Good Stories: Using Metaphors to Teach Philosophy

Abstract

Courses that introduce students to philosophy, especially to freshmen, can be a challenge to teach. One of the problems is that while philosophical ideas are often quite abstract, beginning students are often concrete thinkers. One way to overcome this obstacle without making the course less challenging, is to introduce abstract ideas— such as those found in metaphysics, epistemology and philosophy of mind—through the use of metaphors and other literary devices that compare each abstract philosophical concept to something more concrete. For example, reality is discussed as air, fire, shadows; knowledge as dreams, blank slates, and information processing; minds as chariots, bundles and computers; God as an artist, a perfect human and belief as a wager; and the meaning of life as a rock, a middle path and a leap of faith. There was a total of thirty various philosophical metaphors used in this course. After the metaphorical description of the concept, and only after this, does the instructor offer a more literal explanation of the text. With their knowledge of the concrete story as a foundation, students seem to grasp more readily the underlying abstract concept when it is described literally. Assessment of this approach was through instructor observation, student self-reports and the creation of their own metaphors. Overall it appears that the use of metaphorical thinking first promoted better learning in this beginning philosophy course.