Scientific reasoning has long been an integral part of critical thinking taxonomies. In practice, however, it is frequently limited to induction, hypothesis testing and experimental design, thereby neglecting the central importance of modeling to contemporary scientific reasoning. In this paper, I wish to establish that this neglect undermines the possibility of critical engagement with the public discourse surrounding scientific reasoning. As a step towards rectifying that disconnect, I present one resource that I have developed to teach modeling in an introductory critical thinking course.

In addition to preparing students for graduate school or emphasizing transferable skills that are useful in any career, philosophy departments ought to give majors the education and work experience that will train them to become ethics officers outside of academia. This is a growing field that allows students to engage non-philosophers in setting corporate policies and addressing morally significant social issues. Using a course in medical ethics as an example, I show how incorporating service-learning into philosophy classes benefits students both academically and professionally, and also demonstrates the value of philosophy to the community and to academic administrators.

Amartya Sen has recently urged that political philosophers pay attention to social choice theory in their deliberations about justice. However, despite its merits, social choice theory is not standardly part of undergraduate political philosophy. One difficulty is that it involves symbolic logic and difficult concepts. We can reduce this challenge by making the material no harder than it needs to be. I consider the standard proof of Arrow’s Theorem, a seminal result. Kenneth Arrow does not explicate the role of the irrelevance of independent alternatives. Sen and Wulf Gaertner have offered clarifications, but I shall elucidate the full role.

The philosophy of religion has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years. This is fortunate, for it is a rewarding area in which to research and teach. The complexity of the metaphysical and epistemological ideas relevant to the philosophy of religion, however, can pose a challenge for instructors. Fortunately, the resurgence of activity in the field has brought with it an increase in the number of texts that aim to render these complex ideas accessible to students. In order to assist instructors in the selection of course material, this article examines four recently published texts in the philosophy of religion—two stand-alone texts and two anthologies—and judges their strengths and weaknesses and the types of classes for which each is best suited.