Transcript Good Afternoon - Chico Unified School District

Good Afternoon
Please have a seat and take out your work
from this week.
Collectivism
•
•
•
•
•
•
Collectivism is any philosophic, political, religious, economic, or
social outlook that emphasizes the interdependence of every
human being in a society or civilization.
Collectivism is a basic cultural element that exists as the reverse
of individualism in human nature.
Collectivist orientations stress the importance of cohesion within
social groups and in some cases, the priority of group goals over
individual goals.
Collectivists often focus on community, society, nation or country.
It has been used as an element in many different and diverse
types of government and political, economic and educational
philosophies throughout history and most human societies in
practice contain elements of both individualism and collectivism.
Some examples of collectivist cultures include Portugal, India, and
Japan.
Individualism
• Individualism is the moral stance, political philosophy,
ideology, or social outlook that emphasizes "the moral worth
of the individual".
• Individualists promote the exercise of one's goals and desires
and so value independence and self-reliance while opposing
external interference upon one's own interests by society or
institutions such as the government.
• Individualism makes the individual its focus and so starts
"with the fundamental premise that the human individual is
of primary importance in the struggle for liberation."
• It has also been used as a term denoting "The quality of being
an individual; individuality“ related to possessing "An
individual characteristic; a quirk."
• Individualism is thus also associated with artistic and
bohemian interests and lifestyles where there is a tendency
towards self-creation and experimentation as opposed to
tradition or popular mass opinions and behaviors as so also
with humanist philosophical positions and ethics.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Excerpt from Individualism vs. collectivism is a false choice
Anne Michaud
Long Island Newsday November 6, 2012
In "The Social Conquest of Earth," published earlier this year, naturalist Edward O. Wilson
argues that humans evolved as we did precisely because we have strains of both
individualism and collectivism. Wilson, who has spent years studying ant colonies, updates
the idea that the fittest individuals survive. In fact, groups in which individuals sacrifice for
the good of the collective have, over millions of years, won out.
"Selfish individuals beat altruistic individuals," Wilson writes, "while groups of altruists beat
groups of selfish individuals."
Groups that are willing to share, to withhold individual rewards in order to further the
growth of the collective, emerged from the evolutionary contest to become modern humans.
But we've retained characteristics of both, Wilson says. We are forever stuck in between
selfishness and generosity. If we were all-out collectivists, we would cooperate robotically,
like ants. As extreme individualists, humans wouldn't have formed societies where we
specialize in healing, finding food and building shelters.
It's that tension of being stuck in between that played out in the presidential election -- and
will continue to bedevil us. What's the right place on the spectrum? Does it change after a
hurricane?
Individualists say that when people are free to act in their own self-interest, society benefits.
This philosophy promotes hard work and worries about creeping totalitarianism.
Collectivists point out the many things we accomplish together that we wouldn't do singly -efforts that spread the cost over many people and even many generations: medicine, the
university system, roads and airports, our judicial system, arming a military, fighting fires.
People who hold the collectivist view fear that job creators want an excuse for greed and
special tax treatment.
Good Morning
• Please have a seat and get your binder ready
to be tested.
• The SHAKE TEST will be enforced today!!!
• No loose papers
Debate question
• Should High Schools require College admission
in order to graduate? (you don’t have to go to
college just be accepted into a college in order
to graduate)
• Make a stand yes or no
• Come up with 3 arguments why or why not.
Philosophical Chairs
Rules of Engagement
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Read the material for the debate and the opening statement
carefully; be sure you understand it
Listen to the person who is speaking
Understand the person’s point of view
Contribute your own thoughts, offering your reasons as succinctly
as possible
Respond to statements only, not to the personality of the person
giving it
Change your mind about the statement as new information or
reasoning is presented
Move to the opposite side or to the undecided chairs as your
thinking grows and changes
Support the Mediator in maintaining order and helping the
discussion to progress
Reflect on the experience via the closing activity or assignment