Megan Sullivan

Whereas now I think this generation is maybe a little bit more skeptical and skepticism is a good place to start doing philosophy.

Cynicism is hard for philosophy, but skepticism we can work with.

Of course.

Of course democracy will always work.

So my approach, which is inspired by Socrates, is to ask them questions that force them to think and then really listen to their answers.

One of Socrates' great gifts as a teacher is he really did take young people seriously.

Socrates thought that all of us have a certain kind of dignity, this ability to think through these questions for ourselves.

And I try to really bring that into my teaching.

And so I structure my class around 10 big questions.

that I think we all have to wrestle with if we try to figure out what's true about the good life.

And this appears in the book, too.

I start with what I think is the easiest of the 10 questions and then move up the ladder each week to a harder one.

Hopefully the students clear each level.

You should be intimidated.

The easiest question, the question that we start with, and you're going to laugh at me when I say this given the conversation that we've been having.

I think the easiest question is how should we relate to people who disagree with us about politics?

Like how should we have political discussions?

And we start with that question because it's a good way to help students realize that

There's a difference between just repeating ideas that are currently socially acceptable and really trying to figure out what's reasonable to believe and what's true.

That is the easiest question.