Biomedical Ethics:
The field of biomedical ethics, in both the academy and the clinic, has historically grounded much of its analysis in four ethical principles: autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice. What these principles mean and how they ought to be applied to any given case, however, remain sources of continued debate. For decades, critical theoretical approaches to bioethics have questioned the primacy of autonomy, the abstraction and idealization of the principles, and the implied normative subject on which they depend. But controversy over the content and application of the four principles is as much a result of historical change as differences in interpretation. For instance, the protection of research subjects, a key early motivation behind bioethical theorizing, has given way to other problems: an emerging focus on the vast and dire inequities in health outcomes plaguing global society, among other areas of urgent concern, may require distinct conceptual resources. This course will provide students with the necessary background of much bioethical practice while also interrogating the philosophical and historical underpinnings of “principlism.”
I have also taught versions of this course to undergraduate medical students at Penn State College of Medicine.
Philosophy of Technology:
Chat GPT and other applications of generative artificial intelligence have become a source of great fascination and concern in a short time, initiating broad popular conversations surrounding the meaning of artificiality, the purported uniqueness of the human, and the proper goals of contemporary society. Straddling both public discourse and its antecedents in the philosophy of technology, this course pairs classic texts with contemporary analyses and recent op-eds focused on AI. By contextualizing generative AI within the history and philosophy of technology, we will consider both what established conceptual resources can illuminate about these large language model as well as what challenges LLMs pose to received wisdom in philosophy of technology. The course is organized around four key texts in the philosophy of technology, moving from Heidegger and Marcuse to Foucault and Haraway. Each of these landmark texts will be paired with supporting literature and relevant popular writing underscoring connections with contemporary AI use. The course prioritizes the development of argumentative skills which will be put to use in writing assignments for both academic and general audiences. By engaging with public facing writing, students will connect philosophical argumentation to the practice of writing for a popular audience.
Philosophy of Love and Sex:
The domains of sex and love have been cited as, on the one hand, the seat of gendered oppression and, on the other, powerful resources for contesting that oppression. Centered on the ambivalent relationship between love, sex, and domination, this course encourages students to challenge assumptions and received beliefs about romanticized and taboo experiences. We will cover topics including the primacy of romantic love in contemporary American life, varieties of relationship structures and the institutional recognition they receive, and the limits of consent for sexual ethics, and claims to pleasure as a resource for politics. Students will become familiar with a range of thinkers on love and sex, including Audre Lorde, Alison Kafer, Sophie Lewis, Gayle Rubin, and Amia Srinivasan.
Ethical Life (at Penn State University):
This course seeks to orient incoming freshman to University-level study and to the ethical dimensions of life at Penn State. By grounding our study in historical ethical controversies at the University, this course will challenge students to evaluate what went wrong and why. Our four case studies include: the influence of fracking corporations on University research, endemic hazing and related harms in University Greek life, the “land grant” University’s dependence on dispossession of Indigenous land, and the infamous systemic coverup of longstanding child sexual abuse. At the same time, our consideration of these cases will encourage students to envision what an ethical future for the University might look like and how they might fit into it. An introductory unit on the objectives and methods of ethical inquiry will orient students to the course and provide them with tools for analysis.
The field of biomedical ethics, in both the academy and the clinic, has historically grounded much of its analysis in four ethical principles: autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice. What these principles mean and how they ought to be applied to any given case, however, remain sources of continued debate. For decades, critical theoretical approaches to bioethics have questioned the primacy of autonomy, the abstraction and idealization of the principles, and the implied normative subject on which they depend. But controversy over the content and application of the four principles is as much a result of historical change as differences in interpretation. For instance, the protection of research subjects, a key early motivation behind bioethical theorizing, has given way to other problems: an emerging focus on the vast and dire inequities in health outcomes plaguing global society, among other areas of urgent concern, may require distinct conceptual resources. This course will provide students with the necessary background of much bioethical practice while also interrogating the philosophical and historical underpinnings of “principlism.”
I have also taught versions of this course to undergraduate medical students at Penn State College of Medicine.
Philosophy of Technology:
Chat GPT and other applications of generative artificial intelligence have become a source of great fascination and concern in a short time, initiating broad popular conversations surrounding the meaning of artificiality, the purported uniqueness of the human, and the proper goals of contemporary society. Straddling both public discourse and its antecedents in the philosophy of technology, this course pairs classic texts with contemporary analyses and recent op-eds focused on AI. By contextualizing generative AI within the history and philosophy of technology, we will consider both what established conceptual resources can illuminate about these large language model as well as what challenges LLMs pose to received wisdom in philosophy of technology. The course is organized around four key texts in the philosophy of technology, moving from Heidegger and Marcuse to Foucault and Haraway. Each of these landmark texts will be paired with supporting literature and relevant popular writing underscoring connections with contemporary AI use. The course prioritizes the development of argumentative skills which will be put to use in writing assignments for both academic and general audiences. By engaging with public facing writing, students will connect philosophical argumentation to the practice of writing for a popular audience.
Philosophy of Love and Sex:
The domains of sex and love have been cited as, on the one hand, the seat of gendered oppression and, on the other, powerful resources for contesting that oppression. Centered on the ambivalent relationship between love, sex, and domination, this course encourages students to challenge assumptions and received beliefs about romanticized and taboo experiences. We will cover topics including the primacy of romantic love in contemporary American life, varieties of relationship structures and the institutional recognition they receive, and the limits of consent for sexual ethics, and claims to pleasure as a resource for politics. Students will become familiar with a range of thinkers on love and sex, including Audre Lorde, Alison Kafer, Sophie Lewis, Gayle Rubin, and Amia Srinivasan.
Ethical Life (at Penn State University):
This course seeks to orient incoming freshman to University-level study and to the ethical dimensions of life at Penn State. By grounding our study in historical ethical controversies at the University, this course will challenge students to evaluate what went wrong and why. Our four case studies include: the influence of fracking corporations on University research, endemic hazing and related harms in University Greek life, the “land grant” University’s dependence on dispossession of Indigenous land, and the infamous systemic coverup of longstanding child sexual abuse. At the same time, our consideration of these cases will encourage students to envision what an ethical future for the University might look like and how they might fit into it. An introductory unit on the objectives and methods of ethical inquiry will orient students to the course and provide them with tools for analysis.
Syllabi available upon request
