Core Reading: Plato, “The Cave” http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/platoscave.html
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTWwY8Ok5I0
Philosophy has long been defined as
the "love of wisdom." That's the literal meaning of the term. Why,
then, do philosophy courses spend so much time teaching students how to think?
How do you teach students to love wisdom? How can we acquire wisdom, or even
more difficult, teach it? What is wisdom? It is the ability to make good
choices, to guide others in the right path. Wisdom seems to be the culmination
of philosophy, not the beginning.
Powerpoint presentation: introduction
http://individual.utoronto.ca/darylculp/intro.ppt
Socrates said that wonder is the
beginning of philosophy. What am I curious about? What questions do I ponder
when I wake up in the middle of the night? Do the answers come through logic? Or through dreams and visions? Check out the following:
a.
Don Tapscott,
“It’s not what you know, it’s how you think” http://myclass.peelschools.org/sec/12/36479/Homework/Short%20Works%20Unit/Non%20Fiction/Don%20Tapscott%27s%20Speech.pdf
b.
De Gallow,
“What is Problem-Based Learning?” http://www.pbl.uci.edu/whatispbl.html
c. Pink Floyd, "We Don't Need No Education"
i. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwTpZpwjtIE
d.
Multiple intelligences http://www.tecweb.org/styles/gardner.html
self-test: http://www.literacyworks.org/mi/assessment/findyourstrengths.html
Much of philosophy is argument. Each
of us has opinions about the great metaphysical questions. Who am I? We all
answer that differently, because we are unique human beings. And yet,
philosophy is the most general of disciplines. It is the attempt to reach a
unified, or universal, answer to those questions. What is a human being?
Study sheet: reading
guide
http://individual.utoronto.ca/darylculp/reading_guide_intro.doc
Can we answer these questions in the
abstract? Part of the fun of philosophy is the eternal conversation. Everyone
adds something new to the definition of what it means to be human. Solomon said
there is nothing new under the sun; Whitehead said that the history of philosophy
is just footnotes to Plato. But time keeps rolling along, and even if it is a
wheel, it seems to be going somewhere.
Background reading:
Aristotle: “All men by nature desire to know” Metaphysics Book 1
http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/metaphysics.1.i.html
Plato, “The Republic” Book VII http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/platoscave.html
Philosophy is often seen as a
difficult subject. It is hard thinking: logical and analytical. Yet it is just
as often creative and imaginative (and that is perhaps more difficult).
Learning to think critically is hard because it lies beyond our ordinary
patterns. It means holding up accepted ideas and examining them from different
perspectives.
Philosophy requires clarity, and
logic is a primary tool in this task. We start with clear definitions, because
we want to say what we mean as precisely as possible. From there, the
implications of our thoughts are examined closely, so as to make sure we arrive
at correct conclusions.
Analysis breaks our thoughts down
into parts, so that we can examine them bit by bit. Synthesis then puts them
back together. Some will argue that a unity of thought is impossible, and that
our ideas are fragments whirling through a vast pool of emptiness, never
touching reality. Even if this were true, it seems unavoidable to try to make
connections between our disparate experiences.
Exercise: reading
http://individual.utoronto.ca/darylculp/reading.doc
Philosophy is a search for truth.
Even the postmoderns seek for a correct definition of
the human dilemma. Truth is elusive, however, especially on the most general
questions of being. Many different opinions exist, and there seems to be no way
to judge the truth about some questions, at least in this life.
Perhaps this is because truth is a
relation between our human existence and its context (the universe, God, etc.).
Our thoughts are about something: our ideas relate us to a context outside of
ourselves. Truth is a quality of that relationship: our thoughts are either
true or false insofar as they maintain that relationship. (I am assuming that
something other than me exists: a questionable assumption, but one that I dare
to make. If it is wrong, then I am only speaking to myself anyway).
Personal reflection:
what is truth?
http://individual.utoronto.ca/darylculp/epistemology.doc
scientific method:
Michael Shermer’s Baloney
detector: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUB4j0n2UDU
Exploratorium: How Do We Know What We Know?
http://www.exploratorium.edu/evidence/index.html
YouTube video of The Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAVjF_7ensg