Teaching

Instructor of Record:

Loyola University Chicago

PHIL 130: Philosophy and Persons (Fall 2021; Fall 2022): This is basically an intro class. My approach is somewhat unusual: I frame the class around metaphilosophy. The guiding questions are “What should Philosophy be? What questions should we be asking and how should we go about answering them?” We consider a broadly skeptical answer in the Socratic dialogues and Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. On this view, we aim for aporia to rid ourselves of error and hubris. We then move on to a more constructive view in the Meditations. We rid ourselves of error as a preliminary step to identifying the foundations of science We then consider a challenge posed by Charles Mills and other Non-Ideal Theorists: by framing the questions at such a high altitude, we obscure more than we illuminate. Associated with the challenge is a view of philosophy that centers around social criticism with an eye toward emancipation. We then consider a distinct challenge posed by Daniel Dennett having to do with the reliability of introspection. Associated with this challenge is a metaphilosophical view that sees the philosopher as an under laborer of the scientist. Along the way we consider questions about the existence of God, free-will, personal identity, skepticism, the mind/body problem and the meaning of life.