Animals and philosophy have an old and long standing connection.
Two great European folklore writers — writing about 2000 years apart — used animals to tell us important things about people.
Aesop and Rancine are two famous animal tale writers who were probably aware of “classical” or Socratic philosophy.
Outside of Europe animal tales are everwhere and they also have strong doses of folk philosophy in them.
For example Anasazi the Spider plays a key role in West African folklore
The Crow and The Raven play prominently in Native American folklore
The great great haiku writer Kobayashi Issa wrote about “the tragedy” of murdering mosquitos.
The song and poetry of the (Islamic) Sufi writer Rumi often take us back to animals…. for example, a frog and a mouse are fighting about friendship but are then devoured by an eagle…showing how at some point, we are all subsumed by something unfathomable.
Another great philosopher — Sabin Roehr — created a whole class about animals here at NJCU. She argues that being around animals is one of the things that makes us into full and good people. “Where would we (people) be without them (animals)?” she once asked.
For today —
Think about your Community Action Project for less than one minute.
Now ask yourself — as a leader — what animal would you be?
You CAN pick your own animal — but — first think about the choices below.
Elephants are large and in charge. They trumpet and others listen. At one level, they are independent — but they live in herds and involved with each other daily.
And there is baggage — like that trunk.
It can be tough to move, when one is a giant.
Both foxes and hedgehogs are nimble and small.
The fox, though is clever and knows many things.
The fox can jump between things and ideas.
The hedgehog, however, knows only one thing
but is very confident in the wisdom of that thing.
Picking from the list above — or making your own pick —
What animal would you be?
What makes you feel good about that animal?
Physical qualities?
Mental quailities?
Personality or imaginative qualities?
Why do you think you match those qualities?
Are there any drawbacks to the animal?
Do you share the drawback?
How do you think that this animal would connect with your project?
What would it/ he / she advise you to build or to develop?