Philosophy as It Relates to Democratic Thinking

Philosophy can and ought to contribute to both the larger and smaller group discussions. Philosophic thinking can allow us to think critically about the meaning and use of language. In several cases, philosophic thought has been brought up in both the larger group discussion as well as my individual issue group. I focused on how the particular attribute of critically analyzing meanings of words has contributed to both groups.

In the discussion on the article “Organizing” the larger group discussed some of the obstacles of organizing a large number of people. One of the common obstacles was the difficulty to find a common self-interest so that the group can focus on a main issue and then work towards a common goal. However it was brought up that the very idea of self-interest reflects suggests that each individual has their own agenda, which would make it very difficult to come to a consensus within the group. Yet the idea of group identity was also brought up, such that when you become part of a group, your new identity is then defined as a member of that group rather than an individual. This is important because your own self-interest is then defined as the group self-interest. It is only through this identification with the group are the members of the group then able to work cohesively towards a common goal.

Also, in the education issue group, I was able to incorporate philosophical thought. One important issue that I brought up was the importance of defining segregation and integration. I noticed that during discussions these definitions were sometimes used interchangeably. Simply because there is integration does not mean that there is not segregation. For example, in our education issue group, we recognized that many might generally define segregation as the separation of students (based on race in this case) into different schools. Integration can then be generally defined as the combination of these students who were previously segregated such that each school has both races present in the classroom. However, we also recognized the flaws with these definitions.

For one, segregation can occur within integrated schools. This can happen through several ways such as tracking (a testing system that places students on different academic tracks and often discriminates against minorities) which places minorities at lower class levels. Also, minority students may be discouraged to join academically esteemed