Primary Instructor

Directed Studies: Philosophy (Yale University; Spring 2018, 2020)

For four years, I taught the Philosophy section of Directed Studies at Yale. Directed Studies is Yale’s version of a great books program for first year students who are accepted into it. It is an accelerated two-semester sequence on the history of Western philosophy as a part of Yale University's Directed Studies program for first year students. The course begins with Plato and ends with Murdoch. (A full description of the program can be found here.) The syllabi change a bit from year to year, but an example can be found here and here; it is designed by the Yale Philosophy department in consultation with the Directed Studies program.

Early Modern Philosophy (Amherst College; Spring 2019)

This course cover the philosophical tradition initiated by Descartes and coming to an end in Kant. Thematically, the focus of the course is on the different attempts made by thinkers in this tradition to examine anew, from the ground up, our capacity to know the world.

The syllabus can be found here.

Introduction to Philosophy

I have taught a version of Introduction to Philosophy several times - once at Amherst College (there titled “Philosophical Questions”) and many times at Houston Community College, to both college students and high school students.

The most current syllabus for the latter version can be found here.

19th Century Philosophy (University of Houston; Fall 2022)

This course is an advanced undergraduate course, intended to fulfill the requirements of a history of philosophy course for the major.

The focus of the course is on freedom. In attempting to save freedom from the threat posed by nihilism and by natural science, many philosophers in the 19th century came to think that my freedom is dependent upon your freedom, and yours is dependent upon mine. This idea proved to be one of the most influential of the period, as it seems to ground a revolutionary politics grounded on the thought that the freedom of any depends upon the freedom of all. We will explore the idea of mutual recognition and its relation to our freedom by reading the original sources of the idea (Fichte and Hegel), some of the later philosophers influenced by the idea (Marx, du Bois, de Beauvoir, Althusser, Butler), and some of the revolutionary political theories that it helped spawn.

Of course, no significant claims in philosophy go without challenge, and we will spend several weeks reading some of the most influential challenges to the focus on freedom: Kierkegaard’s attempt to show that such a view was incompatible with religion and a genuine faith in God, and Nietzsche’s attempt to show that that idea of freedom (and the associated theories of morality) has its roots in resentment and needs to be abandoned.

The syllabus can be found here.

Ancient Philosophy (University of Houston; Fall 2022)

This course is an advanced undergraduate course, intended to fulfill the requirements of a history of philosophy course for the major.

Ancient philosophers all thought of philosophy as a way of life: they philosophized with the direct aim of living well, of attaining what they called happiness (eudaimonia). In this course we will focus on some of the themes they explored in pursuit of that goal, with the idea that perhaps we too can come closer to eudaimonia through sharing their thoughts.

We will start the course with Plato’s famous discussions of love in his Symposium: what are the different kinds of love? is there a kind of love that ranks higher than all other kinds? is it good to love, and why (not)? We will then turn to one of the greatest masterpieces in all of human thinking, Plato’s Republic, where we will consider whether the just life is a happy one and what role the organization of society has to play in our answer to that question. After that we will consider Aristotle’s account of virtue and the purpose of a human life by reading the Nicomachean Ethics. We will see how that fits into his view of the universe as a whole, by considering excerpts from his theories of the soul, of God, and of being. Finally, we will spend a few weeks considering the challenge posed by skepticism (originally understood to be a way of life too, one that rivals the views we consider earlier in the class), and do our best to understand what Plato and Aristotle might have said in response. Occasionally, throughout the course, we will read works by contemporary authors that either offer helpful interpretations of what the ancients are up to, or take up their topics in ways that directly bear on contemporary life.

The syllabus can be found here.

Teaching Assistant

Marx's Capital (for Anton Ford, University of Chicago; Fall 2016)

In this course, we read nearly all of Capital, Vol. 1.

Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations (for Jason Bridges, University of Chicago; Winter 2014)

In this course, we read through most of the first part of the Investigations and Saul Kripke's Wittgenstein on Rules and Private Language.

History of Philosophy 1: Ancient Philosophy (for Gabriel Lear; Fall 2013)

In this course, we read Plato's Euthyphro, Laches, Meno and Symposium, selections from Aristotle's Physics, Metaphysics, de Anima, and Nichomachean Ethics, and selections from Cicero and Epictetus.

History of Philosophy 3: Kant and 19th Century Philosophy (for Anselm Mueller; Spring 2013)

In this course, we read most of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason and selections from Hegel's Phenomenology.

For student evaluations from any of these courses, please email me at andrewtimothywerner[at]gmail[dot]com.