The author explores various pedagogical methods concerning how to teach Wittgenstein’s later work. A significant obstacle for the incorporation of Wittgenstein into an undergraduate curriculum is to decipher the major features of his philosophical ideas. The engagement with Wittgenstein’s work is not a task of mere comprehension or thought, but rather of discernment and observation of the ways language operates in the formulation of ideas. The distinction between observation and thought in Wittgenstein’s work on language is often overlooked. In order to teach Wittgenstein effectively, the curriculum should focus on various methods to teach students not just to think but to observe. The author offers a series of classroom exercises and games to engage students with the text and to elucidate philosophical components necessary to understand the author. The games direct students’ attention to what they need to notice and observe in the function of language in Wittgenstein’s later work.

Taking up Wittgenstein’s critique of the modern worldview, the author gives an account of the assumptions behind it and of its presence in educational institutions. This worldview is easily perpetuated and instilled in new generations through the influence of unconscious assumptions held by educators and institutions. The author argues that in order to halt its perpetuation, educators can use the classroom to change the way students think, specifically by transforming the use of language in the classroom. This paper outlines Wittgenstein’s critique of modernity and suggests alternative ways to view the function of language in the world, arguing that Wittgenstein’s insights are of singular value to this project. The use of a new language in teaching and learning transforms the classroom into a site of creative engagement rather than a continuation of the modern worldview.

This paper outlines the effectiveness of films as a pedagogical tool for teaching philosophy. For the author, a film skillfully explores philosophical issues, capturing students’ attention and providing a setting for discussion. The author focuses on the use of Lars von Trier's Zentropa as a beneficial tool for discussion of Kierkegaard’s Either/Or. The film adequately illustrates the two positions of the aesthete and the judge, and demonstrates the adverse affects of avoiding choice in one's life. The film can also be useful in an introductory course and a class on existentialism because it attends to the larger philosophical questions of how one should live their life.

This paper explores the potential pedagogical benefits of philosophy for resolving conflicts in academia and for introducing students to other disciplines. Following C.P Snow's definition of academic disciplines as representing a culture, the author argues that philosophical study can provide a means to reduce strife between science and the humanities. Defining philosophy as self-reflection and prescribing pedagogical methods which open philosophical study onto cultural studies, the author offers the notion of philosophy as an introduction to a liberal arts education. Such an approach to philosophy seeks to demonstrate the interdependence between philosophy and other disciplines and bears the additional benefit of emphasizing the application of philosophy to students’ lives.