Public Philosophy Projects
My philosophy courses are centered around structured inquiry. In this public philosophy project, I post examples of student work and invite engagement. A primary aim is to highlight the importance of raising, recognizing, rummaging through, and responding to philosophical questions reasonably.
Public Discussions
I am sometimes invited to participate in public discussions by serving on panels and giving public lectures
What is the Force of the Direct Argument? - Philosophy Colloquium (2025), Department of Philosophy, University of Nebraska-Omaha
Healthcare Financial Management Association (HMFA) (2024) - Nebraska (HMFA) Annual Conference: Financial Ethics and Health Care (Spring 2025)
Workers’ Compensation Association - Nebraska Symposium (2023)
Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility
After the Kutak Center for the Teaching and Study of Applied Ethics ran out of its administrative funding, I undertook to continue to maintain, develop, and implement programming in pursuit of the following mission:
Highlight the importance of and encourage the exploration of ethics, social responsibility, and critical thinking across the disciplines and various methods of inquiry.
I do this with generous help from student and community volunteers. Our website and programs continue to raise literacy and concern through the teaching and study of professional and practical ethics as well as philosophy more broadly. Below is a link to the center’s website and two example programs serving that effort:
Papers and Books in Progress
‘Teaching Philosophy and Students Who are Visually Impaired’
A significant number of students who are visually impaired do not finish their degree programs in higher education. One factor affecting degree completion is the fact that most must seek learning support beyond their academic institution, since resources for accommodating these students are scarce. This paper aims to make progress against that scarcity for instructors in higher education, especially those who teach philosophy. The essay begins by connecting best general pedagogical practice to best practices for instructing students who are visually impaired. This demonstrates that (a) instructional materials primarily need modifications that support learning for students who are not visually impaired if they need any modification at all. and (b) the modifications called for typically minimal. Thus, we are in a good position to positively effect learning experiences for students who are visually impaired—modifications when needed are globally helpful and modifying is typically not arduous. To further demonstrate (a) and (b) and contextualize them, I follow up that discussion with an evaluation of three instructional materials used in introductory logic classrooms to support students evaluate syllogisms in light of that guidance.
‘Class Size is a Class Issue’
The division of labor is a central animating feature in the capital competition that likely intimates inevitable revolution. Another is the invention of machines that allow for the pairing down of Human Resources required for capital gain through the generation of valuable products and services. This essay first furthers the argument for a wider understanding of machine-replacement in non-manufacturing service jobs, which is integral to uncovering mechanisms in non-manufacturing service industries that function to reduce reliance on human persons. My case study is class size in primary, secondary, and higher education. I show that class size is akin to the combination of the ‘spinning Jenny’ and the water pump. The former was one of the first machines to be introduced in factories in London in the mid 1760’s. It allows its operator to spin nearly ten times as many spools of yarn than previously possible. The water pump simply replaced the workers needed to operate the jenny. Like that combo, class size functions to reduce the educational workforce. Given that class size has significant adverse affects on instructors and students, I argue that the move to reduce the number of teachers relied on to educate a population is unjust and runs contrary to the aims of public and private education.
Teaching Philosophy: A Critique and Technique
I present a method for teaching philosophy. I argue for principles that can guide philosophy instructors’ design of learning experiences. As the argument unfolds, I develop accounts of aspects of effective teaching like alignment and balance. Finally, I offer tools and examples to aid in application.
‘Balance: Content and Instruction’
First, I argue for a specific way of understanding and meeting the challenge of balancing content coverage and skill building. I follow up by offering a system for achieving balance in one’s course design and pedagogy in philosophy. Second, I show that this model for balancing course content in terms of a bit of content’s primary pedagogical function also speaks to balancing course content and instruction on the basis of political affinity. According to most, instructors and their course content should remain politically neutral. I appeal the model and the principles that underwrite it to show that that common precept is misguided, especially in the face of widespread injustice and banal cruelty.
Neo-Feudalism and Abolition Democracy
I argue that abolition democracy should aim to reveal, recognize, and respond to injustice as flowing not from capitalism but from a background feudal system that has outlasted all liberal-egalitarian and proletarian revolutions. My main model is prison abolition. The focus on prisons illustrates the way systems are arranged and function to maintain a second-class citizenry for exploitation. I show that those same systems can and did function absent capitalism. They were at work in feudal arrangements. I go on to show that neo-feudalism is our current condition, thus we should focus on dismantling the systems that materialize that order. I draw insights from abolition-democratic practices like reparative justice to offer guidance for action.
