For the past three and a half years, I have been trying ways of teaching my students about argumentative writing. How should we distinguish an argument from a non-argument? Why is it useful to practice writing arguments? Sometimes students challenge me: “What you consider to be an argument isn’t the only possible form of argument.”…
Alain Badiou
The most profound philosophical concepts tell us something like this: ‘If you want your life to have some meaning, you must accept the event, you must remain at a distance from power, and you must be firm in your decision.’ This is the story that philosophy is always telling us, under many different guises: to…
Re: Brad Jesness’s Review
Here is a link to Brad Jesness’s review of my book, which I read with interest. The review is posted on ResearchGate as a “comment”, and I decided to respond to it here for the sake of convenience. Brad (and others) could continue the thread either here or on RG. I wasn’t expecting much of…
Video Series on Brian Haig’s (2014) Book
I am making a video series (“study guide”) about Brian Haig‘s Book, Investigating the Psychological World: Scientific Method in the Behavioral Sciences. We are reading the book with my students in the course, Systems & Theories in Psychology. Most of the students in that class are in their final year and are doing a final-year…
Presentations
This term, when I am listening to student presentations, I find myself wanting to give feedback more and more on the form and style of presentation. What kind of feedback? Look at your classmates (at least occasionally). Don’t dismiss yourself and your presentation at the outset. Don’t dismiss the possibility that someone might be interested,…