This story is a sequel to Discord Teaches Philosophy
Warning: The following is currently unedited and contains a significant amount of Philosophy.
After deciding on taking up the role of a Substitute and finding out that the main Philosophy teacher is boring his students, Discord decides to step in to take up the responsibility of teaching. And he will do it by teaching it in plain Equestrian, in a way that these young students would understand. As well as in his own unique way.
Lesson Plan (in no particular order):
Socrates: His Method and How We Ought to Live ✅
Plato: Allegory of the Cave ✅
Marcus Aurelius: How Stoicism Deals with Hardships ✅
Confucius: Who is Ruling Whom? ✅
Kintsugi: The Art of Imperfection ✅
Machiavelli: In Defense of the Prince ✅
Montaigne: Usefulness of Humility ✅
Rousseau: Of Savages and Civilization ✅
Kierkegaard: Subjectivity and Truth ✅
Nietzsche: Of Suffering and Happiness ✅
This was everything I'd been hoping for.
once again great work,please write more
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Be rest assured, I'm now bitten by the philosophy bug, so I'm going to focus on this for now.
your good
8843849
well if that the case,here a little music to help out you
good luck with the story
Huh. No British Empiricism? No Kant? No German Idealism? No Marxist materialism? No analytical philosophy? No existentialism?
Anyway... still going to give this a read.
therre great they do books and more
8844003
they can still do others like "what it means to be truely alive" or "what it means to be a thinking person from a mindless dog"
there so many other ways to do this
8844251
Isn't that rude to Diamond Dogs?
8844682
hell for all we know there is a thing as a talking tre in this world so , what it means to be a living thinking person at all?
More philosophy with Discord? But it’s not my birthday...
Definitely tracking this one.
Ah, Socrates was so great. This really does seem like the most important root lesson for the subject of philosophy, at least more so then the whole "I think therefore I am" question. I could debate whether or not I or anything exists all day and have little to show for it. But thinking about how it is that one should live their life, that is a question that will produce results.
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I had taken a philosophy class a while back in collage, the first time I ever taken one but before that, I had learn a few things from books. The kind that were like "philosophy for dummies" or something the like. However, after spending months in that class, (and no disrespect to the teacher who taught it) but I kinda preferred the books over the class. This was because not only did it used a gigantic, complicated vocabulary that I'm willing to bet that hardly anybody could remember the names of "ism's" a week after they've taken it. But also because even I couldn't completely connect with it because it talked about things that I wasn't interested in.
So that's what I'm doing here, not only writing about Philosophy in plain English while ditching all the "ism's," but doing the one thing that my Philosophy teacher never did: make it relatable.
8845201
I agree. I also took a philosophy class in college and I can't recall any of it that stuck. None of it had any relevance. I've probably actually learned more about philosophy from Wisecrack's youtube channel at this point then from that class I still have student loan debt for...
What DOES one do with a Liberal Arts degree?
8843849
Can we have a spinoff series where Professor Forethought sendsd the whole class to Luna's realm with his voice?
Seeing the list of philosophers there gets me excited, especially Marcus Aurelius, I am a bit surprised Kant isn't on the list though.
8845405
As I said, I didn't want to turn this thing into a grand, long novel and I had to leave out a few people. What's more, I also have the difficult task of tying their ideas into a coherent story.
8844003
Too many isms there I say
ok am not going to lie i would like for them to see the philosophical of economics
8845523
Remember who Discord is teaching this to (in this case, a group of possibly early to mid teens,) and then answer this: why would they be interested or is reinvent to their lives?
8845648
yes making it fun is the best step to learning, but they did that with me and it was not boring one bit when done right.
after all let them try it how they think is best, after all, if we are left with our self should they get that candy bar for just doing something sample task or do in a way with sharing that one candy bar.
one can argue that giving someone gift is worst off for the whole but it worth it to that one person in the end.
like my teacher once say "We are all selfish in our own right when we want to make someone happy, because you want to get that feeling good high you get from it"
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Perhaps I could do a Adam Smith vs Marx... But no promises.
Dammit! You've managed to actually cram some learning in my thick, interweb infested head of mine! Well played Mr. Author Man, well played...
You should totally do the pony version of Diogenes as a classical Cynic and a counter point to pony Plato.
> "I am just looking for an honest pony."
Next Philosophical teaching? I say Silver Linings. In everything bad, there is ALWAYS a shred of goodness in it. What about the more... harsher things? Disease, War, Death? What about those?
8845744
Let's just say that there's a reason why Machiavelli and Nietzsche are on the lesson plan.
8845703
that's ok but it would be great to see smolder and gallus talking about this the most, after all, they have different backgrounds.
8845753
Oh Freund I can't wait
This is so much better than I thought
hey almost forgot one more magical like teacher and class:
you all remember this
if the minds behind MLP decided to make another spinoff, discord and the class would be a great idea,who with me?
As a Non-Philosophy Major, I have to say, I am surprisingly EXCITED that not only is there a sequel...but that it will be MORE than one chapter! <3
*Applauders in approval!*
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They actually have less differences than most people believe. Marx doesn't deny supply and demand, and Adam Smith doesn't deny the problem of "natural price" (price formations in case of supply-demand equilibrium, what Marx explained with labor time) - as a matter of fact, Smith was the first person to spell out that problem. Also, Smith advocated for the nationalization of infrastructure and essential industries. He was the founder of economic liberalism, but if he published his theories today, neoliberals would probably decry him as socialist. (Smith never went as far in that direction as Marx though.) Spelling out the similarities and differences would be interesting though.
Also, while best known for his economic works (for good reason), Marx contributed to other philosophical topics beside economics as well. With regards to politics, he could be called a "Macchiavelli for the people" - Macchiavelli strove to teach those in power how to exert it, Marx strove to teach those without power and subjected by it how to attain and exert it. I guess comparing these two could also be interesting. Marx' epistemology is also interesting, although he never wrote a work specifically on epistemology (arguably with the exception of The German Ideology, which is an epistemology ex negativo, namely a genealogy of error), but instead dropped epistemological comments when talking about other topics (more like a scientist approaches epistemology than how a philosopher would).
8844003
Huh. I can't believe I forgot the late Wittgenstein in this list. Wittgenstein's early work falls under the umbrella term "analytical philosophy", but his later works really don't, and they're pretty interesting and influential in their own right.
"Oh yeah, at the time he was found guilty and condemned to death for blasphemy and ‘corrupting the youth with dangerous ideas."
Wasn't it actually because of his role with Alcibiades and the Thirty Tyrants? Him being executed was because one of his students and several associates took over Athens, oppressed the city and killed like 5% of the city's population. And one of his other students betrayed Athens to help Sparta, made Athens lose a war, then defected to Persia.
When his students went nuts, they tended to go way off the rails and start military incursions against Athens and Athenians. It's not as if Socrates spent his life innocently teaching students who went off to do nothing special.
I think penchants for violent military takeovers counts as dangerous ideas.
8845994
God I miss that show.
8845201
I took a philosophy class back in middle school and our textbook was a delightful little gem called "Sophie's World". Although it is very much a textbook (with all the confusing ism and terminology that goes along with that), all of the lessons are woven into a story that begins with a girl named Sophie receiving a letter about philosophy from . . . someone and exploding into a crazy mystery story from there. I recommend checking it out as it's surprisingly a pretty engaging read (also, without spoilers, the ending will blow your mind).
8845737
Diogenes? You mean the guy who lived like a dog, going so far as to eat raw meat and s**t in public, just to prove a point? Yeah, that would be rich.
once again great job on this
Discord, never change.
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And this is just the beginning.
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a-man brother
I love it when people use characters to teach
Dude. Thanks for teaching me about this guy! No one I know in psych is talking about him. Really helps a lot with my own worldview, even if it's not part of any test.
Holy shit this was amazing. Discord's a great teacher. :)
Great chapter. It even reassured my own worries about the future like Silverstream, being a high school student. Can't wait for the next one!
Hmmm, I like this, this pleases me greatly! Now... I know I suggested Silver Linings, what about plain Morals?
"You can only save one: Princess Celestia or one of your friends?"
I have to research this philosopher.
Very nice. Discord is helping Silverstream overcome her insecurities while still being...himself. Nice characterization of Discord.