Announcing The Schedule For My Summer 2013 Online Interactive Classes Available To All

May 22, 2013 By 2 Comments

Here are the courses I am offering this summer using Google Hangout’s interactive video conferencing technology! Click on the post for full course descriptions and more information. Write me at camelswithhammers at gmail dot com in order to get your own questions answered or to enroll immediately!

Philosophy for Atheists, Sunday nights 8-11pm EDT from June 2-September 1 (13 week course).

Nietzsche, Tuesday/Thursday nights 7-9pm EDT from June 4-August 15 (10 week course).

Foundations of Ethics, Thursday nights 9pm-12am EDT from June 6-September 5 (13 week course)

Practical Ethics, Sundays 9-11:30am EDT from June 2-September 22 (16 week course)

Historical Philosophy, Aristotle to the Present, Sundays 12-2pm EDT from June 2-October 20 (20 week course with students already taking it who are presently finishing studying Plato with me. You would join us as we start Aristotle and continue on through the rest of the history of philosophy. If you want, we can do special sessions on Plato for two or three weeks right after the normal class is over.)

Practical Ethics, Friday evenings 5:15-7:45pm EDT from July 6-October 26 (16 week course)

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Hammer Out Your Philosophy Face to Face with Dr. Daniel Fincke This Summer

April 27, 2013 By 5 Comments
Daniel Fincke Red Couch

In this post I report back on how my online classes have been going and link to this new survey which you can fill out if you would like me to teach you philosophy or give you philosophical counseling this summer and/or fall. It’s like reading Camels With Hammers, but instead you’re learning from and arguing with me directly, systematically, and face to face, for a couple hours a week.

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The Letter That Will Probably Get Me Fired

April 23, 2013 By Leave a Comment

In this post, with his gracious permission, I have reposted in full Monte Abbott’s blog post “The Letter That Will Probably Get Me Fired” which originally appeared on his blog Gay Pentecostal Atheist. For many of my own ruminations on my own situation as an adjunct professor, read my post from the beginning of this school year “The Underemployment Crisis and Me”.

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How I Teach People To Play Chess

February 21, 2013 By 6 Comments

When I teach people to play chess, I make it so I can legitimately win or legitimately lose, and also win either way.

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Training Students To Think For Themselves

December 15, 2012 By 11 Comments

This summer a wise older philosophy professor was railing about being asked by his administration to specify for each of his courses what the “learning outcomes” would be. He was, essentially, being asked to indicate what the students were going to learn. He found the suggestion preposterous. He insisted he couldn’t know what the students were going to learn. His job was not to predetermine what the students were going to learn. He might know what the basic subject matters and materials of his courses would be; but what would the students learn from them? How could he know that in advance, if they were going to be thinking for themselves, rather than merely regurgitating information?

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Careers for Philosophy PhDs Outside of Academia

December 9, 2012 By 3 Comments
David E. Storey, PhD

What can you do with a PhD in Philosophy if you don’t become a professor? Dave Storey has a lot of information and ideas on the subject.

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Goldiblox: Toys For Creating A Love of Engineering in Girls

November 21, 2012 By 13 Comments

An entrepreneurial engineer has designed a fantastic looking toy for creating a love of building in girls.

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Fordham Repudiates Ann Coulter

November 9, 2012 By 25 Comments
me in my Fordham robes, upon receiving my PhD

As an outspoken atheist and critic of religious beliefs and institutions, I have had nothing but positive experiences with Fordham University as a place of inclusiveness, civility, and academic freedom during my years there as a graduate student and professor. So I was worried when I learned Ann Coulter, a terrible opponent of so many of Fordham’s most admirable values, had been invited to speak on campus.

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Philosophy For Children

September 17, 2012 By 6 Comments

A short video on the value of teaching philosophy to children: The lack of philosophical education prior to the university level is one of the great overlooked gaps in the American education system. Kylie Sturgess has an article on her experience related to the philosophical education of children. She also links to an audio program [...]

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The Underemployment Crisis and Me

August 28, 2012 By 65 Comments

I met Zakiya Muwwakkil as we were both receiving our PhDs from Fordham University on our graduation day in 2010. We hit it off right away. She was receiving her degree in theology and she went on to deconvert from Christianity shortly thereafter. She made this video to raise consciousness about the problem of unemployment [...]

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