Experimental pedagogy at the intersection of philosophy and drama with both traditional and new media.

Philosophical Stages is a multi-disciplinary research project that will develop new strategies for using the dramatic arts to teach philosophy to pre-college and early-college students, thereby fostering skills in critical thinking, problem-solving, and effective self-presentation. We propose to investigate how emerging technologies in the humanities (e.g. collaborative web-based authoring environments) can be used to promote not only 'communities of inquiry', but collaborative, creative artistic projects which make philosophy not only more exciting but more immediately relevant to the lives of young students. Philosophy can be a functional and practical activity, and action-oriented, dramatic exercises have traditionally provided and can now provide an excellent outlet for young adults to explore and articulate their ideas with confidence.

Philosophical Stages works from the basic premises that (1) philosophy as an art of living aims to examine, evaluate, and transform our most basic assumptions and ways of thinking, our use of everyday words and ideas, our everyday habits and actions; (2) highly performative, experimental, and collaborative learning environments provide the best opportunities for this art which (3) is something we all can do and naturally want to do. Young adults are especially hungry for it.

In the summer of 2005 the principal investigators of the Philosophical Stages project ran a three-week intensive workshop in Wallenberg Hall which used techniques drawn from the dramatic arts and ancient philosophical exercises to teach philosophy to a group of Bay Area high school students. The investigators worked in collaboration with faculty and graduate students from the departments of Education, Drama, Classics, and Philosophy at several participating institutions as well as a number of local theater professionals.

Our goals for our first year in the Stanford Humanities Lab included:

• Evaluation of process and impact of Summer 2005 workshop
• Database of pedagogical strategies which make use of emerging technologies and the dramatic arts in conjunction with more traditional modes of teaching
• Descriptive analysis of humanities-based work in collaborative authoring environments
• Increased exploratory collaboration for revised curriculum
• Philosophical Stages Summer 2006 workshop for college-bound high school graduates

Visit the Philosophical Stages website at http://www.philosophicalstages.org/

Watch streaming video of Antigone Reflected (requires Quicktime).

Watch streaming video of Many Wonders, Many Terrors (requires Quicktime).

Core Personnel:

• James Collins
• Corby Kelly