It’s always a pleasure to have the opportunity to teach an honors section of introduction to philosophy.  The Honors students engage with difficult texts and concepts with eager and open minds that make discussions an enlightening experience for all of us, myself included.  I am always impressed with the tenacity and respect with which Honors students approach philosophical ideas.  They are not afraid to question their most fundamental beliefs and have an inspiring ability to challenge themselves while challenging the great philosophers that we study.  Honors students are willing to entertain a breadth of theories from Plato to Descartes to Nietzsche, giving the same careful and thoughtful analysis to each regardless of how widely they may disagree.  But the Honors students are not just academically motivated.  They are also personally motivated.  They take on these texts and theories with a personal interest in coming to grips with the questions that they have about the meaning of their own existence, how to be good people, and what we can know.  Each semester that I teach an Honors course, I walk away with the sense that I have seen these familiar texts from a fresh perspective because of the depth and breadth of questions that the students have raised.  It is a deeply rewarding experience for me and one for which I am always grateful to the Honors students who have graced my classrooms.  And what a joy when one of them decides to become a philosophy major!