Overview

Philosophical activity contributes to a flourishing life by helping us to develop a sense of ourselves and the world around us through reflection on our beliefs and values. Our aim is to promote philosophy in various parts of the community through seminars, consultations, and targeted outreach initiatives.

The best way to understand and appreciate philosophical inquiry is to engage in it. As we see it, philosophy is a contact sport. Ludwig Wittgenstein put it this way: "Philosophy is not a body of doctrine but an activity." The UNC-Chapel Hill Philosophy Department is therefore engaged in an outreach effort to promote the presence of philosophical activity in the Triangle community.

Our Current Initiatives

Young people are natural philosophers; it is important to introduce them to philosophy when their minds are still infused with an open, questioning spirit. Therefore, we hope to work with administrators and teachers in area public and private schools, to help bring the world of ideas into primary and secondary level education. This initiative, begun in late summer 2004, has already borne fruit.

The UNC-Chapel Hill Philosophy Department has one main resource - people with experience teaching philosophy. Here are examples of our current Outreach collaborations:

Cary Academy, 1500 North Harrison Avenue, Cary, NC

We began facilitating philosophical discussion groups in the fall of 2005 through their Philosophy Club.  Topics included the problem of evil, moral responsibility, and the problem of free will.  This year (2008-2009) we expanded our activities into the classroom at Cary Academy.   Eight monthly sessions have been scheduled with philosophical topics ranging from ethics to metaphysics.   In the fall we taught a class on the problem of moral skepticism.   A workshop on how to write a philosophical essay is planned for  the spring of 2009.

Durham Academy, 3601 Ridge Road, Durham, NC

In 2006 we started collaborating with Durham Academy for a semester-long course for seniors, entitled Ethics: Essay and Analysis, in which we prepared a syllabus centering on critical thinking and informal logic.   The skills developed in that section were then applied during the remainder of the course when the students explored ethical theories and ethical dilemmas in depth.   During the years that followed, our close relationship with Durham Academy has flourished and we regularly teach ethics classes for both juniors and seniors. 

In the spring of 2009 our Outreach Program will return to Durham Academy to teach classes on Ethics and Existentialism.

Morehead Afterschool Program (MAP), Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

We began this initiative in the fall of 2008 when we conducted two sessions with advanced elementary school children on Saturdays.   We used hypothesis formation and confirmation as a way of engaging the children in philosophical discourse and we taught them how to think critically.  In the spring of 2009 we will return to teach at the Morehead Afterschool Program. We will focus on the brain and the mind, capturing the children’s natural intellectual curiosity and showing them how to think clearly.

North Carolina School of Sciences and Mathematics (NCSSM), Durham, NC

We have an ongoing affiliation with NCSSM, which started in 2001 when Geoffrey Sayre-McCord, now the Chair of the Philosophy Department, gave the keynote address at their conference on Leadership and Ethics.  

In 2004 we facilitated discussion sections at the conference on euthanasia, affirmative action, and abortion.   As part of the PlayMakers Repertory Company’s production of the play Copenhagen by Michael Frayn, we visited the North Carolina School of Sciences and Mathematics to discuss the moral responsibility of scientists. 

At the October 27, 2008 NCSSM Conference, Leadership: What Ethics Has to Teach Us,  members of the Philosophy Department  spoke on a broad range of ethical topics--Academic Integrity, Legalization of Drugs, Choosing Disabled Kids, Doing It On Purpose, Obligations and Global Poverty, Human Excellence and Preserving Natural Environments, and Philosophy of Religion.

Jan Boxill, Director of the Parr Center for Ethics, will be the keynote speaker at the Leadership and Ethics conference in the fall of 2009.

Plato’s The Apology of Socrates, with Yannis Simonides

Plato’s The Apology of Socrates reenacts Socrates’ defense in the Athenian court and reaffirms the relevance of Socrates’ thought in today’s society.  It premiered in New York in 2003 with a solo performance by Emmy Award winner Yannis Simonides.   Since then it has performed to great acclaim throughout the United States and abroad.

In April 2009 our Outreach Program will present Simonides in The Apology of Socrates in two shows at the PlayMakers Theatre.

C. A. Dillon Development Center, Butner, NC

Our sessions on classic philosophical problems at the C.A. Dillon Development Center began in 2006, generating lively and thought-provoking discussions.  This year we are teaching 11 sections, on ethics, character development, and critical thinking.   We meet each week with a group of young men, 14 to 17 years old, and we talk about many topics, including personal identity, what makes a life good?, euthanasia, trust, what makes an act right or wrong?  We are confident that what we teach these young men will stay with them when they leave the Center.

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We plan to return to McDougle Middle School and East Chapel Hill High School in the near future, resources permitting.   In the past we developed very successful debates on philosophical topics at these schools.

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Our outreach coordinators in the past were Piers Turner, Clair Morrissey, Emily Kelahan, and Cathay Liu. Our current outreach coordinator is Felipe De Brigard. Faculty Advisors are Geoffrey Sayre-McCord and Jan Boxill. We are a part of the Carolina Center for Public Service.

Our outreach coordinator, Felipe De Brigard, will put teachers in touch with specialists who can consult with them on theoretical issues or discuss practical aspects of teaching philosophy. We can help teachers devise lesson plans and classroom activities, or develop strategies to promote critical debate and thoughtful discussion. We can teach a short course on logical reasoning over a week; lead group debates on ethical topics during a single class period; discuss classic philosophical works or philosophical literature; run role-playing games to elucidate themes from rational choice theory; help students to reflect on scientific method and the sources of knowledge, and more.

Philosophy can appear in a variety of ways in a curriculum, even where you least expect it. Programs can be put together for any number of issues, where philosophical questions loom just below the surface.

Contact Information

We very much welcome ideas for how to expand and improve this initiative. If you have something to suggest, or if you are a school administrator or teacher with an interest in philosophy, please contact Felipe De Brigard. He can be reached via email at brigard@email.unc.edu or phone at (919) 259-8114.

Useful Links

1. The home page for the excellent journal, Questions: Philosophy for Young People. Two issues are available online.

2.The High School Philosophy Website Project at the University of Toronto. Teaching resources and links. In Ontario, philosophy is a standard part of the secondary school curriculum.

3.The Open Directory Project page for philosophy for children. Links to many other sites.

4. Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children (IAPC) A center at Monclair State University with a host of resources, including subscription information for its journal, Thinking: The Journal of Philosophy for Children.

These efforts are supported by the UNC-Chapel Hill Philosophy Department, The Parr Center for Ethics, and Dr. Susan Wolf, Edna J. Koury Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, as a result of her Distinguished Achievement Award from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.