Philosophy Ideas in
Cauldron of Rebirth by J V Bews
Use these ideas from the book, ‘Cauldron of Rebirth’ by J V Bews for philosophy groups.
Chapter 1, Maye
- Why do people have secrets?
- Does keeping a secret give you power?
- What is a superstition and how is it different from a belief?
- Should we respect all beliefs – or not?
Chapter 2, Yolande
- Why are some of us shy and some of us confident?
- Can you be shy on the outside and confident on the inside?
Chapter 3, Castell Henllys
- How would it feel to be a slave?
- Why does our culture say slavery is wrong?
- A Celtic chieftain called Caradoc, when he was fighting the Romans, declared that it is better to die a free man than to live life as a slave. Do you agree? Do you value life or liberty more?
Chapter 4, The Druid
- Who knows what is possible and what is not?
- Can we ever say that something is impossible?
Chapter 5, The Shopkeeper
- Why do some of us become bullies, or get bullied?
- What is hard about living with other people?
Chapter 6, Three Birds
- What are names, and why do we have them?
- Would you have liked to be able to choose your own name? Would you like to change it?
- Why do we give animals names?
Chapter 7, The Golden Cauldron
- Who is to say that one person’s way of talking about the world is better than another’s? Is it alright for us to see things differently?
- Does the way we think about things, affect what we do or how we treat others? If Jo thinks that slugs are slimy and horrid, and Rob thinks they are beautiful, and their parents just see slugs as garden pests that eat the lettuce, do these different ideas make a difference to how slugs are treated?
- If you really want something, and think very hard about it, can you make it happen? Or not?
- If you possessed the Cauldron of Rebirth, would you use it? How would it make you feel if you did?
- Can you think of stories, myths or legends where someone has been brought back to life?
Chapter 8, Exchange from the Otherworld
- What is a coincidence?
- How does Daffyd explain coincidences?
- What other explanations are there for coincidences?
Chapter 9, Parallel Worlds
- Could parallel worlds exist? Could we ever find out? Would you like to visit one if you could?
- If you could create a parallel world, how would you change it from this one?
- Can unspoken thoughts be powerful? Do we need to control our unspoken thoughts?
Chapter 10, Bad Dreams
- What is a dream? Do you think dreams have messages? How are dreams like real life? How do you know a dream isn’t real, or that this life isn’t a dream?
- Why do some of us pray? Lots of us turn to prayer when we need something or when we are scared. Why is this?
- Would you like to be brought back to life at a future time if you could be? Would you have your body frozen (cryogenics) if you had the chance? What might be the disadvantages?
- What is a soul? Might everyone have one? What about animals? Plants?
- You can’t see or touch a soul but some people think they are real, and others think there are no such things. Can you give arguments for and against the existence of things we can imagine but can’t see or feel? God? Unicorns? (Arguments about existence are called ontological arguments.)
Chapter 11, God-Stones
- Maeve chose hares for her god-stone. What creature would you choose to identify yourself with, and why?
Chapter 12, A Cruel Rule
- Maeve’s father thought that having strong, brave warriors gained respect from other celtic tribes. In our time, how do we earn respect from others? What sort of people do you respect? If you respect someone, do you share their values and try to live like them? (This is from the branch of philosophy called ethics.)
Chapter 13, Moon and Sun Apart
- What do you think about time? Does time exist? Does it move from past, to present, to future in a line? Or could time move in a circle? Or could everything be happening at once?
- Scientists now believe that time can go faster or slower in certain conditions. This seems to go against ‘common sense’ and our own experiences. Does science often show common sense judgements to be inaccurate? (This branch of philosophy is called philosophy of science.)
- When would you like to slow down time or speed it up?
Chapter 14, Resistance
- Are there usually two ways of looking at things? Is it important to be able to see two sides in an argument? Does it help to see the bigger picture?
Chapter 15, Born Again
- Dafydd says there are times when animals’ needs can come before human needs. What does he mean? Do you agree, or do you think human needs always come first? Can you justify your thinking?
- What does ‘innocence’ mean? What is the opposite of innocence? Are animals more innocent than people? If so, in what ways? (The philosophy of religion discusses the problem of ‘sin’.)
Chapter 16, Conquest
- Why do we cry when people (or our pets) die?
- To be conquered by a strong army is a terrible thing. Is there any good reason for going to war and hurting others?
- Can good things ever come from bad actions? (This is the branch of philosophy called ethics.)
Chapter 17, Ends and Beginnings
- Could Frankenstein’s Monster have a soul? If you were a scientist, and you could create life, would you do it?
- Is a cloned animal an individual in its own right? Or is it always a copy? How might a cloned person feel?
- Stories often have happy endings, but are there ever endings in real life? Is the end of one thing always the beginning of another?
- Are situations, events or actions ever completely good or bad? Or in-between?
Chapter 18, Castell Dinas Brân
- What is a myth? Is there any truth in myths?
- In Celtic mythology the Cauldron of Rebirth can give life back to the dead. How would a scientist today say this could be done? What do some religions say about life after death? (This comes into eschatology in the philosophy of religion.)
Chapter 19, Thinking Without Words
- Can we think without words?
- Do words help us to think, or do they just help to explain our thinking to others?
- Do words sometimes get in the way of our thinking? Would we still be fully human without words to express ourselves? Can we imagine what it would be like without spoken or written words to communicate with?
- ‘It is said that the power of life and death lies in the tongue.’ What might this mean?
Chapter 20, Family of Secrets
- Is it important to feel you belong – to a family, a place, a group?
- What helps you to feel you belong to your family? How can you help others to feel that they belong? Have you ever felt you don’t belong?
Chapter 21, The Visitor
- Scientists can now clone (copy) cells from skin, and grow them. They do this to help make new healthy cells for people suffering from some kinds of illnesses. In America, some people pay a lot of money to clone their dead pets. Sometimes deformed animals are born. Good or bad use of science? (This type of discussion is philosophy of science.)
Chapter 22, Fever
- Sometimes we get physically ill when viruses or bacteria enter our bodies and infect them. We can also get physically ill when our minds are stressed and anxious. But how can something that is not physical, like a thought or idea, make something physical – like an illness - happen? (This is an old philosophical problem called ‘the mind-body problem’, made famous by a French philosopher called Descartes.)
Chapter 23, In the Mirror
- How would you feel if you found out you had been cloned? (Remember, it is against the law, so you couldn’t really be!)
- Maye thinks of herself as nearly immortal. Would you like to live forever? What might be the advantages and disadvantages?
- Maye feels that Dadydd is reading her thoughts. Have you ever felt that? Are there other ways of explaining two people thinking the same thoughts at the same time? (This is from the philosophy of mind.)
Chapter 24, New Things Happening
- Maye feels that just when everything is going wrong, new things can start to happen that make you feel better again.
- Why do bad things happen? Why can’t life be perfect? If life were always perfect, how would we feel? Is your idea of perfect the same as my idea of perfect?
Chapter 25, Map Reading
- Imagine a pile of road maps, political maps, physical maps, population maps, natural resources maps and so on, all of the same country. Each map tells us something different about the same place. None of the maps is wrong. All of the maps are equally good. But we wouldn’t use a road map if we wanted to find out where the mountains are, or which town had the most people living there. A philosopher called Mary Midgley uses the maps analogy to explain why science and religion can be two different ways of explaining the same thing. Hindus may say there are different paths up the mountain – but they all reach the same peak. (This branch of philosophy is called theory of knowledge.)
- Can you make more than one path to show different answers, or ideas, to explain, ‘What happens when we die?’ (For example, what might a scientist say? A Christian? A Buddhist? Yourself?)
Chapter 26, Gwalchmei, Falcon of Summer
- Science explains what happens in the physical world. What does science leave out?
- Will humans ever be able to test, measure and record everything? Or not?
- Can we measure feelings and emotions?
- The famous scientist Charles Darwin was sad when he learnt about the scientific explanation for a rainbow. He felt some of the magic had been taken away. Why do you think he felt like this? Do you agree or disagree that scientific explanations take away wonder at the beauty of the world?
- An ancient Greek philosopher called Heraclitus said that everything changes. Nothing stays the same for more than a moment. Scientists agree. What do you think about this?
- Water is on a constant journey, sometimes salty, sometimes pure, sometimes polluted. We call it the Water Cycle. How could this be like the ups and downs and changes of a human’s journey through life?
- A bicycle is made up of wheels, frame, chain and pedals, handlebar, seat. On their own, these are just objects. Put together, they make a bicycle, a new and more complex object. We are made of blood, flesh, nervous system and bone. Is this all there is to us – or are we more than the parts we are made of? (To say that everything is nothing but the parts it is made of is called reductionism.)
Chapter 27, A Crossing Place
- What is ‘intuition’?
- Daffyd thinks our intuition or inner voice can tell us things if we listen to it. Some people disagree. What is your point of view?
Chapter 28, The Solar Café
- At Castell Gwydr there are no tests and no winners or losers. When do we use these expressions and how much effect do they have on people?
- Why do education systems like to give children tests? What can be the bad and good results of testing?
- What other sorts of tests are there?
Chapter 29, Raven
- ‘Hubris’ means pride, a feeling that you, as a human, are in charge of the world, and can do anything, rule over everything, get whatever you want. Are humans too proud? Should we be more humble about our position in the world? What might humans be proud about? What might they be less proud of?
- If you see everything in the world as being inter-connected, is there room for hubris?
Chapter 30, Deeper Magic
- Have you ever met someone and felt that you already know them? What could make you feel like this?
- In this story, some things are left unexplained. Do you like stories where there is some mystery at the end, or do you like everything to fit into place and be fully explained? What does your answer say about you?