Topic: identity

Activity: Create Your House

If you have time, this lesson will work best over a few sessions so the students have time to work on their artwork for as long as they wish. Materials: Optional: One pre-prepared outline of a house for each student. You can use pre-prepared house outlines or have students draw their own houses from scratch. Activity: Create Your House

“Respect” by Aretha Franklin

black and white photo of Arthea Franklin singing

Objectives: To explore the ways Aretha Franklin’s song “Respect” can inspire and facilitate philosophic discussions of respect, especially with regards to identity. This lesson is designed primarily as a way of using music to do moral philosophizing; however, it could easily overlap with philosophizing about music and/or aesthetics simultaneously. Whole Sequence Breakdown: Welcome and warm-up “Respect” by Aretha Franklin

For the Birds

Plot Summary: In this short Pixar film, several small birds land on a telephone wire and commence chattering and annoying one another. When a large bird lands nearby and seeks out their company, the smaller birds stop their bickering and turn as one against the large bird. Their attempts to make him leave their wire For the Birds

Animal Minds: puzzling over Puppies and Parrots

parrot perched raising wings

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

Personal Identity in Memento

Personal Identity I ask students to bring their baby or early childhood pictures to class. After they try matching names with images of their classmates, I ask a question about their own picture: Are you the same person today that you were at the moment captured in your photo? Students readily admit that their physical Personal Identity in Memento

Identity & Essence Lego Activity

Legos stuck on to Child's face

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

Exploring Existential Angst and The Self in Social Media

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 a result of suspecting that there is a reality behind what we perceive as reality, an objective and Exploring Existential Angst and The Self in Social Media