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.
   
   

   
   

Sign up for Senior Symposium

Hey - don't forget to stop by the bookstore to sign up for the all-day Senior Symposium on May 16th.

Here is a link to the speakers and sessions available on that date - great stuff!

Philosophy Project - What Are You Thinking?

For today, I'm recommending getting going on Part 1.  Again, this is a statement of where you are with your initial thinking about your question.  To help you do that, it is good to use stories and examples.  Think of why you have the beliefs you do and what led to that.  Of course it doesn't need to be something you personally experiences - it can be an example from a book, movie, or even a hypothetical situation you create.  Refer to the previous handouts for suggestions about questions to ask yourself, and answer, as you expand your thinking over the pages of this section.

Today's music selection is a mix created to honor the great hip-hop producer J Dilla.  He worked with many acts, including A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Common, the Roots, and many more.  He died at the age of 32.  Check out these beats:

Philosophy Project - Time to Focus

Greetings!

I hope you enjoyed your last set of late-arrival days!  Hard to believe how quickly the time is going.

Today there are a few suggested components:

1. If you submitted your question proposal to me, you can read my comments in turnitin.com. If you have not yet submitted your question, let's just say getting to that today would be a great idea.
2. Check out the planning and expectations guide I have created for you.  It names a step for each day and a suggested progression for the overall project.  Note that none of these are required check-ins.  However, if at any point you want to show me what you've written, or sit and discuss something you've read, or anything, let's make that happen.
3. Get started with Part 1.  See my suggested steps on the guide above.
4. Look around at some of the websites I've listed to get a preliminary sense of the different ways in which other philosophers have written about your topic.

If you've read this far and want some great tunes to work with today, I'll be posted something each day.  For a Wednesday afternoon, I recommend jamming out to this live show from a band I've been listening to for over twenty-five year - Widespread Panic.  This is a show they played in Florida over the weekend and captures them at their finest.  Let me know if you love it, hate it, or want to know more!

Philosophy - What's Your Question?

The goal for today is simple: to identify the question you will work with for your project.

Now, I'll admit, it's not exactly easy to do this, so there are some steps I'll suggest for today.  Before I even get to those, I'll add a few things:

1. Although your question proposal is due at the end of the period, this is your preliminary question.  This means it is a starting point for your journey.
2. You will still both widen and sharpen the focus of your question as you move forward and explore various aspects of it.
3. If you find another question you'd rather answer, you can still switch - it is your project, after all.

Here is a set of suggested steps to follow today.  You don't necessarily need to do all of them but I think you'll find it to be a good use of your time.

Also, I'll say this frequently, but I highly recommend doing all of this in writing - in whatever format you like.  If you want to create a blog to use for this project, I'll be happy to help you set one up - it takes minutes!

1. Brainstorm a list of potential questions.  These can come from a variety of sources, including:
1. Your previous writings for this class - think about all of the great issues you've already addressed and thought about for your essays.
2. The lists I provided you with on the handouts - open and read "Some basic philosophical questions" and "Forming philosophy questions."
3. Browse around through the websites you've linked to: the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Philosophy Pages, and the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
2. Do some preliminary research of your question.  I'll do a short demonstration of this at the start of class today.
1. Scan through what other writers and thinkers have said about your issue.
2. Think of a variety of different words associated with your topic (we'll spend a lot of time on this next week) and try them in your search.
3. Try taking this quiz - if it's working.

Lastly for today, complete the "Philosophy Question Proposal" - you'll find it under the "handouts" tab on the blog.  Please note that you are not turning in a paper version of this.  Instead, once you have completed the form and saved it in your "my documents" file, you will upload it to TurnItIn.com.

Good luck!  A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step!

Philosophical discussions and first thoughts towards your question

For today you have two tasks that will move you towards naming your question.
As the bottom of this post you will see the homework for Monday.

1. Find a partner.  You will have a typed conversation about one of the issues that came up during our discussions of Man's Search For Meaning.  It can be from the final section of the work you did on Tuesday, or even from one of the opening set of questions we addressed.  You can find that earlier handout by clicking here.
1. For your conversation - which will essentially be a practice run for the dialogue section of your project - you should start out with an opening statement that goes something like this: "Frankl raises the question of ... and he claims ...." 
2. You'll follow this by talking about your beliefs in relation to the issue: "I agree / disagree / am not so sure because..." then add in an explanation of your thoughts about it.  Try to use a specific story or example to illustrate your point.
3. Switch computers.  Read what the previous person had to say, and then respectfully respond to their points.  It should start with something like, "I agree / disagree / am not so sure about what you are saying because..." then add in an explanation of your thoughts about it
4. As the conversation continues, both of you should work towards gaining a fuller understanding of your point and what the other person has to say.  To get there, use some of the questions we used on Tuesday: 
1. What the other person's assumptions and premises?
1. What is s/he assuming to be true?
2. What conditions is s/he assuming to exist?
3. What is s/he suggesting about the different people involved?
2. What are its implications?
1. If this is true then what else is true? Why?
3. What different types or contexts exist?
1. When does / doesn’t it work?
4. What do the specific terms mean?
5. Who else shares this belief or perspective, and why?
1. Are there other people who this does / doesn’t apply to? Why?
5. Go for about 15 minutes.  Save your results.
2. Choose a new topic from the list below.  Choose a new partner.  You and your partner must have different topics.  Repeat the process detailed above for these two new quesions, with each person starting off one of them with a personal statement.  These do not need to connect with the book.

1.      On bodily death, a person continues to exist in a non-physical form

2.      The ultimate goal in life is to live as pleasurably as possible.

3.      Democracy is the best form of government.

4.      God exists.

5.      I am now the same person as I was when I was 5 years old.

6.      I am always responsible for my actions.

7.      To allow an innocent child to suffer needlessly when one could easily prevent it is morally
         reprehensible.

8.      Ghosts exist.

9.      One day there may be computers that understand Shakespeare better than I do right now.

10.  It is wrong to impose the death penalty.

11.  There are universal moral standards that apply to all human beings regardless of where they live.

12.  The best way to treat depression is to inject chemicals into the brain.

13.  If I had been born into a different environment, I might have become a professional killer.

14.  It is impossible to know anything with absolute certainty.

15.  The future is fixed; how one’s life unfolds is a matter of destiny.

16.  The life of a young child is more valuable that the life of a 22-year-old college student.

17.  If God does not exist, then there are no moral obligations.  In this case, no action would be right  
       or wrong.

18.  It is impossible to be truly happy if one is an immoral person.





Hopefully all of this thinking today gave you a lot to think about!  For Monday, please refer to this handout - it discusses how to move towards creating your question.

By the end of class Monday, you will complete this form which describes your proposed question.

The Philosophy Project

Here is a link to the handout describing the philosophy project.

Here is a link to the power-point I shared in class today, showing 13 essential philosophical questions.

Man's Search For Meaning - Developing Philosophical Questions

For our work with Frankl's book today, please refer to this document.

Man's Search For Meaning - opening thoughts

On Monday we started the final book we'll read together, Viktor Frankl's Man's Search For Meaning.

To get us thinking about the Holocaust and what we already know about it, we shared stories then read this quotation from Elie Wiesel's Night, a book many of you have already read:

"Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke. Never shall I forget the little faces of the children, whose bodies I saw turned into wreaths of smoke beneath a silent blue sky. Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget that nocturnal silence which deprived me, for all eternity, of the desire to live. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to dust. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to live as long as God Himself. Never."

 

We noted how in this brief excerpt Wiesel raised issues about his faith, his beliefs, the actions and inactions of those around him, and what it means to go on living after such an experience.

 

Today we'll start reading Frankl's book to see how he raises and explores these questions, in addition to a few others.

 

Here is a link to the calendar for the unit.

Here is a link to the handout, including questions, we'll use for our initial reading.

Existentialism

Here are the PowerPoint slides I shared in class when I introduced the philosophy of Existentialism:

The Stranger - Six Word Stories

Today in class you wrote a 6-word version of the relationship between Meursault and different characters in chapters 4 and 5 of part 1.  Here they are;

Chapter 4 - Meursault and Marie

• no emotional commitment - a physical desire
• physically attached but not emotionally attached
• Marie's clingy; Meursault's distant.  They're awkward

Chapter 4 - Meursault and Raymond

• Casually ignoring elephant in the room
• Raymond uses Meursault for meaningless friendship
• Raymond dictates and confides; Meursault compies

Chapter 5 - Meursault and Marie

• She's desperate; he couldn't care less
• He's just not that into you

Chapter 5 - Meursault and Robot Woman

• In love with someone like him

Chapter 5 - Meursault and Salamano

• Old man rambling about old memories

Chapter 5 - Meursault and his boss

• wants to obey but no obligation
• they aren't close and don't care

Life of Pi - your questions

Here are your questions about the novel:

• What does a person need to survive?  How does hopehelp a person survive?
• Does Pi train Richard Parker, or does RP train Pi?
• Can a person believe in many gods?
• How does fear help a person survive and believe?
• How can animals provide hope for survival?
• Is having a companion in a surviaval situation what keeps Pi from death and despair?
• When you lose everything, what do you need to survive?
• When Pi gets stranded in the Pacific Ocean how does his need to survive interfere with his moral values?
• What knowledge will transform someone's perception of the truth?
• At what point does fantasy become reality for pi, possibly "blinding" him?
• When stranded out in the middle of nowhere, on boat, what kind of motivation/hope will drive you to survive and what kind of elements will provide you with this motivation: such as Science, Religion, or even the freedom to do what you want? Then let’s say you do survive, how will you tell your story, as a media perspective and spice the story up, or tell the brutal truth that can horror people?
• Throughout the book we can argue that Richard Parker saves Pi and keeps him alive, but does God and religion play a bigger factor in keeping him going; and when Pi is supposedly talking to Richard Parker, is he actually talking to God? 
• At what point should Pi let survival overcome his morals and beliefs?
• What is god's role/purpose for the discovery and nature of the island?
• How does the source of Pi's motivation change over time?
• Why is it that the "better story"/the truth sometimes the harder one to stick to in the face of others?
• What will you do in order to survive?  How far will you push beyond yourself and your morals?
• When the book talks about adaptation, does it mean we are motivated to adapt out of fear? If so, then does this fear influence us to act out in abnormal and sometimes savage ways?
• How does fear influence Pi's perception of animals?
• Does having a companion in times of survival help someone have hope for their future?
• How does perception alter the conflict of fiction vs. reality?
• Does survival take precedent over one’s personal morals, and by doing so, change one’s identity?
• How does one’s faith in G-d and religion change their perception of occurrences?
• Does faith, belief, and fear change how one perceives both of Pi’s stories?
• Why is the humanistic behavior displayed in animals more acceptable than the animalistic behavior displayed in humans? How do the elements of belief, G-d, and fear create a better story?
• How do the elements of belief, G-d, and fear create a better story?
• Pi is someone that has strength, and motivation to live in a time of fear, but how was he able to push aside the death of his family? Through God/Religion, Hope or something different?
• How do needs motivate?
• Can you kill and still hold true to your morals?
• Does loss makes someone’s faith stronger or weaker?
  
  
  

Life of Pi - Essay Time

Over the course of the past several weeks, we've raised a wide range of issues and questions related to Yann Martel's Life of Pi.  Now, it's your turn to connect these dots - to examine the ways in which a question about the book is answered by it.

Your response will be in the form of an essay - either a single-text analytic essay or a hybrid, connecting an outside text or personal story to the novel.  For both essays, you will be forming and supporting an argument about the novel in terms of what it means and why.

Since the essay will be 7+ pages, you'll need a wide range of evidence.  Be sure to include all four parts of the book, remembering they are not in chronological order.  

Furthermore, an effective essay is organized by points, not by examples.  You are not just pointing to examples of a particular idea or action - you are taking the time to examine the language, the implied layers of meaning, and the ways in which the novel functions as a whole.  Thus you are focusing not on observations but on interpretations.  Each section of your essay will benefit from having a clear topic sentence.  I highly recommend making a sentence outline, looking something like this:

• Thesis / argument:
• Point 1:
• Supporting evidence (3+ examples)
• Point 2:
• Supporting evidence (3+ examples)
• Point 3:
• Supporting evidence (3+ examples)

It might help to think of the format of interpretive questions we used:  "When the book says ____, does it mean ____?  If so, then ____?"  In order, these are the fact, interpretation, and implication.  Another way to say this is the "show - mean - matter" approach: show the example, clarify what it means, then explain why it matters to your thesis / point.

It also might help to think of your sections as:

• Point 1: the challenge
• Point 2: the (attempted) solution / actions taken
• Point 3: the results

We'll have time in the computer lab on Thursday.  If you want to send me a rough draft, I'll be happy to give you feedback on it.  In class we'll discuss how to do this and what the deadlines are.

The final version of the essay is due Tuesday, March 5th.

Life of Pi - Garden of Eden

Greetings!

I am out at a conference today (hopefully, considering the weather).

For today, you read chapters 92-94, but we'll focus on 92 - the island.  Quite a chapter.

To spur your thinking, please read this version of the Garden of Eden story (click that link).  At the end of the document you'll find a question.  Please type out your response and e-mail it to me by the end of the period.

Have a great weekend and enjoy the end of the book!

Life of Pi - asking questions

As we work through Martel's novel we will focus on forming questions about it, both to better understand the text and to further our exploration of the issues it raises.

We'll be doing short writings each week.  You can find copies of those assignments under the "handouts" tab above.

Second Semester Senior Year!!

Greetings!

Today I will be at the English Department course fair all day.

I'm sad to not see you on this rainy Monday morning to welcome you to the beginning of the last semester (hopfully) of your high school career.

Tomorrow we will have a chance to catch up and get things off to a formal start.  Also, tomorrow I will return work from fourth quarter to you and be able to discuss semester grades, which will be posted by the end of the day on Wednesday.  Please do not look at the grades on Infinite Campus and consider them complete - they are works in progress and may contain errors - nothing is official yet.

For today, I'm going to have you think about your place in history and what it means to be a person alive in these times.  Why?  We inaugurated a new president since we last saw each other.  Barack Obama will be the president for the next four years - a very important four years of your life.  We will also start to be more philosophical in our work this semester (more on that tomorrow). Let's take a look at what he had to say.

Please read his inauguration address.  You can click here to link to it, or here, or here.

When you are finished, please think about his words and how they apply to you and your views of the world in which you live.

• Which issues raised by President Obama are ones that relate to you? Why?
• Which ones do you think are most important?  Why?
• Where do you find yourself agreeing / disagreeing with him? Why?
• What do you think motivates these beliefs - what are the reasons for them?  What are the beliefs he holds that he is implying but not specifically naming?

Type out your responses and give them to the sub by the end of the period.

Also, please purchase the two books we will read this quarter: Life of Pi and The Stranger.  You will need Life of Pi for class on Wednesday.

See you tomorrow!

First Semester Final

Here are the links to the documents for your final:

• Description of assignment
• Scoring rubric
• Sample outline

To register for turnitin.com:

• Class code: 5960018
• Class Enrollment Key: Okonkwo