Bellwork 8607

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Bellwork 8/6/07

• Are you Tough-Minded or Tender-Minded?
• Explain your answer.
• 2. Can you be both? Explain.

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Todays Objective

• You will be able to analyze your own personal
  philosophy for
• - Tough or Tender Minded
• - Living and Dead Options
• - How you will approach new ideas

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Reading 1

• How did you do?

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• From William James
• 1842 1910
• Psychology Philosophy
• Pragmatism
• The Present Dilemma in Philosophy
• We tend to be either Tender or Tough minded

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Tender vs. Tough

• Rationalistic
• Intellectualistic
• Idealistic
• Optimistic
• Religious
• Free-willist
• Monistic
• Dogmatical

• Empiricist
• Sensationalistic
• Materialistic
• Pessimistic
• Irreligious
• Fatalistic
• Pluralistic
• Skeptical

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So which are you?

• Take out a piece of paper and fold it in half
  making two columns
• Label one column Tender the other Tough

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Questions to clarify

• Which of the following is more important in our
  reality
• The ideas in our head
• The material that our head is made of

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Questions to clarify

• Are there universal ideas and truths such as,
• Love?
• Beauty?
• Right and Wrong?
• Good and Evil?

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Questions to clarify

• Which makes more sense to you
• We have minds and maybe souls that make up who we
  are.
• We are just living machines and when we die,
  thats it.

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Questions to clarify

• Is the glass
• Half full? ?
• Half empty? ?

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Questions to clarify

• Do you believe in a God or after-life?

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Questions to clarify

• Which makes more sense to you
• We are in control of our fate and actions
• We are victims of circumstances

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Questions to clarify

• Is there a single substance or force which
  binds the whole universe together
• Or
• Is everything just a random combination of atoms
  and particles with no real order?

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Questions to clarify

• Do you tend to more
• Have faith in the way things have been done and
  believing that there is a reason for this
• Be skeptical of everything and insist on proof of
  why we should follow tradition

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Questions to clarify

• Is history meaningful and important because it
  teaches us important lessons
• Or
• Is it just a series of random events that has no
  relevance to our lives?

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Questions to clarify

• Do you tend to put more emphasis on
• Ideas and Creativity
• Science and Facts

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So which was it?
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Living vs. Dead Options

• Can be a result of
• Birth
• Education
• Upbringing
• Etc.
• Things you already believe
• Things that are believable to you
• Things you accept as true

• Normally contradict your
• Birth
• Education
• Upbringing
• Etc.
• Things you dont believe right now
• Things that you dont see as believable
• Things you dont accept as true

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Questions to clarify

• Do you believe in God?
• Do you believe in a soul?
• Are we just machines?
• Do we have free-will?
• Could the Matrix really happen?
• There are no universal truths?
• There are such things as Good and Evil

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Group Work

• Get into groups (teacher will assign)
• You will be given a branch of philosophy to focus
  on (i.e., Metaphysics, Ethics, etc.)
• Come up with as many questions (5 min) that would
  lead to discussing various Living and Dead
  options for that branch

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What next?
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How to proceed

• Whimpering Response
• Its not my fault I think this way
• It wouldnt matter if I did change
• Whats the point?
• Practical Response
• Its possible there are other solutions
• Its possible I might change my thoughts
• There is a point to thinking about this

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How will you proceed?
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Artifact 1

• 6 Paragraph, typed, etc.
• Intro, Body, Conclusion
• Explore
• Are you Tender or Tough minded?
• What are my Living Options?
• What are my Dead Options?
• How will I proceed from here?

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One more thing

• Pick a philosophical quote to act as a theme or
  anchor point for this paper.
• The unexamined life if not worth living
• - Socrates
• The only absolute knowledge attainable by man is
  that life is meaningless
• - Tolstoy

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Due Dates

• Outline/Rubric
• Given out 8/8
• Rough Draft
• Due Monday 8/13
• Final Draft
• Due Monday 8/20

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Discussion