Honors Senior Theses/Projects
Date of Award
6-2022
Exit Requirement
Undergraduate Honors Thesis/Project
Department
Honors Program
Faculty Advisor
Dr. Ryan Hickerson
Honors Program Director
Dr. Gavin Keulks
Abstract
This essay begins with two assumptions, and throughout tries to remain honest to them. First, that the Discipline of Western Philosophy, and pedagogy too, have certain intrinsic values. And second, that when a philosophy professor teaches, their teaching should be informed by the values of philosophy and the research that has been done on pedagogy. It would be somewhat strange, after all, if philosophy were taught unphilosophically or unpedagogically. Those are my assumptions. This paper is dedicated toward answering what the values of Western Philosophy are, how current practices break them, and what a philosophy class would look like if it were philosophically and pedagogically inspired. This paper is both critical and constructive: it critiques how philosophy is generally taught, and constructs an alternative. My goal, this essay’s goal, is to convince its reader that the proposed alternative is valuable — an improvement upon how things stand today, both because of its philosophical roots and pedagogical acuity.
Recommended Citation
Denning, Nick, "Teaching the Discipline of Western Philosophy According to its Own Values and in Reference to Pedagogical Research" (2022). Honors Senior Theses/Projects. 262.
https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/honors_theses/262