An Argument Ninja is someone who has mastered the use of argumentation as a tool for both critical thinking and social persuasion.

Argument Ninja skills include the use of argumentation to construct and analyze reasoning, to create knowledge, to communicate effectively, and to persuade.

I've developed these concepts over many years of university teaching and applied coaching and consulting.

The Argument Ninja Dojo is a community membership site that I developed in order to help people improve their Argument Ninja skills. 

The Dojo offers access to a wide range of educational articles, videos and community support (discussion forums, community video chats, etc.)

As a kid I was equally interested in the arts (sci-fi and fantasy books, comics, animation, film) and the sciences (astronomy, physics, biology ...). I thought seriously about becoming a professional cartoonist, and developed some skills in this area. 

My cartooning background has continued to influence the content I create and my views on the value of visual communication.

As a teen I was exposed to academic philosophy through a series of local university mini-courses for middle and high school students. Around the same time I became interested in foundational issues in the sciences (e.g. what is space?, what is time?, how does the brain work? what is consciousness?). 

In 1991 I completed a Bachelor of Science degree in physics at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (my hometown). My honours research project was on chaos theory, which I was attracted to because of its relevance to philosophical debates (determinism and predictability of nature, etc). I also took a number of philosophy courses at Carleton, coming very close to graduating with a second undergraduate degree.

I decided to apply to graduate school in philosophy at Western University (London, Ontario) to study the philosophy of science. 

I spent seven years earning my Masters and PhD in philosophy at Western University (graduated in 1998). As a grad student I took a lot of courses in the philosophy of science, philosophy of physics, philosophy of mind, and ethics.

I taught Introduction to Philosophy for a couple of years, and I taught a large Environmental Philosophy class for three years. 

My experience teaching Environmental Philosophy got me interested in conceptual issues in the philosophy of ecology and their relationship to problems in environmental philosophy. I ended up writing my doctoral dissertation in this area. 

More specifically, in my dissertation I looked at foundational issues in the sciences of complexity (thermodynamics, network theory, self-organization theory, etc.) and their role in contemporary theoretical ecosystem ecology, and the relevance of these issues for some long-standing debates in environmental philosophy (e.g. the ontological and moral status of environmental "wholes", like communities, ecosystems and landscapes). 

When I went on the academic job market in 1997-1998, I applied for job openings in the philosophy of science and in environmental philosophy. 

The list below includes courses I taught at Western University, Iowa State University, Cape Breton University, and the University of Zagreb, over the course of my academic career. I’ve grouped them by area.