Philosophy and Artificial Intelligence [syllabus]
This is an upper-level course I taught at Columbia in 2022, as a Teaching Scholar. It covers the relationship of AI to the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of science, and ethics. The main goal of the course is to offer students a great deal of latitude in the work they'll do in the course, while also ensuring that whatever work they do is well-scaffolded by other assignments.
Ethics [syllabus]
This is an intermediate-level course I taught at Columbia in 2022. It takes a broad, and broadly pragmatic, approach to ethical questions, and tries to introduce traditional ethical theories in the context of current ethical dilemmas. The course's other distinguishing feature is that it is ungraded — an experiment that went well, but I probably won't do again any time soon. (Ungrading mostly served pedagogical goals that I can achieve in other ways. Grades, for me at least, serve pedagogical goals that aren't easy to achieve in other ways.)
Metaphysics [syllabus]
This is an intermediate-level course I taught at Columbia in 2020. It introduces metaphysics through some traditional topics, and then turns to broader questions about realism and the goal of metaphysics, naturalistic metaphysics and the legitimate sources of evidence for metaphysical claims, and, more generally, the place of metaphysics in inquiry.
Philosophical Monsters [syllabus in progress]
This is a 2000- or 3000-level course I plan to teach. It introduces a range of philosophical topics through the monsters they have created (philosophy of mind — P-zombies and swampmen; ethics — the utility monster; etc.). The first half of the course tours this bestiary and dives into the questions the monsters are supposed to solve. The second half of the course investigates the methodology that gives such evidential weight to these monsters, and thought experiments more generally.
Other
I have drafts of syllabi on the philosophy of cognitive science, the philosophy and psychology of humor, the epistemology of conspiracy theories, and some other subjects, which I can provide on request.
This is an upper-level course I taught at Columbia in 2022, as a Teaching Scholar. It covers the relationship of AI to the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of science, and ethics. The main goal of the course is to offer students a great deal of latitude in the work they'll do in the course, while also ensuring that whatever work they do is well-scaffolded by other assignments.
Ethics [syllabus]
This is an intermediate-level course I taught at Columbia in 2022. It takes a broad, and broadly pragmatic, approach to ethical questions, and tries to introduce traditional ethical theories in the context of current ethical dilemmas. The course's other distinguishing feature is that it is ungraded — an experiment that went well, but I probably won't do again any time soon. (Ungrading mostly served pedagogical goals that I can achieve in other ways. Grades, for me at least, serve pedagogical goals that aren't easy to achieve in other ways.)
Metaphysics [syllabus]
This is an intermediate-level course I taught at Columbia in 2020. It introduces metaphysics through some traditional topics, and then turns to broader questions about realism and the goal of metaphysics, naturalistic metaphysics and the legitimate sources of evidence for metaphysical claims, and, more generally, the place of metaphysics in inquiry.
Philosophical Monsters [syllabus in progress]
This is a 2000- or 3000-level course I plan to teach. It introduces a range of philosophical topics through the monsters they have created (philosophy of mind — P-zombies and swampmen; ethics — the utility monster; etc.). The first half of the course tours this bestiary and dives into the questions the monsters are supposed to solve. The second half of the course investigates the methodology that gives such evidential weight to these monsters, and thought experiments more generally.
Other
I have drafts of syllabi on the philosophy of cognitive science, the philosophy and psychology of humor, the epistemology of conspiracy theories, and some other subjects, which I can provide on request.
