This week, “What makes a good excuse?” Download this PDF you can cut up to produce thirty slips of paper, each with a different response to “Why haven’t you done your homework?” They range from “I couldn’t be bothered,” to “I fell down the stairs and broke my leg.”
Give each child an excuse. It’s essential to park the question of whether the excuse is true or false, or is going to be believed. Those are practical and psychological questions of less philosophical interest. So set up the activity with the statement:
Assume all these attempts at excuses are true, and that whatever it is, the teacher will believe that they are true. So if it says, “My dog ate my homework,” that really did happen, and the teacher believes it. But is it a good excuse?
Philosopher’s Cocktail Party + Dividing Line
First they circulate in pairs and threes, talking about whether their excuse is a good one or not. The idea is to have lots of conversations about their excuse and others. Then stand on one side of the class or the other to indicate if they think theirs is a good excuse. Be ruthless about reminding them that we are assuming that all the would-be excuses are true and the teacher believes them. It is whether the teacher should accept the response as a good excuse that counts.
What makes a good excuse?
Now you can move from a discussion of specific examples to the general question of, “What makes a good excuse?” You need criteria rather than further examples, although further examples will probably be generated to illustrate principles such as, “It has to not be your fault”, “It’s a good excuse if someone else is making you do it.” “It’s not a good excuse if you could have done it if you had really wanted to,” and so on.
An excuse is a great example of a moral concept we use often and think we understand, but which on closer examination turns out to be more complicated. Excuses are somewhere between explanations and justifications – they go beyond just describing the chain of events, but stop short of saying that what we did was the right thing.
A Note on the Method
Each excuse has a different sort of thinking behind it (not shown on the slips). If you’ve ever read one of the manuals that accompany the Matthew Lipman novels that kickstarted P4C, you might recognise that the Philosopher’s Cocktail Party + Dividing Line method fulfils a similar function to the discussion plans there. It provides a range of examples that illustrate different flavours of the concept under question – some paradigm examples, some red herrings, some that are neighbouring concepts (exemptions, justifications) and some that are borderline examples that might depend on the detail of the situation.
INTERNAL OBSTACLE – I didn’t understand it.
LACK OF DESIRE TO COMPLY – I couldn’t be bothered.
PHYSICAL STATE – I was tired
EXTERNAL OBSTACLE – It was too noisy at home.
REJECTING OBLIGATION – I don’t believe homework helps me learn.
CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION – It was a holiday in my religion in which we’re not supposed to work.
COMPETING TRADITION – It was my dad’s birthday so we always have the day off in his honour.
DISPUTING SCOPE OF OBLIGATION – It was my birthday and I always get to do just what I like.
DISPUTING AUTHORITY – I think it should be my choice whether I do no homework.
DISPUTING SCOPE OF AUTHORITY – When I’m not in school you can’t tell me what to do.
INSURMOUNTABLE EXTERNAL OBSTACLE – I fell down the stairs and broke my leg.
COMPETING OBLIGATION – I had to look after my little brother.
OBLIGATION IMPOSED WITHOUT REGARD FOR THE INDIVIDUAL – It was too easy for me.
OBLIGATION IMPOSED WITHOUT REGARD FOR THE INDIVIDUAL – It was too difficult for me.
VERY GREY EXAMPLE, COULD BE THEIR CHOICE OR NOT – I had a friend round to play.
UNANTICIPATED EVENT – My uncle was visiting from New Zealand.
EVENT THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ANTICIPATED – My uncle was visiting, he always comes round on Sundays.
NOT OWN ACTION BUT CONSEQUENCE OF IT – My brother tore up my homework because I spilled a drink on his homework.
ACTING OUT OF CHARACTER – I wasn’t as keen to do it as I normally am.
TEMPTATION/LACK OF WILLPOWER – It was sunny outside and I couldn’t resist going out to play.
NOT KNOWING THE OBLIGATION – I thought the homework was optional.
WIDESPREAD WRONGDOING – Most people never do the homework.
DIDN’T INTEND NOT TO – I meant to do it but I forgot.
DILEMMA – I had French homework too and could only do one of them.
LOST CONTROL EMOTIONALLY – My cat had just died so I was too upset.
EMOTIONAL IMPACT BUT NOT LOSS OF CONTROL – My team had lost so I was in a bad mood.
LOSS OF CONTROL FROM FATIGUE – I fell asleep early, because I’m staying at my nan’s and it’s a long journey to school, and then it was bedtime.
LOSS OF CONTROL BUT OWN FAULT – I fell asleep early, because I was playing Fortnite until 2 a.m. the night before, and when I woke up I had to go to bed. – LOSS OF CONTROL BUT OWN FAULT
LOSS OF CONTROL, DURESS – My twin brother stopped me doing the homework because he hadn’t done it and he didn’t want to be the only one getting in trouble.
IDIOSYNCRATIC EXCUSE – I didn’t do the homework because I have a phobia of clowns, so writing a story about a clown would have freaked me out.
Best wishes,
Jason
PS. I was thinking of writing an issue about excuses, so I was delighted when an article from my old uni mentioned a paper called “The Power of Excuses” by philosopher Dr Paulina Sliwa, which has helped me in my thinking on the subject. If you’d like to see her very skilful, thorough, engaging and fairly accessible example of academic philosophy, you can read it here.