Teaching

University of Chicago

2025

Existentialists and Mystics

This will be a course on the philosophical work and ideas of Iris Murdoch. We will try to understand Murdoch’s distinctive contribution to twentieth century philosophy by putting her work in conversation with key authors with whom she engaged: Plato, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Simone Weil. These authors have been chosen because they served as significant figures for Murdoch’s thought, either by inspiring her views or provoking disagreement from her.

The first part of the course begins with Murdoch’s late views inspired by Plato; the later part of the course will be split between Sartre and Weil, as well as Murdoch’s work related to these thinkers. We will first try to get a picture of Murdoch as a mature philosopher, engaging substantially with Plato in order to understand the historical background for her considered views. After that, we will move chronologically backwards, spending time discussing Murdoch’s critical insights about Sartre’s existentialism; and finally, we will consider the ways in which she is and is not influenced by the mystic Simone Weil. 

The Works of Edith Stein

This will be a course on works by the philosopher Edith Stein. We will read excerpts from Alasdair Macintyre’s Edith Stein: A Philosophical Prologue, as well as Stein’s work on our knowledge of other minds (On the Problem of Empathy) and studies toward a philosophy of being (Potency and Act).

Humanities Core: Philosophical Perspectives II

First year undergraduate discussion-focused seminar. Readings: Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy, Hume’s An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, and Shakespeare’s Othello, supplemented by optional contemporary readings.

2024

Humanities Core: Philosophical Perspectives I

First year undergraduate discussion-focused seminar. Readings: selections from Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Plato’s Apology, Crito, and Phaedo.

Other Minds

This will be a course on the problem of other minds. We will try to understand what the problem is by considering two formulations of it. The first formulation is epistemological: it asks how we know (1) that other minded beings exist, and (2) about others. The second formulation is conceptual and concerns the question of where one gets the idea of another subject. We will also consider some proposals about our understanding and knowledge of other minds. Among the proposals addressing these questions are ones which appeal to perception, acknowledging, communication, empathy, and being-looked-at. We will read from philosophy covering these topics. 

Senior Seminar

Thesis seminar for BA Honors Thesis.

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