Session: Introduction to Democratic Theory & Philosophy- A Closer Look at Humans

The Semester Breakdown By Units We will be exploring the following Units throughout the course of the semester: Unit 1: Democratic Theory & Philosophy Unit 2: Democratic Dissent Unit 3: The Trump Phenomenon Unit 4: Race & The Justice System

What You Are Doing By End of the Week…

The Theme for the Course… In order to REALLY understand how our society works, how the realities of life work, and how situations have managed to become so problematic for many people along time and geography… What is the Lowest Common Denominator?... WE ARE…HUMANS This course is really about HUMANS

What We are Exploring This Week… Introduction to Democratic Theory & Philosophy Humans, Power & Tyranny Democratic Values, Beliefs, and Processes Enlightenment Thinkers (Locke & Hobbes) Connecting All of These Concepts Note: All of these will help you write your personal philosophy on humanity in the Blog

Humans, Power, & Tyranny… Our “story” from day one begins with this internal struggle with having power and what we do with it From the Bible’s Adam & Eve, Lucifer the Fallen Angel, Greek and Roman myths about gods to Marvel’s Avengers movies… the story remains the same…

Unit 1: Essential Question How does the Constitution guard against tyranny? VS

Preamble: A little philosophy before we start… Take 2 mins to answer for YOURSELF (this is your view of the world) the following question… Do you believe babies are born “bad”, therefore need to be taught “good”? OR Do you believe babies are born “good”, therefore are taught to be “bad”?

A View From a Distance…How we “See” the world = how we “See” Democracy

The Dead Gazelle: A Case Study

Conclusions & Inferences on the Dead Gazelle Take the next 2 mins to debrief your OBSERVATIONS from the Dead Gazelle-what are the two of you thinking? Bringing this out to the floor… Now, “initial conclusions/inferences”… How do animals in the jungle resolve this problem?

The Dead Gazelle: A Case Study

New Conclusions & Inferences on the Animals as Humans and “Dead Gazelle” Now, pretend these animals are HUMANS…what changes? Is there anything different that could happen? Take the next 2 mins to debrief your OBSERVATIONS from the Dead Gazelle-what are the two of you thinking? Bringing this out to the floor… Now, “initial conclusions/inferences”… How would humans in the “jungle” resolve this problem?

A Closer “Look” at Humans To better understand ourselves, we have to have an honest “look” at ourselves What we are going to examine now is the following: You will draw a silhouette of a human You will fill out the silhouette with what you feel and think makes us “human” You can focus on “all” aspects of human, good & bad, light & dark, etc You will share your silhouette and discuss what “qualities” do we as humans posses that define who we are with your partner

Morgana’s “View” of Humanity Has a story and past Capacity to hate Can reflect Selfish & greedy Can love Rational thinker Easily influenced complex Capacity to create beauty Capacity for isolation Can make decisions Hungry to consume Has memories Vulnerable to environment Ability to empathize Narrow minded Can be a part of group/family Levels of assholery multidimensional

Debrief and Next Steps… Take a look at your silhouette for about 30 seconds… Do you notice anything about how your “human” is probably divided or broken up? Probably in two, two sides, two sides of the same coin…this has a name… The Duality or Dichotomy of humanity What do we do with this “split” in humanity? How do we reconcile (make peace) with this split? What are the ramifications (effects) of this on society?

The Realities…

Closure & Thinking Log Take the next 3-5 mins to do the following to close out our session for today: In your thinking log conclusions/analysis section write down your thoughts with these questions as a guide How do you “see” humanity now after this first conversation? What are your initial “conclusions” on what we need to deal with the duality/dichotomy of humanity given the realities we saw today in photographs?