Some of my thoughts about teaching
I aim to strike a balance between teaching students about philosophy, teaching them how to do philosophy, and teaching them how to use philosophy.
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First, students should walk away with significant knowledge about specific philosophical positions, arguments, and philosophical thinkers. These are intrinsically interesting and a rich resource for understanding both ourselves, and the world at large.
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Second, students should acquire important skills, techniques, and tools. Through a philosophical education students can learn
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how to argue with precision and clarity about problems that initially may seem intractable, confused, unstructured, and vague;
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how to read critically and with understanding – by working through texts that are often difficult and written in foreign historical and cultural contexts;
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how to navigate complex argumentative landscapes;
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and how to respectfully and critically engaging with opposing views.
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Third, students should learn that and how the tools of philosophy are useful beyond philosophy (and indeed the academy).
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Many philosophical ideas and arguments form the unspoken background of how humans think about their personal development, of discussions and disagreements within our personal and professional life, as well as in debates in society.
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My students should learn to use their philosophical training to go beyond the surface in those domains, rethink deep assumptions, and learn how to respectfully talk and argue across deep rifts between outlooks in search of fruitful dialogue.
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Textbooks, Syllabi, Teaching Environments
Good teaching requires good teaching resources. I have been able to design the syllabus for courses at all levels. You can download some of them below. I have also been involved in creating a new syllabus for Examen Philosophicum (ExPhil). All students at the University of Oslo must take this introduction to ethics and the history of philosophy and science. This is a fantastic opportunity. Future immunologists, lawyers, business women, and school teachers: all learning the basics of philosophy. But what exactly should they all learn? How to get a 17th century idea into the 21st century? Together with my colleague Ingvild Torsen and the help of all others in our faculty, we have re-done the syllabus for this course from the ground up. We have also written a new textbook 'Knowing, Being, Doing'. Check it out.
Good teaching also requires a good teaching environment. I try to do my part in developing a fruitful and healthy teaching environment. Together with several of my colleagues, I have recently developed a research and teaching initiative that aims to connect the humanities and the social and natural sciences. This initiative has resulted in the Centre for Philosophy and the Sciences, which I was heading before starting on new big research projects in 2021. In this Centre, we have developed resources that help integrate humanities perspectives in science education in order to provide students in those subjects with the tools necessary to tackle societal responsibilities, and to broaden their perspectives. At the same time, we also integrate natural science methods into humanities teaching: from basic introduction to behavior experiments to programming and algorithmic thinking.
Online Lectures and Courses
You can find some of my syllabi here online (see links below). Since Fall 2020, I have also taught several courses online. I found this a good challenge. I will slowly make some of the main resources for those courses available for everyone.
Teaching since 2013
Spring 2021
- Science and Democracy [syllabus available]. Beginning BA level
- Examen Philosophicum (Lectures). Beginning BA level (Introduction to the history of philosophy and science, and ethics): Lectures on the Enlightenment Ideals, the Cartesian Project, the Mind-Body Problem, and Knowledge of Geometry
Fall 2020
- Philosophy of Psychology [syllabus available]. Upper BA level
- Examen Philosophicum (Seminar). Beginning BA level
Spring 2020
- no teaching
Fall 2019
- Science and Democracy. Beginning BA level
- Examen Philosophicum (Seminar). Beginning BA level
- MA Thesis Work in Progress Seminar. MA level (co-taught with Caj Strandberg)
Fall 2018-Spring 2019
- On leave (guest professor at LMU Munich)
Spring 2018
- Organizer of Philosophy Colloquium (Filosofisk Seminar)
- Philosophy of Psychology and Neuroscience. PhD level lecture at Faculty of Social Science, Course on Methods in the Social Sciences.
Fall 2017
- PhD Thesis Preparation Seminar. PhD level
- Organizer of Philosophy Colloquium (Filosofisk Seminar)
- Statistics for Philosophers. PhD level Course organizer (with Jeroen Rijnders); course taught by Pål Ulleberg.
Spring 2017
- PhD Thesis Preparation Seminar. PhD level
- Philosophy of Biology [syllabus available]. Mixed Upper level BA/MA level
- Philosophy of Psychology and Neuroscience. PhD level lecture at Faculty of Social Science, Course on Methods in the Social Sciences.
Fall 2016
- PhD Thesis Preparation Seminar. PhD level
- MA Thesis Work in Progress Seminar. MA level (co-taught with Bjørn Ramberg)
- Philosophy of Psychology and Neuroscience. PhD level lecture at Faculty of Social Science, Course on Methods in the Social Sciences.
Spring 2016
- PhD Thesis Preparation Seminar. PhD level
Fall 2015
- PhD Thesis Preparation Seminar. PhD level
- Epistemic Injustice. PhD level (co-taught with Ingvild Torsen and Tove Pettersen)
- Metaphysics and philosophy of language [syllabus available]. MA level (course focused on Natural Kinds and Social Kinds)
- Philosophy of Psychology and Neuroscience. PhD level lecture at Faculty of Social Science, Course on Methods in the Social Sciences.
Spring 2015
- PhD Thesis Preparation Seminar. PhD level
Fall 2014
- Philosophy of Mind [syllabus available]. MA level (course focused on philosophical issues about consciousness)
- Examen Philosophicum (Seminar). Beginning BA level
Fall 2013
- Philosophy of Science. MA level (course focused on Evolution, Sociality, and Cognition. Co-taught with Katharine Browne)