English IV: Philosophy Through LiteratureAKA: “Reading Books and Thinking Stuff”

AKA: “Dead White European Males tell me if I exist”

AKA: “The blow-off class that my counselor said didn’t involve poetry”

AKA: “Wait, did you say philosophy? Awwww, ^*()*&)%^)~!”

“Sooooo…. What is this class?”

Bored, surly teenager who is wondering how much he’s missing on Twitter right now.

Well, let’s start with what this class is not…

…It’s not the class where we celebrate all religions equally. Because being a Jedi is not a

real thing.

… It’s not the class where we indulge in hallucinogenic drugs and talk about feelings…

Eat these mushrooms, then start licking your desk until you ‘taste the truth!’

…It’s not the class where the teacher explains what the &^%%&$ is going on in Inception.

“I’m going to lock up the Jawa and Tusken Raider vote for 2016!!!”

Look out, Leo! It’s that crazy bleeping French woman again!!!

In this class, philosophy will largely be the search for ‘you’ through ‘them.’

Them

So who are you?Ah, that’s the question, isn’t it? Well, let’s see what advertisers say….

• Generation Z: Born 1995 and afterwards. (Sidebar– where are all the kids named ‘Mufasa?’)

• True digital natives — having grown-up on iPods, text messaging, Facebook, smart phones and YouTube.

• View themselves as multi-taskers and thrive on instant gratification.

• has grown up with social communities, such as Facebook or Orkut and have nebulous feelings about personal privacy.

• Prefer smaller bits of information– like Twitter– that has been broken down to its basic essence.

• 46% of Generation Z worries about acquiring student debt while 36% frets about being able to afford college at all. Yet, 54% also believe post-secondary education is critical for career success

• Believe in self-publishing (YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram) and self-branding.

• Does not believe in getting agreement or living according to social norms…. Then again, a lot of them are 12…

• 65% of 12 year-old girls and 79% of girls between 13 and 15 own their own mobile device.

• Almost four out of five claim that their personal drive to succeed is greater than their peers.

• Take One Direction very seriously.

Moreover…Are you Generation Z? Do you…

• …Believe in self-promotion and individuality, yet remain slavishly devoted to consumer trends?

•…pride yourself on being generally inclusive/accepting of various beliefs/ideologies, yet also deeply opinionated?

•…Find yourself simultaneously hyper-aware (thank you, Internet), yet strangely isolated?

•…Find yourself aware of sensational violence, yet hesitant to declare ‘evil’… except the Nazis?

•…Describe yourself deeply irrelevant of popular culture, yet reverent in faith…

•…Believe that art is primarily a means of self-expression and entertainment…

This class is about removing the statistics from your identity

Minimum Requirements: You will discuss and reflect on your belief/disbelief/skepticism of

• Truth (with a capital ‘T’)• Beauty• Goodness

Dr. Phil with Isaac Newton hair

And the literature?

One way of looking at literature is the organized and purposeful articulation of human experience. Literature is a telescope, a microscope, a mirror, a crystal ball through which we better understand the universal.

BENEDICK: I do much wonder that one man, seeing how much another man is a fool when he dedicates his behaviours to love, will, after he hath laughed at such shallow follies in others, become the argument of his own scorn by falling in love; and such a man is Claudio.

Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, 2,3,7-12

Consider The Iliad• This work is 2,800 years old… we think…• It principally describes the murderous

rage of a petty, pouting warrior who sits in his tent playing his lyre while his fellow warriors are slaughtered by plague and angry Trojans.

• He’s angry, you see, because his general stole his slave woman and won’t give her back.

• Eventually, he snaps out of his funk and brutally eviscerates a small brigade of Trojans by himself after his best friend (and possible lover) is killed while wearing Achilles’ armor.

Literature is a means by which you react to the candidates for truth.

SEYTON The queen, my lord, is dead.MACBETH She should have died hereafter;There would have been a time for such a word.To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,Creeps in this petty pace from day to dayTo the last syllable of recorded time,And all our yesterdays have lighted foolsThe way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!Life's but a walking shadow, a poor playerThat struts and frets his hour upon the stageAnd then is heard no more: it is a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing.