Teaching

Email

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Open Source Pedagogy, Pop Culture/Film/Literature, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching, Technology and Human Values Comments Off on Email

I can’t quite remember exactly when email became such a nuisance in my life, but it must have been a long time ago now since I can barely remember it not being a nuisance anymore.  I think I got my first (AOL) email address in 1994.  Then, the familiar modem-screeching and you’ve got mail! alert were the…

Read More

Forgetting

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Digital Humanities, Philosophy, Politics, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching, Technology and Human Values Comments Off on Forgetting

I dedicate a significant amount of time in my courses to thinking with students about our “digital selves” and our “digital lives.” Most students– most people, for that matter– tend to think of the aggregate data that constitute their digital selves (social media profiles, Google searches, Netflix or Amazon preferences, banking transactions, medical records, online…

Read More

Vulnerability

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Philosophy, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching Comments Off on Vulnerability

Several years ago, I read a fascinating article by David Dobbs called “The Science of Success,” in which he discusses the influence of certain genetic factors on social/psychological development. Dobbs recounts the studies of Marian Bakermans-Kranenburg, who set out to test a dominant hypothesis of psychiatry and behavioral science known as the “stress diathesis” or “genetic…

Read More

Dear Student, At The End Of The Semester

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching Comments Off on Dear Student, At The End Of The Semester
Read More

Merit

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Democracy, Ethics, Philosophy, Politics, Public Philosophy, Race and Racism, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching, Women and Gender Issues Comments Off on Merit

The first text I assign in my social and political philosophy course is a short story by Jorge Luis Borges entitled “The Lottery in Babylon.” In it, Borges’ narrator tells the story of his former home, Babylon, where (over the course of many years) a lottery evolves from being a voluntary game of chance into a mandatory…

Read More

Utility

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Democracy, Ethics, J.S. Mill, Philosophy, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching Comments Off on Utility

Roughly 90% of the courses I teach are in moral and political philosophy, which means I am regularly given cause to lecture on utilitarianism. In my experience, almost all students arrive in the classroom as what I call “default utilitarians.” I say “default” because I think, in most cases, their’s is not so much a…

Read More

Recruiting Philosophy Majors

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching Comments Off on Recruiting Philosophy Majors

One of my favorite things to do at the end of the semester involves sending emails to those particularly excellent students I had in class and trying to recruit them to the Philosophy major.  I don’t think I tell students often enough during the regular term that they’re doing good work, or that they have…

Read More

Technology and Human Values

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Digital Humanities, Ethics, Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, Politics, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching, Technology and Human Values Comments Off on Technology and Human Values

If this were a post on Buzzfeed or Upworthy or some other such listicle-driven site, the thumbnail caption would read: “You won’t BELIEVE the AMAZING things these COLLEGE STUDENTS did in their PHILOSOPHY class! Check it out!” That would be a 100% true description, but I will attempt to be more measured in what follows….

Read More

The Case for Having Students Memorize Poetry

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, Teaching Comments Off on The Case for Having Students Memorize Poetry

For the last couple of years, my policy with regard to students’ “extra credit” opportunities was entirely focused on incentivizing attendance for out-of-class lectures. If students attended a lecture and wrote a 2-page response essay, they could receive up to 5pts on their midterm or final exams.  If they attended and asked a question, they…

Read More

On Teaching Our Incapacity To Unexperience

June 9, 2024 Leigh M. Johnson Aesthetics, Ethics, Film, Open Source Pedagogy, Philosophy, Public Philosophy, RMWMTMBM Archive, SPEP, Teaching, Thinking in Images, Trigger Warnings, Weak Humanism Comments Off on On Teaching Our Incapacity To Unexperience

They say you can’t “unring a bell.” It’s an analogy that is often used to illustrate our incapacity to un-experience things, to erase lived-experiences from our bodies and minds. What I discovered recently is how particularly true that is in the classroom. A few weeks ago in my Philosophy and Film course, we screened Werner…

Read More