Philosophy 101 Teacher

Okay, I said I'd share the actual fun stuff about my Philosophy 101 teacher in my next post, because he does seem to be actually trying to be a fun guy and bring enjoyment and humor to his classes. He likes to make jokes and pop culture references (most of which are a little dated even to me, who is probably fifteen to twenty years older than most of my classmates), and he does genuinely care if we get good grades, and really doesn't want us to use GenAI to actually write anything for us, even if he is encouraging us to use it as a reference for how to write essays.

Moving on! One of the things he had us do is act out and film a YouTube video about Descartes' "Cogito, ergo sum" moment, and subsequent refutation of global skepticism. It's basically a parody of Bill and Ted, but much shorter and about one particular moment in European philosophy history.

I volunteered to play a minor antagonist, The Disco Kid, because the part has a few song parody lines that actually involve singing, and I figured that most people would prefer to avoid that. I, meanwhile, am not afraid to make that kind of fool of myself on a YouTube video that hardly anyone is likely to ever see. (I probably won't even link it over here, since it credits me with my paperwork name, except maybe under access only. I may share screencaps of me in my totally rad Disco/hippie outfit, though.) And if it somehow actually goes viral, I imagine I'll probably be the breakaway favorite character.

Anyway, aside from the GenAI thing (which I do want to find a way to subtly subvert, aside from just very emphatically shaking my head any time he suggests my classmates use it) and the whole "This is definitely European, Christian philosophy we're learning here" things, it's genuinely a fun class. Not a lot of homework, textbook is effectively some online essays and other ridiculous videos the teacher has made, very generous grading. I should be able to ride it out fine without my head exploding.