In high school, I would expect the philosophy teacher to have graduated in philosophy, the math teacher in maths, the history teacher in history, and so on…
Do you mean that, say, an history teacher could be told to teach biology because there’s no one qualified in the school, even if he never studied biology? Or that all teachers are generalists and not specialized in anything? Something else?
Or is it some peculiar type of high school, special needs maybe (I noticed your mention of students being barely literrate)?
I’m not seeing how Nihilism is a particularly important idea shaping Western culture.
AFAIK, there haven’t been any serious nihilists out there for millenia.
By “nihilism” here I mean the view that nothing exists.
Did you have something else in mind? Like nothing has any meaning? But anyone who says that almost invariably goes right on to say “except the meaning you make,” which isn’t nihilism.
That’s not nihilism. The word as used in modern philosophy was introduced by Nietzsche to describe what he took to be the inevitable consequences of modernity (the rise of Socratism and the death of God).
Okay, I never really read Nietzche, but it looks like most people take his concept of Nihilism to denote the condition arising from a realization that nothing has intrinsic meaning. I can’t quite tell whether it also is supposed to involve a realization that one can make meaning, or rather, a realization that really, there’s no meaning at all.
I can see how these ideas are ones that have something to do with how a lot of pop culture talks about things, so okay, I can see that.
You haven’t been in a high school for a while.
How many teaching jobs are there for philosophers in a high school?
Schools want multi disciplined teachers. I teach mainly science but I have also taught math (I’m good at it but no degree), religion (my qualification is that I go to church), guitar (I know some chords but I was keen to learn).
You might be overestimating the abilities of high school students. In a college level course, all you need is a good textbook. That may not be ideal but thats the way it is. We are a school of 700. We do well with what we have.
Many teachers teach outside of their field. If they do it for many years and want to learn, they become quiet experts at what they teach. The rule is to stay one step ahead of the students. Me, being a great teacher, try and stay two steps ahead of the students.
Again, pardon my ignorance.
I presume most people in the western world live without God.
From Wikipedia
*The term nihilism is sometimes used in association with anomie to explain the general mood of despair at a perceived pointlessness of existence that one may develop upon realizing there are no necessary norms, rules, or laws *
I would say this describes a large proportion of my students.
If you personally are overloaded and if there’s the budget to hire someone to teach this class, also if there’s a University nearby, I can practically guarantee you can find some people with an MA (at least) in Philosophy who’d be willing to do it.
I’d have done it in a heartbeat.
Of course you’ll be hard-put to find ones with much or any experience teaching high school, but even that’s not impossible. I and many of my cohort taught and subbed at private schools over the summer.
BTW you may want to get in touch with these guys. Though they may (as did I) grouse a bit about non-experts doing the teaching. But if they’re serious about having the subject taught, and they are, then they should be interested to hear from anyone trying to put that into practice.
I remember enrolling for a philosophy class in high school, only to become greatly disappointed when not enough other people enrolled to have the class. Now I’m a philosophy professor. :smack:
Does it have to be limited to Western philosphy? If not, I think a unit on Buddhism would be interesting, fun and mind expanding. In the Western sphere, I second the recommendation of Rawls. The veil of ignorance is a useful ethical construct and one teenagers can understand. Basically, a sophisticated extension of the Golden Rule. Similarly important and comprehensible would be the problem of the mind, as developed from competing perspectives by Rene Descartes and Gilbert Ryle.
The main thing I would suggest against is making it a course on the history of philosphy. Too much material, not enough time and, frankly, not all that interesting. Instead, pick a balanced list of half a dozen discrete topics and develop those in as much detail as time permits.
Oh, and another topic. Not sure how I neglected to mention free will vs. determinism. It’s a huge issue, with implications for law, society and religion. Again, it’s an issue teenagers can understand, as it’s one they use everyday (even if they don’t realize it). Indeed, I can think of no philosophical topic with as much relevance to everyday life. And that, after all, was the primary criterion you identified.
I’m find myself googling philosophy topics and reading texts constantly. The problem for me is that these arguments can get so complex that I can’t wrap my head around them. Also, so many names.
If you haven’t already, it might be worth checking out the novel “Sophie’s World” by Jostein Gaarder, as this covers pretty much the whole history of philosophical thought in a compact and informtive matter, without delving into too much detail on any specifics.
At the end of the day it comes down to “love your neighbor as yourself”
Words to live by… Jesus said it 2000 years before Rawls and somehow 2000 years has translated those words into “fucking fags are the reason for everything that is wrong with the world”
