PHIL 240
The Autobiographical Philosophy of Education Fall 2018
Division II
Cross-listed INTR 240
This is not the current course catalog

Why are you here? What do you expect to learn? How do you expect to learn? The College Mission Statement says that “Williams seeks to provide the finest possible liberal arts education by nurturing in students the academic and civic virtues, and their related traits of character”. How have you already been taught the academic and civic virtues? Where have you been taught them? In school? On the sports field? At home? How did you develop your character? This first-year seminar will examine the philosophy of education through educational autobiographies: works that tell the story of a moral and intellectual education. Each book was chosen by and will be introduced by a professor from a different department, and then Professor of Philosophy Steve Gerrard will continue the discussion. This year’s autobiographies are: John Stuart Mill, Autobiography, Charles Dew, The making of a Racist, Michael Chabon,The Recipe for Life, Philip Roth, The Facts: A Novelist¿s Autobiography, bell hooks, Wounds of Passion, Paul Kalanithis, When Breath Becomes Air, Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom, Zhuangze, Basic Writings. This course is part of the John Hyde Teaching Fellowship.