“[T}he unexamined life is not worth living”

-Socrates as in Plato, Apology, line 38a

Teaching Philosophy

Jennifer Leslie Torgerson, MA

Teaching Philosophy is not merely an occupation. Philosophy is a way of life. My

objective is to obtain a teaching position where I can demonstrate and implement my

personal strengths including attention to detail, organization, instruction, and

analytical problem solving. My primary emphasis in the discipline is upon teaching

and writing about Philosophy.

Command of the course material is my greatest asset; even so, I reread all the

relevant primary source materials for all the philosophers covered each semester.

Have taught more than 235 sections of Philosophy courses over the past twenty and

one half years at nine different colleges and universities, yet my strength is in the

number of topics I am able to cover and convey effectively. Lectures are done from

memory, employing the Socratic Method, although I do provide slides for each lecture,

and I write all the key information on the board anew for each class. Know HTML,

write code and have developed a website especially for my Philosophy students.

My interests in Philosophy include but are not limited to Aesthetics, American

Philosophy, Ancient Philosophy, Classical Chinese Philosophy, Logic, Epistemology, Philosophy

of Education, Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Science, Social and Political Philosophy

(including Ethics), and the entire History of Philosophy (Ancient - Contemporary). My

specialties are the Pre-Socratics, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Rousseau, Wittgenstein, Quine,

Analytical Philosophy, Cognitive Science, Logic, Metaphysics, and Social and Political

Philosophy. I have taught classes in Logic, Critical Thinking, Introduction to Philosophy,

Ethics, Ethics of Death and Dying, Environmental Ethics, Business Ethics, and Philosophy of

Religion.