Adding philosophical depth to anything and everything
A subject that has been in the news quite a lot lately as a political issue is diversity, equity, and inclusion, and this is a topic that’s dear to my heart as a philosophy professor. I have taught at 12 different universities over the course of my career. At first, […]
Read more
“Gee, Mr. Wizard …” “… <heh, heh> we’re gonna need another Timmy.” (my eternal admiration for anyone who gets that reference.) As in so many things in life, I find myself eternally situated between divergent spheres. This situation is most evident in my two great avocations in life, music and philosophy. […]
Read more
I’ve taught philosophy to university students for over 20 years. In trying to explain philosophy to others, I have learned more about philosophy than when I was a student. Always, I have sought to show students how philosophy relates to their everyday lives. I present to them how the ideas […]
Read more
Excerpts from How We Are and How We Got Here: A Practical History of Western Philosophy. British Reform Movement Significant developments in social philosophy and social reform took place in the United Kingdom in the 1800s. The Parliament of the United Kingdom passed a progressive series of laws beginning in […]
Read more
I began teaching philosophy in 1998, and I love talking with students and helping them discover new ideas. Several years ago, I gave up on the mass produced introduction to philosophy textbooks. The offerings from the Big Four corporate educational publishers (Cengage, McGraw Hill, Pearson, and Oxford) are overpriced […]
Read more
Transcript: Welcome to the insert philosophy here podcast. Inserting the principles of philosophy into real life. The last week of August and the first week of September is when students across the United States, Canada, and most European countries go back to school. There’s no overestimating the importance […]
Read more
…but I’m really talking about the human perceptions of time. (Source: Piqsels) Yes, time. Yesterday, my spouse reminded me that this year is one of those decade-defined anniversaries of my graduation from high school. It honestly had never crossed my mind. I was too busy living in the present. Humans do […]
Read more
I’ve taught university courses since 1998. Someone born that year could have just graduated from a university. Chances are good that such a person has graduated with a heavy load of student loan debt. That is more than unfortunate; that is morally wrong. Joe Biden promised that when he became […]
Read more
John Dewey’s (1859–1952) scientific orientation was biology, and he was influenced by the developments in evolutionary biology. His philosophical starting point was the fact that people exist within a biological environment. We create beliefs to adapt to our environment. Dewey created the term “instrumentalism” to describe the human activity of […]
Read more
Sometimes it seems that the right-wing is more interested in eliminating critical race theory than in eliminating COVID. Efforts to ban even the mention of this subject in schools made the rounds this last election cycle. Right-wing think tanks claim, without providing evidence, that critical race theory has come to […]
Read more