I’m leading a discussion today at a local high school. There is a BIG READ program that our library has a grant for, and I was asked by the director if I would be willing to lead a discussion on some ethical issue(s) that come up in To Kill a Mockingbird at some local high schools.
It seems like an excellent way to introduce students to a wide range of issues in ethics, political philosophy, and philosophy of law.
I decided that the discussion topic will be on moral issues related to breaking the law.
We’re going to discuss Socrates argument, in The Crito, that it would be wrong for him to break the law by escaping prison. We’ll also discuss some arguments that are in the spirit of Socrates argument, but a bit stronger.
Then we’ll talk about whether or not this argument is applicable to Tom (who tries to escape prison at the end of To Kill a Mockingbird after being convicted for a crime that he didn’t commit on the basis of false testimony).
We’ll see if some of the students will catch the philosophy bug.
I’m going to direct students to this post for more information about the ethical issues we discuss (and for some more information about philosophy). I thought it would be good to get the post up now. For students who are checking this out…I’ll update this post with more information soon.
UPDATE:
Thanks to all of the students at Southwestern High School who came to participate in the discussion. You were a sharp, talented group. There were a lot of very good questions and insights that came up today. I promised some links for those of you interested in some of the topics we talked about (or just philosophy generally).
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is a good place to start. If you’re bored, I recommend browsing through it sometime. The articles are accessible and will give you a nice, broad survey of a wide range of philosophical issues. I also recommend The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Here’s a good entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia on Civil Disobedience. It deals with many of the issues we discussed today about surrounding moral puzzles related to breaking laws.
We also talked quite a bit today about a view called Utilitarianism. This view is a species of a broader view in ethics called Consequentialism. Here’s a good entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia on Consequentialism.
If you have any questions/comments about the talk today, or are interested in more information about philosophy, feel free to shoot me an email.
I think this sounds like a great idea, and it sounds like it went well.