Part 2
Drama in CLIL : Philosophical theatre
Specific objectives
1) Enabling students to obtain a better understanding of the ancient
philosophical western world.
2) Enriching vocabulary
3) Achieving a better understanding of poetic and philosophical vocabulary.
4) Dealing with philosophical and poetic language in an interactive way.
On completion of module students should be able to :
1) Discuss and write short essays in English about the early thinkers.
2) Use philosophical vocabulary on a variety of issues.
3) Understand the link between philosophical thought and poetic language,
particularly in ancient Greece.
4) Understand the potential and characteristics of multi-disciplinary
activities.
Steps
1) Methods
Studying a mini play concerning ancient philosophy.
Identifying with philosophers through role play.
Reading and playing the part of individual philosophers.
2) Activities
a) A group of students forming a choir as a narrator voice emulating an
ancient Greek drama.
b) Where possible use of other languages e.g. Greek, to create an
authentic atmosphere. This will enable some students to use their
native language.
c) Involvement of English teachers in Shakespearian productions.
3) Materials
a) Mini play written by teacher
b) Introduction music, where possible
c) Use of speech bubbles on interactive whiteboard.
d) Film scenes about significant moments in philosophers’ lives.
Philosophy and its history
What is philosophy? Philosophy is what philosophers do. What do philosophers do?
They philosophize. In other words, they think about thinking.
Are we going around in circles? Maybe, but this is not unusual in philosophy. As
Heidegger said: In ontological questions, the interrogator and the interrogated
coincide. 1)
However if philosophy is the love of wisdom can we say that all philosophers are
wise ? They certainly know how to analyze things in depth. I don’t know whether
you can call that wisdom but it’s a good start. Philosophy, in any case, is supposed to
make you wise. According to Lucretius “ it was man who first dared to raise his
mortal eyes above religion and superstitious awe”. 2) He was obviously referring to
Epicurus, but really for want of someone to blame for starting philosophy we will
pick on Thales of Miletus.
Thales of Miletus
Servant: Hello, Mr. Thales. How are you ?
Thales: Don’t bother me with such small talk. I’m looking for the first principle of the
universe.
How did the universe come about ?
Servant: everybody knows this, even Homer claims that everything springs from the
myth of the ocean.
Thales: Everything is composed of water, this is true. However my principle is not in
myth, but in nature itself; the unity of things is nature - No mithos but logos.
Servant; I think that as a result of falling down he became slightly insane.
Servant “What are you doing now Mr. Thales” ?
Thales: I’m looking at the stars because I’m going to predict a solar eclipse. It’s going
to take place in 585 B.C.
Servant: They say he’s a wise man and yet he is so occupied with looking at the stars
that he can’t see what’s under his feet.
Thales :My student is coming.
Thales :Hello, Anaximander. What have you been thinking about today?
Anaximander : I had a busy day. I designed a map for the explorers of Miletus, and I
came to the decision that the earth is freely suspended in space and …..the first
element is a substance which I call Infinite: it’s eternal and ageless and
encompasses all the world. And from that all things take their rise and they pass
away once more to make reparation to one another for their injustice according to
the ordering of time. This substance is called àpeiron which means without
limitation.
A third thinker is now approaching:
Anaximenes “No, my friends, no water, nor àpeiron, but a substance “Just as , our
soul, being air, hold us together, so do breath and air encompass the whole world.”
And the form of the air is as follows. Where it is most even, it is invisible in our sight;
but cold and heat, moisture and motion, make it visible. It is always in motion; for, if
it were not, it would not change as much as it does.” It differs in different
substances in virtue of its rarefaction and condensation.
Those where the early thinkers of Milesian school; but now it can be seen at a
distance the approaching figure of a very mysterious and strange man.
He carries a book of arithmetic and one of geometry.
He is deciding to give a speech:
-My name is Pythagoras: “I am a native of Samos and then I settled in Italy. I
founded a school there where I taught Mathematics, Philosophy and Religion. In my
school it is said that the principal of everything is the number and that the essence
of things is their numeric measure. Indeed, all things are numbers or geometrical
figures. I believe many centuries after my death the same things were held by that
Italian scientist whose name is Galileo Galilei. Maybe I was his reincarnation.
Indeed, only a few men (let alone women) can deal with philosophy.
A man walks in waving a quill accompanied by two others. He doesn’t look Greek.
He’s reading a manuscript.
Clown
What is the opinion of Pythagoras concerning wild fowl?
MALVOLIO
That the soul of our grandam might haply inhabit a bird.
Clown
What thinkest thou of his opinion?
MALVOLIO
I think nobly of the soul, and no way approve his opinion.
Clown
Fare thee well. Remain thou still in darkness:
thou shalt hold the opinion of Pythagoras ere I will
allow of thy wits, and fear to kill a woodcock, lest
thou dispossess the soul of thy grandam. Fare thee well. 3)
Heraclitus:
Pythagoras wasn’t the only one thinking that philosophy concerns just a few
people. Heraclitus held the same opinion. His style is prophetic and obscure,
therefore he is known as ‘The Dark. Some of his statements, however, were clear
enough. YOU CANNOT STEP TWICE INTO THE SAME RIVER, FOR FRESH
WATERS ARE ALWAYS FLOWING UPON YOU.
The sun is new every day.
Like the flames of fire, that constantly change their shape, nothing ever stays the
same.
Heraclitus was concerned with a universe perpetually changing. He also claimed
that things come into existence through strife :Homer was wrong in saying ‘would the
strife might perish among gods and men’. He did not see that he was praying for the
destruction of the universe, since, the opposite is good for us. Everything ,trough
strife, is perpetually changing. PANTA .REI.
A third figure is now appearing: is that of Parmenides.
Panta rei? No, motion and change are logically inconceivable. In fact, if our senses
suggest that things do move and do change, then our senses are deceiving us. As the
father of metaphysical thought,(that is what they will call me in years to come)I say’
THE ONLY TRUE THING IS THE ONE’: this substance is infinite and indivisible.
The multitude of sensible things are mere illusion. Furthermore, we can only be
concerned with ‘what it is and not with ‘what it is not ‘. For want of better words,
nothing is conceivable ,that cannot be expressed in words. Are we going to discover
the link between thought and language? Maybe, after all how can we think without a
language?
The doctrine of four elements: Empedocles.
“Friends, that inhabit the great town looking down on the yellow rocks of Akagros ,
up by the citadel busy in goodly works I go among you as an immortal
god……honoured among all as is meet crowded with flowery garlands…… both men
and women hope to hear from me the word of healing.”
Was Empedocles a god? Some say he was, some say he wasn’t. Mount Etna knows
because the philosopher was swallowed by the great crater But what was his
philosophy like?
“There are” says Empedocles “four principal substances: earth, fire, air and water.
They are combined by love and separated by strife; there were periods when love was
in the ascendant and others when strife was the stronger. Strife and love were the
greatest forces of the universe.
The strange man is approaching again now with his quill, followed by a young man
and a young woman.
Juliet: Did I hear someone speaking of love?
Juliet: O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy
name; Or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love And I'll no longer be a Capulet.
Romeo: [Aside] Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?
PHILOSOPHY ARRIVES IN ATHENS:
Anaxagoras:
Not love nor strife are the principal substances of living things but ‘NOUS’ the great
intellect. Furthermore, not only are their four elements in the universe but their
number is infinite: infinite is matter and infinitively divisible ,and even the smallest
portion of matter contains some of each element. Things appear to be that of which
they contain most.
Everything, however small, contains portions of all opposites. So much so, that even
snow contains the color black. Oh, by the way, the sun is a red hot stone and the
moon is nothing but earth.
Crowd : Oh no, moon and sun are gods: our gods. Let’s take Anaxagoras away for a
trial, let’s condemn him to death.
Anaxagoras: You have to catch me first.
Anaxagoras flies away from the madding crowd.
A woman from the crowd: don’t you worry my friends, I know that another trial
will take place here, in Athens soon enough. Trust me.
The trial of Socrates, the man who used to say ‘THE ONLY THING I KNOW IS
THAT I KNOW NOTHING ‘
First accuser: Socrates, you are accused of not worshipping the gods of Athens:
Second accuser. Socrates, you are an evil doer : you source into things under the
earth and above the heavens.
Third accuser. You are accused of corrupting the youth: you must stop
philosophising.
Socrates: Men of Athens, I honour and love you, but I shall obey God rather than
you and while I have life and strength I shall never cease from the practice and
teaching of philosophy because this is my service to the god. If you kill such a one as
I am, you will injure yourselves more than you will injure me……. For a bad man is
not permitted to injure a better man than himself 4)
Socrates is condemned to death.
Socrates: And now, men who have condemned me, I would fain prophesy to you, for
I am about to die, and in the hour of death men are gifted with prophetic power. And
I prophesy to you who are my murderers, that immediately after my departure,
punishment far heavier than you have inflicted on me will surely await you…if you
think that by killing men you can prevent someone from censuring your evil lives,
you are mistaken….. the noblest way is not disabling others, but to improve
yourselves……..
The hour of departure has arrived and we go our ways- I, to die, you to live. Which
is better, God only knows.
A woman from the crowd: Socrates is dying for the sake of philosophy.
Another woman: Socrates is dying for the freedom of thought.!
Socrates is not the only one: I, too, died for the sake of philosophy.
Woman: who are you?
My name is Ipatia . I come from the future and precisely from the fourth century
AD
I lived and studied in Alexandria in Egypt. I was killed by a fanatic crowd; but my
name will survive for the century to come.
Two men are now approaching
First man: I am Thomas More and I come from Tudor England or, maybe I should
say, from the beautiful island of Utopia. I was very faithful to my Church, but my
King has me killed. I, too, will be remembered in the century to come.
Second man : ‘People of the future, lend me your ears’.
I come from the Italian Renaissance , I am Giordano Bruno. I believed that the
world is Infinite and so is human thought just as infinite is its freedom. I burned in
the fire of ignorance and intolerance. The fire silenced me but the voice of liberty of
thinking has in me, today, its symbol.
And the three thinkers walked away.
Woman: Well, it seems to me that philosophy sometimes comes as comedy and
sometimes as tragedy . I wonder why it is so.
Once again, The man with a quill is appearing. This time he is talking to himself.’
5)
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
Incidentally “I am the Bard of Stratford-on –Avon”
Crowd: It’s William Shakespeare!
Woman: It seems to me that philosophy and drama , in their own ways , give a
definition of the so called ‘ MEANING OF LIFE’ ; and yet I don’t want to appear
pedantic, but…… who has got the right answer to this great question?
‘Everything that is deep loves to hide’
F.Nietzsche
References
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Martin Heidegger ‘Being and Time’
Lucretius ‘The things of nature’
William Shakespeare ‘Twelfth night’
Plato ‘Socrates’s apology’
William Shakespeare ‘As you like it’
Exercise 1
(Working in groups)
a) Write a short essay on at least one of the philosophers presented in the play
b)
c) Describe a Shakespearian character that you would like to identify with
(individual activity)
Exercise 2
Speaking
Discuss your philosophical questions based on the lecture using the following
prompts :
1) The death of Socrates differs from that of Giordano Bruno because ……..
2) The Milesian school is different from the philosophy of Empedocles and
Anaxagoras……..
3) Pythagoras was a peculiar figure : Can we call him a scientist ?
4) Comment on Heraclitus statement ‘You cannot step twice into the same
river for fresh waters are always flowing upon you’
Exercise 3
Reading and analyzing philosophical documents.
Listening
Documentary on philosophers, if possible
Assessment
Continuous assessment