What does a course on public philosophy look like?

Ian Olasov developed a version of it with Susan Dieleman that takes students beyond the typical classroom experience, and will be teaching it for the first time this coming term at the University of Lethbridge.

He writes:

The course is intended to serve as the capstone for a certificate in Democratic Leadership that Susan is putting together at the university. It’s half “experiential learning” and half seminar on the theory and practice of public philosophy. For the experiential learning bit, students will partner with local and national organizations to work on public philosophy projects of use to them—AI policy with the public library, news selection with the local newspaper, budgeting consultation with city government, and so on. For the seminar, we’re reading about the sociology of intellectuals, philosophical expertise, activism, storytelling, leadership, and civility. Plus there are a few assignments that I think should be fun: a philosophical ethnography, a philosophical hero’s journey, and op-edifying an old paper.

You can look at the syllabus here. In addition to containing the usual course information, it explains the “community partnerships” aspect of the course (including grading, descriptions of the partnering organizations, etc.) and the other assignments.

Dr. Olasov says, “I hope it’s useful to people interested in incorporating more public philosophy into their teaching.  If it is, you’re also very welcome to check out the other public philosophy courses and assignments in the Public Philosophy Network’s Syllabus and Assignment Archive.”