My Philosophy courses

Humanities: This course was technically an english course that I took for my first semester during my senior year in high school and was my first introduction to a discussion based class, which I loved from the start.
PHIL 100A Intro to Philosophy: This course opened my eyes to the ideas of Plato, Hume, and philosophy in general. After finishing this course I knew that I wanted to major in philosophy.
Western Political Thought: I took this class over the summer in between my freshman and sophomore years at SLU at Tufts University. The course was technically listed as a political science course, yet the discussion based structure of the class was highly philosophical in addition to the reading list which included Adam Smith, Descartes, and one of my favorite philosophers at the time who was introduced to me in my intro class, John Stuart Mills. Due to a computer program the professor never actually received my final paper which was on one of my favorite works to this very day, Mills’ On Liberty. Despite not getting any credit for this course, the experience of taking a class outside of SLU was most appreciated, especially considering that about three quarters of the class was international students, which as one could imagine made for some fascinating discussions.
PHIL 203A Ethical Theory: This class had the best discussions of practically any philosophy classes I have taken to this day considering the diversity of the class (devout Christians, Hippies, Economics Majors, and even a pregnant student). This course opened my eyes to the relevance of philosophy today and the various ways in which it can be applied to real life situations.
PHIL 202A Reasoning: This was probably the most challenging philosophy course I have ever taken, given my lack of mathematical skill and enthusiasm. I really had to work in this course. I think this course should be a requirement for all college graduates for its skills can be applied in virtually any real life situation.
PHIL 204A Theories Knowledge & Reality: This course provided some tremendously valuable background and introductions to numerous philosophical approaches. I particularly enjoyed reading Kant’s Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics and some of the class discussions were highly inspiring. Like Reasoning I think this course should be experience by all SLU students.
PHIL 206B Political Theory: This course had an amazing reading list, and really provided the backbone for understanding virtually all modern politics. This course was my first genuine exposure to reading philosophical works whose views I strongly disagree with such as Hobbes and Machiavelli. This course provided me the tremendously valuable insight of learning to actually listen to the other side of things and enabled me to begin cutting through the dualistic structure of many of my ideas. This particularly opened my eyes to the value of studying not only the content of any philosophical work but moreover the context in which it was created. This course introduced me to the idea that to change the world one must first understand it from a multiplicity of perspectives, particularly those historically in positions of power.
PHIL 327A Existential Philosophy: This course was probably the most enjoyable philosophy course I have ever taken, perhaps because it was my first experience taking a course consisting of a majority of fellow philosophy majors. The ideas of existentialism were some of the most inspirational I have encountered to this day in that many of the core themes and concepts served as excellent and profound articulations for ideas I had already been struggling with since my high school years.
PHIL 347B SPTP:Envr East&West: This course had a community service component which opened my eyes to some of the challenges of small scale farming in our modern age. This course was but another example of the holistic potential of philosophy as it is truly interconnected to many academic disciplines including environmental studies.
PHIL 223A Asian Philosophy: This course definitely complimented my Watsuji course. The course focused on Taoism and Buddhism and proved highly inspirational both academically and spiritually.
PHIL 245A Ancient Greeks: This course reviewed a lot of highly influential philosophical ideas, particularly those of Plato, that are strongly connected to the historical development of essentially all Western philosophical thought.
PHIL 390A Philosopher:WATSUJI Tetsuro: This course was absolutely amazing, as we studied the main work of Watsuji, Ethics, this course was without a doubt the most influential of any philosophy course I have ever taken as it introduced me to many of the benefits of non-Western philosophical inquiry and profoundly altered my own philosophy on philosophy.
PHIL 247A SPTP:Philososphy from the Periphery:PowerBeingLatinAmerica: This course definitely complimented the Watsuji course in terms of looking at ideas within their spatial and temporal contexts. This course in addition to SOC 347A SPTP: Sociology of Knowledge, Watsuji, and some of the feminist critiques of scientific epistemology introduced in PHIL 204A Theories Knowledge & Reality profoundly revolutionized my own philosophy away from essences and towards relationality.