Black Mirror, the scarlet servant, Orange is the New Black … TV series can be the support of a philosophical reflection. References to be handled with caution in a copy of baccalaureate, explains Caroline Maitrot, of Nomad Education.
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What statement of Socrates best illustrates the Orange is the New Black series? If Sartre had known Joe Goldberg, the protagonist of the You, would he have said that he is unconscious, deceived by his conscience, a free subject, or responsible for his actions? The long -term format of television series allows you to embrace the complexity of human experience. These fictional works can thus constitute a good support for philosophical reflection, believes Caroline MAITROT, founder of Nomad Education, an application of BAC revisions which uses this approach.
Why combine revisions and popular culture?
By mobilizing popular cultural references, we take pleasure in learning. For students, it is sometimes easier to understand an anaphora with IAM than on a work of the last century. Revise physics with Star Wars, literary style figures with rap … on social networks, content that combines popular culture and school concepts are a hit. Just see the success encountered, on Tik Tok, by the Rapémathetic videos of the Mathematics Professor and rapper A’Rieka.
How do series allow students to work their philosophy?
The philosophy bac program resonates with issues at the heart of certain series. Little Big Lies, which stages three mothers involved in a murder, illustrates the notion of duty theorized by Kant. The single mother who builds a location chip in her daughter’s brain in the Black Mirror series points the dangers of enslavement by technology, and can be put in parallel with the criticism of technical progress in Rousseau.
The White Hell series, centered on oil drilling in the Arctic, makes it possible to approach the concept of nature, and evokes the environmental concerns that mobilize the young generation. The series combine news and philosophy, sometimes in an incredibly striking way. Personally, I did not manage to go to the end of the scarlet servant, so I was touched as a woman by this dystopia which points to serious attacks on freedoms. More and more philosophers are working on series, and works on pop philosophy are multiplying. The institution is however more cautious. The same teachers who use this approach in our application can be reluctant to evoke series as part of their courses. Freedom in the classroom is a good philosophy subject!
Can we cite series in its baccalaureate copy?
I asked several teachers the question, and all answered me in the affirmative. Taking up series, films, or exhibitions in his copy is possible. On condition, of course, to justify the reference, to show how it nourishes a reflection. We can for example evoke the scarlet servant, where a political-religious sect deprives the population of her rights, to show how freedom goes through revolt, and how much the latter is a state of mind, an awareness of Which is unfair and unacceptable. In his speech of voluntary servitude, Boétie does not say anything else: the spirit of revolt is an act of resistance and a means of surviving, its absence participates in the power of the tyrant. Be careful, however. If you can be original in its references, you should never ignore the methodology: if you risk going in all directions.