It is becoming clearer and clearer to me that I want to have significant
changes in the outcomes my students experience in my course, yet I am
reluctant to venture too far out of my comfort zone.

Thanks for giving me that extra nudge.

I now realize that I can change my objective to "write an effective
analytical paper."

Since philosophy is, by its very nature, abstract, I had a lot of difficulty
conceiving realistic applications. (Give an example Plato's principle of
opposites in a restaurant? How would you use Hume's views of induction in
forecasting iPad sales in 2013? Explain the York College course registration
process from a Nietzschean perspective?)

What this exchange has done is shifted my perspective. My goal is eminently
concrete: develop effective writers. The philosophical content (Plato, Hume,
Nietzsche) is not the end but the means. The philosophy texts are the
vehicle, not the destination.

Thank you!

Mike