Practising Philosophical Skills

In this essay, I describe how I improved my skills as a postgraduate tutor in philosophy through learning some theories of learning.

Geoffrey Chaucer in Context

PHIL 101-Special Topics in Philosophy (3 Credits) Topics selected by the instructor for specialized study. Course content varies and will be announced in the schedule of classes by title. PHIL 102-Introduction to Philosophy (3 Credits) An introduction to the main problems of philosophy and its methods of inquiry, analysis, and criticism. Works of important philosophers will be read. Honors section offered. PHIL 103-Special Topics in Ethics and Values (3 Credits) A study of the moral principles of conduct and the basic concepts underlying these principles, such as good, evil, right, wrong, justice, value, duty, and obligation, as they relate to specific issues or areas of life. May be repeated as content varies by title. Carolina Core: VSR PHIL 111-Introduction to Logic II (3 Credits) Philosophical foundations of inductive inference, including probability, statistics, and decision theory; application of the methods and results of inductive inference to philosophical problems such as the problem of rationality, epistemology, theory confirmation, social and political philosophy.

Discourse: Learning and Teaching in Philosophical and Religious Studies

1992

In an attempt to improve its students' writing abilities, as well as their critical thinking skills, Lord Fairfax Community College, in Virginia, developed a program called "Thinking through Writing." The project designers believed that concept formation, classification, memory enhancement, and other learning/thinking skills could be enhanced by discipline-centered writing. In the first year of the 2-year program, the faculty researched possible methods for meeting both their individual and collective goals. During the second year, individual faculty members utilized the assignments and activities developed during the previous year, and established a research component to measure the program's success. Following a brief introduction, this report on the Thinking through Writing program presents descriptions by 10 faculty members

This paper tells a story on how I came to study philosophy and the various phases of my philosophical development.

The vast majority of philosophers are academics earning their living primarily as teachers. Yet only a tiny fraction are actively interested in philosophy of education or take notice of such journals as Teaching Philosophy. Currently philosophy is under acute pressure from the political economy of higher education and institutions to justify its continued existence as an academic discipline. Concurrently, the quantity of philosophical work published has expanded to the point where proper and effective operation of the peer review process is increasingly difficult. These trends challenge philosophers to demonstrate the value of their professional activity and in particular to show that academic discussion is not merely an end in itself. Responding to this challenge requires fresh or at least refreshed and convincing answers to the question, What are the educational responsibilities of philosophers?

2013

Some philosophers say that it is not appropriate to engage in philosophy per se with children because philosophy is a discipline, requiring first a course of preparation, involving perhaps the study of grammar, logic, the proper use of language, the establishment of claims, evidences, warrants and ultimately arguments that can stand up to scrutiny. In an era of accountability, this has come to be cashed out in some kind of procedure where competencies ae identified, tagged and checked. Philosophy on this reading is no exception to this general requirement for all disciplines. John White, has pointed to the difference between conversations per se and philosophical conversations, arguing quite rightly that the mere organisation of children in a circle and setting them a topic for discussion cannot be called philosophy, nor does it lead them in any significant way into philosophy, but rather fosters a confusion between just general talk and the formation of a philosophical attitude (White, 2011). Indeed White if articulating the classical view extending as far back as Plato's academy that some kind of preparation for philosophy is required. A classical philosopher like Kant, for instance, pointed at the beginning of his first Critique to a set vocabulary of terms like 'sensibility', 'transcendental' and 'pure reason' 'practical reason', all of which would need to be competently controlled, if not entirely mastered, before engaging in his new transcendental philosophy of reason. Philosophers like Aristotle and Aquinas well understood the need for preparation also and while they each in different ways collected arguments like experimental samples and paraded them before listeners/ readers before arguing for one preferred solution, they assumed a certain literacy to begin with. And Matthew Lipman, in his own structured way, presented, in the philosophical materials he designed for children, a

Discourse 9(1), 165-182., 2010

Los Angeles Review of Books, 2018

A review of Bryan Van Norden, Taking Back Philosophy (Columbia 2017)