Instructor Course Description

Philosophy has a reputation of being an "ivory tower" discipline—irrelevant to and detached from our everyday lives. My goal in this course is to shatter that reputation by inviting you to use the tools and skills of a philosopher to think about your own beliefs and interests. You will help create this course by selecting topics, giving input on assignments, and even leading class (with assistance of course). This ensures that we will get to do philosophy together and think about things that are important and relevant to you and your daily life.

Instructor Learning Outcomes

Learning is a process of transformation. When you learn something, you have changed in some way, be it drastically or subtly. Below, are some goals I have for you (and myself) over the course of the semester.

By the end of class students will be able to:

• Notice, identify, and articulate, in both writing and conversation, the way philosophy
  shows up in our daily lives.
• Develop dialectic skills such as, charitable interpretation, active listening, critical analysis, as well as giving and accepting reasons and critique.
• Practice using tools of inquiry with care, creativity, and criticality to analyze our own and
  others' reasoning for holding a belief or position.
• Analyze complex written arguments and identify: the conclusion, premises,
  assumptions, and objections.

Office Hours

I specifically chose for my office hours to be immediately following class for two reasons. (1) Fifty minutes can go very quickly when we are trying to cover complex issues, so I like to budget time afterwards where you can stay and chat with me. (2) I am hoping that you will be free for a snack and like to join me as I have mine. I love hearing your thoughts on the class or the material generally. A tiny additional reason is that one of my favorite profs did this and it was on of the places I learned the most in undergrad.

Office Hours are a great time to come get acquainted—you don't have to have anything specific to drop by! I would be delighted if you just come in introduce yourself and share something you love (like your pets, a hobby, favorite food, current obsession, etc). I set aside this time specifically to interact with students—if you don't come visit me, I am bored and sad. Plus, attending office hours is one of the best things you can do to make sure you are plugged in and doing well in the course. 

If things are not going well for you in the course, or outside of it, please talk to me! If you can let me know before things are absolutely falling apart, we have a lot more options available to us to help you. It's harder to help when there are only two weeks before finals.

Instructor's Note on Philosophy's (lack of) Diversity and Inclusion

In an ideal world, philosophy would honor all voices that have contributed to its concepts, theories, and conversations over time. Unfortunately, this world is not ideal. There are many people from marginalized communities who will likely never receive the recognition they deserve because philosophy has, and continues to, privilege a very small subset of voices. In this course, we will read papers from a diverse group of philosophers. Even so, I acknowledge that I have likely (if unintentionally) overlooked sources that deserve attention. It is possible (even likely) that there may be both overt and covert biases in the material due to the lens with which it was written. Integrating a diverse set of experiences is important to the practice of good philosophy and I would like to discuss these issues as part of the course when they arise. Please contact me (in person or electronically) or submit anonymous feedback through the canvas survey form if you have any comments or suggestions to improve the quality of the course and its incorporation of diversity along all dimensions.

A Supportive Class Environment

I want our classroom to be a place of exploration that supports a diversity of thoughts, perspectives and experiences and honors your identities (including race, gender, class, sexuality, religion, ability, etc.) To help accomplish this:

• I will make sure to use your preferred name and pronouns.
• I will address racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, classist, and other prejudicial statements and actions in the course, and follow up with those affected.
• I (like many people) am still in the process of learning about diverse perspectives and identities. If something was said in class (by anyone) that made you feel uncomfortable, please talk to me about it, ESPECIALLY if that person was me.

Required Textbook and Course Materials

I do not require any texts for this course. All readings and media will be provided for you through our Canvas Course Shell. I do this because I recognize that even small book fees can add up and this puts an undue burden on some students. However, I love philosophy and would be more than happy to recommend further readings should you become interested! I would be even more delighted if you wanted to discuss them with me in office hours or over coffee sometime. We will be using the learning management system Canvas this semester. Campus provides students with technology guidelines and recommendations to make sure you can access our course shell.

Assignments

• Annotated Reading Checks (25%): One of the most important parts of this course is reading. We will read/listen to a variety of types of sources. Some will be academic papers, and some will be from media outlets. Sometimes the reading will be challenging and test your patience. However, it is the best way to encounter new arguments and will be the basis for our in-class work. Therefore, I want to reward you for completing it. By annotating (we will talk about what this means) the reading each week, you will receive points, and these points make up the largest component of your grade.
• QCCRs (20%): By the end of each day we have class you will submit a QCCR. QCCR stands for: Question, Comment, Critique, Reflection. This is a short feedback device that will help me to understand how you are feeling about the material. We will discuss this more thoroughly in class.
• Lead a Class Discussion (20%): Each of you (with friends) will be responsible for teaching the
  class one day. You will do this is consultation with me to make sure you are well prepared to
  have a good class.
• Final (5%): Your "final exam" will take the form of an extended reflection, which we will discuss later in the semester (around Thanksgiving).

You will notice this is incomplete! This is because I want you to have some say in designing your assignments. We will work together to decide on two more assignments that you will complete.