Teaching Philosophy Statement (original) (raw)

To do philosophy one must engage in a conversa5on; one must engage in the prac5ce of exchanging and evalua5ng ideas, both one's own and others'. This is done in many ways, ranging from talking about various ideas to wri5ng about them. It seems at first glance, then, that doing philosophy is an ac5ve and dynamic exercise. Yet, the tradi5onal university learning environment is not always the most conducive to this manner of engagement. All too oCen courses are taught solely by lecturing, where the student is expected to sit in one place for a prolonged period of 5me and listen to what is said by the instructor. Although I strongly believe that giving a lecture is very valuable and has an important role to play in good pedagogy, I do not think that learning, that is, deep and meaningful learning, can happen solely via this teaching strategy. It is my firm belief that in order to get students to engage in doing philosophy, one must get students engaging in the conversa)on of philosophy.