Build Your Own Philosophy, Period 2, 3/15/10

[tyler_gone]

"Our ambition should be to rule ourselves, the true kingdom for each one of us; and true progress is to know more, and be more, and to do more." - Oscar Wilde

Tyler was sitting on his desk as the students came in today. Once everyone seemed to be where they belonged, he started to talk.

"We're playing a game today," he said. "It's called the One Rule Game. As of right now, there are no rules in this classroom."

Because he said so.

"What I want each of you to do is to come up with the one rule you'd want to live by, if I was going to institute one and only one rule. Come up with a good one, we might even make it a real rule."

Again, because he said so. Tyler knew he was playing with a stacked deck, here.

"And the way we'll decide if it's the real rule or not is: We'll discuss them all during class. Once I have everybody's rules, I'll write them all down, and you'll have all of next week to stop by my office and vote for the rule you want. Majority rules -- whatever rule we come up with, I'll abide by for the rest of the semester."

"One last thing, next week we're starting on existentialism. Read Nausea by Sartre before class. Library knows to have copies ready for you."

Tyler had been looking forward to the existentialism classes, and it showed in his smile.