PhilosophyThe BestieIntermediate
Thinking Through Character Dilemmas, a free philosophy course on Tomo

Thinking Through Character Dilemmas

Learn to analyze complex literary conflicts to sharpen your real-world moral reasoning, dismantle rationalizations, and articulate nuanced ethical convictions.

Like Duolingo, but for Thinking Through Character Dilemmas. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.

A short one: 11 levels across 2 sections, about 22 minutes end to end, roughly 4 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Dissecting the Dilemma and Articulation and Moral Character. It assumes you already know the basics.

11 bite-size levelsAbout 5 minutes each

Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android

Barnaby the Bear, the guide who teaches the Thinking Through Character Dilemmas course
Thinking Through Character Dilemmas
with Barnaby the Bear
11
Levels
2
Sections
5
Min/day
What you'll learn

Key ideas in Thinking Through Character Dilemmas

  • Tragic depth emerges when two valid moral duties make irreconcilable demands.
  • Antigone weighs sacred family burial duty directly against Creon's civic law.
  • Brutus sacrifices affection for Caesar to preserve Rome's republican order.
  • Underlying premises dictate whether obligations are universal or conditional.
  • Surface arguments usually mask differing assumptions about who belongs to the moral circle.
  • Isolating an unstated axiom reveals why neither side is persuaded by counter-evidence.
  • A value hierarchy remains theoretical until costs escalate to personal stakes.
  • Characters consistently sacrifice abstract civic goods before intimate familial ties.
  • The ultimate fracture point marks where self-preservation overrides moral codes.
  • Productive moral choice requires deliberately grieving the foregone legitimate good.
  • Denying the validity of the discarded value leads to hollow rationalization.
  • Acknowledging necessary loss breaks moral deadlock faster than seeking clean innocence.
  • A Dostoyevskian steelman gives the opponent the most persuasive, emotionally resonant points possible.
  • Refuting a caricature proves nothing; genuine dialectic requires overcoming the counterargument at its peak.
  • Characters frequently tally calculated outcomes to evade acute guilt or fear.
  • Impartial utilitarian calculus is vulnerable to subconscious motivated reasoning during crises.
Why not just Google it

You've tried the other tabs

Wikipedia

Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.

YouTube

You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.

ChatGPT

One answer, then back to scrolling.

Online courses

Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.

Tomo gives Thinking Through Character Dilemmas the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.

Try a question

Here's what playing it feels like

A real question from this course. Take your best guess.

When Good Values Collide

In Sophocles' famous tragedy, what core clash does Antigone face against King Creon?

Get it right to open this lesson and 10 more in the app.

Course map

How to learn Thinking Through Character Dilemmas, step by step

Go in order. 11 short levels across 2 sections, about 22 minutes in all, five minutes a day.

  1. 1

    Dissecting the Dilemma

    • Unpacking Competing Goods
    • Stress-Testing Rationalizations
  2. 2

    Articulation and Moral Character

    • Articulating Nuanced Convictions
    • Forging Character Under Pressure

2 sections · 4 units · 11 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.

Questions

Questions about Thinking Through Character Dilemmas

  1. How do I learn Thinking Through Character Dilemmas?

    Go in order: start with Dissecting the Dilemma, then Articulation and Moral Character. On Tomo that's 11 short levels, about 22 minutes in all, played five minutes a day. Start free and play the first level in under a minute.

  2. Is there a Duolingo-style app for Thinking Through Character Dilemmas?

    Yes. Tomo works like Duolingo: short daily lessons, streaks and quick quizzes. Thinking Through Character Dilemmas is one of its free courses, and you can type any other topic to get a course of your own.

  3. Is the Thinking Through Character Dilemmas course free?

    Yes. Thinking Through Character Dilemmas is playable on Tomo's free plan, which doesn't expire. No credit card, no waitlist. Download the app and start your first lesson.

  4. How long does it take to learn Thinking Through Character Dilemmas?

    11 levels across 2 sections, about 22 minutes of play in total. It's built for five minutes a day, so you finish it a little at a time instead of all at once.

  5. Do I need any background to start Thinking Through Character Dilemmas?

    No. It's pitched at an intermediate level, so it starts where you are and builds up. If you can tap a phone, you can start.

New

Tomo is in ChatGPT

Tomo is also a ChatGPT plugin: the same playable courses, built and played inside your chat.

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How it's taught

You pick the voice

This course
The Bestie

Thinking Through Character Dilemmas is taught in the Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.

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Start Thinking Through Character Dilemmas today.

Download Tomo, search Thinking Through Character Dilemmas, and play your first lesson in under a minute.