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We do a .5 credit of Philosophy, Ethics, and World Views in the senior year. For the Philosophy part, we listen to and discuss R.C. Sproul's Consequences of Ideas DVDs. My dd had to take two Philosophy classes her freshman year in college, and she said our discussions covered a lot more and more deeply than anything she did in Philosophy 101...and it was an honors class.

 

:confused:

 

Jean

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She read Essential Philisophy (Mannion) as a quick introduction, then read primary sources from Philosophy: The Quest for Truth (Pojman). Alongside those, she read Sophie's World (Gaarder) and Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts (Bagget).

 

We gave a half credit for it on her transcript.

 

Here's the basic outline:

 

Ancient Greece and Presocratic Efforts

- Reading: “Gyges’ Ring,” Plato

Three Sages: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle

- Reading: “The Ethics of Virtue,” Aristotle

Decline and Fall of the Hellenistic Period

- Reading: “Letter to Menoeceus,” Epicurus

The Medieval Mind

- Reading: “St. Anselm’s Presentation”

- Reading: “The Five Ways,” Thomas Aquinas

The Renaissance Period

Humanism

The Protestant Reformation

The Scientific Revolution

Approaching Modern Times

- Reading: “Meditation One” and “Meditation Two,” René Descartes

- Reading: “The Absolutist Answer,” Thomas Hobbes

- Reading: “The Democratic Answer,” John Locke

British Empiricism

The French Enlightenment

German Idealism

- Reading: “Moral Law,” Immanuel Kant

- Reading: “The Ethics of Nobility,” Friedrich Nietzsche

Utilitarianism

- Reading: From On Liberty, John Stuart Mill

American Transcendentalists

Phenomenology and Existentialism

- Reading: “Life is Absurd,” Albert Camus

Modern and Postmodern Philosophers

Sociology and Anthopology

- Reading: “The Communist Answer,” Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

Psychology

Eastern Schools of Thought

 

The Big Three Religions

- Reading: “The Case for Affirmative Action,” Albert Mosley

- Reading: “The Case Against Strong Affirmative Action,” Louis J. Pojman

Objectivism and the Right Livelihood

- Reading: “In Defense of Ethical Egoism,” Ayn Rand

- Reading: “A Critique of Ethical Egoism,” James Rachels

Forgotten Philosophers

Twelve Steps to a Better Life

- Reading: “The Case for Animal Liberation,” Peter Singer

- Reading: “The Case Against Animal Rights,” Carl Cohen

The “New Age”

Philosophy Beyond the Classroom

Edited by Jenny in Florida
Correcting the title.
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NWcenter for philosophy has the following literature list and lesson plans on its website:

http://depts.washington.edu/nwcenter/index.html

High School Literature

The Universe and Dr. Einstein, by Lincoln Barnett

The Second Sex, by Simone de Beauvoir

Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, by George Berkeley

Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life, by Sissela Bok

The Stranger, by Albert Camus

Mrs. Bridge, by Evan Connell

Meditations on First Philosophy, by Descartes

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, by Annie Dillard

Middlemarch, by George Eliot

The Campaign, by Carlos Fuentes

The Mind's I, composed and arranged by Douglas R. Hofstadter and Daniel C. Dennett

The Brothers Karamazov, by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Sophie's World, by Jostein Gaarder

In A Different Voice, by Carol Gilligan

Their Eyes Were Watching God, by Zora Neale Hurston

"A White Heron," in The Country of the Painted Firs and Other Stories, by Sarah Orne Jewett

The Trial, by Franz Kafka

Fear and Trembling and The Sickness Unto Death, by Soren Kierkegaard

A Sand County Almanac, by Aldo Leopold

The Time of the Hero, by Mario Vargas Llosa

Philosophical Fragments, by Soren Kierkegaard

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, by Milan Kundera

One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Tar Baby, by Toni Morrison

What Does It All Mean?, by Thomas Nagel

The Examined Life, by Robert Nozick

Tell Me A Riddle, by Tillie Olsen

A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality, by John Perry

The World of Silence, by Max Picard

The Republic, by Plato

A Theory of Justice, by John Rawls

The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger

Nausea, by John-Paul Sartre

No Exit, by Jean-Paul Sartre

Walden, by Henry David Thoreau

A Young Person's Guide to Philosophy, edited by Jeremy Weate

The Quest for Christa T., by Christa Wolf

Mrs. Dalloway, by Virginia Woolf

 

IAPC curriculum

https://cehs2.montclair.edu/store/customer/home.php?cat=250

 

And if you want to do some research:

http://www.dmoz.org/Society/Philosophy/Philosophy_for_Children/

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We used Does the Center Hold? An Introduction to Western Philosophy by Donald Palmer as the primary text. For each chapter, I had her answer a few of the end-of-chapter questions in writing.

 

We also used a few Christian books. One was RC Sproul's The Consequences of Ideas. We added Thinking like a Christian but she did not do the study - we just read through the book and discussed it. She had already read a few other worldview-type books - How to be your own selfish pig and Blah, Blah, Blah were both good.

 

Umm...a library book that she found helpful but I can't remember the title - it had short biographies about various philosophers.

 

Last was Sophie's World by Gaardner. Fascinating book!

 

I had her choose a philosopher to study and she chose Kierkegaard. She read a book that was a combination overview of his philosophy/biography (another library book that I can't remember!) and then his Fear and Trembling.

 

She wrote a few short papers and then ended the year with a longer paper about K's "Leap of Faith"; she really put a lot of work into it.

 

Originally I was planning for this to be a .5 credit course, but it turned into a full credit!

 

I am so glad that we took the time to do this. I felt more prepared for her to read more after this class; everything from Brave New World to The Brothers Karamazov has been more clear to us.

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jenny in Florida,Thanks you so much for sharing the selected readings and book titles used. You have done a remarkable job of being balanced in the topical juxtapositions. I appreciate your generousity in sharing your work. This ,like so many of your posts, is a keeper.

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Hi there,

 

I just did finished doing a great Philosophy program. We used a fantastic book called Sophie's World as the basis. This is a great novel and a fantastic way to study the subject. While my son read the book he did further study on each of the Philosophers mentioned in the book. He then bound all the pages he made at the end of the book and now has his own study guide. I would be happy to share all the details of how we did this if you are interested. We both learned an incredible amount and really enjoyed the process. Best of luck!

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Hi there,

 

I just did finished doing a great Philosophy program. We used a fantastic book called Sophie's World as the basis. This is a great novel and a fantastic way to study the subject. While my son read the book he did further study on each of the Philosophers mentioned in the book. He then bound all the pages he made at the end of the book and now has his own study guide. I would be happy to share all the details of how we did this if you are interested. We both learned an incredible amount and really enjoyed the process. Best of luck!

 

 

I'm very interested in this. My aunt gave me a used copy they had from when their dc were in high school (French immersion) or else university, so I plan to use this somewhere in high school.

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It is based on the book Sophie's World & focuses on comparing the various philosophy views to a Biblical worldview. The curriculum's author has the student study relevant Bible passages alongside each chapter read in the novel. And he adds more background on the philosophers in his study notes, as well as stating his own views. It is exactly what I wanted as an introductory, one semester course, laying the groundwork for possible future studies in philosophy at a university. I wouldn't call it a "traditional" philosophy class, although it is definitely worth a semester of philosophy credit.

 

The materials are very straightforward and easy to use. This was very helpful to me because I took philosophy at my university eons ago with no background in it whatsover at that time. So I felt like I spent the entire semester in a fog! I would definitely recommend the Smarr course to anyone looking for a basic comparative philosophy class.

 

--Dawn

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Thank you for all your replies. Moira, I would LOVE to hear how you and your ds studied Sophies World. This sounds like something my son would like to do. Very CM! Please share...

 

Also...thanks all for all the booklists and additional reading. Lots to consider. i will also check out Smarr...because I wouldn't want to delve into other Pholosophies without our Bible close at hand.

 

I love this goup...You are all always so full of info and so helpful...

Faithe

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I would love to share this idea because it was such a rewarding homeschool project. My son is very proud of his "book" and I am so proud of him!! He would love to have it published as a package with Sophie's World. I tried to upload some attachments to show you some of the final pages my DS made but I was not successful- they said the page was too big to be uploaded-but it was only one page. The fun part of the project will be obvious if I can show you this. Anyone have suggestions. Can I email it to you privately? I think you can see how we did this if I can show you some of the pages. I am not very competent on the computer-sorry.

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.because I wouldn't want to delve into other Pholosophies without our Bible close at hand.

 

I love this goup...You are all always so full of info and so helpful...

Faithe

 

 

You just reminded me of a book I have that I still need to read called Logic or the Right Use of Reason in the Inquiry after Truth by Isaac Watts. ASBN 1-4021-5993-5 . There may be other editions, as well, but this is from Elibron Classics. The text is a facsimile of the original of 1825.

 

I'm not sure how high school friendly it is, but it is Christian based. A friend recommended this to me when I was fed up with Plato. I'd read several shorter works by Plato/Socrates (including Phaedo), but during the Republic I finally had enough of some of his illogic (but had had a lot of fun with the conversation overall. I may go back to that book someday.)

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Hi everyone,

 

I did send emails out today with the attachments to everyone that asked. If you have international emails automatically go to your spam box than you might check for my email in your spam box. My email address is threenovacks@gmail.com. I live near Dubai in the UAE-at least for a little while longer, so that does happen once in a while. Sorry I was late in replying!

 

Have a great day

Moira

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