{"id":860,"date":"2026-02-20T18:52:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T23:52:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elena.holmgren.ca\/?page_id=860"},"modified":"2026-02-25T16:07:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T21:07:13","slug":"teaching-philosophy-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/elena.holmgren.ca\/?page_id=860","title":{"rendered":"Teaching Philosophy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cTrue philosophy entails relearning to see the world anew.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

-Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Teaching Philosophy<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Teaching Award<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Courses Taught<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Sample Teaching Materials<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Professional Development in Teaching<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Teaching Philosophy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I approach philosophy as the disciplined effort to think about our thinking and to disclose and critically evaluate the basic presuppositions that we take for granted in forming a coherent perspective on the world and on ourselves. I think that as sense-making beings, we are always in the business of articulating a general perspective on the world and our place in it, however tentative and inchoate this perspective may be at the start. Accordingly, in my teaching, I try to show students that we are always already implicitly involved with the problems of philosophy even in our most specialized, practical, and humdrum pursuits.  read more<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teaching Award<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I am the recipient of the 2024 Don Brown Award for Graduate Teaching Excellence awarded by the University of British Columbia Philosophy department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Courses Taught<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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At University of British Columbia<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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At Camosun College<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Since fall 2020, I have taught a variety of philosophy courses, both in person and online, for which I was responsible for all aspects of course design and delivery. For more details about my teaching experience, see my CV<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At University of British Columbia:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Ethics for the Sciences <\/strong>(PHIL 337)<\/a> \u2013 Winter Term 1 2025, Online-Synchronous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This course explored the moral dimensions and implications of science. It focused on the tight relation between science and our lived experience of the social world. On the one hand, it explored how science is shaped by the social world insofar as scientific practice mirrors and amplifies social values. On the other hand, it explored how science and technology restructure the social world by shaping our shared sense of reality and agency. By understanding this tight relation between science and the social world, the course provided some tools for thinking critically about how science reflects, reinforces, and reshapes social values, thereby transforming the collective arena for moral action. read more<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introduction to Epistemology<\/strong> (PHIL 240)<\/a> \u2013 Winter Term 1 2024, Online-Synchronous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through an in-depth study of classical and contemporary texts, this course explored fundamental questions in epistemology (the study of knowledge) such as: What is knowledge and what are its limits? How can we respond to skeptical arguments that deny that we have much, if any, knowledge at all? How do reason, sense perception and the testimony of others function as sources of knowledge? After exploring knowledge as an individual achievement, the course explored knowledge as a social phenomenon. It did so by addressing questions such as: What, if any, is the relation between knowledge and power? How can we assess the epistemic merits of technologies such as AI that are increasingly restructuring our collective epistemic environment? read more<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minds and Machines<\/strong> (PHIL 250)<\/a> \u2013 Summer 2023, In Person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A survey of dominant theories of the conscious mind, ranging from substance dualism, logical behaviourism, brain reductionism, computational functionalism, property dualism, epiphenomenalism, eliminative materialism, enactivism, and phenomenological philosophy of mind. Moreover, it assessed how adopting each of the above theories influences how we think about the possibility of artificial consciousness and how we assess the prospects of a scientific explanation of conscious experience. read more<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Camosun College:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Introduction to Philosophy, Classics<\/strong> (PHIL 100)<\/a> (x12) \u2013 Fall 2025; Fall 2024; Fall and Winter 2022; Winter, Summer and Fall 2021. In Person and Online-Asynchronous sections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The course begins by exploring the difference between information, knowledge and wisdom. It then charts the evolution of the idea of reason in the Western philosophical tradition, beginning with the ancient Greeks\u2019 notion of rationality as a \u201cway of life\u201d aimed at participation in a universal Logos<\/em> (the rational pattern undergirding the flux and fragmentation of the perceived world), and culminating in Descartes\u2019 notion of reason as a universal method. A unifying thread of this course is a sustained exploration of the historic rise and fall of the ideal of philosophy as a practice aimed at unifying the mind to achieve a rational grasp of the unity of being. read more<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philosophy of Mind<\/strong> (PHIL 207)<\/a> (x2) \u2013 Winter 2022, In Person and Fall 2020, Online-Asynchronous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A survey of key theories concerning the nature of the conscious mind ranging from Cartesian dualism, behaviourism, brain reductionism, functionalism, eliminative materialism, illusionism, enactivism and embodied extended cognition, property dualism, epiphenomenalism, idealism and phenomenological philosophy of mind. These topics are… read more<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sample Teaching Materials<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Guide to writing a philosophy paper for my classes:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

General Guide to Philosophical Writing<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professional Development in Teaching<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In Spring 2023, I completed \u201cFoundations of Pedagogy,\u201d an eight week course on evidence-based effective pedagogical practices offered by CIRTL (Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning) at the University of British Columbia. Upon completion, I obtained a CIRTL Associate certificate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cTrue philosophy entails relearning to see the world anew.\u201d -Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception Teaching Philosophy I approach philosophy as the disciplined effort to think about our thinking and to disclose and critically evaluate the basic presuppositions that we take for granted in forming a coherent perspective on the world and on ourselves. I think…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-860","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elena.holmgren.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elena.holmgren.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elena.holmgren.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elena.holmgren.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elena.holmgren.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=860"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/elena.holmgren.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1032,"href":"https:\/\/elena.holmgren.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/860\/revisions\/1032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elena.holmgren.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}