Wi-Phi: a Yale-MIT answer to
the question 'why philosophy?'

"Sizes of Infinity." "God and Morality." "The Problem of Evil." (That last one is a three-part series: evil is a big problem.)

These are among dozens of animated lectures available for free on Wi-Phi, a new "open access philosophy" website that calls itself "a toolkit for building a better mind."

Founded by Gaurav Vazirani ’12PhD and Damien Rochford of MIT, Wi-Phi is not exactly Philosophy for Dummies. More like Philosophy for Smarties Who Don't Know Anything About Philosophy. "Our aim is for people to learn how to do philosophy rather than for them to simply learn what philosophers have thought," they write.

"We see it as equally important to develop the critical thinking skills that are core to the methodology of philosophy. We see this as a part of a larger mission: building our collective capacity to engage in rational thought and discourse."

As a Yale graduate student, Vazirani previously founded the New Haven Philosophy Outreach Program, which brings philosophy to New Haven public schools. Wi-Phi's Kelley Schiffman ’15PhD now runs that project, for which she won a departmental award last year.  

Other Yalies involved in the project include Yale College intern Wen Jiang ’16, philosophy professor Stephen Darwall, philosophy fellow Greg Ganssle, and alumni Geoff Pynn ’08PhD, Will Salmon ’08PhD, and Timothy Yenter ’12PhD.