INTRODUCING PHILOSOPHY QUESTION-CLUSTERS

IS THERE FREE-WILL? OR FATE?

Do you think that you have free will, or do you think that your life is fated to be a certain way?
Some thinkers think that it is possible for you to have free will and have your life be fated at the
same time. What do you think?

--- ---- ------ ---------------------------------------------------

CAN WE CHOOSE OUR OWN IDENTITY?

Do you get to choose who you become? Or is what you become decided before you were born by
your genes, God, The Stars, or some other force of fate and destiny? Have you ever made a choice
that you think says something about who you are? What was that choice, and what did it say
about who you are?

--- ---- ------ ---------------------------------------------------

IS THIS REAL? OR IS IT AN ILLUSION?

Can you think of any examples of something that you thought was real, but turned out to be an
illusion? (a mirage on a hot day? The Matrix?) What makes something real? Is it possible that
“real life” is actually an illusion? Why or why not? If you think that your life is real, what about
your life makes it real? Do your decisions make you real? Does your actual physical presence and
ability to eat and digest food make you real?

--- ---- ------ ---------------------------------------------------

MIND? OR BODY?
Which do you think is more real—your mind, or your body? Or do you think they are both the
same? Why do you think that? Some philosophers think that the mind is just an illusion, and
that the body is the only thing is real. Other philosophers think that the mind is the only thing
that is really real, and the body is just an illusion. What do you think?

--- ---- ------ ---------------------------------------------------

Sean Waters www.introducingphilosophy.weebly.com

MIND KNOWLEDGE? OR BODY KNOWLEDGE?
Do you think you can trust your senses to accurately tell you about the world? How would you
see the world differently if you had a different set of senses? What if you were a dog and you
could smell thousands of different scents? What if you were a bat? Or a dolphin with echo-
location? How would you see the world if you were a grasshopper? Are any of these less real
than others? What does this tell you about your senses?

--- ---- ------ ---------------------------------------------------

DREAM OR REALITY?
Taoist thinker Chuang Tzu famously said, “last night I dreamed that I was a butterfly. Upon
awakening, I am not sure if am Chuang Tzu dreaming he was a butterfly, or a butterfly
dreaming he was Chuang Tzu!” What does this mean? Is it possible that are dreams are more
real than our real life? Is it possible that this whole life is a dream? What do you think?

--- ---- ------ ---------------------------------------------------

WHO CARES ABOUT AXIOLOGY?

“Value and Meaning”: What do you care about and why? What is the most important thing about
life for you? What is it that you value more than anything else? Should we investigate our values?
What if examining our values means examining our peers, our families, our societies, and our
technologies?

--- ---- ------ ---------------------------------------------------

EXAMINED LIFE?
Socrates famously pronounced the following: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” What
do you think Socrates means? What does it mean to live an “examined life”? Do you agree
with Socrates and think that the examined life is the only one worth living? Why or why not?

--- ---- ------ ---------------------------------------------------

CAN LANGUAGE GIVE US TRUTH?

How much does the language of the times constitutes our identity, and why does that matter?
How much is who we are determined by the information that we feed ourselves (or is fed to us)?
And why, if at all, does it matter that we’re plugged into the feed of corporation-filtered
information? Does the technology and constant easy access to information change who we are?
And does it matter?

Sean Waters www.introducingphilosophy.weebly.com