Moral Relativism Many students come to the classroom assuming values are variant. Have you heard any of the following? After all, we are all different, right? Wouldn’t it be boring if we all believed the same thing? To each his own! Celebrate diversity? Who am I to judge someone else if they feel they are … Ethical Relativism
In his article, “What is it like to be a bat?” Thomas Nagel argues that there are facts about conscious experience that are subjective and can only be known from that subjective perspective. Even if we know all the objective facts about bats, we may not actually know what it would really be like to … Nagel’s What is it like to be a bat?
In this middle school philosophy lesson plan, students express the degree of confidence they have in the truth of various statements.
Materials Needed: Legos (the more the better) Something on which to display/write out class thoughts (chalkboard, whiteboard, SMARTboard) Camera (optional) Preparation: Have Legos divided up according to how groups will be organized, e.g. in separate piles or in one large pile. Description: 1. (Optional) Warm up and get a sense of our intuitions about the … Identity & Essence Lego Activity
To introduce this lesson, the instructor will draw a line on the board with marks from 1 to 10. 1 is “completely fiction,” 10 is “completely non-fiction,” and in-between might be marked, “based on a true story.” The class will be asked where on the number line a standard newspaper might fall. At the end … Examining Perspectives in the News
In 2007 an independent film came out entitled “My Kid could paint that.” It followed the art career of a four year old, Marla Olmstead, living in Binghamton, NY who took the art world by storm. Many of her canvases sold for 5 figures and presented beautiful and engaging abstract images. The film began as … Can anyone make art?
Overview One of the most fundamental questions involved in the Philosophy of Science involves the problem of Scientific Realism. It asks us to think about the status of scientific claims. For instance, when your Chemistry teacher talks about atoms, are these real entities are they just a linguistic model that’s a convenient way to refer … Scientific Realism and the Weird World
“Araby” is one of the most widely taught short stories from James Joyce’s Dubliners. Told in the first person from the perspective of a boy in his early teens who has an infatuation with a neighborhood girl (Mangan’s sister), “Araby” ends with a dark epiphany. The boy, who envisioned himself on a quest to purchase … James Joyce’s “Araby”: Coming out of the Cave
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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