Teaching
Teaching Philosophy
My teaching is organized around the conviction that philosophical inquiry is most effective when it is experiential—when students engage with ideas through structured practical activity rather than passive reception. I design assignments that embed philosophical reflection in concrete contexts: attending film screenings, reading in communal settings, and working directly with the technologies under philosophical examination. The aim is to cultivate habits of careful analysis and argumentation that extend beyond the classroom.
I teach across the philosophy curriculum, from introductory surveys to specialized topics in applied ethics and philosophy of technology. My background in engineering allows me to ground abstract philosophical questions in concrete technical realities, particularly when addressing topics in AI and emerging technologies. I am committed to making philosophical practice accessible and rigorous for students at every level of preparation.
Courses Taught
Introduction to Philosophy
A first encounter with philosophical thinking through enduring questions about knowledge, reality, free will, and the nature of mind. The course emphasizes close reading of primary texts and developing the skills of philosophical argumentation. Students learn to identify assumptions, construct arguments, and engage charitably with positions they find counterintuitive.
Introduction to Ethics
An introduction to moral philosophy through classical and contemporary frameworks: virtue ethics, deontology, consequentialism, and care ethics. The course moves between theoretical foundations and practical application, asking students to reason carefully about what they owe to others and why.
Contemporary Moral Issues
An issues-driven course examining contested moral questions in light of philosophical frameworks. Topics may include the ethics of AI and automation, climate justice, free speech, economic inequality, and emerging biotechnologies. Students develop the ability to analyze positions they initially find persuasive and to articulate positions they find uncomfortable.
Medical Ethics
An examination of ethical questions arising in medical practice and healthcare policy, including informed consent, end-of-life care, resource allocation, reproductive technologies, and the ethics of clinical research. The course draws on both philosophical theory and concrete cases to cultivate practical moral reasoning in clinical and policy contexts.
Philosophy Through Movies
This course uses cinema as a vehicle for philosophical inquiry, treating film not as illustration of pre-existing ideas but as a medium capable of generating its own philosophical insights. Students analyze how narrative structure, visual composition, and the experience of spectatorship raise questions about personal identity, perception, free will, and the nature of reality.
Philosophy of Video Games
An exploration of philosophical questions raised by and within video games: the nature of agency in interactive media, the ethics of virtual action, questions of identity in avatar-mediated experience, and the aesthetics of games as an art form. The course takes games seriously as objects of philosophical analysis while also using them as provocations for broader questions about choice, responsibility, and meaning.