Lina Jansson
Why is philosophy so hard?
I think that philosophy often forces us to slow our thinking down much more than we are used to doing in our everyday lives. That can be hard, but I also think that this is part of successful work in many academic disciplines as well as in other pursuits. While philosophy might be hard, I do not think that it is so hard in the sense of being more difficult than many other disciplines.
What is your favourite module to teach and why?
I love to teach special topics in the philosophy of science. It is a fully research driven module and it is very exciting to be able to introduce students to topics directly relevant to my own research. I enjoy the excitement of involving students in the research process. There is a thrill in coming away from a discussion knowing that the ideas debated in the classroom that day are not ones that are likely to have been discussed anywhere else.
What inspired you to teach your subject?
It was not obvious to me that I would become an academic philosopher. I mostly just wanted to know how things worked and why. I thought about becoming an engineer, but I am not particularly practically minded. I then thought about doing a physics degree, but I found out that the questions that I am most interested in come from the philosophy of physics. When I found out that I could do a joint physics and philosophy degree things fell into place and I haven’t looked back.