Historyspeaking topic
Was the Reformation only a religious matter? What kind of political and social earthquake did Martin Luther's 95 Theses set off against the power of the Catholic Church?
— Martin Luther, the 95 Theses (1517)
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
- One explanation for the 'bewitchment' symptoms in the Salem witch trials is poisoning by a rye fungus containing compounds similar to LSD. If a fungus in the bread could lie behind a town's mass hysteria, doesn't it make you ask how much of what we explain as 'evil' or 'madness' is actually biology?
- How does Descartes's principle 'I think, therefore I am' (Cogito ergo sum) mark the beginning of modern philosophy?
- In 1518 in Strasbourg, hundreds of people danced for days without stopping, and some died of exhaustion; it was called the 'dancing plague,' and no one knows its exact cause to this day. If a crowd can be swept into the same frenzy with no orders given, simply by being together, how far is that really from today's viral crazes?
- Let's talk about the call 'Sapere aude, dare to use your own reason' in Kant's essay 'What Is Enlightenment?'
- Why is the birth of philosophy in ancient Greece called a 'miracle'? Let's discuss the attempt to explain natural events through reason rather than the gods.