October 28, 2009 5:30 PM at the Hale School Music and Drama Center – Unwin Avenue, Wembley Downs.
For the past two years the Philosothon has been a great success – this year looks to be no different! The image is from the 2008 Philosothon, where there’s more details on the Dialogue Australia site.
The Philosothon has evolved from an event involving nine Perth schools in 2007 to an annual event involving sixteen West Australian schools and many interstate schools.
The event encourages students to participate in ‘Communities of Inquiry’, investigating deep philosophical and ethical questions. The judges’ observations seem to suggest that the standard of inquiry improves each year. In preparing and participating in the event students have the opportunity to practice and develop higher order thinking and communication skills.
I’ll be a facilitator at the event and one of the organisers, Leanne Rucks, was recently interviewed for the Skeptic Zone podcast (episode #45).
This is bound to be a don’t-miss for those interested in seeing how the Western Australian Philosophy and Ethics course and philosophy in the classroom is revolutionising how young people think.
The topics the students will be discussing:
1. Given that roughly 50% of the population is female should our political institutions be required to have 50% female representation? (Political Philosophy )
2. How do we know whether or not something exists if it only exists in theory? Realism and instrumentalism in science. (Philosophy of Science)
3. Is torture ever permissible? (Ethics)
4. Does sport necessarily develop good character? (Philosophy of Sport)
I hope to see you there, will let you know how it went!
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Sounds fantastic! Who won in the end? How many female participants won? I remember you mentioning that there was an issue with females not being as forward as the male participants in the past…
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