Exploring Subjectivity in Teaching Philosophy
ABSTRACT: In the teaching of philosophy, we need to be connect with everyday life. Students in introductory courses can be more motivated when philosophical problems have personal significance. Take the topic of 'selfhood.' Introductory textbooks generally begin with the oracle at Delphi: "Know thyself!" But this motto is usually treated as the search for general knowledge of the individual or of human nature. Is it possible for a student to acquire some knowledge about him or herself during this course and reflect on it in a philosophically relevant way? Can personal experience help in understanding philosophical concepts such as this one? These are the questions which I address. Since I think that philosophers have yet to develop didactical tools for these purposes, I will present techniques derived from Gestalt therapy which can be useful for the teaching of philosophy. The aim is not change but experience itself, with awareness serving as the basis for philosophical analysis. The characteristics of this experience-based pedagogy are: (1) three dimensional inquiry: questioning basic concepts or assumptions and opening new questions, both based on personal experience; (2) experiential work involving a problem, a theory, and an example; and (3) mutual influence between theory and experience, i.e., an interrelationship between the personal and the 'educational' gestalt.
"Know Thyself!" This oracle at Delphi which was Socrates' motto inspires many philosophers but also psychologists and even psychotherapists. Each of them has good reasons for insisting that this is his domain. Several questions could be raised: Was Socrates a philosopher or a 'psychologist'? What kind of knowledge is this self-knowledge? How do these domains differ and do they have something in common? How are they related to spirituality? And many others. My interest, however, is more narrow. Although we can suppose there is an overlap between philosophy, psychology and psychotherapy, in this paper I will focus on the overlap between teaching philosophy and psychotherapy. More precisely: how can Gestalt principles and techniques help in the teaching of the topic of selfhood. I will outline some theoretical background of the importance of Gestalt in relation to didactics of philosophy and describe some possible applications.
When I ask whether Socrates was a philosopher or a psychologist, this is also a question about what kind of knowledge is involved. Do I really want to know myself or do I just search for general knowledge about human nature?
Take a minute to relax. Enjoy the lightness, or surprising heaviness, of the paper, the crispness of the ink, and the regularity of the type. There are over four pages in this stack, brimming with the answer to some question, proposed about subjects that are necessarily personal in nature. All of philosophy is personal, but some philosophers may deny this. Discussed here are philosophers that would not be that silly. Two proto-existentialists, Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche, were keen observers of humanity, and yet their conclusions were different enough to seem contradictory. Discussed here will be Nietzsche’s “preparatory human being” and Kierkegaard’s “knight of faith”. Both are archetypal human beings that exist in accordance to their respective philosopher’s values, and as such, each serve different functions and have different qualities. Both serve the same purpose, though. The free spirit and the knight of faith are both human beings that brace themselves against the implosion of the god concept in western society.
“Jack Roosevelt Robinson was born on January 31, 1919 in Cairo, Georgia. Jackie had 4 brothers and sisters and he was the youngest of them all Jackie like most African-Americans was poor as a young boy and he was raised by his mother only. He attended John Muir High School and Pasadena Junior College, where he was an excellent athlete and played four sports: football, basketball, track, and baseball. He was named the region's Most Valuable Player in baseball in 1938. Jackie’s older brother was in the Olympics for the 200 meter dash and finished in 2nd place just behind Jesse Owens. Jackie would have graduated from UCLA if he would have not run into financial problems his last year, which forced him to leave.”(Jackie Robinson Biography).
Since its dawning at the turn of the century, psychotherapy has faced a myriad of objections in regard to its validity as a scientific practice. With the introduction of psychoanalysis in the late 1800’s, Freud opened the doors to a field that would mature as the next one hundred years progressed. Throughout its evolution, psychotherapy has been evaluated for its capacity to deal with clients on an individual basis and at the same time maintain the objective viewpoint which science requires. In what Robert Neimeyer considers a "postmodern context" of scientific, social and political themes, a new philosophical approach to psychotherapy has developed. This approach, called constructivism, is based on a subjective interpretation of reality and how that interpretation affects human thought processes. In "An Appraisal of Constructivist Psychotherapies", Neimeyer looks at how constructivism has devel...
Gould, L. (2011, March 15). High radiation levels after leak at Japanese plant. Lewiston Sun Journal, pp. A1, A4.
...s are inaccurate and deceptive, the philosopher’s search for knowledge is most successful when the soul is most by itself” (Connolly).
Luikart, G., J.M. Cornuet. 1998. Empirical Evaluation of a Test for Identifying Recently Bottlenecked Populations from Allele Frequency Data. Conservation Biology 12:228-237.
Psychology began as the study of the soul. Plato believed the soul was an individual’s belief they are separate from, but also connected to their physical and social environments. Aristotle believed the soul was a set of psychological attributes which he referred to as the ‘mind’ (Garcia-Valdecasas, 2005).
Philosophy originates from the Latin words Philo and Sophia meaning 'love of wisdom'. This love of wisdom doesn't always come easy, and often students of philosophy will question everything they previously knew, but questioning is the precise purpose of philosophy. Sometimes the answers aren't always there, and everyone's answers are not the same; this is the joy of philosophy. An important aspect of philosophy is the aspect of the self. In the textbook Philosophies for Living, edited by Robert Timko and Joan Hoff, various authors provide contrasting sets of ideas and beliefs pertaining to the self. It is my goal that through this essay, the reader will be able to understand my viewpoints and answers, based on textual citations from the before mentioned textbook, to the six following questions as they connect with the self: What is the self, what is the relationship of the me to the self, how is the self discovered/encountered, what makes the discovery of the self challenging, what aspects of the self were for me the most challenging, and what are the obstacles to the discovery of the self? These six questions will describe the nature of my encounter with the various components of the phenomenon addressed in the text known as "The Self".
Turmeric is a spice used commonly in the east and has been used for over 4,000, both a flavor enhancer to food and for medicinal purposes. Turmeric is a bright yellow, very strong smelling powder that is taken from the root of the turmeric plant which is in the ginger family. The roots of the turmeric plant are removed, cleaned, boiled, and are then pounded into a fine power for use. It was historically used to increase one’s physical energy, to stop embarrassing gastrointestinal gas, to kill intestinal worms, help with abdominal pain, including menstrual cramping.
AGenetic Drift is the variation in a population’s allele frequencies from one generation to the next as a result of chance events. Genetic Drift may cause some genes to disappear, and overall reducing the genetic variation in a certain population. There are two types of Genetic Drift: Bottleneck Effect and Founder Effect . An example of Genetic Drift would be the American Bison, which suffered a huge reduction in population numbers, after succumbing to the bottleneck effect . Due to the quick killings of the Bison, many alleles died with their carriers, and genetic variation decreased exponentially. The American Bison has been gaining numbers in the past couple decades but the genetic variation amongst the different animals is very small. Another example of Genetic Drift would be that of the Northern elephant seals. Also being the target of hunters, the N.Elephant seals population reduced to a shocking 20 individuals at the end of the 19th century . Even though their population is steadily increasing, their genes still carry the effects of the bottleneck. They N. Elephant
Socrates was a Greek philosopher who lived from 469-399 B.C.E. Socrates believed that Philosophy was primarily a social activity, which in fact he made use of quite often. He would find himself roaming the streets of Athens questioning the youth or just anyone who would give him the chance to talk to them. Furthermore, Socrates questions drove people absolutely insane, until the point of absolute consternation if you will. He tried proving a point which is quoted “Look, here we are, two ignorant men, yet two, men who desire to know. I am willing to pursue the question seriously if you are” (Palmer, 31).Ultimately, this meant that the person Socrates was questioning actually didn’t know anything at all, just as well as Socrates himself, so which for the both of them would remain in search of the truth.
Psychology formerly integrated with the subject philosophy; these two formerly considered as one. Philosophy was the center of all learning but many academicians focus more on mathematics, physics, and biology. By the late 1800s, many philosophers created their own disciplines and the era of modern psychology slowly emerged. They soon began calling themselves psychologist. Authors have varying opinion about the founding fathers of the said science; some traces its roots as far as Aristotle and Plato (Benjafield 1996). Other authors believe that modern psychology started at the introduction of experimental psychology and for this reason, several experimental psychologist were also named the father of psychology including, Wilhelm Wundt and Gustav Fechner (Matson, 2009). However, one thing is for sure about psychology – it originated in Europe and introduced in the United States sometime in the late 1880s. Prior to this period, psychology crosses the realms of the paranormal because many practitioners at that time engaged themselves in psychic healing and spiritual quest. They were known as pseudo-psychologists and they were particularly popular in Germany. At the onset of modern psychology in the United State, the discipline focused more on the academics. American psychologists at that time put more emphasis on teaching rather than engaging themselves in research. It was at this period when several schools of thoughts emerged to explain behavior, cognition, and consciousness. In this paper, two of the earliest school of thoughts will be discussed. These are Structuralism and Functionalism. These two will be compared and contrasted.
84% of the world’s energy comes from non-renewable sources. This creates problems because these sources are not infinite and also have negative effects on climate and the environment. One well known non-renewable energy source is coal. Coal is the most used energy generator in the world. Coal is a natural resource that comes from within the ground.
Truth of oneself makes it visible when faced with absurd events in life where all ethical issues fade away. One cannot always pinpoint to a specific trait or what the core essence they discover, but it is often described as “finding one’s self”. In religious context, the essential self would be regarded as soul. Whereas, for some there is no such concept as self that exists since they believe that humans are just animals caught in the mechanistic world. However, modern philosophy sheds a positive light and tries to prove the existence of a self. Modern philosophers, Descartes and Hume in particular, draw upon the notion of the transcendental self, thinking self, and the empirical self, self of public life. Hume’s bundle theory serves as a distinction between these two notions here and even when both of these conception in their distinction make valid points, neither of them is more accurate.
Reinkraunt, R., Motulsky, L. S., & Ritchie, J. (2009). Developing a Competent Practioner. Use of Self in Counseling Psychology Training, 16, 1, 7-29.