My Pedagogy
I strive to replace the traditional teacher-student relationship with one of co-participation, decentering myself as the source of knowledge and instead inviting my students to bring their experiential knowledge to bear on course readings, discussions, and exercises. This approach is deeply informed by my public philosophy experience, which you can read more about in my teaching statement.
Courses Taught at UNC (Primary Instructor)
AI and the Future of Humanity: Philosophical Issues about Technology and Human Survival
A survey course including units on moral theorizing through case studies, the ethical landscape of the technosocial world, the relationship between technology and the state, and moral responsibility/moral training of AI/robots.
Bioethics
A survey course with emphasis on the ethics of the practice of medicine, the ethics of medical research, and questions concerning how health resources ought to be distributed.
Courses Taught at UW (Primary Instructor)
Introduction to Ethics (x3)
A survey course exploring ethical theories and various applied ethics topics including sex ethics, gaming ethics, punishment, reparations, ethics of belief, and moral responsibility.
Contemporary Moral Issues
Philosophical analysis of select contemporary social and political issues including linguistic injustice, abortion, reparations, sex ethics, ethics of labor and leisure, and animal ethics.
Reason in Communication
A critical thinking course that included units on rhetoric, logic, Bayesian epistemology, and an application section where we explored conspiracy theorizing, cancel culture, algorithms, and echo chambers.
Introduction to Philosophy
A survey course that included units on theory choice, philosophy of religion, free will, personal identity, epistemology, philosophy of love, and philosophy of music.
Courses Taught at UW (Teaching Assistant)
Introduction to Ethics (w/ Jesse Steinberg)
A survey course exploring ethical theories and various applied ethics topics including sex ethics, gaming ethics, punishment, reparations, ethics of belief, and moral responsibility.
Reason in Communication (w/ Farid Masrour)
A survey course exploring different ways of evaluating, comprehending, and engaging with arguments.
Ethical Issues in Health Care (w/ Robert Streiffer)
A survey course covering topics in bioethics including consent, conscientious refusal, abortion, human enhancement, end of life care, and research ethics.
Elementary Logic (w/ Peter Vranas)
A formal logic class covering sentential and predicate (monadic and polyadic) logic.
Introduction to Philosophy (w/ Henry Southgate)
A survey course exploring different ways of evaluating, comprehending, and engaging with arguments.
Additional Course Outlines
Environmental Ethics
A survey course including units on fundamental environmentalist concepts, debates concerning conservation and intervention practices, who and what is morally considerable, and moral responsibility in the context of climate change.
Introduction to Logic
A formal logic course covering sentential and predicate (monadic and polyadic) logic. My preferred textbook for this course is Barker-Plummer, Etchemendy, and Barwise’s Language, Proof, and Logic. However, I also have a course outline that does not require the textbook or software.
Philosophy of Biology
A survey course including units on the nature of natural selection and other evolutionary factors, adaptationism, laws on biology, and values in biological research, as well as some conceptual analysis puzzles within the life sciences.
Philosophy of Science
A survey course including units on theory change, the aims and results of scientific inquiry, sources of scientific knowledge, and the social structure of science.
Katie Deaven 