Philosophyspeaking topic
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
— Socrates
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 Chinese room: a person who speaks no Chinese sits in a room matching Chinese symbols according to a rulebook, producing flawless answers. Do they understand Chinese? Is producing the right output ever the same thing as understanding?
- Acts and omissions: is there a moral difference between doing harm and failing to prevent it? Should pushing someone carry the same weight as watching them fall?
- The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.
- Moore's naturalistic fallacy: is it a mistake to reduce 'good' to pleasure or to what is natural? If 'good' cannot be fully defined by anything else, how do we know it?
- Mutineers on a ship each think 'my one blow won't sink it', and together they sink the ship. If no single person is to blame, who is responsible for the sinking? How does individual innocence add up to collective disaster?