Invitation to an International Conference
New Methods of Teaching Values:
Philosophy and Visual Technologies
Vilnius, Lithuania
June 11-12,
2020
Faculty of Philosophy
Institute of Educational Sciences
Department of Educational Theory and Culture
Vilnius University
Theme
Richard Rorty states that human “solidarity is not
discovered, but created by increasing our sensitivity to the
particular details of the pain and humiliation of others,
unfamiliar sorts of people” (Contingency,
Irony, and Solidarity, 1989,
xvi). This sensitivity to the pain of different others can
be developed by using images from ethnography, journalists’
reports, comic books, docudramas, and especially novels (
for example, the novels of Charles Dickens or Marcel
Proust). Literary images reveal the contingencies of the
human being, and in this respect are able to function as
tools for developing empathy and sensitivity to the pain of
other persons. This is one of the inspirations behind the
current investigation in search of theoretical bases of
multimodal education. If literature is able to increase
empathy or sensitivity to the pain of the other, perhaps,
cinema, painting, photography or visual technology can do
the same.
There are two possibilities in the process of education:
teaching about something and
teaching with something.
For instance, cinema can be taught as a professional subject
in courses particularly related to the field of
cinematography, this is considered “teaching about films.”
While “teaching with films” refers to that cinema can
be included in curricula of a university as a general
subject which does not have connection with films. It can
also be taught in high schools as a kind of knowledge of
humanities. In 2017, William B. Russell, III and Stewart
Waters, American educators, published their book Cinematic
Social Studies. A Resource for Teaching and Learning Social
Studies with Film. In this book the authors illustrate
how teachers teach social studies through films and share
their experiences.
Indeed, it is possible to use films to teach philosophical
thinking in schools and universities. Mary M. Litch and Amy
Karofsky, American philosophers, in their book, Philosophy
through Film, elaborate the use of such methodology.
They choose different philosophical themes (for instance,
truth, scepticism, personal identity, artificial
intelligence, free will, determinism and moral
responsibility, ethics, political philosophy, the problem of
evil, existentialism, etc.), and select one or two films for
each theme to analyze main issues of these philosophical
topics.
The purpose of using films to teach philosophical thinking
is to develop the ability of critical thinking and to gain
adequate knowledge. But will it be possible to use such a
teaching methodology as an educational tool cinema to bring
about empathy and sensitivity to certain values which are
disappearing in our contemporary times?
The following will be the special focus of the conference:
- Teaching values and ethics through philosophy, literature
and visual technologies (especially cinema)
- Teaching critical thinking and creativity through
philosophy, literature and visual technologies
(especially cinema)
- Teaching philosophy through literature and visual
technologies (especially cinema)
- Reflection on violence in philosophy, literature and
visual technologies (especially cinema)
- The Human being and nature in philosophy, literature and
visual technologies (especially cinema)
- The relationship between human beings and technologies
- Teaching philosophy through cinema: Gilles Deleuze and
Stanley Cavell
Abstract
Please send 300 words and a brief CV to Jūratė
Rubavičienė [jurabara@gmail.com],
Lilija Duoblienė [lilija.duobliene@gmail.com], and Juozapas
Labokas [juolab@gmail.com]by
April 15, 2020. Full paper will be due on May 15, 2020.
Well-developed papers will be considered to be published by
the RVP in its publication series "Cultural Heritage and
Contemporary Change."
Logistics
There is no registration fee. Participants will cover their
own travel and other expenses. The local organizers will
help find less expensive hotels near the campus for the
conference participants.
For more information visit
https://rvpvilnius.wordpress.com/.
Contact
Jūratė Rubavičienė
Lilija Duoblienė
Juozapas Labokas
Faculty of Philosophy
Institute of Educational Sciences
Department of Educational Theory and Culture
Vilnius University
9/1 Universiteto St., LT -01513
Vilnius, Lithuania
[jurabara@gmail.com]
& [lilija.duobliene@gmail.com] &
[juolab@gmail.com]
