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Teaching

Over the years, I’ve offered hundreds of sections at the undergraduate level. Here are some documents for use in teaching, along with a list of courses taught.

Manuscripts of general student interest:

  • Truth as Correspondence.
    On the nature of truth, and so what we’re after in philosophy and other academic pursuits.  Particularly in philosophy, one sometimes hears that a claim may be “true for me, but not you.”  I examine this saying, and find it wanting.
  • Validity and Soundness.
    Informal discussion of criteria for argument evaluation.  Insofar as philosophers examine arguments for and against different conclusions, it’s important to begin with an understanding of the conditions under which an argument is effective or not.
  • Objective Moral Values.
    A proposal to suggest how objective moral values are possible. The view permits a response to the Euthyphro dilemma for divine command moral theories.
  • Writing Guide.
    Very short discussion of aims for philosophical writing along with some general guidelines for when to cite, how to cite, and the list of sources.  This document does not replace an official style manual, but may be helpful especially for papers in introductory philosophy.
  • About What There Is .
    A text for intermediate metaphysics, with special emphasis on method, including extended discussion of Quine’s, “On What There Is.” The aim is to engage with, and provide a pathway through, central original works—and so to make accessible topics which may initially seem mysterious or bizarre, including reality and truth, abstract objects, possible worlds and the like.
  • Symbolic Logic: An Accessible Introduction to Serious Mathematical Logic.
    Textbook for symbolic logic beginning with an introduction appropriate for beginning students, and continuing to a complete development of Gödel’s completeness and incompleteness results.

Courses Taught Include:

  • Introduction to Philosophy (lower division)
  • Introduction to Philosophy of Religion (lower division)
  • Sentential Logic (lower division)
  • Predicate Logic
  • Alternative Logics
  • Advanced Issues in Logic / Metalogic
  • Advanced Issues in Logic / Incompleteness and Computability
  • Philosophy of Mathematics
  • Philosophy of Religion
  • Metaphysics
  • Theory of Knowledge
  • Philosophy of Language
  • Advanced Issues in Metaphysics / Objects of Art
  • Advanced Issues in Metaphysics / Modal Metaphysics
  • Advanced Issues in Metaphysics / Realism and Antirealism
  • Advanced Issues in Metaphysics / Moral Realism