Materials needed: A picture (hardcopy/softcopy depending on the mode of lecture) Description: The selected picture should be divided equally in ratio with the number of participants and each participant should be handed over one part of the image. The facilitator will now ask the participants to guess the picture presented to them. Since each participant … The Jigsaw Puzzle Game
Step One: Distinguishing Wants and Needs Give the students a worksheet with the following questions: 1. What are some things you want? 2. What are some things you need? 3. What is the difference between what you want and what you need? 4. Do all people have the same wants? 5. Do all people have … Wants versus Needs Exercise
This is an exercise that works well in the weeks just before the winter holiday break. Start with an anecdote about receiving a gift that is disappointing and not feeling particularly grateful. You can use an example from real life, but it also works to make something up or think of an example from a … Thinking About Gratitude
On the Beautiful and the Sublime…Aesthetics as Subjective Experience One of the longstanding questions that’s been debated in the field of aesthetics involves the nature of Beauty; one question in this area asks us where Beauty lies, in the object or in our eyes. Taking this further, if Beauty is in us rather than in … On the Beautiful and the Sublime
Can a computer think? John Searle’s Chinese Room argument can be used to argue that computers do not “think,” that computers do not understand the symbols that they process. For example, if you’re typing an email to your friend on the computer, the computer does not understand what your message to your friend means. This … Searle’s Chinese Room: Do computers think?
Self-driving cars are already cruising the streets today. And while these cars will ultimately be safer and cleaner than their manual counterparts, they can’t completely avoid accidents altogether. How should the car be programmed if it encounters an unavoidable accident? Patrick Lin navigates the murky ethics of self-driving cars. Patrick Lin navigates the murky ethics … The Ethics of Self-driving Cars
In this middle school philosophy lesson plan, students express the degree of confidence they have in the truth of various statements.
Existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre in Nausea Students will be introduced to Existentialism through discussion and excerpts from Jean-Paul Sartre’s novel, Nausea, which describes a certain vague feeling that the main character, Roquentin, calls “nausea”. This feeling is basically a result of suspecting that there is a reality behind what we perceive as reality, an objective … Exploring Existential Angst and The Self in Social Media
Quite often we find ourselves in situations where we know we are not in control, such as being a student, or having a job, or being bullied. The most important factor in this is the perspective you as an individual bring to the situation. In this lesson, we are not discussing the merits of any … Are we in control? Hegel’s Lordship & Bondage
Introduction What is an argument? An argument consists of a set of reasons that are given with the intention of persuading someone else that a particular action or idea is right or wrong, good or bad, desirable or undesirable, etc. It is a method of trying to convince another person (or persons) that your position … Convince your Teacher/Principal
PLATO is part of a global UNESCO network that encourages children to participate in philosophical inquiry. As a partner in the UNESCO Chair on the Practice of Philosophy with Children, based at the Université de Nantes in France, PLATO is connected to other educational leaders around the world.
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