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The study of philosophy can have a tremendous impact on everyday life. The skills that philosophy imparts impact every aspect of life, and it structures our pursuits and values in a way that proffers meaning and a sense of purpose to our activities. As professors of philosophy, we have the power to produce a transformational, sustained positive influence on how students understand their lives and what it means for them to live well. By developing their intellectual, spiritual, and ethical dimensions, students are better prepared for living autonomous and meaningful lives. Students should be encouraged by example to engage with their world and with their own minds, and to actively participate in the search for wisdom, which means not only possessing knowledge and information, but also using that information for a purpose — including the practical purpose of living a good and valuable life.
The goal of philosophical instruction should be to teach students how to do philosophy. To do philosophy is to exercise a set of skills in a self-directed way, including the intellectual skills of:
- interpretation and analysis
- argumentation
- application of knowledge and methodology
- communication
We also focus on skills associated with applying careful thought in practice, or practical wisdom. The skills of practical wisdom include:
- the ability to recognize how our actions assume certain values
- the application of theoretical knowledge in practice and seeing how practice informs theoretical knowledge
- awareness of our lives and our values
- mindfully living according to our knowledge and values
Philosophy is thus, at heart, an art: the skilled activity of living well.
If you are searching for ways to help students connect coursework with their own lives and to help them find deeper meaning in concepts presented in your class, then consider these activities. The student’s experience of doing philosophy becomes part of their course “text,” connecting their learning to the real world by extending the boundaries of the classroom. Essentially, students have theory-informed practice. With slight modifications, these activities can be suitable for many other topics and disciplines.
Pre and Post Surveys
Ask your students the same sets of questions on the first day of class and then again in the last week of class. Then return the original answers to the students and ask them to compare it with their end-of-semester answers, reflecting on what ways their views have changed as a result of taking the course. Examples of questions might include: What do you think happiness is? What do you think a good life is? What gives your life meaning? Do you believe that your choices are free? How do you determine the right thing to do? How do you “know” when something is true? Are all people entitled to basic human rights? What makes someone a critical thinker? etc.
Learning Time Capsule
This assignment is a chance for a student to think carefully about their life and write down their reflections of what they have learned from the course and how they will integrate what they have learned into the living of their own life. I tell the students to think of this letter as something they will save and then open in three years time. What do they want to tell their future self? For example, in my course on happiness, the student is prompted with the following questions: Having finished the course, what is your view of the happiness? Detail a plan for achieving your desired amount of happiness in your life by way of articulating a set of goals, strategies, plans, etc.
“Live A Day As” Assignments
I ask students to live one day each according to particular philosophical views, such as utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics, stoicism, Buddhism, etc. After they live their day, students answer questions based on their experiences and in connection with what they have learned from class and the readings. Students are asked to explain how they approached their day living according to the view, including describing at least two important decisions they had to make that day and explaining how the course material helped them to analyze their experience and inform what they should do. Students are also asked to note any difficulties and benefits, as well as what they learned and what made their experience significant.
Reflective Journaling
Targeted reflective journals ask students to engage in an exercise outside of class or to personally reflect on how the course topics relate to their own lives. For example, in courses on happiness and the good life, I ask students to engage in activities such as gratitude exercises, altruistic behaviors, mindfulness practices, the Stoic practice of “the premeditation on evils,” as well as to complete reflections regarding their pleasures and pains, their desires, and their values, and to identify causes of their suffering or miswanting, etc. In all of these cases, rather than learning about these ideas narrowly within the bounds of our classroom space, students directly and personally engage with our course ideas beyond the classroom.
Critical Thinking Assignments
These kinds of assignments could be used in a wide variety of courses. Examples include: (1) Find fallacies in the mass media that correspond to the informal fallacies that we learned in class. Provide the example, explaining what fallacy the example commits and why. (2) Ask students to reflect on their media consumption, including whether they ever critically question what they are viewing, or whether they simply absorb that material without further reflection. Identify the methods used by media to short-circuit critical thinking and explain what they will do in the future to counteract this. (3) Write a reflection on how the skills learned in the course have allowed them to better practice “intellectual self-defense.” Identify one or more behaviors that they will employ so as not to allow their minds to be unduly influenced by poor argumentation.
Current Event Connections
Ask students to find something going on in society that is an illustration of, or related in some way to, the ideas found in a particular reading. Have students describe the event and then connect it explicitly to the course material. Questions might include: Explain how your current event is related to the ideas in the class reading. What do you think you learned about the reading or the event as a result of this assignment? Write a question you still have regarding this event and/or the reading as a result of this assignment.
Service-Learning Journals
Courses with a “service-learning project” could include journals that ask students to think critically about their service-learning experience and to extract meaning from it together with what they have learned from class. Questions might include: (1) What is it that you learned from the reading this week? (2) What is it that you learned and experienced in your service project for this week? Explain some interactions you had, decisions you made, plans you developed, anything that puzzled you, etc. (3) Does your service experience illustrate or highlight (or offer evidence against) any key concepts or issues from the course readings? Does any of the course material help you to analyze the service experience? What made your experience significant, or why does it matter?
Hopefully, these brief descriptions can serve as a springboard for others to thoughtfully design activities that encourage students to connect in-class theory to their lived experience, helping them to find deeper meaning in coursework.
