Teaching Philosophy

Volume 39, Issue 1, March 2016

Stephen Bloch-Schulman, Meagan Carr
Pages 25-42

Beyond “Add Teaching and Learning and Stir”
Epistemologies of Ignorance, Teaching and Learning in Philosophy, and the Need for Resistance

This article is a critical response to Concepción, Messineo, Wieten, and Homan’s “The State of Teacher Training in Philosophy.” In it, I utilize an epistemologies-of-ignorance framework to highlight the incentives we, as philosophers, have to ignore teaching and learning about teaching and learning. I argue that the problems are not merely about our individual desires, but rather, that there is a regime of ignorance that encourages us not to know. I argue therefore that real change requires more than a shift in personal commitments; it requires a change to the system, including how and what we make public and how we evaluate and are evaluated by our peers.