ISD SECONDARY: Philosophy Club: Or why it always starts with Greeks
A reflection of our Philosophy Teacher Jef Fobelets
On November 12th, 2020, we started our first session at ISD with our philosophy club. We had 8 students joining in, 1 who popped in for a bit, but left together with another student. So, 7 students would be fair to say are now in this club, of which 1 is from MYP3, 1 from MYP2, and all the others from MYP1. Whilst the start was a standard affair of asking what students thought philosophy was, and what they associate with the topic, we quickly came to the question of where it began. The students asked why it’s always the Greeks everyone starts with, and a brief explanation showed them the big three, who laid the foundation for everyone to follow: Sokrates, Plato and Aristotle. Their main contributions were quickly summed up; this was after all the very first session.
Whilst going through this list, the students kept coming with more and more questions about those very same subjects; which undoubtedly will be discussed and debated about. These stretched from Sokrates’ elenchus to Plato’s idea of what a republic should be, as well as the nature of gods, to the ideas of ethics, empiricism of Aristotle, and of course how any of this relates to our modern world. Most everyone was instantly annoyed with Plato though, once they learned that he invented the school subjects they study today (as is befitting of secondary school students).
Going forward, we have agreed to vote on a topic from a list I shall provide. These shall range from the deeply philosophical ones such as ontology, ethics & morality, or metaphysics, to ones that are of direct interest to the world of today, such as political, cultural or religious philosophy. All agreed though that during the reading and discussing we’ll be doing, we will be preparing for a large, academic debate at the end of our topic. The students will be assigned their positions, whether they agree with it or not, to learn how to argue from another perspective than their own; an idea to which they enthusiastically agreed. And so, tentatively, the philosophy club sets forth.
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