Lesson Plans

Goal: • Distinguish between philosophical and non-philosophical forms of thought • Introduce attendees to different branches of philosophy and identify philosophical interests by discussing questions Materials: • Printed out questions Lesson Plan 35 min total 5 minutes: Ask participants, “What is philosophy?” Discuss responses. • What kinds of questions, areas of thought etc. • What do modern philosophers do? Philosophy: Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental questions about existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Modern philosophers study, write about, and answer philosophical questions. 5 min: grab-bag sort which of these questions are philosophical and which are not Philosophical: • What is beauty? • What is time? • Are you the same person now that you were when you were a baby? • Do you have free will? • What is consciousness? • Are you responsible for every action you take? • What constitutes personhood? • Is it wrong to lie? • What is goodness? Non-philosophical: • What things are beautiful? • What are you experiencing right now? • What time is it? • Do you have the same DNA that you had as a baby? • Do actions have consequences? • Do computers have human-like capacities? • Why do some people not eat meat? 20 min: discuss the interesting philosophical questions 5 min: Now that you have had a chance to learn a little, what is philosophy?

Goal: We will determine what beauty is and whether it can be objective. We will also explore what it means to be an artist and discuss the intentionality of art. Materials: Pictures of art Index cards Lesson Plan 35 min total 5 min: Have students write on index card their definition of art on one side and their definition of beauty on the other 5 min: share definitions, discuss similarities and differences 10 min: pull images out of a hat and discuss each one (Include some famous paintings, some pictures of nature, ordinary objects) • Is each image art? Is each image beautiful? • What is art? What is beauty? • Can something be art and not be beautiful? Can something be beautiful and not art? • Is anything objectively beautiful or is it all about perception? Could there be beauty if there were no people to observe the beauty? 10 min: Discuss intentionality of art • Can something be art without the intention to be? • Computer generated art 5 min: Look back at the definition of art and beauty, has your definition changed? If extra time: Ask students to name one song that is beautiful and one song that is not. Play some of them and discuss • What is an artist? • Can someone playing a musical piece they didn’t write be an artist of that piece? Pictures: Traditional art- Nature: Computer generated art: Murals and graffiti: Sculpture: Traffic cone: Banana: Nail art: Food art:

Goal: investigate the following questions with students: To what extent do objects persist over time despite changes to physical properties? To what extent does a person persist as the same person despite new experiences and changes to physical properties? Materials Play Doh Cut up scenarios Hat (or something else to hold pieces of paper) Lesson Plan 35 min total 5 min: Make an object out of playdoh. 15 min: Discuss The Ship of Theseus Part 1: A rich man owned a huge, beautiful wooden ship called the Theseus. He sailed it every week. One day a small wooden board on the right side started to rot, so the ship-builder replaced it with a new one. Several months later it needed a new steering-wheel. Several months later one board on the left side needed to be replaced. Several years later it needed a new mast. Eventually, after 50 years, he was still sailing the ship, but none of the original wood was in it – it had all been replaced piece by piece. Ask students: Was it still the same ship? Why or why not? Part 2: It turned out that the ship-builder was secretly keeping every piece of wood he removed. At the end of the 50 years, he had put them all together in exactly the same order, and even painted Theseus on the side. He launched the ship out into the harbor, next to the other one. Ask students: Which one was the real Theseus? Why? When you think about this, think about whether you’ve changed your mind about your answer to the first question. Key things to discuss: • Ownership (ship A, ship B) • Function (no longer functioning as a boat = not a boat) • Accidental properties/ essential properties 5 min: Crush your playdoh, and make something else. Is this the same object? 10 min: Pull scenarios about personal identity out of a hat and discuss. Most of the cells that are in your body now weren’t there when you were a tiny baby. You grew lots of teeth and lost them, you grew lots of hair and had lots of haircuts, you ate lots of food and built new muscle and bone and tissue. Are you still the same person? Imagine that someone takes your brain out of your body and places it into a different body. An evil scientist forces you to shock one of the 2 bodies, do you choose to shock the body that your brain was placed into or the body that used to belong to you? If you can easily find a photo of you as a baby, find it! Are you the same person that you were in the picture? What about you has stayed the same? Who would you be if all of your physical properties disappeared? Who would you be if all of your mental properties disappeared? Is one more important to your identity? What if your parents had accidentally swapped you with your twin when you were infants. Who are you?