Posted on Tuesday, August 4, 2020

The Ethics of Political Advertising

One-Sheet for SOPHIA Conversations

Printable one-sheet (front & back) in Adobe PDF.

Students in the Communication Law and Ethics course at Fitchburg State University created this one-sheet for the Worcester County (MA) SOPHIA Chapter. Dr. J.J. Sylvia IV and Dr. Kyle Moody edited it. Its creation was supported by SOPHIA and the Douglas and Isabelle Crocker Center for Civic Engagement. Students included Lindsey Ogden, Kenneth Howell, Martin Heffler, Skyler Saddow, Edgar Mutebi, and Harrison Svihla.

While political advertising can be a useful tool to reach the public in order to inform them on political topics and candidates, these types of advertisements are often saturated in controversy.

Click here, on the image above, or on the Adobe PDF link on right to open a printable, Adobe PDF version of the one-sheet, which, if printed, is intended to be printed front and back.

SOPHIA is grateful to the students in the Communication Law and Ethics course at Fitchburg State University, as well as to Drs. Sylvia and Moody and to the Crocker Center for Civic Engagement.

Posted on Thursday, July 30, 2020

The Ethics of Fake News

One-Sheet for SOPHIA Conversations

Printable one-sheet (front & back) in Adobe PDF.

Over the course of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, then-candidate Donald J. Trump popularized the term “Fake News.” Although politicians and the media now frequently use the term, much confusion remains over the meaning of the term and what actually “counts” as fake news.

Click here, on the image above, or on the Adobe PDF link on right to open a printable, Adobe PDF version of the one-sheet, which, if printed, is intended to be printed front and back.

SOPHIA is grateful to the students in the Communication Law and Ethics course at Fitchburg State University, as well as to Drs. Sylvia and Moody and to the Crocker Center for Civic Engagement.

Posted on Friday, May 10, 2019

The Right to Life vs. the Right to Bodily Autonomy: Thomson’s “A Defense of Abortion”

One-Sheet for SOPHIA Conversations

Dr. Bertha Alvarez Manninen drafted this great SOPHIA One-Sheet document to talk about some important questions about America’s hottest topic: abortion, some of which arose in Episode 4 of Philosophy Bakes Bread, on “Shared Values in the Abortion Debate,” the subtitle of her book on the subject, Pro-Life, Pro-Choice. The Lexington SOPHIA Chapter is getting together on May 10th of 2019 to talk about abortion, a topic of increasing importance given recent changes to the make up of the U.S. Supreme Court and the many state laws that are likely to be tested in court.

SOPHIA is grateful to the Kentucky Humanities Council for a grant that supported the creation of this one-sheet document.

Posted on Friday, February 15, 2019

Happily Ever After? Existentialism and Romantic Love

One-Sheet for SOPHIA Conversations

For the February meeting of the Lexington SOPHIA Chapter, Lila Wakeman drafted this great SOPHIA One-Sheet document to talk about some important questions that Dr. Skye Cleary raised in Episode 60 of Philosophy Bakes Bread, on “Existentialism and Romantic Love,” the title of her book on the subject. The group is getting together on February 15th of 2019, the night after Valentine’s Day, to talk about love in real life, and the challenges that people face. Check out this one-sheet and consider using it for your next discussion.

SOPHIA is grateful to the Kentucky Humanities Council for a generous grant that supported the creation of this one-sheet document.

Posted on Wednesday, December 19, 2018

Goodwill to All

One-Sheet for SOPHIA Conversations

This winter, the Lexington SOPHIA Chapter thought it would be a good idea to reflect on good will. We are accustomed to hearing around the holiday season about “Good will toward men,” a line from the Book of Luke in the Bible. It seemed like an important topic that might be on people’s minds around the holidays. What does goodwill mean, after all? Also, why do we seem to attend to it only around the winter holidays? Should it be seasonal? These questions inspired the creation of this SOPHIA One-Sheet on “Goodwill to All.”

The Lexington SOPHIA Chapter got together to test out this new one-sheet and had a terrific time talking about good will. The photos below are from our get together at the Northside Branch of the Lexington Public Library on Tuesday, December 18th at 6pm. We had fourteen people join the conversation. On this special occasion, which we labeled a “December Meet and Greet” and conversation on “Goodwill to All,” this time we had pizza and drinks. After the event, we had leftovers and one of our participants suggested that we invite everyone in the library to come partake in the pizza and drinks and join us for fellowship and goodwill cheer. It was a great idea and a fitting end to our meeting.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Thanks to James William Lincoln for generating our first draft of this document. A number of members of the leadership helped offer feedback on the first draft and Eric Thomas Weber put some final edits into this document and generated a number of the additional questions. We encourage other members and chapters to try out this One-Sheet with your local community.