{"id":28130,"date":"2013-12-06T12:50:03","date_gmt":"2013-12-06T19:50:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stage.headlessnauedu-b6hgdzckfdgxgzhe.westus-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=28130"},"modified":"2013-12-09T11:35:40","modified_gmt":"2013-12-09T18:35:40","slug":"award-winning-program-brings-philosophical-discussions-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/award-winning-program-brings-philosophical-discussions-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"Award-winning program brings philosophical discussions down to earth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Identifying yourself as a teacher of philosophy can be \u201ca conversation stopper,\u201d says Andrea Houchard<\/strong>, who knows the feeling of not being taken seriously. Yet her conviction that philosophy is accessible to the community has helped turn the discipline into a conversation starter.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhilosophy is really just a way to help us understand ourselves, each other and the world, and how to make good decisions,\u201d said Houchard, director of the Philosophy in the Public Interest<\/a> program at Northern Arizona University. \u201cThat sounds really simple but it is actually one of the greatest challenges we face as human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through the program, Houchard and her colleagues are bringing a practical application of philosophy to public discussions on a wide range of issues. What began in fall 2011 as a spontaneous idea has grown into a series of public forums, salon discussions and high school outreach programs with an influence extending well beyond Flagstaff.<\/p>\n

Success has even brought national recognition. The American Philosophical Association and the Philosophy Documentation Center have selected the program as the winner of the 2013 APA\/PDC prize for excellence and innovation<\/a> in philosophy programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe award definitely enhances the credibility and legitimacy of what we\u2019re doing as a philosophical activity,\u201d Houchard said. \u201cOur program is not what is characteristically done by professional academic philosophers, yet now it\u2019s been recognized by them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although a philosophy instructor by profession, Houchard points to her prior work in nonprofits and community-based organizations as the influences that drew her toward a public approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate academic philosophy, but I thought philosophy has the potential to enrich every person\u2019s life\u2014not just those who study it in a university,\u201d Houchard said.<\/p>\n

Hot Topics Caf\u00e9, the signature component of Philosophy in the Public Interest, is now in its third year, inspired by the fundamental understanding that \u201cwe do better when we work with each other and share our ideas,\u201d Houchard said.<\/p>\n

Stressing a role as \u201cneutral convener,\u201d Houchard said the caf\u00e9 format is not a debate. \u201cWe\u2019re not trying to declare a winner or a best position. We\u2019re just trying to help people understand the reasoning behind different points of view.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each caf\u00e9 forum identifies a single topic\u2014recently, for example, water conservation and catchment\u2014that is covered in an overview by a philosopher facilitator. A few questions are offered to focus the discussion and an informational handout offers basic facts about the topic. From there, the dynamic is fed by an exchange of viewpoints among participants.<\/p>\n

From seven sessions on campus the first year, Hot Topics Caf\u00e9 has grown to more than 20 gatherings<\/a> on campus and around Flagstaff and Sedona. Houchard attributes some of that popularity to the humanizing effect of a face-to-face exchange of views instead of the more prevalent and impersonal\u2014and often confrontational\u2014interactions that take place online.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get letters from people thanking us for the opportunity to think through these issues carefully with others,\u201d Houchard said.<\/p>\n

Other components of Philosophy in the Public Interest include Sedona Salons\u2014addressing issues of general interest such as friendship, happiness, death, civic life and geologic time\u2014and Philosophy in the Schools, which delivers an environmental outreach program to high schools.<\/p>\n

In addition, a new eight-week moral courage program just concluded at Ponderosa High School. The program emphasizes \u201cthinking about how to make good choices in your everyday life,\u201d Houchard said. The students found the discussions so valuable they now want to start their own program and offer it to middle school students, she said.<\/p>\n

Even with all the success of Philosophy in the Public Interest, \u201cthere have been lots of tweaks and we\u2019re still tweaking,\u201d Houchard said. \u201cWe\u2019re definitely learning all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such an approach reflects the underlying motivation of the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere aren\u2019t final answers to moral and political questions,\u201d Houchard said. \u201cThey are perennial questions, and that\u2019s why we have to come back to them over and again.\u201d<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Identifying yourself as a teacher of philosophy can be \u201ca conversation stopper,\u201d says Andrea Houchard, who knows the feeling of not being taken seriously. Yet her conviction that philosophy is accessible to the community has helped turn the discipline into a conversation starter. \u201cPhilosophy is really just a way to help us understand ourselves, each…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":28145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,15],"tags":[544,546,38,24,545,548,549,547],"class_list":["post-28130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community","category-editors","tag-andrea-houchard","tag-hot-topics-cafe","tag-nau","tag-northern-arizona-university","tag-philosophy-in-the-public-interest","tag-philosophy-in-the-schools","tag-ponderosa-high-school","tag-sedona-salons"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}