Teaching

George Mason University – Instructor

Conceptual Foundations of Cognitive Neuroscience  |  Syllabus
This course focuses on the conceptual foundations of neuroscience, with particular emphasis on methodology and experimental inference in cognitive neuroscience. The course is designed to provide the skills and opportunity to think critically about scientific methodology, experimental design, and inferences from empirical data. We will cover lesion studies in neuropsychology, functional localization within the brain, various aspects fMRI experimental design, and generalization from the use of model organisms. The material from each of these modules will then be applied to recent research articles that employ these methods. You will be challenged to engage critically with this research through writing assignments and oral presentations. The capstone project for the course requires you to use these skills of critical analysis to generate your own research design in the form of a grant proposal.

Duke University – Instructor

Logic  |  Syllabus
This course covers the basics of formal logic. No background in any formal discipline is required. Any time someone wants to rationally convince you of something, they must give you an argument. And every argument has a logical structure. Some of these structures are strong, while others are weak. In this class, you will learn not only how to spot the difference, but also how to prove the difference. Students who successfully complete this course will develop the ability to precisely identify, reconstruct, and evaluate arguments and will learn how to apply these skills to everyday life. The course will be divided into three parts: The first provides an introduction to and overview of the basic concepts of logic, including the structure of arguments, the distinction between inductive and deductive arguments, and concepts of validity, strength, soundness, and truth. The second part focuses on formal approaches to deductive logic, including segments on categorical, propositional, and predicate logic. The final section of the course turns to inductive logic, focusing on analogical, causal, and basic forms of probabilistic and statistical reasoning.

Philosophy of Mind  |  Syllabus
This course covers core issues in philosophy of mind. Is the mind an immaterial thing or substance? Is it identical with the brain? Or does the mind stand in relation to the brain as a computer program stands to the hardware it is implemented on? What is the nature of conscious experience, and can it be explained scientifically? Can computers have minds? Can nonhuman animals have minds? We examine the philosophical foundations and history of such questions, and we will discuss how contemporary work in cognitive science, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence bears on them. Students who successfully complete this course will be able to identify and analyze different philosophical approaches to core issues in philosophy of mind, they will have gained insight into how to read and critically interpret philosophical arguments, and they will have developed skills to think clearly about how scientific investigations into the mind bear on philosophical problems and, conversely, how philosophy can help guide scientific investigation into the mind.

Medical Ethics  |  Syllabus
This course covers central issues in biomedical ethics. Topics covered include the physician-patient relationship, informed consent, medical experimentation, termination of treatment, euthanasia, resource allocation, disability and well-being, race-based medicine, and health care reform. Students who successfully complete this course will be able to identify and analyze different philosophical approaches to selected issues in medical ethics, they will have gained insight into how to read and critically interpret philosophical arguments, and they will have developed skills that will enable them to think clearly about ethical questions as future or current health care providers, policy makers, and consumers.

Simon Fraser University – Instructor

Neurophilosophy  |  Syllabus
This was a graduate and upper-level undergraduate seminar focused on a wide range of issues at the intersection of neuroscience and philosophy. The course introduced general methodology and epistemic issues in neuroscientific practice related lesion studies and fMRI and provided background on general neurophysiology and the neurophysiology of perceptual systems. Using this background, the course proceeded to delve into topics directly related to students’ interests ranging from color perception, counterfactual cognition, neuroscience and psychiatry, decision theory, to gender and neuroscience. course covered topics in statistical reasoning, probability theory, and deductive systems.

University of Pittsburgh – Instructor

Principles of Scientific Reasoning  |  Syllabus
This course covered topics in statistical reasoning, probability theory, and deductive systems. The course was designed around a flexible set of assignments that could be combined in different ways to achieve credit, allowing students to individualize their assignment regime by applying the same reasoning skills covered in the course.

Mind and Medicine  |  Syllabus
This course covered topics in philosophy of medicine, biomedical ethics, and philosophy of psychiatry. The course was separated into three segments: the first covered general topics in philosophy of medicine, the second focused on the controversy surrounding DSM5 and whether psychological illnesses are natural kinds, the third highlighted ethical and practical implications through case studies of autism, schizophrenia, and major depressive disorder.

University of Pittsburgh – Teaching Assistant

Mind and Medicine, James Woodward
This course covered topics in philosophy of medicine, biomedical ethics, and philosophy of psychiatry.

Explanations of Humans and Society, Peter Machamer
This course covered topics in the philosophy of science and history of psychology. We focused largely on primary text from early-mid 20th century psychology, including Freud, Skinner, and Piaget.

Simon Fraser University – Teaching Assistant

Philosophy of Science, Jill McIntosh
Mid-level undergraduate course, designed to introduce students to topics in philosophy of science. Topics covered included demarkation, logical positivism, and scientific revolutions (Kuhn).

Critical Thinking, Jill McIntosh
Introduction to logic and critical thinking: topics included Aristotelian syllogistic logic, and other basic patterns of reasoning.

Introduction to Logic and Reasoning, Jill McIntosh
Introduction to formal logic: both inductive and deductive systems were covered, with the main focus on propositional logic in addition to a segment on Mill’s methods.

Introduction to Logic and Reasoning, Peter Horban
Introduction to formal logic: both inductive and deductive systems were covered, with the main focus on propositional logic in addition to a segment on Mill’s methods.