“… this feeling — a sense of wonder —

is perfectly proper to a philosopher:

philosophy has no other foundation, in fact.”

—Plato, Theaetetus, 155d.

Wonder, as both perplexity and open-minded delight, is as provocative of the birth of a philosophical disposition as it is the foundation of philosophy itself.  It also proves to be another name for Husserl’s epoché, that rigorous suspension of presuppositions and biases that he sets as the philosopher’s necessary, primary task.  Wonder, then, is also our task to nurture and maintain the conditions for the development of the philosopher and philosophy.  Without wonder, one too easily stands as an ultimate subject ruling over the world and others as objects, thus blind to their true natures.  Without wonder, students may garner some information but they will not learn, nor will the teacher.  To continually strive to maintain a sense of wonder for the world and ideas is my primary endeavor and the best descriptor for both the method and its consequent goals I work to have my teaching embrace.  Wonder is openness to what philosophy is and means and pedagogically necessitates openness to the individuals impacted by philosophy, primarily, my students and myself, but consequently, the larger community and world into which we travel. 

The sense of wonder that is provocative of philosophy is also a fragile state.  Its excess and deficiency both result in blindness, one form that hopelessly gropes and one that simply stagnates.  True fidelity to wonder demands that one does not fall back upon the comfortably known, but that one turns back to it wisely.  I value the canon of Western philosophy and believe that it is our society’s future as much as it is our biography.  As such, it can neither be a closed set of authors, works, or interpretations nor dismissed as out of date.  Wonder is both open-minded delight and perplexity and cannot be sincerely felt and honored without a passionate commitment to the rigor of philosophical training.  It takes time for any student to become capable of reading the most challenging primary sources of philosophy.  This capacity must be encouraged so that the students’ attention to the texts are due to their ever-increasing interest in them, their relation to other intellectual pursuits, and to their everyday lives.  This makes the canon of our civilization relevant and alive and this is the cultivation of wonder that fuels philosophic development. 

My own educational background has alternated between classical and alternative educational models and I see no detrimental conflict between tradition and innovation.  This diversity has prepared me well to be able to respond to the varying needs of students as each classroom creates a unique community and each community has its own weaknesses and strengths.  To each classroom, I bring an uncommon mix of strategies accompanied by a spirit of flexibility to further tailor them to the best fit.  My goal is to be ever receptive to each class in order to be the best instructor to each group of students and to best challenge myself by never letting a course or its material become sheer habit, thus lacking in wonder.  Thus, I enter each classroom as a person impassioned by philosophy and eager to introduce and share in this unique field.  I act as a guide who also wants to learn from the experience of our collective encounter with each text. 

It is true that a passion for something will naturally tend towards its practice becoming specialization: another feature of the fragility of wonder.  However, if one remains open to new studies, one’s passions will come into focus without becoming narrow.  Thus, I actively design classes and assignments that encourage non-philosophy students to understand how the study of philosophy can apply to and enrich their specific fields and remind dedicated philosophy majors that philosophy is the love of wisdom and to not keep too tight a perspective on what the canon may be able to mean as they pursue specialization.  I have found the most success here by teaching classes that are simultaneously historically based and thematic.  Tracing topics through eras and schools opens new horizons of dialogue so that the lessons are not exhausted when the class ends.  Theoretically open to many voices, I also encourage this practically; lectures serve as the heart of my courses, but such cannot live without class discussion en masse and in small groups.  I maintain this diversity in assignments so that self-study projects are frequent and thrive alongside collaborative projects.  I believe that speaking and writing must be in balance so that study can commence within the classroom and overflow into life outside the room and campus.  To this end, technology must be made into a positive force, and not a crippling crutch.  In other words, I believe that the form of philosophy must be as open as its content.

This approach in the classroom also permits my supplementation of interdisciplinary pursuits, guided by the interests and capacities of each particular class.  These may include lessons on historical situation to explain social, political, or religious influences or examinations of other cultural or psychological readings of the texts.  I have great interest in and have had success from turning to aesthetic understandings of texts and ideas though the visual arts and literary explorations: often, students feel more comfortable speculating on the meaning of a painting or poem before tackling a treatise.  Sometimes film proves to give thought the materiality the students need to fully understand it while sometimes the students really grasp a thought when they can transform it into their own creative production.  I firmly believe philosophy ought not draw such strict lines between theory and practices.  Thus, I look forward to an opportunity to explore how it may more profitably encourage service-work in one’s outside community.  I believe that if one genuinely approaches philosophical texts and ideas in wonder, one must be willing to purse these ideas beyond just the texts themselves and see them in action in the world. 

Philosophy provides many lenses through which to examine the world and teaches a language from which the students can learn to express themselves as part of a tradition and establish themselves as the tradition’s future.  I consider it an honor to be within the discipline of philosophy and able to share it with students.  I understand that how I share my love of philosophy has an impact on how students receive the lessons and take it up as part of their own intellectual paths.  If I taught philosophy as a closed study I would be demonstrating that there is only one voice of civilization.  I consider this to be incorrect and disingenuous to the sprit of philosophy.  Instead, I teach philosophy as a rich, multi-tongued tradition and demonstrate this by closely reading these many voices and listening to the diverse student contributions.  This broad study births and drives perplexity, but in the uncommon challenge we can find our greatest delight.  Acknowledging the feeling of confusion or unknowing as not something bad, but as the very revelation of the students’ capacities for success galvanizes a classroom community that can truly contribute to thought.  My pedagogy is rooted in my own genuine openness and sense of wonder I receive from and turn back to the study of philosophy.

For more thoughts on pedagogy, please click here.

For a Statement of Research, please click here.

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