Teaching Ethics & Philosophy classes now, in 2026

At our moment in history:

This is a class that will teach, model, encourage, and require ways of engaging controversial, debated issues that are currently countercultural, out of the norm, and rejected by many people.

These ways of engaging issues include:

1. seeking to deeply and accurately understand claims, views, and arguments, especially those from people who we might disagree with;

2. insisting that people give reasons in support of those views: just “saying stuff” and merely asserting views—without giving any reasons, evidence, or support—will never be acceptable;

3. learning (learning!) some basic logical concepts and skills from critical thinking to help us evaluate those reasons given, to see if they provide good reason to accept whatever view or claim is being advanced: these include arguments from people we might disagree with, and arguments that we ourselves might currently accept;

4. given our understanding of logic, critical thinking, and the arguments given, we can develop skills at developing better arguments than what we often hear, when better arguments can be made, and explain why these are better arguments.

Doing all this requires developing character traits that, again, are widely rejected as valuable, such as:

• patience,

• self-control,

• understanding,

• calmness,

• reflection,

• charity,

• honesty,

• humility—honestly, there is a lot many of us don't know; we likely have some mistaken views,

• fallibility—honestly, we might be mistaken in the evaluation of our own actions: it's possible that we are doing some wrong actions, just as people in the past have done wrong,

• courage,

• consistency,

• self-awareness,

• responsibility,

• gravitas: taking serious issues seriously,

and more.

Why would we do this? Why would we want to do this?

A partial answer is because intellectual skills and attitudes like these have contributed to moral progress—society getting better, morally—and they are part of what's needed for making the future morally better also. They are also many of the skills and virtues of a philosophical person, and this class is an invitation to living a more philosophical life.