Teaching Philosophy Via the Internet

I defend the practical value of teaching undergraduate philosophy courses in the Internet. Three important objectives of philosophical education can be achieved as effectively by electronic means as in the classroom. First, information about the philosophical tradition can be conveyed by hypertext documents on the World-Wide Web. Second, philosophical dialogue can be conducted through participation in an electronic forum. Third, close supervision of student writing can be achieved by means of e-mail submission of written assignments. In each case, I argue that the electronic method offers significant advantages to student learning.

Many of the colleagues who discover that I have begun offering philosophy courses over the Internet express a similar set of reservations. Although they often grant that this must be an interesting project and sometimes admit that it may turn out to be worthwhile, they are uniformly skeptical about the prospect for its success. Accustomed as we have become to face-to-face interaction between instructor and student in the classroom, we find it difficult to imagine teaching philosophy in any other way. Thus, the introduction of alternative methods is often greeted with a suspicion that "this may be true in theory but does not apply to practice."

With respect to use of the Internet to teach philosophy, this paper will allay that suspicion. In what follows, I identify three important objectives of philosophical education and show how each of them can be achieved while relying exclusively upon electronic communication. Indeed, in each case I argue that appropriate use of Internet resources provides clear advantages over the methods employed in a traditional classroom. Teaching philosophy on the Intern...

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...ted is well-spent, since it results in important educational benefits for the students who participate.

In addition, teaching on the Internet can make philosophy instruction available to many people who might otherwise lack an opportunity to acquire it. Those with impaired mobility, vision, or hearing can take advantage of electronically-mediated accommodations in order to participate in the educational process alongside those who do not face similar obstacles. Those whose geographical location or employment schedule prevents easy access to a traditional college classroom can join in a well-designed on-line course whenever it is convenient and wherever they are. In keeping with the theme of this Twentieth World Congress of Philosophy, teaching philosophy on the Internet will significantly contribute to the achievement of our goal of philosophy educating humanity.