Julinna Oxley

Can philosophers be good activists? This essay defines activism for the philosopher and then provides a normative conception of a good philosopher-activist that is grounded in rational integrity and sound rational deliberation. I argue that because philosophers have been trained in reasoning and argumentation, they can contribute these skills to an activist movement. An activist with rational integrity exhibits five skills or virtues: they are honest, rational, logical, deliberative, and respectful. Conversely, bad philosopher-activists display five vices: they are dishonest, manipulative, obfuscating, thoughtless, and insulting. Next, I argue that rhetorical and reasoning skills are only part of what define good activism, and describe the soft skills needed for effective activism. Philosophical training sometimes works against the development of these soft skills, but they are critical to the success of the philosopher-activist. I conclude by describing activism within the context of academic life and argue that philosophers who engage in activism can do so in an intellectually responsible way.

In this volume, Julinna Oxley and Ramona Ilea bring together essays that examine and defend the use of experiential learning activities to teach philosophical terms, concepts, arguments, and practices. Experiential learning emphasizes the importance of student engagement outside the traditional classroom structure. Service learning, studying abroad, engaging in large-scale collaborative projects such as creating blogs, websites and videos, and practically applying knowledge in a reflective, creative and rigorous way are all forms of experiential learning. Taken together, the contributions to Experiential Learning in Philosophy argue that teaching philosophy is about doing philosophy with others. The book is divided into two sections: essays that engage in the philosophical debate about defining and implementing experiential learning, and essays that describe how to integrate experiential learning into the teaching of philosophy. Experiential Learning in Philosophy provides a timely reflection on best practices for teaching philosophical ideals and theories, an examination of the evolution of the discipline of philosophy and its adoption of active modes of learning, and an anticipation of the ways in which pedagogical practices will continue to evolve in the 21 st century.

This chapter uses a feminist lens to articulate the central problems facing policing today: (a) a decayed sense of trust in law enforcement, (b) the cultural influence of toxic or hegemonic masculinity, and (c) policing practices that perpetuate racial, gender, and social oppression. A normative model of feminist policing based in care ethics, called the community protector model, is proposed as the solution to these problems. Feminist care ethical policing values actions of caring justice—not just law and order—and identifies care and concern for others as the most rational basis for law enforcement. Finally, this model is applied to the issues in policing today, and the chapter shows how it can be used to create new protocols, change cultural gender norms, improve communication, replace authoritarian structures with community-based, interactive and educational ones, decrease discriminatory policing practices, and build soft power in law enforcement as a resource for engaging with citizens.