Answers to the previous day’s examples can be found on Patreon, via this link. As before, additional examples for today are available for Patreon supporters, where for only $1, you can get access to additional content and exclusive material from the podcasts.

Today’s fallacies for revision, with links to previous podcasts:

Identify those fallacies in the following:

Check out the 365 Days Of Philosophy site tomorrow for the answers.

Early on in the year, I introduced a number of fallacies, and before investigating arguments further, here’s some revision and exercises for the first five:

Weasel words, slippery slope, appeal to authority, argument from ignorance, shifting the goalposts/special pleading.

After revising the definitions in those links, try identifying the fallacies in these statements — more exercises for Patreon supporters at https://www.patreon.com/kyliesturgess.

Answers on tomorrow’s show! Leave your answers in the comments.

Today’s episode is the revision of the topics on resources from the past week — you can support the 365DaysOfPhilosophy podcast by visiting www.patreon.com/kyliesturgess and review previous episodes at www.365daysofphilosophy.com.

If you can help the show continue, head to: https://www.patreon.com/kyliesturgess

Music from Jukedeck — create your own at http://jukedeck.com.

Some of Alain De Botton’s works tend towards the intersection of self-help and philosophy; The Consolations of Philosophy (2000) but also Status Anxiety, The Architecture of Happiness and Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, his approach is to investigate philosophers’ lives and historical relevance, and discuss how their work could be interpreted as useful in dealing with issues you might have in everyday life. 

I came across The Consolations of Philosophy after reading something similar in regards to Jane Austen: a Guide to Dating by Lauren Henderson. It could be argued that any book that helps you to relate to a challenging problem that also gives you an interest in philosophy has some value. This particular book investigates the topics such as unpopularity (with reference to Socrates), poverty (Epicurus), frustration (Seneca), inadequacy (Montaigne), heartbreak (Schopenhauer), and difficulties (Nietzsche — not just the part about syphilis, you’d be glad to know).

While being sentenced to death in Ancient Greece might not seem highly relevant to most of us, it’s a basic introduction to the various philosophers and reflections on what could be practical advice you might obtain through their experiences. While I wouldn’t see this as a necessary go-to-self-help book, I have found it useful for introducing students to some basic ideas and prompting conversation on what else they found out about the philosophers and how their thoughts are relevant today.

I’m more of a mocktail than cocktail fan, but At the Existentialist Café’s premise of exploring the philosophical concepts of modern existentialism and the personal experiences of the author, makes an informative and engaging story. Its character-based focus sometimes reminds me of another great ‘introduction to philosophy’ book: Sophie’s World.

While investigating how what we are and how we are to live arose as questions, the book delves into historical and cultural influences, exploring modern existentialism as a tale of encounters between ideas and between people. Naturally, the greatest proponents of the philosophy are Jean Paul Satre and Simone de Beauvoir and their contribution to the field is the primary hook. Through the influences of Camus, Heidegger, Murdoch and more, the criss-cross of history dovetails with Bakewell’s own evident enthusiasm for philosophy, making this a very accessible journey through the era and beyond (even if you don’t have a wardrobe of black turtlenecks).

Lacuna Inc. has a solution to tragic memories that haunt you — for a fee, they’ll remove them. Completely. 

In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, after learning that an ex-girlfriend paid for the services of Lacuna, Joel decides that the best solution to dealing with his own breakup woes is to delete her existence from his mind as well. About then, it begins to get kind of confusing, as the story dips into and out of the procedure of deleting the memories… while exploring the relationship of Joel and his ‘darling Clementine’, both before and after the breakup. And after the deletion. Where they aren’t aware of the breakup….all at the same time.

Michel Gondry and Charlie Kaufman’s film brings together a mind-bending storyteller and a unique director, using both digital and simple filming trickery to tell the tale of the implosion and reassembling of a two-year romance. You can see more about the effects in the ‘making of’ documentary, but the overall themes of love and loss, how much they determine our identity and builds us as characters, is both comically and often tragically explored. From the start we are challenged as to whether having your past erased is as simple as applying your personality in hair-dye, and if the technology is available — who determines if it will be used wisely, let alone responsibly?

A combination of science fiction and film noir, Blade Runner poses questions about what it means to be human and the potential of artificial intelligence (in the form of androids called ‘replicants’) changing our perceptions of personhood. The plot revolves around the powerful Tyrell Corporation, which designs replicants to do ‘off world’ / outer space work; the jobs which are menial, dangerous — and designed only to serve humans in… you guessed it, the far distant future of 2019. 

In this time, a mutiny by four replicants results in an escape to Los Angeles, where bounty-hunters known as ‘Blade Runners’ are authorised to destroy them. But what happens when a Blade Runner falls in love with a suspected replicant?

The legal and moral status of the replicants; is it murder or is it death penalty; the value of life (artificial or not), and the influences of personal attachment are some of the themes that arise from the film. But I think the unanswered questions about the characters and the setting encourages debate about the issues of ethics, justice and personhood. While Blade Runner is sometimes a confusing film (I still can’t figure out if Rachael is meant to be a replicant or not…), it’s a useful one for philosophical discussion.

The Philosophy for Children (P4C) method draws primarily from the pragmatist tradition — Pierce, James, Mead and especially Dewey. The Community for Inquiry (aka CoI) includes Vygotsky’s theory of the internalization of social behavior and, naturally, draws upon the Socratic method with its community approach, with pupils sharing their views on questions drawn from stimulus materials. 

Its creator, Matthew Lipman, discerned a lack of thinking and reasoning abilities in college students in the 1960s, when teaching at Columbia — and so he decided to engage upper primary students in philosophical discussion using the CoI.

He joined Ann Margaret Sharp at Montclair State College in 1964, where they founded the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children (IAPC). In 1967, he wrote the first of a series of books: Harry Stottlemeier’s Discovery (which is indeed a play on “Aristotle”, not an allusion to Harry Potter!) and its Teachers’ Manual, written with Ann Margaret Sharp and other contributors. The text has a strong sense of structuring throughout, emphasising critical, creative and caring thinking. Subsequent stories, with their accompanying manuals, were written for older students and then younger ones — such as Elfie and The Doll Hospital. 

Thus began the IAPC Curriculum in P4C. This Curriculum has an important historical legacy and exemplar for what was to follow; stories were written as children’s “windows” into philosophy, with the manuals acting as the teacher’s window. Lipman’s scholarship lends the required philosophical richness to the stories, and models dialogue among children, rather than the adult voice being the primary narrator.

Cloud Atlas is a book that I admittedly came to through seeing the film first — and it’s just as enjoyable as the movie (and just as mind-bendingly bizarre, yet beautiful). It’s a multi-character, historical, detective, science fiction, nautical journey with allusions and references, with the tales of the past influencing the future in weird and wonderful ways. 

It’s ultimately a dystopian story, a warning against dehumanisation, against using people as a means to an end. And it often depicts this quite graphically, with exploitation, imprisonment, even cannibalisation and murder. Sounds rather gruesome! While institutional and corporate greed plays a part, the role of the individual is important in not only perpetuating these crimes but also as an important factor in standing up for others — and stopping crimes. 

It has a very strong environmental ethics message too, and while the accounts in the six stories linked by artefacts are more obviously flagged in the film (in a very creative fashion, using actors in multiple roles) — Cloud Atlas is a challenging novel that is well worth puzzling over.

For Patreon subscribers, there’s further revision questions by heading to www.patreon.com/kyliesturgess.

2. To what extent do philosophical concepts enhance the enjoyment of a feature film?

3. With a film of your choice, discuss one philosophical idea raised and how it influences one particular character.
OR 
With a film of your choice, discuss one philosophical idea raised and how it influences a theme.