A young philosopher writes:
Here is a question on the ethics of teaching philosophy in a small department. I can imagine circumstances in which a philosopher only gets to teach one course a year in their specialism (because the department is small but it needs to cover as much of the whole cannon as possible). That one course might be the students' only exposure to your area. Do you have a duty to give a survey for that course too (even if this means you only get to give a single lecture, say, on the topic of your PhD---or whatever other topic most interests you personally)?The students' education might be better served by the survey course, but on the other hand it would only be the handful of students who take philosophy further that would be disadvantaged, and teaching what really interests you helps with your research and keeps you sane.
Any thoughts?
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