Welcome to lesson plans for the philosophy sessions

OWNERSHIP	RIGHTS	INTELLIGENCE	IDENTITY
Fossil egg	Make a Wish	Can computers think?	Names
Dervish	Heart transplant	Three wells	Between Kirov and Vorik
Sharon's Dilemma	Mate's Plea	Knowing our Ignorance	Harry's feelings
Telling the truth	Fairness is .	.	.

Links for session plans for Year 6 and 7

The Importance of Names Wishes Le Guin The Knife in Thinking Stories 1 What is 'doing Philosophy'? Robots, mistakes and intelligence What is fairness? Robots Considerateness and the good person

Aesop's Fables The Miser Eagle and the Fox Physician and the Old Lady All the Aesop texts

Other topics Teenage credit Zeno's paradox Things take time Zebra crossing Maps Reading Aristotle's The Ethics Double Helix Oban's legends Concepts of time My Hobart Paper Graphic organizers, conceptual gradient, etc P. Cam 1998

For teachers Queensland Assocation for Philosophy in Schools Inc. Philosophical consolidation (2000) Metacognition and p4c History of Ideas It's not just conversation Community of Inquiry The Lipman novels Exploiting anomalies Using the Potter Box On proverbs: "Bytes of Wisdom for postmodern kids" Hobart philosophy paper

The Year 9 Day 8th November 2002 1. Signs of Intelligence/ so they occur in animals? 2. Some human intelligent behaviours we 'see' in animals. Do they constitute intelligence? 3. Issues in our treatment of animals: language, rights, God.

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Life sentence for dying girl

The Weekend Australian www.news.com.au July 17-18 1999, p. 16.

 

Concepts: rights, children's rights, rules, responsibility, ownership

 

Discussion ideas

• Do you own your body?
• Was M right or just pig-headed to insist on holding to her point of view?
• If so, does that mean you can make decisions for it?
• If not, then who does and should make decisions for it?
• Does the body have to belong to anyone anyway?
• At what age can someone decide for themselves to have a heart transplant?
• Who should decide for children and minors?
• When is a person 'grown up'?
• Would you 'be you' even if much of your body was transplanted?
• What more important the happiness of the individual of the happiness of the family or group?
• Was this heart wasted on her? If so, is this a crime/ wrong?
• Do donors have rights too?
• Should courts have the final say in these personal decisions?

Outcomes learnt:

• To put yourself in the shoes of the one you're discussing gives a better perspective.
• Reaching instant final decisions cannot be done suddenly or quickly..
• Explore the sympathy / empathy, advise/ control distinctions.
• Decision making as a process with doubts along the way.
• The 'try it out' is a good way forward.

With thanks to May Leckey, Education Faculty, The University of Melbourne, FAPCA Conference Melbourne September 2000.

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Notes from a Monday Club philosophy discussion 1998

 

Starter

Can we get to the beginning? Does everything have a beginning?

metaphorically yes scientifically, not always

 

What is ageing?

we presume all things have a beginning from our observations

What is eternal life without any ageing? > all living things age = get older

"Ageing is the effects of Time."

 

Is ageing a process of decay?

different people decay at different rates things decay faster than human life eg cheese

we can control rates of decay - put it in the fridge, cover it from bacteria, etc.

a spring loses elasticity, a load loses kinetic energy, a body without food (chemical energy) dies.

Here death = body wears out, body parts can no longer work (organ

replacement wins more life)

 

Can we control our ageing?

statistical expectations of age spans depend on genes, nurture

stress management reduces wear and tear, reducing rate of ageing

"He is wearing me out"; "work is killing me"

examples of people deciding to die, delaying the moment, giving up at bad news

 

Is life a battle just between growth and decay?

In life, the body wins most of the time (sickness); in death it accelerates decay.

Silly to inject food into a dead body.- life is not just chemical energy

But brain-dead people continue with body functions. minimal brain.

Brain and mind (awareness, recognition, sensation) different.

After death, hair & nails "grow" = biological process continues

 

Do bodies have a body clock (a genetic code) to run its course?

Or do we have control over our rates of decay and our longevity?

Some races more vulnerable/resistant to disease

 

But environment has a large factor in life-span e.g., dangerous working environments.

We can drink & smoke less to live longer

Drug taking speeds up the ageing process ("life in the fast lane").

Women live longer than men > men wear out their bodies

Don't look after themselves.

 

G. Smith

Conor & Peter

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2005 Years 6 and 7: Topic: Acting Thoughtlessly ("Ethical Inquiry - Manual to Accompany LISA" Chapter Ten Episode 24 page 363). I have found that the articulation of the ethics of everyday events and their consequences is good practical thinking for generating bigger thoughts. Leading Idea No 1 (page 84) in that Manual explicates the moral imagination, the learnt body of experience that enables us to live social lives with facility and grace so that we can conduct our daily lives without necessarily offending everyone. The ten different questions there explore the concept of "being a good person" in various hypotheticals and considerations upon thoughtlessness.

 

International Association for Philosophy for Children Ethical inquiry: Manual to Accompany LISA, second edition, New York and London: Lanham, 1985, pp. 362-4.

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Discussion on the nature and products of intelligence

Intelligence	Relates to animals?
problem solving recall, memory wit, humour, amusement survival skills communication skills making and maintaining relationships	finding food, storing food for winter maternal paternal protection of young homing pidgeons adaptations: nesting patterns adjusted jackass, willy way tail, cats smiles feels absence in stress, frets, relationship with mahood, strapper, minder, trainer, master
Behaviours care of young migratory birds community, pods, flock behaviour distress calls sensing danger, water, food, rain, earthquakes "mistakes" inventiveness, playfullness in kittens, pathos	Issues circus animals revenge for past cruelty territorial behaviours, foxes intelligence + adaptations rights of animals God created the animals "I love animals" means dependence, cute, non-threatening to me, I am superior, I own them?

 © G. Smith 2002 acknowledging Erica Ryan's unit on Animal Intelligence Somersby 4-6-2002

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