To me, knowledge breathes through teaching.
Teaching philosophical precision is a daunting task. I try to make it more entertaining by designing small games and challenges for the students.
My “Kant Jeopardy.” I use it whenever I teach the Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals or the Critique of Pure Reason.
My “A Day at the Athenian Agora” simulation. I use it whenever I teach Ancient Philosophy or Hellenistic Ethics.
My “Nicomachean Ethics board game.” I ask the students to design a game similar to “The Game of Life,” but inspired by Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics.
I am also a firm believer in the tight interrelatedness of research and teaching. Thus, my research interests often have informed my syllabi.
In my Introduction to Greek and Roman Philosophy class, I assign Aristotle’s Metaphysics A 3-5 as our first reading. This shows the students how Aristotle builds his own canon and invites them to think how we will build our own canon during the course of the semester.
In my Contemporary Civilization class, I use different emotions to identify each of the mandatory readings. In this way, I add a personal touch to an otherwise fixed syllabus.
In my Introduction to Philosophy class, I organize the readings based on Nietzsche’s “The History of an Error.” In this one-page manifesto, Nietzsche presents the history of philosophy as a history of error. The class guides the students through all the “errors” and asks them to reflect on the presumed “mistakes.”