Teaching Philosophy

If you’ve considered using podcasts in your own philosophy courses, but don’t know where to start, I’ve compiled some resources here that should help lead the way.

“How-To”

What is a podcast? - a brief introduction to the technology of podcasting, which mentions some instructional benefits and considerations for using this new medium for information delivery

Podcasts in the classroom - an interview with a professor who uses podcasts in his courses (though he’s not a philosophy professor, his message still applies)

Collections of Philosophy Podcasts

Philosopher’s Zone - your “guide through the strange thickets of logic, metaphysics and ethics” by Alan Saunders

Philosophy Bites - podcasts of top philosophers, interviewed by David Edmonds and Nigel Warburton, on bite-sized topics

Philosophy Talk - a weekly, one-hour radio series produced by Ben Manilla. The hosts’ down-to-earth and no-nonsense approach brings the richness of philosophic thought to everyday subjects. Listen to Philosophy Talk for free (requires you to sign up at: http://www.prx.org/user/PhilosophyTalk/)

Ethics Bites - David Edmonds and Nigel Warburton go in search of answers to the big ethical questions in this 14-part podcast.

Philosophy: The Classics - Nigel Warburton reads from his book Philosophy: The Classics

LSAT Logic in Everyday Life - a podcast series from The Princeton Review that applies the logic of the LSAT to analyze the flawed arguments in politics, advertisements, and conventional wisdom

Learn Out Loud - spans from the great ancient philosophers to the great minds of today

In his second video on happiness (linked below), Alain de Boton consults an advertising agency to produce ads reminding us of Epicurus’ central insight that happiness is not found in material wealth, but in friends and family. He briefly claims that the reason for this (at least, on his reading of the tradition) is that advertisers associate their products with those things we do value.

I use contemporary TV commercials to make a similar point in my CT courses, and have been posting them in ‘themes’ from time to time on this blog. de Boton’s video made me reflect on the fact that my collection includes far more images of families and fatherhood than it used to. This is clearly no coincidence. Anyway, here’s the ‘manliness’ series:
Banana Republic - Single guy fantasy Static Link

Mastercard - Bond with your kids Static Link

Sears - get to know your family Static Link

Dockers - notice the last scene in particular Static Link

Saturn - That Dad Static Link

Caravan - bringing the family together Static Link

Walmart - bringing the family together Static Link

Ford - fatherhood Static Link

Johnson and Johnson - guys night out Static Link

This last one just hits exactly the right note for someone with a 3 year old boy, let me tell you.

At the beginning of every semester, I sit down and digitize all the great ‘character’ appeal commercials I’ve collected over the past semester. The spring ritual is particularly good, as the Superbowl usually fuels such collections. This superbowl, however, was pretty much crap. With one notable exception:

(here as a youtube video until I get mine copy digitized]
Coke has been doing these ‘world peace through softdrink selection’ ads for years. May I humble present:

Black History (run during the ‘07 superbowl, which witnessed the first contest between two african-american head coaches): Direct Link

Globalization (first appeared Fall ‘07): Direct Link

Life fulfillment (also ‘07 superbowl) Direct Link

Grand Theft Auto parody (also ‘07 superbowl, but students claim it was run in movie theaters before that) Direct Link

And, the pièce de résistance:

World Peace, Christmas, and Everything: Direct Link

I’ve been using commercials to demonstrate appeals to pathos for a few years now - especially ‘matching character’ via brand identity ads. As it occurs to me, I’ll post some of best examples here.

The following series of ads began in the fall 2006, but continued, primarily during sporting events, until at least the present. The latter two of the set appeared during the baseball playoffs and start of football season, 2007.

Chevy - This is our country Direct Link

The first (above) sparked a controversy regarding the use of dead cultural icons (like Rosa Parks) to sell products they did not endorse while living. You can read Bob Garfield’s commentary here: Baseball, Hotdogs, Rosa Parks and Chevrolet

Chevy - This is our country: Football Direct Link

Chevy - This is our country: Football Direct Link