This lesson can be used either in a classroom or online. Plot Summary: In Jiaqi Emily Yan’s animated short “Mind Games,” a child sits bored at a school desk, trying to focus on classwork. Their brain jumps out of their head, stuffs it with books, and heads outside to play while the child robotically regurgitates … Mind Games
What is Environmental Ethics? Environmental Ethics is the discipline in philosophy that studies the value of the environment and its non-human contents as well as their moral relationship to human beings. Materials Needed: Hey, Little Ant by Hannah Hoose and Phillip Hoose Opening Activity: Warm-up discussion: Respect Who or what do we respect? Do we respect … Environmental Ethics Using Hey, Little Ant
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Materials needed: Lesson plan (warm-ups, story, and game) Space for participants to form opposing groups Description: Before presenting participants with the thought experiment, engage them in at least one warm-up. For first time philosophers and/or for longer class periods, warm-up using the “Philosophy Warm-Up” prompts below. If the group has already developed basic ideas about … Identity Activity: What makes you, you?
The Mountain Goat Dilemma Mountain goats are not native to Olympic National Park. They were introduced into Olympic Peninsula in the 1930s to encourage an increase of tourism via hunting. Shortly after, Olympic National Park was established. Under Park jurisdiction, hunting of any kind is forbidden, so the mountain goats placed there were protected. Olympic … Value Conflicts in Environmental Ethics
Part 1: What is the difference between Truth, a Lie and Bullshit? Students should begin by writing brief definitions of these words: TRUTH, LIE, SATIRE/ JOKE, FICTION, MISTAKE, BULLSHIT (or, politely, BS) What is the difference between truth, lie, satire/joke, fiction, mistake, and BS? After 10 minutes, discuss how these concepts overlap and differ from each other. It … Truth, Lies and Bullshit
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?
Can a computer think? Do computers have minds? John Searle’s Chinese Room argument can be used to argue that computers do not “think” because 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 … Searle’s Chinese Room: Do computers think?
For much of modern science, since the Enlightenment, animals were generally thought to be automatons: materialist robots programmed to behave in certain ways. Rene Descartes drew a sharp distinction between thinking beings, humans, and everything else, matter. 20th Century behaviorism continued to think of animals in this way but added humans to the mix. “Mind” … Animal Minds: puzzling over Puppies and Parrots
Materials needed: Piece of paper and writing utensil Description: Note: this session operates as a good follow-up to a lesson plan on beliefs and evidence more generally. (1) Ask the students for some things that they know. Put a few examples on the board. (2) Tell the students the following story. It’s important that, for most … What Do You Know?
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