Unit 1: Welcome to the Argument Clinic...
Foundations of Philosophy, Logic and the Argument
Essential Questions: Is philosophy ‘dead’? How do we make a judge arguments? What is the role of language in argument? Where do we see reasoning and logic in everyday life? What are the psychological aspects behind human reasoning? How do we determine the logical soundness of an argument?
Focus Topic: Stephen Hawking’s claim in The Grand Design that “philosophy is dead.”
Topic / Content / MediaIs philosophy dead? / History of philosophy in Ancient Greece (Socrates and the Symposium)
Philosophy as an orientation towards death, and the question of whether Philosophy itself is dead as a discipline / - Cornel West’s introduction to Examined Life
- Guardian and Philosophy Now articles responding to Stephen Hawking’s claim (Philosophy Fridays)
What is the value of philosophy in everyday life? / Exploring the value of philosophy in modern life
Key approaches to philosophy and thought (rationalism v.s. empiricism, absolutism v.s. relativism, continental v.s. analytic) / - David Foster Wallace’s “This is Water” clip
- Slavoj Zizek’s “We Need Thinking” clip
How do we argue? / Role of language, key aspects of reasoning, lingual conditions of argument (Wittgenstein) / - Monty Python’s “Welcome to the Argument Clinic” clip
What is the reasoning behind political policies? / Cognitive Dissonance, Confirmation Bias; Propositions, Premises, and other aspects of argument
Explore the premises, suppositions, biases, etc. in a short speech and debate segment; explore other aspects of reasoning (cognitive dissonance, bias, etc.) in modern political life / - Steve Robbins’ and Ash Donaldson’s clips about cognitive dissonance
- Confirmation Bias clip
- Maurice Williamson speech arguing for gay marriage clip
- Obama/Romney debate over role of government clip
The eternal debate: does god exist? / Aspects of formal/informal logic: implicit premises, fallacies, sound arguments, propositional logic, modus ponens/tollens / - Christopher Hitchens vs. William Craig debate (segue into Epistemology and types of knowledge)
What are the tensions/biases and logical aspects of my own opinions? / Explore aspects of logic and reasoning through an online test of one’s personal philosophical values / - Philosophy Health-Check online test (shows contradictions/tensions in thought - http://www.philosophyexperiments.com/health/)
Culminating Activity:
Tackle opinion of particular topic, using the philosophy health-check to tease out tensions/contradictions, then analyze opinion by detailing the premises, argument types, possible fallacies, hidden premises, with a final evaluation of the soundness of the opinion/argument.
Ministry Expectations:
Overall:
- identify the main questions in formal and informal logic
- apply logical and critical thinking skills in practical contexts, and in detecting logical fallacies;
- demonstrate an understanding of how philosophical questions apply to other disciplines
Specific:
- correctly use the terminology of logic;
- distinguish valid from invalid arguments, and sound from unsound arguments;
- explain the relevance of logic to mathematics, computer science, and artificial intelligence.
Unit 2: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Epistemology, Philosophy of Science and Aesthetics
Essential Questions: What constitutes ‘knowledge,’ and how do we acquire it? How should we evaluate certainty? What does it mean to have a ‘mind’ or ‘intelligence’? Is it possible for artificial ‘minds’ to ‘know’? To what degree is knowledge ‘discovered’ or ‘made’? What types of knowledge should we value? What is the intellectual history behind the scientific method? What are the values, aspects and limits of scientific epistemology? Are scientific theories ‘true’? How should our theories of knowledge inform how we experience and evaluate art? What is the role of perspective in science and aesthetics?
Focus Topic: Artificial intelligence as a means of exploring the nature of intelligence and knowledge.
Topic / Content / MediaDoes artificial intelligence constitute a ‘mind’? / Concepts of the mind and intelligence (embodied intelligence, Locke’s ‘blank’ slate model vs. Kant’s structured slate model of mind)
Cartesian dualism of mind/body (if we can create ‘minds,’ are they wholly material?), functionalism, cognitive science / - “BBC: The Hunt For A.I.” Clip
- Mass Effect 2 clip of Legion (robot) explaining machine intelligence of the Geth robot species
How does being human affect how we perceive the physical world? / How our brains construct our ‘reality,’ the (possible) gaps in the explanatory power of biology
Role of perception, structure of mind, essence v.s. existence, epistemological realism, Locke’s indirect realism / - Richard Dawkins: “Why the Universe Seems So Strange” clip
- Optical illusions clips
- “Biological Contingencies” picture
How should we value our senses in searching for knowledge? / Empiricism vs. rationalism, inductive v.s. deductive reasoning, a priori v.s. a posteriori, relationship between senses and ideas
Descartes’ radical doubt, Hume’s synthetic/analytic distinction, Kant’s fusion / - “Choose your own sixth sense” article
- selected stories from The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat (pdf file)
Is there a difference between how we perceive time and what time actually is? / Theories of causality (from Descartes to Hume) / - “What is time” clip
- “Time Documentary” clip
How do cultural differences manifest themselves in epistemology? / Similarities and deviations between Eurocentric model of science and First Nations means of ‘knowing,’ role of holism, relational knowledge, and spirituality
Constructivist theories of knowledge and the epistemological evolution of unique cultures / - “Indigenous Epistemology” document
- “Human Planet” documentary series (many examples of different cultures and epistemes)
What does ‘scientific’ knowledge value? / Values of philosophy of science (falsifiability, deduction, observation, verification, measurability, scientific method)
Approaches to science (are we innately scientific as a species, is science a Western paradigm, etc.) / - “Karl Popper and the Scientific Method” article
- Neil deGrasse Tyson “Science is in our DNA” clip
How do we determine what is scientific? / Examine claims of knowledge scientifically (religious claims, pseudoscientific claims, alternative medicine, etc.)
Explore ‘limits’ of science, terms of science (theory, uncertainty principle, etc.), and the application of a scientific epistemology to modern living (socio-political implications, etc.) / - Edward Wilson’s Consilience (science as meta-epistemology)
- “The Enemies of Reason” documentary series clips
How do we experience art, beauty and aesthetics? / Science’s explanatory power for our aesthetic tendencies and experiences
Dialectical relationship between tensions between spheres of ‘knowledge’ (objectivity v.s. subjectivity, subject v.s. object, logic/reason v.s. emotion/desire, dream v.s. reality, senses v.s. imagination, etc.)
Biological experience of food, visual art, music, etc. and the evolutionary imperatives behind them / - TEDx talk “The Science of Art and the Art of Science” clip
- “What the Brain Can Tell Us About Art” NY Times article
Can we develop a ‘knowledge’ system of aesthetics? What is artistic ‘truth’? / Forms, hierarchies, and classification systems (i.e. epistemologies) of art (Platonic formalism v.s. Aristotelian representationalism), evolution of taste (Hume), etc.
‘Value’ of forms of art (are videogames and abstract paintings art?)
What do our aesthetic experiences, tastes and judgements reflect about us as a species? / Explore how different cultures value art, how modern examples of art serve to elucidate social, political or cultural truths, how we consume art as a product / - Graffiti as art art (see pictures)
- “Danger of a Single Story” TED talk clip (cultural impact of stories)
- Benjamin’s “Work of Art in Age of Mechanical Reproduction” essay
Culminating Activity:
Choose a film, videogame, novel or other substantive piece of fiction through which students can analyze and extract theories of knowledge and aesthetics.
Ministry Expectations:
Overall:
- identify the main questions, concepts, and theories of epistemology, the philosophy of science, and aesthetics;
- evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of responses to some of the main questions of epistemology, natural and social sciences, and aesthetics defended by some major philosophers and schools of philosophy, and defend their own responses;
- demonstrate the relevance of philosophical theories of epistemology, science, and aesthetics to concrete problems in everyday life;
- explain how different epistemological theories apply to subject areas such as psychology.
- illustrate the relevance of epistemology, the philosophy of science, and aesthetics to other subjects.
Specific:
- formulate their own ideas about some of the main questions of epistemology, science and aesthetics, and explain and defend those ideas in philosophical exchanges with others;
- describe instances in which philosophical problems of knowledge occur in everyday contexts, and can be clarified and analysed using philosophical theories of epistemology, science and aesthetics;
- explain how theories of knowledge are adopted and applied in subject areas such as psychology.
- explain how philosophical theories have influenced the development of the natural and social sciences.
Unit 3: Are Zombies People, Too?
Metaphysics, Morality and Ethics
Essential Questions: What is the fundamental nature of being and reality? What does it mean to be, and (more specifically) to be human? How are we constituted, and how do we constitute ourselves? Do we have a fundamental nature? How does our conception of being translate into our perspective of reality? What are the explanations for the underlying fabric of reality? How does (or should) our conceptions of being and reality inform our ethical principles? What underlying principles should ethics be based on, and how should we justify those principles? What does it mean to behave ethically?
Focus Topic: Facing the zombie version of your loved one in popular fiction, Frankenstein-like organ growing and the implications for the nature of ‘being.’
Topics / Content / MediaWhat are the markers of sentient, human life? Is there an essence? / Examine how human life is distinguished between other forms of life (from the undead to animals)
Tie epistemological investigation into the structure of the mind to the experience of being (i.e. where to locate and/or explain consciousness and its role in being) / - Warm Bodies (first 10 minutes) clip
- BBC: Visions of the Future “Biotech Revolution” clip (growing organs outside of bodies)
- PBS “Evolution: The Mind’s Big Bang” clip
- “What’s so Bad about Being a Zombie” article from Philosophy Now
Can we escape our ‘humanity’? What are the bases, limits and extensions of our identities? / Explore the tension between different bases for being: idealism and materialism/realism, monism and dualism, change and constancy, essence and existence
Explore the idea of the ‘trans/post human’ and what the modification of the human body entails about its fundamental nature / - TEDx talk Gene Robinson “Nature v.s. Nurture” clip
- “Biohackers” clip
- Nick Bostrom “Transhumanism” clip
- Examples of transformations in fiction (Frankenstein, The Fly, X-Men, etc.)
What can we know about consciousness, and how should this knowledge inform our conception of ourselves? / Reiterate the exploration of intelligences and models of different forms of minds, and extrapolate the metaphysical consequences of these models (i.e. if we are complex biological machines, is our sense of being utterly contingent?) / - Daniel Dennett “Dangerous Memes” and “Illusion of Consciousness” clips
Is the reality we perceive reality in actuality? / Incorporate investigation into epistemology concerning time and the physical world into a consideration of the underlying fabric of reality itself; the manner in which things are intelligible, approaches to reality (from Plato to Lao Tse) / - Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” text
- The Matrix blue pill v.s. red pill scene
- The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema reworking of the red/blue pill scene
- Slavoj Zizek in Examined Life (ecology and the non-existence of nature) clip
How can we determine the validity of different conceptions of reality? / Explore the metaphysical consequences of theological, naturalistic, atheistic, determinist, etc. approaches to construing reality
Examine the arguments for/against god and the philosophical problems raised therein (ontological argument, fine tuning, problem of evil, etc.) / - Christopher Hitchens v.s. Frank Turek debate: “What Best Explains Reality” clip
- William Lane Craig clips defending different arguments for God
- A.C. Grayling and “What’s Next” for Atheism clip
- Design your own god activity (http://www.philosophersnet.com/games/whatisgod.php)
What would be the ethical implications for different metaphysical theories? / Investigate the tension between absolutism and relativism in ethical thought (i.e. what metaphysical theories lend themselves to either, and what basis should ethics have?)
Enumerate on the normative ethical systems that arise in philosophy
(deontology, consequentialism, evolutionary imperatives, altruism, rationalism, naturalism) / - excerpts from Sam Harris’ The Moral Landscape and video clip “Science can Answer Moral Questions”
- Text from “Morality Without God” debate
- “Is it Possible to Be Moral Without God” article
What are the key aspects of ethical reasoning? How do we determine what approach to a problem is ethical? / Outline a history of ethical thought by approaching ethical dilemmas in different ways
Examine modern ethical presuppositions, standards and systems / - Ethics of cloning (BBC: Visions of the Future, “Biotech Revolution”)
- “Canadian Euthanasia Debate” article
- “Just War Theory” clip
- Examined Life clip with Peter Singer (animal rights, ethics of what we eat)
- Food, Inc. interview
Where does ethics intersect with behavior? What are the social contingencies of ethical systems? / Examine moral psychology through case studies like the Milgram experiment
Investigate the relationship between ethics, psychology, sociology and politics / - TED talk “The Psychology of Evil” clip
- “Milgram Experiment” clip
- “Neurophilosophy of Morality” clip
- Inside Job documentary, ethics of economics and the housing crisis
Culminating Activity:
Formal debates will be conducted by students who choose their own topics in pairs or groups.
Ministry Expectations:
Overall:
- summarize the main questions, concepts, and theories of metaphysics and ethics;
- evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of responses to some of the main questions of metaphysics and ethics defended by some major philosophers and schools of philosophy, and defend their own responses;
- demonstrate the relevance of metaphysical and ethical questions and theories to everyday life and concrete metaphysical and moral problems;
- illustrate how metaphysical and ethical theories are presupposed in other subjects.
Specific:
- use critical and logical thinking skills to defend their own ideas about metaphysical and ethical issues with reference to some classic texts, and to anticipate counter-arguments to their ideas;
- demonstrate how the moral problems and dilemmas that occur in everyday contexts can be effectively analysed using a variety of different philosophical theories;