues involved in teaching philosophy at undergraduate level.

The paper points out ways in which philosophy can be taught from a global feminist perspective without falling into typical Eurocentric pitfalls. For example, African women's practices of cliterodectomy can be studied thoughtfully and in context, with attention to both sides of the issue, instead of covering the topic for its shock value as a strategy to convince students that relativism is wrong. The paper covers a reading list and topics that both cover feminist critiques of the prevalent male (...) philosophical canon, and coverage of feminist philosophy topics with sources that share perspectives of women from Africa, Latin America, and Asia. (shrink)

Team-Based Learning is a comprehensive approach to using groups purposefully and effectively. Because of its focus on decision making, it is well suited to helping students learn to do philosophy and not simply talk about it. Much like the “flipped classroom” approach, it is structured so that students are held responsible for “covering content” through the reading outside of class so that class meeting times can be spent practicing philosophical decisions, allowing for frequent feedback from the professor. This chapter (...) discusses how TBL works in Philosophy, the elements of a TBL course including activity design, and how TBL avoids the known problems of group work. The appendix contains examples of TBL activities in philosophy courses. (shrink)

This paper addresses the problem of the perceived irrelevance of philosophy to undergraduate students and advances a pedagogical strategy for making philosophy relevant. Teaching philosophy as the pursuit of life as meaningful, that is, as a life skill, frames philosophy as a relevant study of significant benefit to them. The overall goal of a course which approaches philosophy this way is to develop a “creative aptitude” in students. Thus, students do not learn philosophical lessons (...) by wrote, but rather, like apprentices, learn to personally incorporate the critical tools of philosophy and treat philosophy as a “life craft.” The author details the pedagogical techniques that make such a course possible (techniques for motivating students to care and learn about philosophy) and concludes this paper by briefly detailing some student feedback on a course of this nature. (shrink)

This paper is about teaching philosophy to high school students through Lincoln-Douglas (LD) debate. LD, also known as “values debate,” includes topics from ethics and political philosophy. Thousands of high school students across the U.S. debate these topics in class, after school, and at weekend tournaments. We argue that LD is a particularly effective tool for teaching philosophy, but also that LD today falls short of its potential. We argue that the problems with LD are (...) not inevitable, and we offer strategic recommendations for improving LD as a tool for teaching philosophy. Ultimately, our aim is to create a dialogue between LD and academic philosophy, with the hope that such dialogue will improve LD’s capacity to teach students how to do philosophy. (shrink)

A week-long, intensive introduction to philosophy during the summer. The program's content, methods, and results.

The paper presents a concise history of enactivism in education, especially in mathematics education. Cases described by Davis’s, Proulx and Simmt’s work showcase the idea that enactivism is a viable alternative to constructivism or to classical views both in terms of practical teaching and theoretical models related to the process of learning. The idea that the student should solve a fixed problem, discover the universally correct solution, and eventually store that correct solution to find many other universally correct solutions (...) to other fixed problems reduces the student to a very simple mechanism aimed at informational efficiency. This problem is met by the enactivistic tradition that began with Varela and Maturana’s work, now updated to the aforementioned researchers. Contra the classical perspective, enactivism proposes the idea that the student collaboratively produces the problem, being able to see multiple solutions, and eventually becoming a performer of knowledge. The article takes these ideas developed in mathematics education and finds their use in philosophical education. The article especially focuses on the student’s problem of being unable to link a new philosophical text discussed in class with their intuition. The last part of the article offers a lesson design example. The philosophical design focuses on making the students explore their own thinking regarding the topic about to be discussed by using a philosophy text before introducing the text. (shrink)

What distinguishes philosophy is its attention to reality and sense as such, or what is traditionally called being and essence. As a result, philosophy as a way of life is, most fundamentally, not directly a matter of doing one kind of thing rather than another outside the classroom but instead of how we live with respect to our being. Enacting our being in one way rather than another inflects whatever it is we do. Consequently, even if we only (...) study philosophy in the conventional, apparently unlived way in the classroom, we are in active relation to our being and therefore fully living philosophy as a way of life. (shrink)

Jacques Derrida est l’un des philosophes qui a continué à remettre en cause sérieusement les rapports théoriques et pratiques entre la philosophie et l’éducation, tout en restant hors des institutions universitaires traditionnelles en France. Dans les années 1970, il organise le GREPH (Groupe de recherches surl’enseignement philosophique) avec des enseignants et des étudiants contre la réduction de l’enseignment philosophique au lycée par le gouvernement français, et pour faire les recherches théoriques sur le lien essentiel de la philosophie à l’enseignement en (...) général. Puis, en 1983, Derrida a déployé tous ses efforts pour créer le Collège internatinal de Philosophie, institution tendant à ouvrir la nouvelle possibilité de la philosophie. Enfin, dans ses dernières années, ilintérroge l’avenir de l’université ou des Humanités à cette époque de mondialisation dans les textes comme L’Université sans condition, etc. Pour Derrida qui n’a cessé de donner ses séminaires depuis 1964, la question de l’éducation est important pour l’élaboration de sa propre philosophie. Selon lui, « je n’imagine pas de philosophie ni de recherche dissociée de son enseignement. J’ai essayé d’introduire dans cet enseignemtn de nouvelles pédagogie, de nouvelles mises en scènes, de changer la politique de l’enseignement et son rapport à la société » (Sur parole : instantanés philosophiques, Aube, 1999, p. 36). L’enseignement n’est pas un thème secondaire, mais plutôt un des questions centrales pour ses recherches philosophiques. Dans cette communication, nous allons mettre en lumière la théorie et la pratique de Derrida sur la philosphie et l’éducation, comme l’exemple le plus effectif et concret de sa conception de déconstruction. (shrink)

A growing body of research suggests that students achieve learning outcomes at higher rates when instructors use active-learning methods rather than standard modes of instruction. To investigate how one such method might be used to teach philosophy, we observed two classes that employed Reacting to the Past, an educational role-immersion game. We chose to investigate Reacting because role-immersion games are considered a particularly effective active-learning strategy. Professors who have used Reacting to teach history, interdisciplinary humanities, and political theory agree (...) that it engages students and teaches general skills like collaboration and communication. We investigated whether it can be effective for teaching philosophical content and skills like analyzing, evaluating, crafting, and communicating arguments in addition to bringing the more general benefits of active learning to philosophy classrooms. Overall, we find Reacting to be a useful tool for achieving these ends. While we do not argue that Reacting is uniquely useful for teaching philosophy, we conclude that it is worthy of consideration by philosophers interested in creative active-learning strategies, especially given that it offers a prepackaged set of flexible, user-friendly tools for motivating and engaging students. (shrink)

Philosophy of religion is a popular area of study with a lot of underexplored potential. For many students, as well as members of the public, it is the area of philosophy that deals most explicitly with the “big questions” that engage them directly. But a preoccupation with overly technical argumentation and decontextualized examples of religious beliefs can be off-putting. In this article, I discuss broader and narrower visions of philosophy of religion, outlining what needs to be included (...) in any introductory course while also exploring ways of diversifying the syllabus and deepening approaches to existing topics for more advanced-level students. Without overlooking the risks of spreading the content too thinly, I highlight how increased interdisciplinarity and greater cross-cultural awareness can enliven the subject. (shrink)

Here, two dozen distinguished philosophers share their insights and practical suggestions on a diverse range of pedagogic issues with essays on how to motivate students, constructing syllabi for particular courses, teaching particularly complex concepts, and constructing creative examinations.

I discuss techniques for group discussion in a large class.

The article analyzes the main world problems and prospects for the development of teaching philosophy to children, substantiates the relevance of introducing philosophical practices, its teaching methods into the education system. The author carries out a theoretical reconstruction of the main provisions, problems and prospects for develop- ing the “Philosophy for Children” (p4c) movement, which is of particular interest due to its greatest informativeness in covering the current state of teaching philosophy to children. Introduction. (...) Modern studies of teaching philoso- phy to children are of great importance because of their relevance in solving a whole range of modern educational problems. The search for new priority areas for teaching philosophy to children is aimed at finding the best ways to correct the modern edu- cation system by demonstrating and justifying the effectiveness of using p4c methods and ap- proaches. The purpose of the study is to explicate the main problems and prospects, as well as the relevance of teaching philosophy to children in the current conditions of the society development. Methods. The author uses both general scien- tific methods of analysis and synthesis, as well as methods of comparative analysis and theoretical reconstruction. Scientific novelty of the research. The article carries out a theoretical reconstruction and analysis of the main problems of teaching philosophy to children, substantiates the relevance of introducing the ideas and methods of p4c into the system of pre- and school education in order to compensate for the shortcomings of informational approaches to teaching and the formation of demanded skills and abilities in children. Results. The author substantiates the relevance of applying ideas and methods of p4c in pre-school and school education, and demonstrates the ad- vantages of its approaches in solving a number of educational and upbringing problems, the effective- ness of using philosophical tools in the develop- ment and education of children. Conclusions. Emphasizing the issue of teaching philosophy to children makes it possible to estab- lish a number of legitimate questions of pedagogi- cal, methodological, ethical, political, and other nature, the solution of which determines the choice of priority directions for developing and transform- ing the modern education system, the solution of urgent problems, without correcting of which most of the children may lose a significant cultural and intellectual experience. (shrink)