An Interview with Pelin Darendeliler, Year 12, 2009, Ascham School, about her experience of taking Mind and Morality in Semester 2, 2008, during Year 11.
Q. Why did you choose to study Mind and Morality at the University of Sydney?
A. For me, Mind and Morality began when Sydney Uni sent Dr Luke Russell, Lecturer of Philosophy, to Ascham to talk to us about the philosophy course they were offering to high school students. In the next few minutes, I had pretty much already decided I wanted to do the course as Luke began filling my mind with questions such as: What is the mind? What are mental states? Is our mind in our brain? Can robots think? Which are our specific moral duties? Which actions are right and which are wrong?
Q. Has studying philosophy made you think differently?
A. Being a person who is always up for an argument, determined to express my strong opinions, I was enthralled by the idea of learning and debating about the seemingly inexplicable. Psychology was also a field that I was being newly exposed to in my English Extension course, learning about Freud and the theories on the operation of minds, therefore the Mind and Morality course seemed to offer another perspective on minds. On top of this, the course also involved a high standard of essay writing, which was another advantage that I wanted to grasp. Not knowing what I wanted to do at university, I also felt that this would give me a little more insight into that unknown area that frustrated me so much. The idea that university could be part of my high school life seemed to present for me endless advantages.
We very quickly dived into two hours of lectures on Tuesday afternoons beginning with the topic of: What is the mind? As Luke presented to us the different ideas, theories and arguments, we learnt about how theories were established, how different points of views are argued and what makes some arguments strong and others weak. Philosophy - being an area of study that was very unfamiliar to me - meant that I instantly found myself questioning the theories themselves and being in constant argument with them, before learning to accept other points of view. However, I also discovered my instincts could be trusted and this was an amazingly good learning technique, which I also hope benefited others in the class.
The Mind and Morality course, I personally believe, is most advantageous during its class discussions of the student’s opinions, theories and arguments. It allows for deep thought into one’s own opinions, ethics and morals, which definitely results in a personal growth that one would not expect. Even when sitting on the fence, it’s good to know what’s on either side of it. The course definitely made me more aware of how to strengthen arguments, to adopt other peoples' perspectives and to compare mine with others’.
It also showed me how questioning everything is not always the wrong thing to do; it genuinely helps by complementing your train of thought and driving it in the right direction. Most importantly I learnt how to push what I was learning to the next level and go further into my thoughts. My brain was in complete overdrive through out the entire lecture periods and I developed a very different way of thinking.
Q. What was your favourite topic that you covered in the course?
A. One of my favourite topics covered in the course would have to be the study of artificial intelligence. Being a person that is very keen on science fiction, as well as dreaming about the future, artificial intelligence had always been in the back of my mind even before the course. Therefore, to be finally able to talk about it in an education context was absolutely fascinating, though being so enthralled did get the better of me at times, because I became afraid of what I was learning and further, afraid that I was being emotional about the course itself!
The idea that robots could be potentially “living” with mental states and thus “thinking” like humans was of extreme concern to me and there was the possibility that what I was arguing was driven by my fear of the idea. I mean, anyone would assume that supporting the idea that robots could not “think” would be simple and a strong argument. Well, I very quickly found out that it was proving to be more difficult than to say they could think! The topic therefore demonstrated to me that arguing and presenting theories must go way beyond our normal norms and comprehension. In a way I discovered that what I never thought possible was possible … through these arguments.
Q. How did you progress with writing essays to a university standard?
A. Essay writing was another major advantage and opportunity that was presented to us through the course. Three essays were submitted by all students and the learning of this technical aspect of the course was very much gradual. Luke gave us all a detailed guide to essay writing at university standard, which was a holy document to us all. The skills that we learned are very valuable for all of our HSC essay writing and really help concretely stabilise writing structure and technique. The key was to follow the template and draft and redraft the essay numerous times to achieve a sophisticatedly structured essay. The importance of structure became obvious as the content of our essays were of numerous theories and arguments, therefore being succinct was key. The incorporation of different texts and theories was another skill that I found especially helpful elsewhere, for example, especially in my English extension course at school.
Q. Who do you think would benefit from doing Mind and Morality?
A. The benefits of the Mind and Morality course are endless and would differ for every individual. It gives so many different opportunities for argument and questioning, so the essence of debating is also greatly incorporated. The ethics and morality sides of the course also allowed for me to undergo a real personal discovery. I know that there are so many people who don’t know where they stand with many ethical situations purely because they have no way or means to debate or argue them: the course presents you with responses to these situations.
What is by far the most satisfying aspect is that I found that the very concepts and ideas that the course revolves around are so alien to the ones we are used to that it puts you in a completely different mind-set, challenging everything you know and think that you believe. So, if you are like me, who always wants to be ahead of the discussion, then your mind goes into overdrive and always wants to think one step beyond what is being talked about. The way in which the course stimulates one’s thoughts is incredible and it motivates a way of thinking that is extremely useful in every aspect of school life and life in general.