Final work day

Greetings

Things here continue to be difficult but I have been comforted by so many friends and family - I can't imagine not having all of that support.

A very hard part of it for me is not being there with you during this week.  Today is the last class day you will have to work on it.  Please be sure to read the "planning and expectations" step for today on the planning and expectations handout ( you can click on that to see it).

The paper is due Monday. Because of the nature of the assignment - many of you may have it saved as multiple documents - I'll just have you turn it in on paper.  Even if you are not in class or school I need to have it on Monday.  Students who miss that date for any reason should assume they will be taking a final.

I didn't mean for that last part to sound so unpleasant - I just wanted to be clear.  The reality is I am so very excited for you, and I'm sure you are too, to complete this project and to read what you have to say.  I'm very much looking forward to seeing you all again for our final few days together.

Wishing you deep thoughts and the skills to articulate them clearly - knowing you all have both of these.

Mr. Rigler

Last two days

Greetings!
I'm still in New Jersey and will be here for the rest of the week.
I'm sure you are all working hard and I'm sorry I can't be there with you.
Hopefully you are using each other or conferencing with people in the ARC or other teachers if you need.
I'll try to answer questions by e-mail over the next day or so.
Otherwise, keep following the steps as you move to the final version of your essay.
For today, some things to keep in mind:

• 
  
  - Examine and re-consider the structure and flow of your essay.  Do the different questions, and your “answers” to them, build onto each other?  By the end of each section, is there a clear sense of what all of the terms mean, and what ideas you are advancing about the philosophical question?  
  - Share your paper with several other people – do they understand what you are expressing?  Are your points clear?
  - Think about all of the questions I typically ask you, and the feedback you received on other assignments from the year.
  
  
  Keep writing and thinking! You're almost there!

Philosophy and Reality

Greetings!

I'm writing to you tonight from my childhood home in New Jersey because my father died yesterday.  It was sudden, unexpected, and blessedly quick.  I'll need to be here for a few days, needless to say.  It also goes without say that I'll be doing a lot of personal philosophical reflecting and coping.

As for your work, I don't think a sub needs to say much of anything to you.  You have all of the directions and now you have the time.  Between today and tomorrow you should have a first draft together, or at least a clear path to one.  I'm hoping you are all in good shape with your research and writing because I'm afraid I won't be able to offer much assistance this week.  But the way you have all been working, I have every confidence you'll be just fine.  No, more than fine - these projects are going to be something truly special.

I wish you good focus and a steady stream of words and thoughts.

Let's Talk About It!

It's dialogue time!

For section 4 of your project, you will engage in a written or typed dialogue with a peer about your topic.  The concept here is the idea that it’s important not only to have the courage of your convictions, but also the strength to have them challenged.

The two roles here are the “writer” and “responder.”  

Here is the structure for today:

1. Open a new Word document - or perhaps even better, a Google Document - whichever you and your partner are more comfortable with.  Create a name for it (“philosophy dialogue” perhaps) and save it.  You will want to be sure to save your work at each step.
2. Write an “opening statement.”  This paragraph needs to include both your question and a general sense of how you are answering it at this point.
3. Switch computers.
4. Responder reads this statement and responds with a paragraph that includes their answer to the question and reasons / justifications for it.  Then, the responder will ask a question, trying to dig deeper into the beliefs of the writer.  The responder may, but it not required, to use one of the following questions we’ve previously used to expand / focus philosophical questions:
1. What are its assumptions and premises?
2. What are its implications?
3. What different types or contexts exist?
4. When does / doesn’t it work?
5. What do the specific terms mean?
6. What are the reasons underlying the questions / answers?
7. Who else shares this belief or perspective, and why?
5. Switch back to your original computer.  Make sure you save your work.
6. Writer now responds to this question with a combination of ideas, reasons, explanations, and examples.  This should conclude with a question back to the responder.
7. Dialogue continues this way for the rest of the period.  
1. Both sides are encouraged to challenge the ideas and beliefs of the other person.  The idea behind that is to push the writer’s thinking, to consider new possibilities, and to potentially reach new conclusions.  
2. Feel free to add in personal stories or make up hypothetical situations ("would your beliefs hold true if...") - philosophy is always at its best and most challenging when it has to be specific and not just theoretical.
8. You will be turning in this dialogue as is - the reflection on it will come in Part 5 as you link all of the sections together.  Don't worry about the grade here - jsut have an authentic dialogue for the whole period.
9. Be sure to save your work after each exchange. 
10. Print out a copy to turn in with the rest of your work.  Please be sure to list the name of the responder.
11. Enjoy the opportunity to have a powerful, deep conversation!
12. For tunes this time, check out the TIny Desk Concert below

Starting to see the big picture?

By today you should have a good sense of the variety of ideas, issues, and sub-questions involved in answering your question.  This will help you to break it down into pieces to write about in each section, and help you to organize them into a clear flow of ideas.

For tomorrow, the flow will be a little different as we engage in written partner dialogues.  These will take the entire period - and will complete that section of your assignment - so do not plan on having other writing time during class tomorrow.

The music selection for today is from one of my all-time favorite jazz musicians: John Coltrane.  It is the title tune from his "Blue Train" record - I hope you dig it!

You're such a character!

Today's goal focuses on identifying the piece(s) of literature you will use for section 2 of your proejct.  All year we've raised philosophical questions about the characters in the plays, novels, and books we've read:  What motivates them? Why do they do what they do?  How are they shaped / changed?  How do they shape / change others?  And many more.

Your goal is to identify a character who speaks to your question in some way.  It may not be a direct connection, and it may be that the character completely disagrees with your perspective on the issue.  In any case, their experiences and actions and thoughts will be a different lens for you to use to explore your question.  Think of the ways in which your question appears in the text and how it is similar to or different from what you've already named.

In this section you will walk your reader through the text, closely examining various parts of the story and linking it back to your question.  Note that you may find it useful to use a variety of characters from one text to get to your point.  Also, many people who have worked on this project in my previous classes have found it to be helpful to compare / contrast characters from two or more texts in order to give a more complete look at the issue. 

Feel free to return to your previous essays and writings to help you with this section.

Today's music selection comes from one of my favorite music webistes, Gorilla vs. Bear.  Here is a link to their monthly mix from April - lots of great new tunes to check out!  Enjoy!

Philosophy Project - Find the Text!

By now your research has hopefully been an interesting browse through a variety of ideas, questions, and potential answers.

The main goal for today is to clarify which philosopher(s) you will use for your project.  The steps you can use toward this involve using the search engines I gave you on the right side of the blog:

• The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Philosophy Pages

To effectively use these search engines you will need to use keywords - terms people discussing your issue typically use.  How do you identify what these are?  Basically it comes from trial and error.  Try a word or two, see what types or articles it takes you to, read those to see how they are treating the issue, see what other words people are using, and repeat.

I also have several of my own books available for you to use.  I will bring these to the computer lab each day.  They are organized by topics and questions and I think you'll find them to be helpful.

One *optional* goal for today is to send me your "Philosopher Proposal" (the form is on the blog under "handouts") - don't stress over this one - it's just a way of keeping in touch with me about how your search is going.  Please note this is a step that can be as formal or informal as you like, and can even be completed by just having a brief conversation with me.

The other goal for today is to find the actual texts written by the author you plan to use.

There are a variety of sites that will be helpful for that, starting with the links we already have.

1. Go to Philosophy Pages.  Click on "dictionary" at the top of the page.  Click the letter of the person you are searching for then look for him / her on the list.  Click "Life and Works" and you will find links to many of the full-text versions of their works!
2. Go to Project Gutenberg's Philosophy Bookshlef.  Simply scroll down this page and I think you'll easily be able to find a link to the work you are looking for.
3. Do a Google search! 
   It’s actually not as hard as you think – you’re just a Goolge search away from finding just about any essay I think you’ll need for this project.  Just read through the overviews on the topic you are interested in provided on the websites listed above.  Then, once you have discovered a writer and the name of a particular essay, just plug those into Google using a formula like this:
   (Author Last Name) + (One or Two key words from title) + “full text”
   
   
   Here are three quick examples I did:
   
   
   Essay: David Hume’s “Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding”
   
   
               I Googled “Hume Enquiry Full Text”
   and found it here: http://18th.eserver.org/hume-enquiry.html
   
   
   Essay: Rene Descartes’ “Meditations on First Philosophy”
   
   
               I Googled “Descartes First Full Text”
   And found it here: http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/descartes/meditations/meditations.html
   
   
   Essay: William James’ “On the Varieties of Religious Experience”
   
   
               I Googled “William James Varieties Religious full Text”
               And found it here: http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/james.html#will
   
   
   All three of those are either the first or second link to come up in the Google search.  Even after you find it, don’t just print it!  Take the time to read it and work though it – you may only need to print a section of it.
   
   
   Again if you've read this far you deserve a reward.  Today's music selection - a great one for a Monday morning - is Van Morrison's "Moondance" record.  Enjoy.