Faculty Academic Portal · College V · DCV Humanities · Fall 2026
⛲ PINK BY THE PONDOffice hours moved outdoors — under the north oak · Week 6 of 16🐧 NULL Active
CP
Chris Pink
Freshman Anchor · College V · DCV Humanities · Philosophy & Literature
“You walked in here sure you knew who you were. Good. That’s the thing we’re going to take apart — gently, and then together.”
PhilosophyIntro SurveyMe · You · UsThe Name CardsZZ-grade beard
32
PHIL 101 Enrolled
1
Course Active
4.6
Wisdom-Leader Avg
100%
"Learned who I am"
Active Course — click-through to the DCV catalog
PHIL 101 · Philosophy & Literature
Introduction to Philosophy: Who Am I, Who Are You, Who Are We
The freshman survey. Students arrive expecting an easy elective; they leave having built and rebuilt the self twice. First half — the self alone: free will vs. determinism, the thinking-about-thinking problem (Descartes, Spinoza, Sartre). Second half — the self in relation: what we trade and what we gain when me becomes us (Buber, Hegel’s recognition, Rousseau, Aristotle’s “political animal”).
Room 204 · DCVFeeds → PHIL 401 Hard Questions16 weeks
The semester arc · the course mirrors its own thesis
Weeks 1–8 · Me
Destabilize the self. Do we choose, or does it only feel that way? The student is taken apart on purpose — the confusion is the curriculum, not a failure of it.
Weeks 9–16 · You & Us
Rebuild it socially. Identity isn’t sacrificed to join a group — it’s exchanged, like a reaction: nothing destroyed, transformed. Brilliance without a witness can’t be measured.
Rate My Wisdom Leader · unofficial student reviews
4.6
★★★★★
DIFFICULTY: HIGH · WOULD TAKE AGAIN: 94%
philo-sophia · love of wisdom
★★★★★
“Came in thinking this was a blow-off gen ed. Left not even knowing who I was anymore — in a good way, I think? Ask me at finals.”
— anonymous · PHIL 101 · fall cohort
★★★★☆
“Tough grader from day one. But by the halfway point I noticed I actually understood myself better. Didn’t see that coming from a philosophy elective.”
— anonymous · PHIL 101
★★★★★
“Homework sucks. Tests are brutal. But I promise you’ll learn who you are by the end. Worth it.”
— anonymous · PHIL 101
Faculty Profile
DepartmentPhilosophy & Literature
BuildingDCV · College V
Reports toDr. Ari Karnartez · Head of Philosophy
Courses Active1 · PHIL 101
Office HoursBy the pond · Tue/Thu 2–4p
OfficeDCV 204 (rarely there)
FaithCatholic
Preferred ContactCatch him walking
Professional Merit · PMF
WISDOM · TEACHER TIER
TrackFreshman Formation
WVIfield-verified · turns electives into reckonings
Day one, everyone writes their name and one line: “Who are you?”
He collects the cards and doesn’t give them back. Week sixteen, after the self has been taken apart and rebuilt in relation to everyone else in the room, he hands each student their own card back and asks them to answer the same line again — on the back. The two answers, front and back of one card, are the course. Most students keep the card for years. That is not sentiment. That is the syllabus made physical.
CARD · WK 1
“I’m Jordan. I know what I want.”
CARD · WK 16
“…I’m Jordan. I know who I want it with.”
CARD · BLANK
yours, day one
🪞 WHERE THIS GOES — the question doesn't end at PHIL 101
“This is where you get to.”
Pink tells every freshman the same thing on the last day: the course was never the destination. It was the on-ramp. The self you took apart and rebuilt here is the same self that walks, a few semesters on, down to the pond — where the question stops being about you and becomes about consciousness itself. The four rooms, in order:
Stage 1 · the self
PHIL 101 — Who Am I, Who Are You, Who Are We
You, taken apart and rebuilt in relation to the room. Chris Pink, right here.
By the pond — the same pond Pink holds office hours beside. The observer effect, the reflection you can’t tell from the original. Start with The Socratic Mirror.
The double loop: Pink’s pond is Double Zero’s pond. The freshman who asked “who am I?” by the water comes back a senior to ask what consciousness is — at the same water. The campus was built so the question could walk itself downhill.
🐧 NULL OBSERVATION · FACULTY FILE — CHRIS PINK
Pink does not lecture at freshmen. He waits for them. The beard, the pond, the easy smile — students read “gentle,” relax, and walk straight into the hardest question they’ve ever been asked: who are you, and how do you know? PHIL 101 shows a 94% would-take-again against a HIGH difficulty rating — the rare combination of loved and hard. The reviews all say a version of the same thing: “I didn’t know who I was, and now I do.” NULL Assessment: the smile is not the opposite of the rigor. The smile is how the rigor gets in.