Teaching 12 Angry Men

Update (3/25/13): I've fixed some of the links and cut out a request for help which is no longer needed.

So I'm going to show 12 Angry Men in my critical thinking class, but I'm extremely wary of the fact that simply showing a movie in class is a lot like reading the textbook out loud. To avoid this, I've decided to use a tactic called Guided Film Watching, where the students are required to fill out a question sheet while the film is going, and we stop frequently to discuss what has happened so far. Students have enough experience just sitting back and letting a movie sweep over them. I want them to practice working while watching.

The first resource I wanted was a simple character guide, so they can remember who's who and refer to them by number in discussion. A cursory Google search didn't turn one up, so I made one myself. I imagine that I'm not the only one who has looked for such a thing, so I am posting mine here, in hopes that it will show up for diligent googlers.

Second, I've decided to break up the movie into 15 minute chunks, and watch about two chunks a class for three classes, mixed in with discussions the movie, the nature of critical thinking, and Clifford's "The Ethics of Belief." Each chunk will have a question sheet. I've posted the full question sheet here. Questions for the first two chunks are below:

First segment

Chapter 1-3 on the disc, 0-15:46.

1. In the first minute and 13 seconds, the camera enters into the courthouse and follows a few people around. What do you notice about the way the courthouse is depicted? What do you notice about the people the camera follows? Why are we shown these people?

2. Starting at 1:47, when the camera pans over the jury, and going to 10:23, when the deliberations start, we get a chance to see the different jury members in a casual situation. Do any of them stand out to you? Who do you think will be a good jury member? Who won’t?

3. What reasons does Henry Fonda originally give for voting not guilty? Are they good reasons?

4. At 14:20 Juror 10 stands up and gives a speech about "them." "I’ve lived among them all my life," he says. Who is he talking about?

Second Segment

Chapters 4–5, 15:46–30:10

5. Starting at 15:46, the jurors start giving their reasons for thinking the defendant is guilty, starting with juror 1. Which of the jurors seem to have good reasons for their judgment and which don’t?

6. At around 21 minutes, juror 3 gives a speech about children and his son. What is significant about this speech?

7. At 24 minutes, Fonda gives a second speech about why he votes not guilty. Are his reasons different than the first time? Are they better?

8. At 28:50 Fonda introduces his own piece of evidence. Has he been holding back on the other jurors? What has he been holding back?

Some of the questions are long, but the students will have the chance to read them before the segment starts. If anyone stopping by is interested, I'd like to hear what you think of these.

Dog walking reality

I am a realist, in the minimal sense that I believe there is a real world that we all share and that we have only limited ability to control, whether we are acting individually or collectively. While walking the dog this morning, I puzzled over what exactly distinguishes that real world from all the fantasy worlds out there. I knew there are many literatures relevant to this issue, but I ignored them, because I was walking the dog.

The first thing I decided was that no one feature distinguishes the real world from fantasy worlds, and that all of the features used in the distinction exist in some degree in fantasy worlds. This means that an imagined world can at least appear to be more and more real as it acquires and strengthens the features it shares with the real world. This fact is just what we would expect, given all we know about people who get lost in novels, online games, and delusional ideologies.

So can I back this up? Well, let’s try some features that might distinguish reality from fantasy. (Do you think someone will be less offended if you leave dog crap on the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street, than if you left the crap on their lawn proper?) The obvious feature of the real world that is important is that it is out of our control. But imaginary worlds can be out of our control, too. The world of the Sims is constrained by what other players do and by the rules of the game. You might say that fictional worlds are different because all of the constraints on your actions can be traced in some way back to human agency. The other Sims characters are controlled by other people, and the software itself was designed by people. But not all pretend worlds are like that. A live action role playing game (where a bunch of nerds dress up in Ren fest gear and pretend to fight goblins) is constrained by the laws of physics. You might say that human agency is still at work here, because the players decided to use the real world. But this weak sense of human agency is also at work in the constraint on real world social activity. When Israeli and Palestinian diplomats negotiate over the fate of the West bank, their actions are constrained by the facts on the ground, but this is a result of the fact that they have decided to negotiate over this stretch of territory, just as the live action role players decided to play their game on the fair grounds out side of town.

(I was proceeding in a kind of transcendental deduction mode here, where I assumed that the distinction between reality and fantasy as we know it is possible, and then ask how it is possible. I was thus allowed to assume that we can distinguish real and fictional people.)

I said many features distinguish reality from fantasy, can I think of others? Yeah, containment. The real world contains the pretend worlds. The dreamer is sleeping in the real world; the movie is shot on a real soundstage. (I’m certain I’ve seen this point made in the philosophical literature, but I can’t think of where.) Of course, fictional worlds can contain fictional worlds, too. Think of Shakespearian plays within plays.

(At this point in my reverie, I was done walking the dog, and began riding my bike to work.)

Ok, so what do we have? The difference between the real worlds and the pretend worlds isn’t that the real world is constrained by things beyond human agency, but that it is more constrained. Further, the difference between real worlds and pretend worlds isn’t that the real world can contain other worlds, but that the real world is, as it were, the outermost container.

The possibility of the real world thus depends on a kind of convergence. As we move into containing worlds, we should also see less control falling to human agency.

(At this point, I had arrived at my office, and decided to write this down. The reasoning went very neatly here, so I am probably re-inventing someone’s wheel. Maybe someone can tell me whose?)

Times of War Are Funny

First, via Miss Vicky, this excellent mash up video of our Dear Leader singing "Imagine" and "Take a Walk on the Wild Side" Having W. sing "Imagine" is becoming its own little genre. This version is much better than the previous one I saw. Less dogmatic, more odd. And what's with all the Hillary footage?

Second, via Lizardbreath at Unfogged, this letter to the NYT book review.

To the Editor:

Reading Dexter Filkins’s review of “The Looming Tower,” by Lawrence Wright (Aug. 6), I was both concerned and outraged to learn that the “cave-dwelling madman” Osama bin Laden is, in fact, only six feet tall. Since the horrific attacks of Sept. 11 I have naturally assumed, like many Americans, that bin Laden was 6-foot-6 if not taller. This shocking revelation has forced me to radically reassess my views on 9/11, the war on terror, the Bush administration, the liberation of Iraq, and Islam, which is caught between the rock of tradition and the hard place of modernity. No longer do I consider bin Laden to be an invincible Goliath-like demagogue. Now that I know his true stature, I think we should move on to pressing domestic concerns.

Lt. Col. John Petzen, Ret.

Sun City Center, Fla.

As LB points out, very Monty Python.

More Joey at the playground

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Originally uploaded by rob helpychalk.

As you like it

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Originally uploaded by rob helpychalk.

Joey at the playground

Joey Update

I've been neglecting cute joey stories in favor of cute caroline stories. My excuse is that stories about children who can talk lend themselves more to the blog format.

The big news in the world of Joey is walking. Last week, he started standing up on his own, without pulling up on anything, and then taking three stumbling steps toward the nearest parent before falling on his face. More recently, his three steps have been smaller, but he has retained his balance during them. Last night, he took six or seven solid steps, straight accross the kitchen, to get to his mother.

When he reaches you, he throws his arms around your neck like a Cure song and gives you a big long hug.

The worries of a three year old

Caroline: Daddy, what if a bear ate me?

Me: I'd be sad.

Caroline: What if a bear ate me, but then I just got caught in its throat.

Me: Well, then I'd reach in and pull you out (szchoom!)

Caroline: What if a bear ate me, and I got stuck in his throat, but there was a latch on his mouth.

Me: Then I'd open the latch (flip!) and pull you out (szchoom!)

Caroline: What if a bear ate me, and I got stuck in his throat, but there was a latch with a lock on it.

Me: Then I'd call a locksmith (ring!) and he'd open the lock (pop!) and I'd open the latch (flip!) and pull you out (szchoom!)

The World of Adjuncts

from the web supplement to Jobs for Philosophers

*24. (10 possible positions advertised) MARIST COLLEGE, Poughkeepsie, NY. The Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Marist College invites applications for adjunct positions teaching Introduction to Philosophy, Ethics, or World Views and Values starting in the Fall of 2006 or the Spring of 2007. MA in philosophy required, Ph.D. desirable. Teaching experience desirable. Deadline for submissions is August 1, 2006. Applications considered immediately and until all positions are filled. Please note that the remuneration for these positions does not by itself constitute a living wage; it can serve only as a supplement. Please submit a CV and letter of interest to: Chair, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Marist College, 3399 North Road, FN 221, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601. (SW06), posted: 07/18/06.

I am very tempted to translate this ad like this:

We have a standing need for ten people to teach a intro level course which we clearly require of all our students. We have decided not to hire tenure track faculty to fill this need. Instead, our business model will require that we use adjuncts to provide the basic services we offer with the budget we are willing to spend. And we have no intention of paying a living wage.

Is there any reason I am wrong?

Frogsitting

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Originally uploaded by rob helpychalk.

For the last two weeks we've been looking after a frog for one of the co-op kids, X . X. has cleverly named the frog "Frogger." Frogger turns out to be really cool. You have to feed him live bugs, which turn out to not be so hard to catch, and if you wait patiently after you put the bug in his aquarium, you can see him zap it down. He eats almost any kind of bug, but seems partial to big dragonflies and spiders, which are especially easy to catch.

Frogger's big problem is that the glass walls of the aquarium throw off his sense of depth. The one time I saw him try to nab a bug, he leaped boldly into the air, extended his tongue, and went “PLAM!” into the glass wall of his home. His tongue formed a little pink blob on the glass next to the green blob of his body. Poor Frogger.

BSG live blogging

Kara just found a crashed cylon ship, opens the door, and finds out it has no pilot. "Are you alive?" she says to it. This is the same line that Number Six, in her various incarnations, gives to humans she encounters. In the opening miniseries, she says it to the human representative waiting at the space station where they hold negotiations right before the cylons begin their genocide of the human race. After asking the human representative if he is alive, she kisses him, and then the cylons kill them all.

Funny how the civilian leadership is more willing to use consequentialist, cost-benefit analysis decision making than the military. Of course, the issue is whether to abandon a pilot.

Teigh is saying they should quit. Therefore they shouldn't. Do they ever let him be right?

Now Kara is sucking on a red, bloody cylon oxygen pipe. I assume the writers loved putting her in such a gooey environment. Is she pressurizing the cabin by plugging a hole with her foot?

I guess Teigh is right this time. I mean, even though Kara lives, Teigh is right.

Credits: there's a guy who's first name is "bear"

Molly: it's just a whole list of people with better jobs than me. [except I meant better jobs than I have, or whatever; perhaps this is an illustration of why I am only marginally employable. --m]

Yipee!

Score!

Dear Professor Loftis,

I'm writing to let you know our decision on your submission to Environmental Values, 'The Theragatha Model of the Aesthetic Appreciation of Natural Environments'.

Based on the referees' reports, we would like to accept the paper for publication, subject to revision. The referees feel that it is a very strong paper, and one that will make an original contribution. Please use the comments in the attached reports to guide your revisions. In particular, the referees agreed that your discussion of disinterestedness in aesthetics needs some critical attention and could be further
developed given some recent discussions of the topic.

When you have completed your revisions, please send the paper to the same editorial address as your original submission.

I'm really impressed with how quickly Environmental Values got back to me. Now I need to go look at the referee's comments.

Good thing Joe Strummer didn't live to see this

A lot of people have blogged about the National Review's ridiculous list of the to 50 conservative rock songs of all time. Until now, though, I wasn't aware that the Clash's "Rock the Casbah" came in at number 20. In case you don’t remember, the Clash named their monumental third full length album Sandinsita!, in honor of the socialist government in Central America. My vinyl copy (three 12” records!) says “FSLN!” on the spine.

The song “Rock the Casbah” itself is about an issue both liberals and conservatives (or, as they say in England, democratic socialists and Tories) can get behind: the edict issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini banning rock and roll in Iran. We all hate it when the religious leaders ban rock and roll. In America, even the religious conservatives know they can’t get away with that.

The lyrics to “Rock the Casbah” are a wash of images--images of war, ancient cultures, and rock star posing. Standard fare for The Clash. The Clash, as rockers, were always interested first in creating a mood, and only secondarily in making political statements. Violence permeates their music, for instance, but it is not until Mick Jones wrote “Somebody Got Murdered” that you get a clear denunciation of it. This sort of thing led someone in a book that I skimmed to criticize them for being really only about rock star poses. Whatever. By the time you get to songs like “Something about England”--one of the nicer dissections of race and class to have a backbeat--it becomes clear that no one at the National Review can claim The Clash as one of theirs.

An example of question asking for my critical thinking class

Miss Vicky sent me this a while ago, and I've been hanging on to it because I think it will be useful in teaching question asking as an example of a fake question and an evasive answer. This can then lead to a discussion of what kind of dialogue this is and whether the exchange advances the goals of the dialogue. The transcript of the press conference is here. This exchange is about 3/4 of the way down.

While I'm making notes to myself, I'm going to put all my recommended readings in one spot.

Questioning and discussion : a multidisciplinary study edited by J.T. Dillon Publish info Norwood, N.J. : Ablex Pub. Corp., c1988.

Dillon, J. T Questioning and teaching : a manual of practice New York : Teachers College Press, 1988

Strong, Richard W Questioning styles and strategies : proceedures for increasing the depth of student thinking Hanson, Silver, Strong & Associates, c1980, 1995 Edition 2nd ed

Belnap and Steel. (1976) The Logic of Questions and Answers

David Harrah (2002) "The Logic of Questions" Handbook of Philosophical Logic D. Gabbay Ed.

Wisniewski, A. (1995), The posing of Questions - Logical Foundations
Erotetic Inferences. Dordrecht, Kluwer Academic Publishers. Harrah lists this book as having a good bibliography.

Walton, Douglas N. 2006. Fundamentals of Critical Argumentation, Critical Reasoning and Argumentation. Cambridge [UK]; New York: Cambridge University Press.

Walton, Douglas N. 1989. Question-Reply Argumentation, Contributions in Philosophy, No. 40. New York: Greenwood Press.

Achieving Representation

John at CT shows us this PowerPoint slide that was apparantly used in the planning of Iraq's reconstruction. I am quite fond of the phrase “Aimed Pressure to Achieve the End-State Over Time."

Now I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Look Rob, I know it's fun to make fun of PowerPoint, but the PowerPoint is just an illustration for the talk, it isn't the content. I'm certain when this diagram was talked through it all made sense." Unfortunately, the Pentagon chiefs have fallen into the habit that Tufte first noticed in the business world: emailing the PowerPoint slides to people who weren't at the presentation as if this were an adequate presenation of the ideas. John quotes Thomas Ricks, quoting Lt. General David McKiernan

It’s quite frustrating the way this works, but the way we do things nowadays is combatant commanders brief their products in PowerPoint up in Washington to OSD and Secretary of Defense…In lieu of an order, or a frag [fragmentary order], or plan, you get a bunch of PowerPoint slides…[T]hat is frustrating, because nobody wants to plan against PowerPoint slides.

So, in fact, the PowerPoint does become the content. This is the big risk of PowerPoint as social technology. Over at Tufte's site there is a wonderful discussion of the military's use of PowerPoint going on. One commenter who has worked in the military points out another way the Pentagon uses PowerPoint which Tufte has criticized: "The expectation is that the handout is also simply a printed copy of the briefing slides themselves, so that while the PP slides are being projected on screen, the participants in the meeting are simultaneously reading the printed versions."

Others at that chat note that the Pentagon's PowerPoint tends to be more information dense than corporate PowerPoint, which is taken as a virtue in Tufte's philosophy if done properly. Here's another second hand quote, this time commenter John Landis quoting a Slate article on how PowerPoint destroys the paper trail.

Almost all Air Force documents today, for example, are presented as PowerPoint briefings. They are almost never printed and rarely stored. When they are saved, they are often unaccompanied by any text. As a result, in many cases, the briefings are incomprehensible.

This will make the war crimes trials more difficult.