This is an exercise that works well in the weeks just before the winter holiday break. Start with an anecdote about receiving a gift that is disappointing and not feeling particularly grateful. You can use an example from real life, but it also works to make something up or think of an example from a … Thinking About Gratitude
Ethics Warm-up #1: Think of someone you know who you think is a really good person. What makes that person a good person? Warm-up #2: Think of something that’s pretty good. Now think of something that’s better than pretty good, that’s good. Now think of something that’s better than that, that’s really good. Think of … Philosophy Warm-Up Activities
On the Beautiful and the Sublime…Aesthetics as Subjective Experience One of the longstanding questions that’s been debated in the field of aesthetics involves the nature of Beauty; one question in this area asks us where Beauty lies, in the object or in our eyes. Taking this further, if Beauty is in us rather than in … On the Beautiful and the Sublime
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?
A Topic Concerning the Question of Evil A long-simmering debate in theology involves the status of the classical definition of God. Traditionally, one area of agreement between Theists and Atheists has been in the definition of God. The mainstream among Abrahamic monotheists tends of center around God as Omnipotent, Omniscient, Omnipresent and Omnibenevolent. One of … God: All-Good or All-Evil…is there any Difference?
Students are arranged into groups of 2-4. First they formulate their answers to written questions, then they work together as a group to respond to a challenge at the end of the activity. Warm-up Think about all of the different kinds of things that you do at home, at school, at your friends’ houses, or … Magic Box Activity
Instructions: Facilitator performs the below: Draw/Project this diagram into a shared visible space. Prompt students to write down: 3 qualities that make a good ________.(e.g. friend) Randomly solicit students to contribute 3 different qualities. Write these where x, y, and z are shown. (Make sure they are conceptually different). Field clarifying questions about x, y, … Choose Two
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
PLATO is part of a global UNESCO network that encourages children to participate in philosophical inquiry. As a partner in the UNESCO Chair on the Practice of Philosophy with Children, based at the Université de Nantes in France, PLATO is connected to other educational leaders around the world.
This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
If you would like to change or adapt any of PLATO's work for public use, please feel free to contact us for permission at info@plato-philosophy.org.
Connect With Us!