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Pedagogy
A friend recently convinced me that much of the content I develop for use in my own classes might be very attractive for other professors. Honestly, it never really occurred to me before. So I've decided to start making some of the stuff available.
My materials fall into three basic categories:
Research
My primary research is in the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of perception. I consider myself an 'empirically-informed' philosopher of mind insofar as I believe that an adequate theory of mind must be constrained by the empirical facts of the matter. My sympathies lie with those calling themselves 'X-Phi', but I don't as of yet actually conduct my own experiments.
My recent work in perception and color is on color constancy:
I have recently started working on the cognitive science of religion: specifically the ontological categories and nature of explanation one finds in that field. It bothers me to no end that 'Philosophy of Religion' in the APA is little more than a euphemism for 'Christian Philosophy' at worst and 'Philosophy of Abrahamic monotheism' at best. I am pursuing a philosophy of religion that is a sub-discipline of the philosophy of science: 'philosophy of religious studies,' as it were.
I am also interested in the teaching of philosophy, and recently have taken up work on the basic scientific reasoning taught in critical thinking courses. For the most part, I believe this is a disaster. Philosophers of science have largely abandoned the D-N model of explanation, yet we still teach most CT classes as if it were the case. We need to develop instructional content that emphasized modeling and investigating mechanisms. Here are a few of my projects in that arena:
- AAPT Talk 2008 DRAFT - Do not quote.
- Paper (in progress)
- GizmoModeling
- "An Open-Source Modular Interactive Critical Thinking Textbook" NA-CAP, Summer '08
- "Interactive Computer-Based Activities for Undergraduate Cog Sci Instruction: Training in their Use & Exploring Future Directions in their Development and Dissemination", with others CogSci Workshop, Summer '08
- "An Open-Source Modular Interactive Critical Thinking Textbook" AAPT, Summer '07
Projects
As is my way, I am involved in more projects than I can count. Here are a few of the more important ones:
| The Inquiry Project |
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The Inquiry project is an online, modular interactive textbook for critical thinking and basic scientific reasoning. It started life as a FIPSE grant to support research methods in cognitive science, and can still be used for that purpose.
For more information, visit one of the mirrored hosts of inquiry:
Recent Presentations
- "An Open-Source Modular Interactive Critical Thinking Textbook" NA-CAP, Summer '08
- "Interactive Computer-Based Activities for Undergraduate Cog Sci Instruction: Training in their Use & Exploring Future Directions in their Development and Dissemination", with others CogSci Workshop, Summer '08
- "An Open-Source Modular Interactive Critical Thinking Textbook" AAPT, Summer '07
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| Teaching Philosophy Blog |
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A few months ago, I launched a blog on teaching philosophy. The idea is not to provide a forum for pontificating on teaching - although there will be some of that. The idea, rather, is to provide a place to note and share teachable moments, electronic resources, ideas, tips and tricks as they appear. Teaching Philosophy is a wonderful journal. It is not our goal to do what they do. The idea here are that there is a great deal of useful examples and techniques out there that do not rise to the level of a full paper in Teaching Philosophy. We're tryting to provide a resource for sharing those ideas.
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| CCSI Blog |
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At the CogSci workshop last august, we formally launched the Consortium on Cognitive Science Instruction (CCSI). One of our goals was to provide a resource for sharing ideas and materials as they became available. As I was already putting together the Teaching Philosophy blog, I volunteered to do the same thing for CCSI. The result is this blog.
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Courses
I generally try to offer my courses on a 2 year cycle. Here is a rough draft of my long-range plan. To see current courses, click on 'current' to the left.
| First Year Sem |
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Usually 'Critical Thinking', but will become a 'Reacting to the Past' course in the Fall of '09. Offered every other year, alternating with Dr. Jakoby.
Description
See description for 'Critical Thinking'
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| Sophomore Interdisciplinary Seminar |
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Currently planning 'Color' with Dr.s Mian (Physics) and Morrison (Bio) and Mr. Pearson (Studio). Will be offered Spring '11.
Description
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| Phil 1102: Critical Thinking |
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Offered biennially in the fall, alternating with the FYS. Will teach it fall '08. Also offered by Anne Nestor.
Description
Until recently, I believed that groundhogs don't climb trees. It turns out that my belief was false: groundhogs do, in fact, climb trees. On what basis did I change my mind? Well, on what basis do any of us change our minds? On what basis should any of us change our minds? Do we have reasons for believing what we believe? If not, shouldn't we? What kind? Should we ground our beliefs in scientific evidence? And how do we sort out solid scientific evidence from pseudoscientific conjectures? How do others (notably politicians, pundits and marketing execs) seek to manipulate our beliefs and behavior for their own benefit? Critical thinking empowers students to recognize fallacious reasoning, manipulative rhetoric, and other dubious defenses of faulty beliefs. It encourages students to explore various methods of justification, explanation and argumentation in order to understand why we believe what we believe.
In this course, we consider reasoning - how we seek to influence other people's beliefs, and how our beliefs are influenced by others. We search for a good basis upon which to change our beliefs, and we analyze how those in the marketing and political worlds seek to manipulate us into buying their product or voting for their candidate.
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| Phil 2233: Elementary Logic |
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Offered annually in the fall. Will teach it fall '08.
Description
An introduction to formal logic, propositional and predicate. The study of various forms of inference, theorems, derivations and proofs. And a little metalogic thrown in for good measure.
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| Phil 2221: Minds and Machines |
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Offered biennially in the spring. Last taught Spring '08 (Current web site).
Description
This course seeks to investigate the nature of consciousness - from the awareness of being aware to the kind of phenomenal awareness that a honeybee might possess. The nature of consciousness as the object of scientific investigation, as well as the possibility of reducing consciousness to physical, brain, states, will also be discussed.
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| Phil 2222: Philosophy of Art |
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Offered biennially in the spring. Last taught Spring '08 (Current web site).
Description
When Duchamp placed a urinal in the Philadelphia Art Museum and called it 'Fountain', did he make it art? Or is it the art world's response to Duchamp's act that made it art? Are Christo's gates in Central Park Art? Or is it the process of getting approval, designing, and ultimately placing the gates that is the art? Is Kenny G on the same level as John Coltrane? Is Eminem the equal of Mozart? Is 'folk' art Art? On what grounds can art be judged? And on what grounds can we distinguish, if at all, between 'high' art and 'low' art?
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| Phil 3305: Anarchy, Autonomy and Authority |
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Offered biennially, may be moved to fall. Last taught Spring '08 (Current web site).
Description
An introduction to the conceptual foundations, justification and critiques of different forms of social organization, including governments, nation-states, corporations and communes. Critical attention will be paid to how the conceptualization of humans – whether it be in terms of their relationship to a creator or in terms of their ‘natural’ state – motivates various social / political theories.
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| Phil 33XX: Minds and Language |
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Offered (hopefully) biennially, in the fall. Last taught Fall '05. Will be taught Fall '08.
Description
How do words get their meanings? In the 1400's, the word 'nice' meant 'wanton, slovenly or loose-mannered'. Suppose there was a guy named 'Peter' who lived in 15th century Britain. One day he thinks 'Oh, she's nice'. If you think to yourself 'Oh, she's nice' today, in American, do you mean the same thing? Probably not. But does that mean that Peter cannot think about someone being kind, good mannered and friendly? How much do the words we use influence or determine the way we think, or even what we think about? For that matter, can I think without language at all? How if I had no language - like a dog or a cat - could I think?
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| Phil 22/3365: Special Topics |
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Recent offerings include:
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| Phil 22/3366: Special Topics in History of Phil |
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Recent offerings include:
- British Empiricism (Fall '07)
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News
| D.A. Masolo to Speak at McDaniel |
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The Philosophy Department and Cross-Cultural Studies Program is pleased to host distinguished philosopher D.A. Masolo on March 11th, 2008. His talk will be titled "The idea and role of community in Contemporary African Philosophic Practice".
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CV
Here are a few of my recent papers, including in progress, under review and 'on the drawing board'. For my formal CV, click on the link below.
- Color, Constancy and Bayes: A new ... (in press, Philosophical Psychology)
- Naturalizing an unnatural kind... (under review)
- HIstory of color constancy research (in progress)
- On the importance of modeling for Critical Thinking courses (in progress)
Full CV
Current Courses: Fall, 2008
Description
Until recently, I believed that groundhogs don't climb trees. It turns out that my belief was false: groundhogs do, in fact, climb trees. On what basis did I change my mind? Well, on what basis do any of us change our minds? On what basis should any of us change our minds? Do we have reasons for believing what we believe? If not, shouldn't we? What kind? Should we ground our beliefs in scientific evidence? And how do we sort out solid scientific evidence from pseudoscientific conjectures? How do others (notably politicians, pundits and marketing execs) seek to manipulate our beliefs and behavior for their own benefit? Critical thinking empowers students to recognize fallacious reasoning, manipulative rhetoric, and other dubious defenses of faulty beliefs. It encourages students to explore various methods of justification, explanation and argumentation in order to understand why we believe what we believe.
In this course, we consider reasoning - how we seek to influence other people's beliefs, and how our beliefs are influenced by others. We search for a good basis upon which to change our beliefs, and we analyze how those in the marketing and political worlds seek to manipulate us into buying their product or voting for their candidate.
Description
An introduction to formal logic, propositional and predicate. The study of various forms of inference, theorems, derivations and proofs. And a little metalogic thrown in for good measure.
Future Courses: Fall, 2008 (tentative)
Description
Until recently, I believed that groundhogs don't climb trees. It turns out that my belief was false: groundhogs do, in fact, climb trees. On what basis did I change my mind? Well, on what basis do any of us change our minds? On what basis should any of us change our minds? Do we have reasons for believing what we believe? If not, shouldn't we? What kind? Should we ground our beliefs in scientific evidence? And how do we sort out solid scientific evidence from pseudoscientific conjectures? How do others (notably politicians, pundits and marketing execs) seek to manipulate our beliefs and behavior for their own benefit? Critical thinking empowers students to recognize fallacious reasoning, manipulative rhetoric, and other dubious defenses of faulty beliefs. It encourages students to explore various methods of justification, explanation and argumentation in order to understand why we believe what we believe.
In this course, we consider reasoning - how we seek to influence other people's beliefs, and how our beliefs are influenced by others. We search for a good basis upon which to change our beliefs, and we analyze how those in the marketing and political worlds seek to manipulate us into buying their product or voting for their candidate. Description
An introduction to formal logic, propositional and predicate. The study of various forms of inference, theorems, derivations and proofs. And a little metalogic thrown in for good measure. No Courses yet planned for January, 2009. No Courses yet planned for Spring, 2009.
Critical Thinking
During my post doc in the PNP Program at Washington University in St Louis, I worked with Bill Bechtel, Adele Abrahamsen and Carl Craver to develop the Inquiry project. The Inquiry project was originally conceived as a textbook to support research methods in cognitive science.
When I moved to McDaniel, I started teaching Critical Thinking twice a year. I was disheartened at the quality of basic scientific reasoning sections in the standard CT textbooks, so I started adapting the Inquiry project to support CT courses.
In the past four years, I have developed a great deal of multimedia content for use in CT classrooms. I try to post these on the TeachingPhilosophy blog, but I also forget quite a bit. If you want to browse the content:
Cognitive Science
During my post doc in the PNP Program at Washington University in St Louis, I worked with Bill Bechtel, Adele Abrahamsen and Carl Craver to develop the Inquiry project. The Inquiry project was originally conceived as a textbook to support research methods in cognitive science.
While I haven't spent as much time developing CS materials in the past few years, I still maintain a few:
Pedagogical Games
For the past two years, I have been experimenting with academic role-playing games in the classroom. These experiments were initially inspired by the Reacting to the Past series, whose Athens game (The Threshold of Democracy) I have used successfully in three Critical Thinking courses. (Example syllabus: Spring 2007
The Reacting series is good, but it is limited in a number of ways:
- Content breadth. While there are plenty of games relating to politics, there are no games on psychology, and few, if any, on the more broadly defined 'social sciences'.
- Texts. The reacting structure requires a significant primary text, and a historical event around which the game can be structured. This may cause a problem for those who wish to focus on Art, for example.
Last fall, I wrote (read 'improvised') a quick 'reacting-like' game designed to introduce students to topics in social-political philosophy, such as 'rights', 'liberty', 'equality'. These topics appear in many of the political games, such as Athens, but I need the class to focus more specifically on the theoretical issues, rather than the practicalities of building triremes and plotting to become tyrant, for example.
I'm currently updating and revising that game to be used in Phil 3305: Anarchy, Autonomy and Authority in Spring '08.
I'm also drafting a game set around the APA's declassification of homosexuality as a mental illness in the 1970's. This story is fantastic - full of secret societies and backroom shenanigans - but more than that, the debate was merely a flashpoint on a much deeper issue troubling psychology and psychiatry at the time: the shift from 'internal conflict' based explanations of mental illness to bio-chemical based explanations.
At the same time, the American Psychological Association was witnessing the birth of cognitive psychology (George Miller was elected president in 1970) and the decline of behaviorism. Chomsky and Piaget's debate on innateness occurred in 1975. To make the situation even more interesting, the first African-American president of the APA was elected in 1973 () and the first women were elected president since the suffragist period ().
The game is scheduled to be played for the first time in a Sr. Sem in our psychology department in Spring '09. Although it may appear in a sophomore interdisciplinary seminar in Fall '08.
I'll post drafts as they become available.
Events
| D.A. Masolo |
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March 11th, 2008. 7PM.
"The idea and role of community in Contemporary African Philosophic Practice"
Abstract
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Projects
Inquiry Project
CCSI Blog
Teaching Philosophy Blog
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Dr. Peter Bradley