This paper explores the potential benefits of applying a technique of paired text study, usually used for the study of Rabbinic texts, called Havruta to teaching philosophy both undergraduate and divinity school settings. I also explore recent research on the significant gender gap in philosophy, which shows that much of the gender disparity occurs just after students' initial introduction to the discipline; some of this research suggests that this gap is linked to a "brilliance mindset," in which students think that success in philosophy is based almost entirely on raw talent, rather than a set of skills. I discuss how Havruta might be used to help students understand that it is possible to learn to how read and think philosophically, thereby helping combat the “brilliance mindset.”
This article argues that shifts between deontological and virtue-ethical moral reasoning hamper public moral conversations about misogyny and racism. Using examples ranging from sexual assault to police violence, I show that when someone is accused of committing a moral wrong, they often respond by shifting from deontological to virtue-ethical modes of analysis. This kind of “toggling” between the two enables a person to claim that they are “a good person” even when they have violated important moral rules. In this way, toggling shuts down or makes incoherent our efforts to call one another to moral account, especially (but by no means exclusively) when we are attempting to address issues of systemic oppression and discrimination, including misogyny and racism.
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