In concept, philosophy might be about something. In follow, that is largely fantasy. Philosophy is right this moment as specialised a self-discipline as every other, which might be each inevitable and good. However recently, I’ve been making an attempt to take philosophy’s theoretical promise of freedom critically—to focus rather less on well-established matters, and (nevertheless clumsily) somewhat extra on matters that emerge from actual life, on a regular basis expertise, and instinctive pursuits.
I lately tried to do that in my educating. Final semester I taught a brand new undergraduate course I designed on the subject of “first contact.” By this, I didn’t solely imply first contact with aliens—although I did imply that—however with all kinds of issues in life: new concepts, media, experiences, individuals, cultures, lifeforms, pure phenomena, states of thoughts, states of being, and many others. I simply had the amorphous sense that, if I might train any course I wished, this may be it, and that the expertise of first contact was each attention-grabbing and on the coronary heart of a number of different matters I used to be excited by, together with the sensation of marvel, which I’m hoping to jot down about quickly. So the motivation to show this class was principally egocentric. However I figured something that may make me extra invested in my educating would finally profit the scholars as properly.
“First contact” clearly isn’t a longtime matter in philosophy. It’s maybe simpler to think about it as a thematic foundation for a course in psychology, anthropology, astronomy, or linguistics. And even inside philosophy, it’s onerous to know which sub-discipline it’d slot into, particularly since I interpreted the thought so broadly. This introduced numerous challenges. First, since I used to be skilled as an ethical and political thinker, it meant I needed to train a course on a subject that fairly frankly I knew little about. I didn’t thoughts this, in precept, because it meant I’d be compelled to study a lot of new stuff. However nonetheless, it was an impediment. Second, it meant I must do far more work than traditional to find philosophical questions and readings that match throughout the course’s broader theme. And relatedly, third, in finding acceptable philosophical readings and matters, I wished to be sure that these weren’t too “dry”—that the course genuinely mirrored my fundamental need to do philosophy in a means that maintained an in depth, vibrant connection to on a regular basis life and expertise.
To handle the primary problem, concerning my lack of information, one factor I did was be sure that the scholars knew I ought to be thought to be extra of a co-inquirer than an authority on most of the matters we coated. But additionally, and extra importantly, I relied on the experience of beneficiant colleagues, i.e., visitor lecturers. Prof. Sophie-Grace Chappell kindly joined us to speak about her new work on epiphanies. My colleague Derek Ball joined us to debate xenolinguistics—a subdiscipline of linguistics that focuses on communication with extraterrestrial life. And Prof. Mark Harris, an anthropologist at my College who makes a speciality of Amazonian peoples, joined us to debate sixteenth Century accounts of “first contact” between Europeans and South Individuals. Having visitor lecturers was enjoyable for the scholars, an excellent studying expertise for me, and helped be sure that I didn’t need to fake to know issues I didn’t.
Having visitor lectures additionally helped with the second problem, since I might usually depend on them to assist find wise philosophical (and non-philosophical) readings and questions for every week. In weeks the place I didn’t have a visitor lecturer to depend on, we targeted on matters (equivalent to marvel, the chic, transformative expertise, or dying, and many others.) that I felt have been an excellent match for the course, that have been attention-grabbing in their very own proper, that I wished to study extra about, and that I might run a dialogue of no less than considerably competently. So, nothing out of the atypical there—I assume these are fairly widespread standards for syllabus design.
Lastly, almost about retaining issues “actual,” and linked to on a regular basis expertise, right here I did two issues that, for me, have been new. First, every week’s assigned readings included no less than one “case research,” which was an actual world (i.e., literary, historic, scientific, or journalistic) instance of the kind of factor we have been making an attempt to philosophically analyze or replicate on. So, for instance, within the week on marvel, we learn Adam Smith’s concept of marvel as he presents it in his Historical past of Astronomy, alongside an essay by the naturalist Rachel Carson on her efforts to encourage marvel in her nephew. This follow of mixing summary concept with textured “examples” labored very well, I assumed. The latter have been usually a supply of fruitful class dialogue and significant perception.
Second, as a marked project, the scholars have been required to jot down a “reflection” on how some expertise, occasion, or factor they’d seen or learn outdoors of sophistication bears on a debate coated in the course syllabus. This was an incredible train, and one thing I plan to maintain on doing in different programs. The scholars unsurprisingly appeared to take pleasure in taking philosophy outdoors the classroom, and infrequently wrote superbly and compellingly about experiences (of bereavements, breakups, epiphanies, and many others.) that challenged, confirmed, or curiously linked with readings assigned for the category. Like most others, I usually don’t take pleasure in grading papers. However I loved grading these reflections.
So all in all this educating experiment went properly, I assumed. There have been some errors. For one, I used to be so anxious to be sure that we had sufficient to debate every week that I usually assigned means an excessive amount of studying. I used to be additionally disillusioned that, for his or her last essay, greater than half the scholars wrote on the identical matter: whether or not one ought to worry (one’s personal) dying. I believe they converged on this query as a result of, of all the things we coated, it was probably the most commonplace, most secure focus for a philosophy paper. However this meant I hadn’t finished a ok job making clear philosophical sense of different, much less commonplace matters. Sooner or later, I ought to most likely attempt to facilitate this by giving college students a listing of potential essay questions, one for every week, so that they no less than have an concept of tips on how to strategy an essay on much less commonplace matters.
I do sit up for (hopefully) educating this course once more sooner or later. It was pedagogically odd and dangerous. But it surely was additionally probably the most rewarding educating expertise I’ve had but.
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Adam Etinson
Adam Etinson is a Senior Lecturer in Philosophy on the College of St Andrews. His latest publications embody “What’s So Particular About Human Dignity?” in Philosophy & Public Affairs (2020), and Human Rights: Ethical or Political? (Oxford College Press, 2018).
