In my recent post Three Loaves of Sourdough, I shared some of our teaching resources for the high school years. In the same spirit, today I’m sharing materials for three more of our workshops: ‘The Real Deal’, ‘New Modes of Perception’ and ‘A Sonic Attack’.

Please note that each of the three workshop titles (in the bold-text paragraph-opening sentences below) is hyperlinked to a page where you’ll find all the relevant teaching materials, including a facilitator’s runsheet, slideshow, and printable activity resources.

The Real Deal examines the concept of authenticity in contemporary life. To begin, we consider inauthenticity in two different contexts: capitalist culture and tourism. An initial video clip about celebrities and Starbucks, together with case studies of companies that project a manufactured ‘vibe of authenticity’, prompts consideration of the difference between being authentic and appearing authentic. We contemplate how we might go about detecting ‘fake authenticity’, and whether it is even possible to be genuinely authentic in a world where authenticity is commodified and marketed. A second video clip gives rise to an inquiry into the phenomenon ofnation branding and how it affects a nation’s identity and culture. We ask what happens when culture itself becomes a marketable commodity, and we ponder the pressure on communities to ‘perform’ their culture for commercial gain. The next segment of the workshop addresses inauthenticity in online reviews, with a case study of The Shed at Dulwich, Oobah Butler’s fake restaurant that became TripAdvisor’s top-rated restaurant in London. Short videos (clip 1 and clip 2) lead to a pair of small-group activities. The first concerns the search for genuine online recommendations, the role of social media in promoting social comparison, and people’s tendency to follow popular opinion and conform to the collective norm. The second examines the phenomenon of The Shed at Dulwich in relation to the impact of online influences, the power of compelling narratives (even fabricated ones) to shape our beliefs, and the distinction between satire and fake news. Running through this workshop is a consideration of what it means to be authentic, why we should value authenticity, and whether we are living in an age where reality itself is being artificially constructed. 

New Modes of Perception investigates sensory substitution and augmentation technologies. It presents, via video clips, a series of three intriguing case studies. First, we have Emilie Gossiaux, an artist who lost her sight and who uses a sensory substitution device—the BrainPort—to ‘see’ with her tongue. The BrainPort comprises a camera linked to an electrode-rich tongue-piece that generates tactile sensations. This technology has contributed to Emilie’s continuing productivity in the visual and plastic arts. Next, we have Daniel Kish, an expert in human echolocation who is also blind, and who uses ‘flash sonar’ to build rich, detailed spatial awareness. He advocates for the use of echolocation as a path to greater freedom for blind people. Finally we have Neil Harbisson, the world’s first legally-recognised cyborg, who is totally colour-blind, and who has an antenna implanted in his head allowing him to hear colours through bone conduction. He can also hear frequencies beyond the visible spectrum (infrared and ultraviolet) as well as receiving sonic colour perceptions from elsewhere on earth and in space, via the internet. These case studies raise questions including ‘What is seeing?’, ‘How do our senses shape our reality?’, and ‘Should sensory substitution be promoted to overcome the social exclusion of people with sensory impairments?’. In asking whether sensory augmentation should go mainstream, we inquire into the prospect of continued adaptation of the human sensory and cognitive systems in transhuman/posthuman futures. This workshop builds on neuroscientific concepts of neuroplasticity and cross-modal integration, and references philosophical puzzles including the Molyneux problem and synaesthesia.

A Sonic Attack is a deep dive into the mysterious case of Havana Syndrome, an array of unexplained health problems experienced by staff at the American embassy in Havana, Cuba, in 2016. We view a series of video clips that raise profound epistemological questions. In clip 1, embassy staff hear a piercing noise and report an array of health symptoms including nausea, dizziness, vertigo, insomnia, headaches, and cognitive issues. The Trump administration attributes these incidents to a sonic terrorist attack following decades of tense diplomatic relations between the US and Cuba. In clip 2, the sound heard by the embassy staff is identified as the mating call of the Indies Short-Tailed Cricket. The FBI initially concludes that Havana Syndrome is a mass psychogenic illness: a contagious collective stress response based on a belief. Some speculate that anxiety about the possibility of suffering a brain injury from a sonic attack had heightened people’s vigilance for symptoms consistent with a sonic attack. 

In clip 3, conflicting scientific evidence compounds the confusion around the aetiology of Havana Syndrome and whether brain injury even occurred. In clip 4, a new hypothesis is presented: the syndrome may be caused by an attack using pulsed radiofrequency radiation. Clip 5 discusses the persistence of the mystery, the human need for narrative, and the psychology of priming. Through activities and discussions, this workshop tackles questions about rationality; plausibility and compatibility of explanatory theories; persuasiveness of evidence; and the different aspects of scientific practice that lend credibility to research findings. It also introduces a logical fallacy known as ‘the appeal to ignorance’: a fallacious argument based on a lack of contrary evidence. 

We often end our workshops with more questions than we started with. Avram Barlowe, a high school history teacher and accomplished inquiry facilitator, articulates my aims and experiences precisely when he says:

At the end of the lesson, there’s no clear conclusions, but there’s a lot of clear arguments, and I like kids to leave with those arguments in their minds, as connected to the material that we’ve looked at. They’re learning how to support their ideas with evidence. They’re learning how to … refine their ideas when their ideas are challenged, or modify them – even change them – if someone else’s argument convinces them. These are all skills one needs as a reader and a writer as well. So what I’m trying to do here is work on the same skills in discussion that I want the kids to develop as readers and writers.

You’ll find additional workshop materials on our free resources page. I hope you’ll make use of them, enjoy them, and share them.

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The Philosophy Club, based in Melbourne, works with students and teachers to develop a culture of critical and creative thinking through collaborative inquiry and dialogue.