The Good Place: Learning how to be a Good Person...a little too late OPTA CONFERENCE 2019 Welcome/Introduction Welcome to the Good Place! ☺ Everything is fine, great, bonzer! If you’re a fan of the show, you’ll know that the first episode of each season thus far has started in this manner. So I hope that everything for you today has been fine, great, and bonzer! My name is Veronica Tuzi, and I’ve been a teacher in the TCDSB for 16 years now. I’m a Department Head of Religion and Chaplaincy, a Chaplain, sit on various school committees, sit on my local union executive as Recording Secretary (6 years now), and belong to various committees. About This Presentation Making philosophy culturally relevant can sometimes pose a challenge, but Michael Schur’s award winning NBC fantasy-comedy show, The Good Place, has thrust philosophy into the limelight as no other show has done before. Almost every episode is rife with philosophical references and conundrums, as we watch the characters struggle with the study of ethics, and the goal of becoming a better person, so that they can reach the actual Good Place. The brilliant twist to this dilemma is that the characters are dead, and so trying to become good in the afterlife seems almost futile...and yet they persist. After viewing the first two seasons, the realization dawned that using The Good Place to guide the HZT4U1 course would help students to become more engaged and to see firsthand the importance of philosophy in everyday life. The Past When I first started teaching philosophy many moons ago, the program/syllabus I was using was very Eurocentric, patriarchal, and ended at the Existential period. It also moved chronologically through the history of philosophy, and then had separate units on the branches, which caused quite a bit of repetition. Realizing that my students were curious for content beyond these parameters and that as a woman, I was not seeing myself represented in the content I presented them, I modified the syllabus. I included a more international perspective, instead of just discussing European philosophers; female philosophers; LGBTQ+ philosophers; and I ended the course in the present day. I taught this version of the course for many years, but as time went by, I noticed that students were not responding as before, and were having more and more difficulty with the assessments being used. The Epiphany Having a subscription to Netflix has been both a blessing and a curse, as I’m sure we can all attest to. Last June, in at attempt to find a new show to pique my interest, I started watching The Good Place. I was instantly floored by the depth of philosophical discourse being presented. I watched season 2 while travelling to Europe last summer, and that was when the idea struck: Why not base a philosophy course on the series? The Genesis Since the series focuses a great deal on ethics and ethical theories, I decided to echo that throughout the syllabus. While the other branches of philosophy are covered (metaphysics, logic, epistemology, etc) in quite extensive detail, the emphasis is on ethics. This is a departure from how I have usually taught the course, which had an emphasis on metaphysics. I also realized that I had to carve out enough time for the episodes to be watched, and for the content/curriculum to be covered. That proved to be a challenge at times, trying to balance instructional time with watching the series. The Premise Seems like the major world religions got the afterlife 5% correct ☺ Layers and Themes As you can see, the four main How does one become a good person? characters represent cultural diversity, and they also represent diversity in terms This is the crux of the series, and what is most fascinating of sexual orientation. about the show’s approach is that it is devoid of any religious connection. Taking a secular viewpoint, the series attempts to show how people of various backgrounds/lifestyles have earned either The Good Place of The Bad Place (season 3 explores The actual Good Place in more depth). Where the series turns traditional thinking on its head is the premise that a person can improve after death. Every major world religion believes that our actions in this life determine our status in the next(even reincarnation in Buddhism and Hinduism). But none state that we can effect change after death. Layers and Themes Each main character fulfills a We are all redeemable. particular archetype/stereotype: Eleanor: selfish, self centered, The series seems to stipulate that no matter how bad of a completely detached from others person one may have been in their earthly life, they can still be around her redeemed in the next life. While Eleanor seems to be the Chidi: intellectual, stuck inside his protagonist/main character, the series also follows the moral own head, paralyzed by development of the other three humans. Throughout the first indecision, lacking confidence two seasons, the audience witnesses their evolution, comes to Tahani: self centered, self sympathize and empathize with their earthly struggles, and deceptive share in the big and small triumphs they Jason: completely oblivious, achieve. Even the demon, Michael, finds amoral, self serving that he is capable of change and redemption, as he learns about human ethics from Chidi. Making Philosophy Mainstream The series does an excellent job of presenting philosophical concepts in a condensed form to TV viewers. By having an actual philosopher in residence (Todd May), the series stays true to actual philosophical concepts without dilution. This has also led to many articles discussing the fact that the series has made philosophy more accessible than ever before, by also presenting it through humour and pathos. I also created an “Existentialist Playlist” while we were discussing the Existential period, after S2E4. The students really enjoyed the songs/lyrics I provided, even asking if I had a Spotify playlist (I do not). The Trolley Problem How does Philippa Foot’s Trolley Problem thought experiment come to life in this episode? How do you think students would react to this? What are possible ways to assess students’ preconceptions regarding ethics while using this episode? Course Bibliography Dancy, Jonathan. Ethics Without Principles. Kidder, Rushworth. How Good People Make Tough Choices: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living. Kierkegaard, Soren. Fear and Trembling. May, Todd. Death. Scanlon, T.M. What We Owe to Each Other. Kant, Immanuel. Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals. Mill, John Stuart. Utilitarianism. Sartre, Jean Paul. No Exit. Heidegger, Martin. On the Way to Language. Hume, David. A Treatise of Human Nature. Locke, John. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Aristotle. Nichomachean Ethics. Plato. The Republic. Alignment with Expectations From: The Ontario Curriculum for Social Science/Humanities, 2013 Overall Expectations: Demonstrate an understanding of the main areas of philosophy, periods of philosophical development, and the differences between philosophy and other areas of inquiry; demonstrate an understanding of philosophical reasoning and critical thinking skills, including skills required to identify and avoid common fallacies of reasoning, and demonstrate the ability to apply these skills in various contexts. Alignment with Expectations From: The Ontario Curriculum for Social Science/Humanities, 2013 Overall Expectations: Demonstrate an understanding of the main questions in ethics, and of the positions of major philosophers and schools of philosophy with respect to some of these questions; demonstrate an understanding of theories in ethics, and evaluate responses to some of the main questions in ethics by major philosophers and schools of philosophy; demonstrate an understanding of connections between ethics and other areas of philosophy, other subject areas, and various aspects of society, including everyday life; use philosophical reasoning skills to develop, communicate, and defend their own responses to philosophical questions in ethics. (Substitute ethics with metaphysics and epistemology for two other units) The Syllabus A departure for me this year was bringing my entire course online, through my Google Drive (TCDSB). Scan the QR code on this slide, request access, and you’ll have access to everything I’ve given to my students. The syllabus is being provided to you in hard copy. Assessments When I was watching the episodes in detail, formulating the syllabus, I also created question sheets to accompany each episode. I distribute these at the beginning of the class where the episode is shown, so that the students can make notes as they follow the episode. The questions I devised were not simply regurgitation or plot questions, but more along the lines of asking students to take their learning, and apply it to the episode they were watching. i.e. There are several sheets where the students respond to the question, “Is Janet a person?” This can seem repetitive, but there are moments in various episodes where we witness the evolution of this character, and it becomes imperative to keep questioning what “Janet” is. Whenever this question comes up, we deal with the issue of personhood, consciousness, machines/robots, The Resources (Print) The Resources (Media) The Students’ Reactions Without exaggeration, my students have LOVED this new version of the course. At the beginning of the course, I had requested that they not watch future episodes, so that they could experience the full impact of every twist and turn together as a class. Despite the majority of them having access to Netflix, only two or three watched ahead, closer to the end of season 1. And they respected my request…they would be anxious when we would not watch the series for weeks at a time, as I would be covering curriculum and content.