Philosophyspeaking topic
“The body is the tomb of the soul.”
— Plato
practice with this topic
Set the timer (5-30 min), take 20 seconds of prep if you like, start talking. Jot your thoughts onto the sticky-note board.
similar topics
- The surprise execution paradox: a prisoner is told he will be hanged one day next week, but he will never know which day in advance. By pure logic he proves that no day is possible, and is then hanged, completely surprised, on Wednesday. Where did the reasoning go wrong?
- Thomson's violinist: you wake up with a famous violinist plugged into your body, and only nine months of your life can keep him alive. Does someone's survival give them a right to use your body?
- The ethics of care: should morality be grounded in abstract rules, or in concrete relationships and compassion? Could the bonds we feel for one another explain morality better than the scales of justice?
- Seeking what is true is not seeking what is desirable.
- Would life still have value if suffering were engineered away?