Office: BTC Room 207
Phone: 757-594-7715
Email: eric.silverman@cnu.edu

Teaching Style:
While my teaching style varies somewhat depending on the nature of the course, my courses typically include historically informed, philosophically rich, yet practical content. Each course tries to explore issues of interest to the student. Philosophy is relevant to everyone's day-to-day life since everyone holds opinions concerning ethics, epistemology, and metaphysics. I use illustrations from everyday life and popular culture to demonstrate how philosophical principles appear in daily life. I also try to include a lot of class discussion, personal reflection questions, and group work in my courses.

My courses are designed to help my students become reflective and responsible thinkers that are well prepared for a lifetime of learning. Few students will become professional philosophers, but everyone has a life that is shaped by his or her personal philosophy. As I tell my students on the first day of class; everyone has a philosophy, which is a set of foundational beliefs about the world. Some people have well-thought through, carefully examined beliefs, while others do not. Those with well-thought through beliefs have a great advantage in life because they understand what they believe, their reasons for what they believe, and how their overarching values shape life's decisions.

Areas of Teaching and Resarch Specialty:
Medieval Philosophy, Ethics, Epistemology, Philosophy of Religion, History of Philosophy, Logic and Critical Thinking, Popular Culture and Philosophy

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