Philosophyspeaking topic
Wittgenstein's beetle: everyone has a box containing something they call a 'beetle', but nobody can look inside anyone else's box. When we use the same word for inner feelings like pain, are we really talking about the same thing?
— Wittgenstein, the beetle in the box
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
- Do we have free will, or is it an illusion we cannot live without?
- Virtue ethics: does asking 'what kind of person should I be' capture morality better than 'what should I do'? Is it rules that make us good, or character?
- The doctrine of double effect: is intending a bad outcome different from foreseeing and accepting it? If a drug given to ease a patient's pain hastens their death, does intention make the act legitimate?
- The past no longer exists, the future does not exist yet, and the present is an instant too short to measure. If no part of time actually exists, how do we manage to feel that we live inside it?
- The unexamined life is not worth living.