Find something out in the world beyond the course that you think counts as an example of philosophical content, or thinking, or a philosophical activity.
It must be something that isn’t obviously connected to philosophy (e.g., a philosophy blog would obviously be connected
to philosophy, or a newspaper column like The Stone from the New York Times, which is written by philosophers: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/category/the-stone/ (Links to an external site.)).
There are many different options for this assignment, from novels to films to video games to TV shows to everyday activities. It’s up to you
what you want to pick to talk about.
Describe the activity or artifact you have found, and give a link to it if it’s on the web.
Argue for why the activity or artifact counts as philosophical.
Do so by first defining what philosophy means to you, and referring to at least one philosopher we have discussed in class to show how this definition fits what they do.
Give details about what the philosopher says or does to support your claim that this definition fits with their work, referring to specific things in the texts where relevant.
Then argue for why and how the activity or artifact you have found counts as philosophical under this definition.
Finally, include somewhere in your post (doesn’t have to be at the end) an explanation of one way in which you engage in philosophical activity in your life outside of class, based on the definition of philosophy you have given earlier.
If you can’t think of anything, talk to me for help!
You may include with your post an image or embedded video or audio file, if you wish, but note:
The images or audio files you post must be either public domain or licensed to allow reuse. And if they are the latter, they must be attributed to their original creator correctly.
Here is a resource to explain what mean by this, and how you can correctly attribute images: http://wiki.ubc.ca/
Documentation:
PDCCLicenses (Links to an external site.). If you include any images that are not clearly marked as public domain or licensed for reuse, they will be removed and points will be taken off for not following instructions.
Videos posted on YouTube or Vimeo can be embedded into the assignment even if they aren’t licensed for reuse.
How long the text should be:
Don’t have a hard and fast rule for this; basically it should be as long as necessary to include all the elements noted above. Still,don’t think you can do this well in less than 500 words at a minimum, and don’t think it needs to be more than 1500 words at a maximum (which doesn’t mean that you should try to hit the maximum, and add in unnecessary things to do so!).
Grading:
This is worth 100 points, based on your thorough completion of the components of the assignment as instructed. You must include everything required for full credit. The response in Week 7 is worth 50 points, a Discussion Grade.
