first day of class: democracy hospital

today was the first day of class at AUW. i am teaching two courses this term - intro to political philosophy, and intro to ethics. both of my courses meet on mondays and wednesdays, so i have a great schedule. you can find the syllabi for my courses on the teaching section of my work site.

both of my classes went well today. the students were engaged and attentive. most of these students have never had a philosophy class, and so they are not quite sure what to expect. in light of this, i thought it was only reasonable to begin by working through Kant's division of the forms of rational cognition.

just kidding. i'm saving the Kant for later. actually, i began the the political philosophy class with Democracy Hospital: 

we tend to think that democracy is great, that everyone should get a share in political decision making. but imagine a hospital where medical decisions are made by polling people on the street, instead of by consulting the doctors (Pure Democracy Hospital). or where people on the street decide who the "doctors" are through a popularity contest, and then those "doctors" make the medical decisions. (Representative Democracy Hospital). now, who wants to get treated at Democracy Hospital? if you wouldn't want to go to Democracy Hospital for your physical health, why would you want to live in a democratic state, where much beyond your health is decided by letting everyone have a say in how things should be done, no matter how wise or foolish those people are? 

this worked well as a way to begin the class. it sets a good tone if you start by jumping in and doing philosophy, instead of beginning with the syllabus, course policies, etc.  and the students found the Democracy Hospital example engaging. most of them sensed that the example was missing something, but they weren't sure how to articulate why they disagreed with it.

most of the students were firmly committed to democracy as the best form of government, but not all. at least one spoke in favor of monarchy. she is one of my Nepali students.

i thought her sympathy toward monarchy was interesting, since it was only in 2006 that the king of Nepal agree to relinquish his power. and in the decades before that the monarchy was involved in numerous violent political struggles

nearby Bhutan has only recently transitioned from being an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. from what i understand, the king of Bhutan remains quite popular among his people. and he appears to be quite dashing as well.