Welcome back if you saw last week's page (you can click through to it here) If you've been trying to solve last week's riddle, some clues and solutions are below!
This week we have a guest philosopher, Aristotle!
The resources will change every Friday. Games, questions, stories, riddles. Solutions to riddles will follow the next week.
Normally I work with schools, and you can get the same free bulletin as the teachers here: free P4C resources.
A four-week block of Zoom debating club starts on Monday, with sessions for 9-12 years old and for teens.Read more at www.p4he.org
Philosophy, Debate and Improv Wranglers sessions for particularly bright youngsters, and Philosophy LATE sessions for adults, continue to be available at: www.giftcourses.co.uk
At last week's adult's session we had participants from New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Ireland, Wales and England!
Aristotle famously proposed that virtues lay in between opposing vices. Here are some examples from one of our Sticky Questions:
Warm-up: courage escalator
Start with the neutral idea of “sitting on a chair.” Then create an "up escalator" of increasingly brave examples that move into crazy rashness. Then do a “down escalator” descending into examples of extreme timidity. Be as absurd as you like!
Where does courage become rashness?
Once you've worked your way to each extreme, see if you can come up with a rule for when courage becomes rashness or timidity. Aristotle thought that you had to apply "practical wisdom" in order to show courage to the right extent, in the right way, at the right time - but how can you tell what that is?
Stimulus: The Brave Burglar
A few years ago, a judge said that a convicted burglar who was making an effort to change his ways should be spared going to jail. He commented that, “It takes a huge amount of courage for somebody to burgle somebody’s house. I wouldn’t have the nerve.”
Can a burglar be brave? – This question allows you to explore whether virtues go together with a moral purpose, or if they are like tools which can be used to good or bad ends.
This one is shown on our YouTube Channel (where all the Spot and Stripe videos are). Yes, but... is an improv game, the sport of thing we might use as a warm-up at the start of a session, so if you enjoy it you might enjoy Improv Wranglers.