Friction Fire and Philosophy - I need your help WSS members.

Diomedes Industries

Diomedes Industries

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Mar 19, 2007
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As some of you know - I am a Philosophy Professor at a College in Houston Texas.

I have developed an assignment to help my students learn Aristotle's Ethics - involving Friction Fire, namely the Bow Drill.

I have two Honors students this semester and in order to teach them fully about Moderation I plan on having them build a bow drill fire. All I expect from them is to get a coal and blow it into flame. They have one month to complete the assignment. In order to help them with the mechanics I built them a full bow drill set (Birch Bow, 550 Cord String, White Cedar spindle and hearth and a top bearing out of stone).

Here is the theory - Aristotle said that in order to develop the virtues needed to be a virtuous man - one had to find the mid point between Excess and Deficiency (known as the Golden Mean). So in order to be loving, one would have to have to find the midpoint between Apathy and say Stalking. Love is this mid point. Courage is the midpont between Cowardice and Rashness and so on.

Aristotle clearly sees that this will take much practice (in fact a life time) and much trial and error. This builds Hexis (in greek - translated roughly as Habits) that helps a man be virtuous.

Here was my thinking - in order to get a coal one must apply the proper pressure and the proper speed. Too little pressure - brown dust no flame. Too much pressure - Black curls no flame. Too little speed - brown dust - too much speed - the spindle tends to fly out and you loose control.

I think that the bow drill can really show them how this moderation comes into play in real life.

Here is what I would like from you - two simple questions I would like you to answer:

1) What have you learned from trying to make friction fire? Don't think of the mechanics of the fire making - but what did you learn about yourself or life?

2) What would you like me to ask the students before they start - and after?

Thanks for your time -

TF
 
Talfuchre,

I'm a professor at a mid-sized university here in Canada. I am a scientist, and as a philosopher you know that we have our handicaps :) I take on about 2 undergraduate thesis students each year who do a directed research project. My goal is to have them perform an experiment so that they can publish their results in a peer reviewed journal. In essence, they demonstrate science in action. Some actually do publish, others don't. Publishing a paper is not a prerequisite to completing the course, but it is always the goal.

So as one educator to another, my question is, what do you want your students to learn. It is fine to produce an introspective exercise, but they also should have a goal that is concrete and meaningful to their own careers. Some will genuinely benefit from the above stated exercise. Other students my be inspired by something, well less engineering based. Your exercise seems to be somewhat based in humility - practice makes perfect. But philosophy is about logic, not to be confused with truth or virtuousness. My critic is that this can confuse a method with logic. You guys are supposed to keep us on our toes. After all - us scientists are the ones stuck with a method :)

(sorry twice tonight violated the post while drinking rule!)
 
Kgd,

Good post - however - let me keep you on your toes by attacking one of your assumptions - that I should be producing something meaningful to their careers. If college was to produce something meaningful to just a students career - we could get rid of philosophy altogether - it does not teach a technical skill.

I think my job is to create good people that happen to work in careers some of the time. With that said - I think your questions are very good - what is my purpose?

My purpose is to get them to see something concrete out of their philosophical pursuit - while having the by product of teaching them something cool that will hopefully stick with them in their lives.

TF
 
Well you are teaching them to read and think critically, so in my opinion, that is an incredibly valuable skill for any career. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't trying to criticize teaching of philosophy, in fact the best undergrad. course I ever took was a philosophy class as it caused me to look at my own discipline in a different way.

I will try to answer the 2nd question of your OP though. It may be a good idea to have students write down what they think are the most important elements to fire building from a mechanical standpoint and at the same time compile a list of what fire building symbolizes to them from a cultural connotation (i.e. warmth/survival; food/sustenance; spiritual/enlightment, path to a usable cigarette).

After the fire builiding process they should repeat the list. The key to the excercise will be to see which assumptions have changed the most - the mechanical side ones or the cultural side ones.
 
KDG,

I did NOT think you were criticizing me. I enjoyed your post - it was timely and salient (despite the drinking! ;) ). I really appreciated your pointed questions.

Thanks for the suggestions too!

TF
 
i think that the first item that you learn is patience, giving soemone a fire bow set up does not guarantee that they will start fire the first time that they use it. next they learn that there must be a balance of speed, power and control as in all things in life too much of one or the other will corrupt the process.

alex
 
kgd said:
But philosophy is about logic, not to be confused with truth or virtuousness. )
Click to expand...

I'm surprised the good professor didn't pick up on this one.

Logic is but one part of philosophy, and philosophy is very much about the nature of truth, knowledge, virtuousness, etc.
 
I think it's great idea you are using these skills as part of your curriculum.

I wish I could answer your questions better, but here it goes.

In making a fire with bow drill I have come to appreciate that I am a smoker and always have a lighter on me. But deeper than that, it has given me more confidence in my abbilities as an individual. It also has given me a deeper appreciation for those who came before me and realized that they can take two sticks and generate enough heat by friction to start a fire.

For your second question. It would be intersting to know if your students think it will be a simple task.
 
Rich_S said:
I'm surprised the good professor didn't pick up on this one.

Logic is but one part of philosophy, and philosophy is very much about the nature of truth, knowledge, virtuousness, etc.
Click to expand...

I agree Rich - the father of Logic, Aristotle, merely saw Logic as a tool to Virtue and thus the good life.

TF
 
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