A major priority of my teaching is grounding philosophy in students’ everyday experiences. Even though philosophical texts have their origin in human experience, it is not always easy to see how the abstract ideas and reasoning present in texts relate to our own experiences. In order to help students make this connection, I structure my classes around a mix of lectures, activities, and discussions that help students personally experience these ideas and arguments.

For example, in my human nature class I combine a brief lecture on Plato’s argument for the existence of the soul prior to birth with an activity and discussion that brings the argument to life for students. Plato’s argument proceeds from the premise that our concept of equality is not something we gather from our sensible experience of the world. Before presenting this argument to students, we head outside of our classroom to search for “equal” things. Students gather pairs of items such as sticks, leaves, and blades of grass, and we then discuss to what extent the things they gathered are exactly alike and whether or not our idea of equality can be found in the disparate items we have gathered. This exercise thus provides students with a concrete and personal experience that helps them connect with Plato’s abstract argument in the Phaedo when we return to class to examine it.