Teaching

Building intellectual community through personal interaction.

Every teaching experience is different, because people and the questions they ask are different, but the goal of practicing fruitful inquiry is the same. In 25+ years of teaching I’ve covered a wide range of historical and thematic topics, and much of my own learning comes through teaching both the familiar and unfamiliar.

A teacher’s role is to help students explore the best arguments, not only deploying concepts but eliciting new ones, and help students connect their personal concerns to fundamental questions and coherent narratives.

I’ve instructed in diverse modes (large lectures, small seminars, online) and for diverse audiences, from freshmen to seniors, seminarians and MA students; I’ve even taught adult continuing ed and high school students, and advised/evaluated doctoral dissertations. Whatever the venue, my goal as a teacher is to build up intellectual community — teaching not as content delivery, but as initiation into a shared intellectual enterprise.

CURRENT TEACHING

Recently and regularly taught courses, marked with an asterisk (*), have summary descriptions here.

Core

Teaching in the Mount’s liberal arts core curriculum, for freshman, sophomores and juniors.

Freshman Symposium*

Foundations of Philosophy*

Philosophy in the Modern Age*

Ethics*

Majors

Higher level courses for philosophy majors and minors and other advanced students.

Metaphysics*

Plato’s Laws*

Friendship & Contemplation in the Digital Age*

Thinking Politically: Ancient Art & Modern Science*

Love & Friendship

Authority and the Common Good*

Seminary

Courses for the seminary curriculum in accord with the USCCB’s Program for Priestly Formation and the Master of Arts in Philosophical Studies.

Moral Philosophy*

Metaphysics*

Ancient Philosophy

Medieval Philosophy

PHILOSOPHY, POLITICS & ECONOMICS

Some of the courses listed above contribute to the Mount’s Philosophy, Politics & Economics (PPE) program. PPE professors collaborate to help students see connections across disiplines and apply their studies to service in the world.

PPE is a growing movement countering the trend of overspecialization and careerism in college. The major seeks integration about fundamental human questions across several disciplines. In general, I think PPE is the best way to advance the classical ideal of liberal education within the context of the modern structure of college majors.

At Mount St. Mary’s, PPE leverages our core curriculum and integrates theology, to provide a uniquely integrated and holistic approach to understanding the complex issues of modern society.

OTHER TEACHING…

…at Mount St. Mary’s University (2005-)

Various independent studies, honors projects, and thesis projects in the M.A. in Philosophical Studies, topics include: Thomistic ethics, the epistemology of John Henry Newman, moral philosophy in Dante’s Divine Comedy, Plato and John Paul II on love, Critical Race Theory and Catholic anthropology, Catholic Social Teaching and risk management, threats to the American polity; Wendell Berry and Aristotelian political though; metaphysics and modern physics; lying and just war theory.

…at Wheaton College (2001-2005)

Courses: Introduction to Philosophy; Political Philosophy; Plato’s Later Dialogues; History of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy; Virtue Ethics; Aristotle’s Metaphysics; Ethics of Technology. Indpendent studies: Plato’s Republic; Aristotle’s De Anima; Christian Neoplatonism; Bonaventure’s Itinerarium; Aquinas on the Soul; Thomistic Philosophy of Science and Political Philosophy; Alasdair MacIntyre and Moral Education; Collingwood’s Philosophy of History

…at the University of Notre Dame (1997-2001)

Courses: Introduction to Philosophy; Basic Concepts of Political Philosophy

…at the Ralph McInerny Center, Washington, D.C. (2005-2008)

Non-credit lecture courses: Ancient Philosophy; Ethics and Politics; Logic and Natural Science; Medieval and Modern Philosophy; Metaphysics; Practical Philosophy and Public Policy