Teaching
Teaching is a passion of mine. As an undergraduate, I fell in love with philosophy, and I instill this same passion for philosophy into my students. My simple, twofold goal for my students is to make philosophy interesting and clear. I simulate student interest by creating interfaces between the philosophical arguments and what students already care about, such as social, political, and pop cultural issues. I promote clarity by emphasizing simple deductive arguments in classroom discussions and assignments. As a teacher of philosophy, I continually self-assess and strive to improve my pedagogical methods.
Current Courses
- The Examined Life: Ultimate Questions: Saint Louis University, Fall 2024
This course invites students to explore enduring philosophical questions and to reflectively evaluate the various answers given them by thinkers from a range of social, historical, and religious contexts. Students will tackle ultimate questions in a range of philosophical domains, including issues such as the nature of self and ultimate reality, morality and human meaning, rationality and the pursuit of truth. The aim of the course is to give students an opportunity to critically examine their own beliefs and commitments in dialogue with each other and with great thinkers past and present.
- Syllabus; Schedule
- Graduate Seminar: Epistemic Permissivism: Saint Louis University, Fall 2024
Epistemologists largely agree that epistemic rationality is a function of the evidence. But does the evidence always point us in one direction, so there’s a single attitude we ought to adopt toward any given proposition? Or is the evidence ever ambiguous enough that we could rationally come to different conclusions about the same topic? Epistemic impermissivists argue that evidence cannot be permissive; our evidence obliges us to adopt a single attitude toward each proposition. Permissivists, in contrast, argue that the evidence sometimes leaves open what we should conclude. This seminar will look at the debate between permissivism and impermissivism. We’ll explore the general debate and look at arguments for both sides. Then, we’ll explore implications of (im)permissivism for other questions in philosophy of mind and epistemology, such as: do we have voluntary control over our beliefs? Can non-epistemic factors affect rational belief? Finally, we’ll apply (im)permissivism to questions in religious epistemology: e.g. What implications does (im)permissivism have as we are evaluating the evidence for and against theism? Can atheists and theists both be rational? If so, what might break the “epistemic tie” between theism and atheism?
- Syllabus; Schedule
Future Courses
- Ethics: Saint Louis University, Spring 2025
Past Courses
- Critical Thinking: Toronto Metropolitan University, Spring 2024 (1 section, in person), Fall 2023 (1 section, online), Spring 2021 (2 sections, hybrid), Spring 2022 (2 sections, online) (100-level)
DESCRIPTION: Have you ever wanted to be more rational in your beliefs and reasoning? Or how to find the truth, especially in light of human biases and flawed reasoning? If you answered “yes” to either of these questions, this class is for you! This course is mostly about two things: arguments and rationality. We’ll cover what an argument is, what makes an argument a good one, and how to determine what argument someone is making. We’ll also talk about rationality, including what makes a belief rational, some common errors in human reasoning, and how to avoid making them. This class will have three parts. Here are examples of the questions we will cover. (Unit 1: Introduction to Critical Thinking) What is an argument? What’s the relationship between language and truth? What makes a belief rational? (Unit 2: Argument Evaluation) What are the different ways we evaluate an argument? What makes an argument a good one? (Unit 3: Argument Identification and Reconstruction) How do we determine when an argument is being made, and what argument is being made?
- Syllabus
- Link to Playlist of Lectures
- Upper Level Undergraduate Seminar on the Rationality of Religious Commitment: Toronto Metropolitan University, Fall 2022 (900-level)
DESCRIPTION: This seminar in philosophy of religion is focused on the rationality of religious commitment. The course will have three units. The first explores religious belief. We’ll discuss what belief is, what might be distinctive about religious belief, and theories of when religious belief is rational/irrational. The second unit is about religious faith. We’ll look at the nature of faith, how faith is different than belief, and whether faith can be rational but in some sense “go beyond the evidence.” The final unit will explore the rationality of religious practice. We’ll explore different forms religious practice can take, and whether religious practice could be rational even if religious belief and faith are not.
- Syllabus
- Graduate Seminar on Evidence: Toronto Metropolitan University, Fall 2021 (800-level, online)
DESCRIPTION: This seminar in epistemology is focused on evidence. The course will have three units. The first explores the nature of evidence. We’ll look at different conceptions of evidence and different sources of evidence. The second unit is about evidentialism, the idea that rational belief is determined only by the evidence. We’ll explore both arguments for evidentialism and challenges to evidentialism, including topics like moral and pragmatic encroachment, practical reasons for belief, and self-justifying beliefs. The final unit will explore whether evidence can be permissive, and we’ll discuss arguments for and against permissivism and applications of permissivism.
- Syllabus
- Knowledge, Truth, and Belief: Toronto Metropolitan University, Fall 2020, Fall 2021 (500-level, online)
DESCRIPTION: Epistemology is the study of knowledge. Belief and truth are parts of knowledge. But what are the other components of knowledge? How much can we know? Could someone know that God exists? How do other people affect what we can (and can’t) know? This class will have four parts. Here are examples of the questions we will cover. (Unit 1: Knowledge) What is knowledge? What is truth? When is a belief justified? Are there other components of knowledge? Should we even analyze knowledge at all? (Unit 2: Skepticism) Can we know anything? If so, what can we know? Is our knowledge non-existent, very limited, or widespread? (Unit 3: Social Epistemology) When should we believe someone else’s testimony? How does social media affect what we can know? Is it ever okay to believe beyond—or even against—the evidence? (Unit 4: Religious Epistemology) Can faith be rational but go beyond the evidence? What is Pascal’s wager? Does it provide us a good reason to believe in God?
- Syllabus
- Link to Playlist of Lectures
- Graduate Seminar on Permissivism and Disagreement: Australian National University, Spring 2020 (Foundations Seminar, online)
- Social Philosophy: Notre Dame, Fall 2017 (200-level, in-person)
DESCRIPTION: Humans are social creatures. Social phenomena, such as gender, race, sports teams, music groups, faith, testimony, charity, refugees, pornography are all around us and are a large part of how we understand the world and each other. Social philosophy is the systematic study of philosophical questions that bear on social phenomena, such as the above. While these social phenomena are a significant part of our lives and the world around us, philosophers have devoted less attention to them than to other domains that describe the world. But we cannot know what the world is like without also diving into questions about what the social world is like. The aim of this class is to help students do just that.
- Syllabus
- Introduction to Philosophy: Notre Dame, Fall 2016 (100-level; TA for Jeff Speaks)
Prospective Courses
Grant Activity
Michael Rota (UST) and I have received a grant, The Psychology of Faith: Academic Cross-Training, which goes from 2023–2025.
With the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation, the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota announces a sub-granting competition to fund academic cross-training in the psychological sciences for scholars of Christian theology or philosophy of religion with research interests relating to religious belief or religious commitment. Six applicants—Mark Boespflug, Rebecca Chan, Stephen Bullivant, Victoria Lorrimar, Bethany Sollereder, and Michael Waddell—each received a $70,000 award providing the opportunity to engage in a 2-year intensive study in the psychological sciences, to apply and leverage insights from the psychological sciences in their work as theologians and philosophers.
- See here for more information.
Service
Current service:
- I help organize the St. Louis Conference on Reasons and Rationality (SLACRR). Our 2025 meeting is May 18-20. 750-1500 word abstracts are due January 15, 2025. For more, see the SLACRR website.
- I help with job placement for our PhD students at St. Louis University. For information about SLU’s recent placements, see here. Feel free to contact me for more information regarding our current job candidates.
Past service:
- I was on the Executive Committee for the Society of Christian Philosophers. For more information about the group, see here.
- I helped organize the Toronto philosophy of religion works-in-progress group (with Klaas Kraay and Daniel Rubio). For more information about the group, see here.
- I was the Vice President of the Canadian Society of Christian Philosophers. For more information about the group, see here.