Keeping the wonder alive: More teaching materials from The Philosophy Club

In my recent Thoughtful blogpost From intrigue to inquiry, I shared some free teaching materials for the high school years. In the same spirit, I’m sharing materials for three more of The Philosophy Club’s workshops: ‘The Real Deal’, ‘New Modes of Perception’ and ‘A Sonic Attack?’.

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 of nation 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.

I design all my workshops with the words of Alfred North Whitehead ringing in my ears: “Philosophy begins in wonder. And, at the end, when philosophic thought has done its best, the wonder remains.” I hope these materials help to animate philosophical thinking, while keeping that sense of wonder alive and flourishing.

Michelle Sowey directs The Philosophy Club, based in Australia. As a content creator and workshop facilitator, Michelle fosters philosophical dispositions as well as skills in collaborative inquiry, reasoning, reflection and dialogic argument. She also provides academic editing services.