Grade 11 - Handouts

Grade 11 – INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN PERSON
1. Introduction
Few years from now, you will gain new experiences in life that you have never dreamed of. Such
experiences may motivate, challenge and help you grow, while others can make you listen and reflect
about your life decisions and stop, look, and plan anew.
At your age, you may have already asked yourself significant questions about your life, your family, the
phenomenon around and the seemingly unanswerable questions like “Why am I here for?”, “What could
really make me happy and contented in life?”, “What if I was born not with the family I have now?”
Have you experienced asking questions like or similar to any of these? Then, you have actually been
engaged into “philosophizing”.
The questions now are:
• What is Philosophy?
• Is it a way of life? Why? Why not?
• How is it applicable in your daily life?
LET’s DISCOVER!
2. Development
Philosophy, meaning “love of wisdom”, is a science where both reason and logic are used to understand
and aswer questions of knowledge, morality and human nature. It can be described as either a body of
knowledge or an intellectual activity.
Doing Philosophy helps one think about many things around. These things could be (a) that which
already happened, (b) are happening or (c) are yet to happen.
Let’s Try This!
A. That which already happened:
1. What were your experiences that left you puzzled in the past?
2. How did you confront the situation?
3. What questions did you ask yourself about?
B. Things that are happening:
1. What do you observe around that triggers you to ask questions?
2. What are the first five questions that keep on lingering your mind?
3. How do you answer these questions?
C. Things that are yet to happen:
1. What possibilities do you foresee about yourself?
2. Why do you see it this way?
3. What if it did not happen the way you see it?
A. Philosophy as a body of knowledge provides methodologies and insights in how societal questions
such as moral dilemmas of same sex marriage, abortion or mercy killing could be answered.
B. Philosophy as an intellectual activity is an analytic procedure of addressing individual thought
processes such as resolving conflict and confusion, testing position and analyzing beliefs. In all
instances, doing philosophy is prescribed by logic, reson and ethics leading to wisdom.
3. Engagement
Let’s DO THIS!
Write your answer in your Philosophy Notebook.
(Adopted from https://examples.yourdictionary.com/ethical-dilemma-examples.html)
1. Michael had several friends including Roger and Daniel. Roger has recently met and started
dating a wonderful lady named Phyllis. He is convinced this is a long term relationship. Unknown
to Roger, Michael observed them at a restaurant several days ago and realized Phyllis is the wife
of his other friend Daniel.
Michael is deciding whether to tell Roger that Phyllis is married when he receives a call from
Daniel. Daniel suspects his wife is having an affair and since they and Michael share many
friends and contacts, he asks if Michael has heard anything regarding an affair.
To whom does Michael owe greater friendship to in this situation? No matter who he tells, he is
going to end up hurting one, if not both friends. Does he remain silent and hope his knowledge is
never discovered?
2. Alan works in the claims department of a major hospital. Paperwork on a recent admission shows
that a traumatic mugging caused the patient to require an adjustment in the medication she is
prescribed to control anxiety and mood swings. Alan is struck by the patient's unusual last name
and upon checking her employment information realizes she is one of his daughter's grade school
teachers.
Alan's daughter seems very happy in her school and he cannot violate patient confidentiality by
informing the school of a teacher's mental illness but he is not comfortable with a potentially
unstable person in a position of influence and supervision over his eight year old daughter. Can
Alan reconcile these issues in an ethical manner? How shoud Alan go about his moral decision?
Instructions: When do perspectives holistic and when are they partial based from the given examples?
Write H if your answer is holistic and P if your answer is partial on the space before each number.
_______ 1. Looks at all aspects of the given situation or problem.
_______ 2. Selects only the familiar aspects of the given situation or problem.
_______ 3. The decisions were made after considering some aspects.
_______ 4. All aspects were evaluated together prior to making decisions.
_______ 5. All aspects were considered before making decisions.
_______ 6. The decisions were hastily made right after evaluating some aspects.
4.Assimilation
Let’s EXPLORE!
In my life, doing philosophy both as a body of knowledge and as an intellectual activity is very useful
especially when I am confronted with issues and I have to make decisions.
Generalization
Below are the significant learnings I acquired from doing philosophy:
1. Think why do these things happen, how could these be avoided, what else could possibly happen if
you will not act on it or you will act differently.
2. List down possible solutions
3. Evaluate all the options
4. Reflect to come up with the best choice
5. Decide what action you should take.
Abstraction
Apply the significant learnings to this situation.
(Adopted from https://www.goodcharacter.com/dilemma4/)
THE SITUATION
Julia was in 6th grade and had been at her school since kindergarten. Her two best friends were Wendy
and Erin. Erin was the most popular girl in the class and all the girls saw her as the leader. One morning
Julia arrived at school and Erin was acting weird. When Julia said hi to her, she didn’t respond. She just
looked away and smiled at a group of girls in the corner of the classroom.
It didn’t take long for Julia to figure out that Erin had turned most of the girls against her. But, she didn’t
know why! She went to Wendy and asked her why Erin was mad at her. Wendy acted nervous and said
that all she knew was that Erin told her that if she hung out with Julia, none of the rest of the girls would
talk to her anymore.
The rest of that day lasted forever. Whenever the teacher was looking everyone was nice to Julia. But,
when her back was to the class, Erin or another girl would throw pieces of paper toward Julia or whisper
to each other and look in her direction. Julia thought Wendy would help her but Wendy just pretended
nothing was happening.
That night Julia talked to her parents and they told her to wait and see if tomorrow was better. If not, they
said, perhaps they could help Julia talk to Erin and work through the problem. Julia felt like that would
make her look stupid if everyone found out that her mom and dad had to get involved. She knew that
sometimes the class would pick on someone, but she never thought her friends would turn against her and
do the same thing to her. She felt like she didn’t have any friends and nobody liked her.
The next day was even worse. No one wanted to hang out with her at recess and she had to sit by herself
at lunch. At the end of lunch she went into the girls’ bathroom. While she was there, a girl from her class
came in and said that Erin had sent her in and that Julia had to take off her shoes and send them back to
Erin or no one would talk to her tomorrow. Julia just wanted to go home. She didn’t want to cry but she
was confused and hurt and scared. She gave the girl her shoes.
Now she was late for class and was in the bathroom with no shoes. She headed to class and walked in
quietly with her head down. Before she could get to her chair, the teacher asked her why she was late and
where her shoes were.
Here was her dilemma. What should she do now? Everyone was watching her. If she told the teacher
about Erin and the girls ganging up on her she would look like a snitch, and who knows what the kids
would do to her after that. But, if she didn’t say anything or lied to the teacher, she would get into trouble.
• What do you think Julia should do now?
• Why do you think Wendy didn’t stick up for Julia?
• Has this sort of thing happen ever happened to you or to someone you know?
• Have you ever been in Wendy’s position? Erin’s?
• How do you think this situation would be different if the case involved boys instead of girls?
• Why do you think people pick on others, and why do others join in?What do you do when you
see or hear someone in your class making fun of someone? Do you join in? Speak up for the person? Say
nothing? Why do you think you react that way?
• Have you ever felt that a good friend turned his or her back on you? What happened and what did
it feel like?
Reflection
Using your Journal Notebook, write your personal insights about the topic.
A. Guided Reflection
Today, I learned that _______________________________________________. I also realized that
_________________________________________________. Therefore, I will
___________________________________________________.
B. Free-flowing Reflection
Is doing Philosophy possible without engaging in philosophical reflection? Support your answer.

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Grade 11 – INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE HUMAN PERSON

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