Becko's big shout out

So turns out one of ISW's own, Becko Copenhaver, has been named teacher of the year at Lewis and Clark College. Congratulations (obviously!) -- and check out a video and interview with Becko here.

A reminder: ISW for Kindle

For the tech-savvy: You can subscribe to In Socrates' Wake for your Kindle here. As best I can tell, a couple of dozen of you have done so -- I'd be interested to know you like it!

A word from the Fab Four

Yes, ISW turns five years old today.





In honor, here's our first post. As I said then, we're aiming here "to stimulate dialogue and disseminate ideas about the teaching of philosophy as an academic discipline." How are we doing?


And here are some of our most popular or noteworthy posts:

• Harry Brighouse, "Don't lecture me"
• Becko Copenhaver, "Learning from the right students"
• Adam Potthast, "Please God, no group work"
• Chris Panza, "Academically Adrift, part 4: A call to arms"
• David Hunter, "Modelling behavior: Teaching broadly and essay setting"
• Jason Nicholson, "Teaching pre-college philosophy"
• Jennifer Morton, "Higgins' The Good Life of Teaching: The self-abnegating teacher"
• Jim Spence, "Gamifying the classroom"
• John Alexander, "Business and ethics: A disconnect, part one"
• Karla Pierce, "I'm confused"
• Mike Austin, "Does philosophy provide any answers?"
• Nathan Nobis, "African-American philosophy"
• Vance Ricks, "The case(s) for optional attendance"
• Michael Cholbi, "Downhill grading"

Also, let me take this opportunity to ask readers:

1. Are there other ISW posts that you've found particularly insightful or useful? Perhaps we could create a 'Greatest Hits' link in the right sidebar?
2. What would you like to see more discussion of here at ISW? What teaching-related topics would you be most interested in hearing more about?

One last reminder: The Good Life starts January 30

UPDATE: Chris tells me that those with access to library subscriptions to the Wiley Online Library can download the book section by section.


Well, most of us are already enjoying said life, but our online discussion of Chris Higgins' The Good Life of Teaching begins January 30. Here's my earlier introduction.

Added good news: Chris has indicated that though he wants to keep his nose out of our discussions initially, he'll do a guest post (a sort of 'reply to critics') once our discussion ends mid- February.

I hope everyone will buy the book and join the discussion!

Steppin' up to the mic, parts 10 and 11

ISW is happy to welcome two new contributors to our roster:

First, we're happy to welcome Jennifer Morton. Jennifer is assistant professor of philosophy at City College of New York and a graduate of Stanford's Ph.D. program. Jennifer writes on action theory, moral philosophy, political philosophy, and philosophy of education. She also regularly teaches the intriguingly titled course 'The Rational Animal.'

She'll be joined by Jim Spence, assistant professor of philosophy at Adrian College. Jim received his graduate degree from Bowling Green and writes on both theoretical and applied ethics.

We're looking forward to Jennifer's and Jim's contributions.

Wakey wakey! The Wake seeks new contributors

The esteemed contributors at ISW wish to add to their ranks.

No, we can't pay you. But ISW would be interested in hearing from interested parties willing to join the esteemed list of contributors (scroll down, look right). Poking around the blog should give you a good idea of what's expected from contributors, but the minimal requirements are:

• a decent amount of experience teaching this discipline we call philosophy
• a thoughtful and conscientious approach to said teaching
• the ability to write cogently and provocatively about teaching
• a desire to share your ideas about teaching with others and participate in a collaborative community

ISW topping the charts

So the distinguished aggregator Alltop has ISW as one of its top philosophy blogs and news outlets. It's a distinguished group: Leiter Reports, the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

So congratulations to our contributros, commenters, and followers!

Socrates gets a makeover

So as you can no doubt tell, we have a new design here at ISW. It's been a collaboration, but Adam very kindly took the lead. We humanized ol' Socrates, with a more expressive rendering. Readers, let us know your thoughts!

Next week we're adrift

A reminder: Our online discussion group of the buzzworthy 'Academically Adrift' is scheduled to start on Monday the 28th. We hope all our readers join the discussion. Here are some sources for the book:
Amazon,  U. Chicago Press (Note: there are HTML and Google previews of the book at the Chicago site.)

Steppin' up to the mic: Part 9

We're pleased that Karla Pierce will be joining In Socrates' Wake as a contributor. Karla is a frequent commentator here at ISW and looks to have some serious teaching chops. We're looking forward to her posts!

Yet one more way to feed your ISW fix

UPDATED FEBRUARY 10: We're now in the Kindle bargain bin. Amazon's lowered the monthly cost to 99 cents!

You can now read ISW on your Kindle! Yes, Amazon's fabulous e-reader now offers blog publishing, so the Kindle-enabled among you can now get ISW delivered wirelessly to your e-reader.

Here's the page with all the information. The downside of course is that Amazon charges for such services: $1.99 a month in this case. We still think it's worth it! ISW may see a small revenue stream from Kindle sales. Perhaps we can poll the readership about which worthy cause might benefit from this revenue.

Simply (one of the 50) best

Mike Austin alerted me to ISW being listed as one of the 50 best humanities blogs by the Online Education Database. We're joined by some indisputable philosophy blog all-stars: Leiter Reports, Experimental Philosophy, Think Tonk, PEA Soup, Certain Doubts, the Prosblogion, and others.

It says we look "at philosophy, education and their interactions, exploring teaching methods that get people thinking critically about the world around them."

Yes, we do.

ISW: From infant to toddler

Yes, believe it or not, ISW is now a whopping three years old. Happy birthday to us!

Needless to say, I wasn't sure back when I did the first post here whether this endeavor would succeed. But I think by any measure, we have reason to be proud of what's happened at ISW:

• 330 total posts by our 11 contributors, eliciting over 1,400 comments
• over 4,000 unique visitors, with an average of 100 visits per week
• visitors from 124 countries
• 70+ followers, plus over 400 RSS and e-mail subscribers

And here's our 'greatest hits' (or at least those posts that have drawn the most comments!):

1. Evaluating teaching credentials (September 2007, me )
2. Business and ethics: A disconnect — Part One (July 2007, by John Alexander)
3. Does philosophy provide any answers? (October 2007, by Mike Austin)
4. Teaching pre-college philosophy (March 2009, by Jason Nicholson)
5. Recommending students do what they shouldn't do (February 2008, me)
6. A frustration: Evaluating reasoning vs. evaluating premises (January 2010, me)
7. The reading brain (February 2008, by Becko Copenhaver)
8. On Course, #1: Before the Beginning (The Syllabus) (October 2008, me)
9. Reading student e-mails (January 2010, by Chris Panza)
10. What's philosophy for, anywho? (September 2008, by Chris Panza)

Thanks to all our readers and our contributors!

Steppin' up to the mic, part 8

Been a while since the ISW contributor list expanded, but we're very pleased to welcome Harry Brighouse to our roster of contributors. Harry's a name that is probably well known to many of our readers: He contributes over at Crooked Timber, and I've made mention before of his contributions on grade inflation, advising students about law school, how philosophy is perceived by other disciplines, and some in-class exercises about justice and the family. These contributions only scratch the surface of Harry's work. He's written some fascinating work on democratic theory, educational reform, educational privatization, and school choice. I anticipate he'll bring a most welcome 'big picture' perspective on philosophy teaching to our humble blog.

Web cheers for Harry!

No one likes spam, spam, spam, spam ...

ISW Readers,
Sadly, we've recently been beset with comments spam. To cut down on this, we'll be using word verification for comments. We realize this is a bit bothersome, but it takes only a moment to do the word fill-in and comments will still appear immediately (as opposed to full blown comment moderation, which is burdensome to the Wakers and delays conversation). Sorry, and thanks for understanding.

review of ISW in June 2009 issue of Teaching Philosophy

Those of you who are fans, or at least regular readers, of this site probably also know about the journal Teaching Philosophy, which since its founding in 1975 "has provided a peer-reviewed forum for the exchange of ideas about the challenges faced by philosophers in the classroom, and has published the largest body of original work on philosophy teaching in the English language." Over the years, I have found the journal to be a very helpful resource.

The current issue (Volume 32:2, June 2009) includes a Digital Media Review section. One of the "digital media" under review is this very site. Prof. John Immerwahr (Villanova Univ.), the reviewer, gives a clear (yet concise) overview of this site -- along with advice about how to subscribe to a weblog such as this one.

I'll shatter the suspense -- SPOILER ALERT -- SPOILER ALERT -- SPOILER ALERT --

by saying that it's a positive review! Some selected bits of Immerwahr's review follow. (Seeing the full review online requires that you or your institution's library have an online subscription to the journal, I'm afraid.)

• "This particular blog calls to mind the tradition of essay writing from Montaigne through Addison and Steele. The general format is that Cholbi or one of the other regular authors 'posts' a reflection on some issue related to the teaching of philosophy....other readers post comments or reactions to the original comment.... The whole process, in other words, is rather like a virtual 18th century coffee house. Most of the posts are brief, well-written, thought-provoking, and addressed to real concerns for a typical philosophy instructor."
• "[The discussion of Michael's post, "What If I Just Don't Like You?", is] an interesting exchange that one can read in just a few minutes. It is just the kind of conversation that one might have in a department common room with a group of serious and thoughtful colleagues. But, as we all know, in today’s hectic world those conversations are increasingly rare. It fills a niche, in other words, between a researched article in Teaching Philosophy and a casual venting with a friend, spouse, or partner."
• "ISW allows us to participate in a conversation around issues in teaching that is both thoughtful and thought provoking, inviting further commitment but not requiring it. For a small investment of time, it offers a rich reward."

Hooray for us (especially for Michael), and sincere thanks to Prof. Immerwahr for the positive and encouraging words.

By the way -- as it happens, the other review in the Digital Media Review section (this one written by Ruth Poproski) is of a site developed and maintained by Immerwahr himself: TeachPhilosophy101.org, which "presents strategies and resources for faculty members and graduate assistants who teach philosophy courses, especially at the introductory level; it also includes material of interest to college faculty generally." There's a permanent link to that site down in the lower righthand side of this page. Check it out!

Steppin' up to the mic, part 7

ISW is pleased to welcome its newest contributor: Jason Nicholson. Jason specializes in social and political philosophy, but his pedagogical duties also include history of philosophy, logic, and ethics. And perhaps most intriguingly: He teaches philosophy to (!) high schoolers at a private boarding school. I'm sure we're all interested to hear about that experience.

Welcome aboard Jason!

Joblessness at 14-year high. Why not work at ISW?

No, we can't pay you. But ISW would be interested in hearing from interested parties willing to join the esteemed list of contributors (scroll down, look right). Poking around the blog should give you a good idea of what's expected from contributors, but the minimal requirements are:

• a decent amount of experience teaching this discipline we call philosophy
• a thoughtful and conscientious approach to said teaching
• the ability to write cogently and provocatively about teaching
• a desire to share your ideas about teaching with others and participate in a collaborative community

Because we'd like to diversify the blog's content, the following, though not strictly qualifications, would be welcome:

• that you aren't male
• that your main philosophical interests or teaching responsibilities aren't in ethics.

Have I sold you yet? Again, no pay but decent benefits. Please shoot me an e-mail at

mjcholbi"at"csupomona"dot"edu

if you're interested.

Follow the Wake!

Folks might notice that I put a link on the right to enable ISW readers to follow our blog. Please become a follower if you so desire. It's a great way to keep up with what's happening here.

Steppin' up to the mic: part 6

I'm happy to tell our readers that Rebecca Copenhaver has joined us as a contributor. Becko teaches at Lewis and Clark College, and she is an early modernist, a specialist in Reid in fact. So we're hoping she can enlighten us on the mysteries of teaching the history of philosophy. Welcome Becko -- and we look forward to your posts.