Aesop's Fable _ The Eagle and the Fox

Plan for a philosophical discussion

OUTCOMES

- more knowledge - group discovery

- deeper awareness of the dynamics of trust

- experience of exploring implications of life circumstances

PROCESS

1. Retell the fable - clarify word meanings

2. Focus on the moral. Seek alternative wording.

3. Observations/ identify issues such as:

The eagle does what a mother must - feed her chicks.

Rate Fox's right for scolding for breach of friendship - does "lived together . . . as good neighbours" give him such rights?

Is being safe from revenge enough justification to "ignore his entreaties"?

Was it right for the Fox to back up entreaties with threats?

Note that friendship can turn to enmity very quickly - some givens cannot be breached.

4. What is a "breach of trust"?

Detail some examples: lawyer and client, shop and customer, tradesman and client, parent and child, husband and wife, government and government, bureaucracy and individual.

 

Detail implications of a breach of trust:

affective: disappointment, anger, revenge.

effective: breakdown of communication, worse consequences, once bitten twice shy.

 

How to repair breach of trust:

admit mistake(s) both sides if necessary

forgiveness

appeasement: "dear neighbour .... our tree"

5. Consider this Golden Rule: "Do unto others. . ."

Know they friend/ know thy enemy.

Mutual responsibilities in a friendship.

Extent of duties in a neighbourhoodship

Is there a better rule?

6. REVIEW session together.

G. Smith 1998

Aesop fable: The Physician and the Old Lady

Question:

Was it reasonable of the old woman to trust the physician? Why?

The Miser - an Aesop fable

("philosophical" proceses are underlined)

1. Everyone has a copy. Read the fable aloud, a paragraph each.

2. Clarifications:

a. Word meanings:

granite

thief

gloat

tore his hair

lamentations

miser = "one who hoards instead of using money" OED. a Scrooge

b. Setting details

bushes

hole open

neighbour comfortingly garden weall

3. Finding the Point of the fable: Starters:

hoarders are antisocial?

hoarding is not socially beneficial?

money ought to be used in society; it is not a good in itself

whereas valuables are - family heirlooms, jewellery, etc.

• define meanness by comparison with its opposite:
• generosity - meanness
• courage -- cowardice
• hope -- despair etc.

   sold all his possessions leds to hugh lump of gold

  worrying about safety of his possessions

What is the message or moral?

• donít cry over spilt milk
• dont sell all yourpossessions
• Bewar of thieves
• gold gets you no whare

4. Applications

Jesus' parable of the talents : rewarded the profit, scorned the one burying it)

Defining meanness: what is difficult for one is easy for another eg. $20

principle of reasonableness a guide for each one.

Wrong to judge others' quickly.

5. Relevance for our lives:

What is your opinion

agree fully/

really true

always true?

attitude of responsibility

social awareness, cooperation

the principle of the greater good versus individualism, etc.

G. Smith 17/9/98. 22/3/01

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