Nature vs. Nurture (II)

In order to enrich this fascinating debate, I'd like to offer you some additional materials, mainly about two important lines of research when studying the relative weight of those factors:
      1. This is a great slideshow on this topic:

2. Here you have two interesting overviews upon this issue:

• Nature vs. Nurture: How Are Personalities Formed?
• The Nature/Nurture Debate: Are we "Born This Way"?

         3. These are two easy, entertaining documentaries showing well-known stories about feral children:

         4. And finally, this is a documentary (in Spanish, in four parts) about the extreme similarities between identical twins raised apart:

Homework: I want you to answer exercises 16 (justifying it) & 18.

Deadline: Wednesday, June 3. 

Via: email.

Nature vs. Nurture

The nature-nurture debate has had an overwhelming presence for almost the last century when discussing many issues concerning who we are and why we behave as we do. It is also the main topic in the 6th unit in our Philosophy course for 1º de bachillerato. 
In order to become familiar with this topic and enrich our next session, I want you to read sections 4 and 4.1 in our booklet and do the exercises 13 & 14 (page 6). Additionally, here you have some other supporting materials with also some questions to be answered.
Deadline: Wednesday, May 27.

• Watch this video:

   a) Give a broad outline of both experiments.

b) What’s the conclusion drawn in the video? Do you agree with it?

• Studies with identical twins are a very valuable source of information when it comes to talk about the nature-nurture debate. Now please enjoy this new clip:

c) What’s your conclusion about the case shown in the video? Does it provide any help for a better understanding of the nature-nurture debate? In what sense?

   d) Explain the meaning of the sentence “Heredity loads the gun, environment pulls the trigger.”

Finally, here you'll find two useful, comprehensive presentations on this issue:

Main attitudes towards cultural diversity

In our Philosophy course, we are dealing with the concept of culture.

The fact that cultures are so different (well, at least they used to be) faces us with the issue of how we react in front of other cultural patterns.

There are several possibilities, several possible attitudes, but the two main positions are called ethnocentrism and cultural relativism. Each of them may lead to other related attitudes and social behaviour, and there is not an easy way to recommend or encourage the adoption of any of them regardless of their consequences. 

I want yo to do the following tasks. Let's say there are two options, and you have to choose between them:

• OPTION A: Exercises 7, 9 and 11 in our booklet (pp. 4-5).
• OPTION B: Exercises 8, 10 and 11 (ditto).

Deadline: Wednesday, March 20. 

Via: email.

In order to cast some further light on these well-known concepts, here you have some easy clips (along with the one appearing on page 4). The two first embrace a positive view of cultural relativism. The third goes a bit deeper, and add some nuances. The last one is a criticism of moral (not cultural, but they are closely related) relativism, showing its limits.

PHILOSOPHY: Introducing Unit 6.

Dear pupils in our Philosophy course, 

I've prepared for you a brand new version of our next Unit about the dual condition of the human being: we are both natural, biological beings, and cultural beings, shaped by our culture or social inheritance. 

This time you won't need any additional materials (from the textbook, for instance) so we can lighten the contents of our 3rd term and focus on reinforcement and retrieval tasks.

For those among you willing to follow this part of our course, I want you to start reading it -at least sections 1 to 3- and do the exercises 1 to 4 (pages 1-3).

You have to send them to me until May 6 (included) via email.

UNIT 6.

PHILOSOPHY in troubled times (3): 3 metaphysical conundrums

Dear students in our Philosophy course,
During this sort of impasse or standby time, a different kind of assignment addressed to you has come to my mind. It should be seen as the capstone or final touch to our last unit.

Below you'll find three stories, three strange cases about beings and non-beings, about concrete and abstract things, or about how things' properties depend on the observer's point of view. 

Firstly, the links to the stories:
1. Poincaré's Problem.
2. Train Cancelled
3. The Hidden Statue.


Now the links to the tasks:
a) Poincaré's Problem.
b) Train Cancelled.
c) The Hidden Statue.

a) and b) are compulsory assignments. c) is a voluntary one, and it may improve your marks up to 0.4 points at the end of this term. You are even allowed to answer the questions partially. Take your time and try to be both creative and thoughtful. Good luck!

Deadline: Thursday, April 23 (til the end of that very day).

PHILOSOPHY in troubled times (2)

To put an end to our Unit 4, dear students in our Philosophy course, I want you to do the following tasks:

1. You have to study section 4 in our booklet, pages 10-14.
2. Please, have a look at the several video clips linked.
3. Exercise 13, p. 14.
4. Please answer the following questions:

1. Descartes' substance dualism or dualist interactionism set the standard for any modern dualism, but although quite popular, it raised some problems. One of its critics was the English philosopher Gilbert Ryle, who called Descartes' view "The ghost in the machine". Please, explain the meaning of this expression. [Minimum: 80 words.]
2. In his late years, Leibniz developed a strange metaphysical position called 'Monadology' which is explained on page 13. A key point in it is the concept of 'pre-established harmony'. Try to explain it, providing an example of how it works. [You may need to look for additional information. Minimum: 100 words.]

Deadline: Friday, April 3, 11 a.m.

Via: email (directly writing the answer o, preferably, in an attached document).

Please, don't hesitate to ask questions or add comments below this very post.

PHILOSOPHY in troubled times (1)

Dear pupils in our Philosophy course: there's a new assignment for you.

You have to watch attentively the following video and answer the questions you'll find in THIS DOCUMENT. There are two parts of it: the first one is compulsory, the latter is voluntary (I mean, intended to slightly increase your grades, as you already know). 

You have to edit, that is, write on the document itself and then send it to me via email. (Let me know if you have any problems when doing that.) 
Don't forget to ask questions or add any comment below this very post.
Deadline: Thursday 26, 11 a.m. 

(The video is also linked in our booklet, near the bottom of page 9.)

PHILOSOPHY: enlightening about some metaphysical problems and concepts.

Dear pupils in our Philosophy course. I've got some remarks to make about key points in our Unit 4:

1. Unfortunately, you haven't sent any questions about the last sections, with the lucky exception of Jesús Petrer. Should I conclude your comprehension has been perfect? Let me experience serious doubts about that. 
2. To reinforce your understanding of a couple of difficult concepts in the middle of the unit, I'd like to recommend you to watch these videos:
1. Zeno and his Paradoxes.
2. Is Time Real?
3. What is Impossibility?
4. What do "Necessary and Contingent" Mean?
5. Are Possible Worlds Real?-Modal Realism.
   
3. After having studied section 3 in our booklet, you have to do the exercise 11, page 10. Just send me the missing words or names via email. Deadline: this coming Monday 23, 14:00 h.
4. We are meeting via videoconference one of these days to discuss and clarify many aspects of the Unit. Please, let me know your free hours. Further details will be sent via email.
5. When studying the sections involved, or watching the clips or solving the exercises, please don't hesitate to add comments or questions below this (or any other) post to increase your grades.

PHILOSOPHY: looking ahead.

In the weeks to come, dear pupils in our Philosophy course, we need to move forward along our Unit 4, especially considering we won't get our oral presentations done.

These are the next few assignments, both old and new:

1. Study our textbook, sections 1.5, 2.3 and 3.3. Make sure you understand all of them; otherwise, ask me any kind of questions. 
2. Study section 3 in our booklet, pages 7-10. It may be helpful to have a look at the chart at the end of the Unit, especially at point C. Ídem.

In the next few days, I'll ask you to do a couple of exercises about these sections.

Please, address your questions to this very blog post by adding "comments" below, either in English or Spanish, for the sake of your engagement. This way we all will benefit from your ideas and doubts, and at the same time, you all will see my own comments preventing me from repeating the same remarks over and over to different students, and finally... you'll get better grades! 

The Semmelweis' Case: A solution.

Well, the assignment about the story of Ignaz Semmelweis is over. Thank you for participating (to those who have participated, obviously).

There is not a single solution to the activity or, better said, there are many little nuances and several ways of understanding some of the pieces of information in Semmelweis' research.

That said, HERE it is my proposal for an accurate solution to the task. Of course, it follows the list of steps as explained in class.

UNIT 4: Metaphysics

Here it comes! Our new unit, which tries to deepen, even shallowly, into the troubling waters of The Metaphysical Explanation of Reality.

Click on the link below to read or download the paper.

UNIT 4 

Scientific Method: Optional Activity

Dear pupils, in my tireless effort to provide food for your brains and improve your marks, a new proposal has come to my mind.

In THIS DOCUMENT you'll find a very demanding task about the structure of the hypothetical-deductive method. (I must warn you about its difficulties -that's why it is voluntary and not suitable for all kinds of spirits- so you can decide whether doing it or not.)

A complete, flawless exercise will increase your marks up to one point at the end of this term.

Deadline: February 15.

Unit 3

Here you can find, dear students, our brand new Unit 3  about the Philosophy of Science, a branch of philosophy concerned with the foundations, methods and implications of science.
Please bear in mind that it is also ready and waiting for you at the copy shop.

This material complements the contents of Unit 3 in our textbook.

             UNIT 3

Introducing Science

As the first contact with our next unit about Philosophy of Science, here you can find the slideshow hopefully we are about to see in class this week.

INTRODUCING SCIENCE

UNIT 2: Epistemology

A bit later than expected, here you have, my dear fellows, our new -for the time being- unit. 
Enjoy! 😜

UNIT 2

Siri Hustvedt: a modelic reflection on the nature of philosophy

The American writer Siri Hustvedt has been the recipient of the Princess of Asturias Award for Literature 2019. 
In her easy but paramount (also viral, by the way) acceptance speech, Hustvedt gave us a superb lesson about many topics we have been talking about in our first unit. 
Among them, she passionately emphasized the importance of critical thinking, the value of the questions, more than the answers, the astonishment caused by ordinary things, the philosopher as a curious child, the problem of identity and the self, the nature of time, how do we know what we think we know, the distrust of any truth or the drawbacks of any specialization. 
Additionally, the laureate addressed the conflict between permanence and change, the need for an eclectic knowledge, open to different sciences and fields of study, all of them with a delightful touch of feminism.

The speech is slowly worded and very easy to understand and has got Spanish subtitles (with minor mistakes), but the original text is worth keeping. HERE it is. I'm looking forward to an upcoming assignment upon it. 😉

Questionnaire: Good and bad reasons for believing

Dear students,

 

There is a new task for you!

You have to do the following questionnaire about the text Good and bad reasons for believing, by the British biologist Richard Dawkins. It can be seen as a bridge between our 1 and 2 Units.

Deadline: Tuesday,  November 12.
(The questionnaire will be closed after this date.)

Of course, you can only fill in the questionnaire once you have read the text through this LINK.

QUESTIONNAIRE

(Don't forget to click on "Enviar" at the end of the task.)

Practice Unit 1 - Philosophers tales and other stories

HERE you can find materials -mainly pictures and cartoons- to prepare tomorrow's session with our linguistic assistant. Try to think about the questions at home and answer them in some elaborate manner. 

Story of the Good Brahmin

Pondering about how to enrich our first Unit, concerning the nature of Philosophy and its nuts and bolts, I recalled a classic text by Voltaire, an eighteenth-century French thinker: the Story of the Good Brahmin. 

The text may shed light on some of the topics involved in this Unit, notably the attitude conventionally associated with a philosopher. 

HERE you have the story.

After having carefully read it, you have to do the following online ASSIGNMENT. Well, it is an optional task, but consider it may increase your marks up to 0'5 points this term. Once completed, don't forget clicking on "Enviar".

Deadline: Friday, October 18.

Colección "Comprender la Filosofia".

Al comienzo de cada nuevo curso los quioscos se llenan de coleccionables: clásicos de la literatura, minerales, miniaturas... Este año -y no es el primero- surge alguna colección de introducción a la filosofía o de monografías sobre grandes filósofos. A la vez, detecto en programas de radio, podcasts o revistas un creciente interés por popularizar la filosofía, por invitar a pensadores y divulgadores para que nos cuente de qué va eso de la filosofía o para mostrar algunas de sus infinitas curiosidades. Estas propuestas son hoy vías muy interesantes para acercarse a los temas que trataremos en este curso, en particulara para nuestro alumnado de Historia de la Filosofía de 2º de bachillerato.

Entre otros muchos, encontrarás noticias y podcasts sobre filosofía en estos enlaces:

• Cadena SER.
• Philosophy Podcasts.
• Filosofía Hoy.

Me sabe mal hacer publicidad, pero la editorial RBA acaba de sacar una colección de monografías de grandes pensadores y dedica su primer número a Platón, con un libro sobre el autor al ridículo precio de 1.95 €. Este es el anuncio: