“One of the symptoms of approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important, and that to take a holiday would bring all kinds of disaster. If I were a medical man, I should prescribe a holiday to any patient who considered his work important.”
— Bertrand Russell, “The Conquest of Happiness”
Maybe it’s not such a great idea to share all of your personal information with Meta’s Muse, just for the convenience of having it order your lunch? https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/06/podcasts/the-daily/meta-ai-agent-muse.html?context=audio&smid=nytcore-ios-share
This is not an argument against technology. I spend most of my time working on spreading the technologies of sun, wind, and batteries. But that technology allows us to be more human, not less—it reduces our impact on the planet on which we depend, and on the handful of oligarchs who currently control our energy supply. It offers the chance of less death, from pollution and war, and more local control and meaning on a world where the rise in temperature that also threatens its own brand of extinction begins to slow. Technology has to somehow be set in service to humanity; either that or put in a box and contained, if that is still possible...”
AI is an “alien mind,” not just software, says the latest Silicon Valley protest resign-ee… and he was a Philosophy major, btw…
“…many complaints from final-year pupils about the lack of philosophy teachers…”
Presentations continue. Catch up... then,
#_ Camryn Noel-Philosopher Queens. @1 Baker Kilmartin-Freud. #2 erik angelo-Freud. Wyatt Coleman-Nietzsche. Keziah-"Can Letting Go Makes Us Happier? #3 Alivia Bond-Nietzsche
and then everyone else. Looks like we may have to wait 'til after Fall Break to finish them all. That's okay.
1. What's the point of James's squirrel story? Have you ever been involved in a "metaphysical dispute" of this sort? How was it resolved?
2. Who said truth is what we would end up with if we could run all the experiments and investigations we'd like to? (And what's a word his name rhymes with?) What does it imply about the present status of what we now consider true?
3. What did Bertrand Russell say about James's theory of truth? Was he being fair?
4. What 20th century philosopher carried on the pragmatist tradition? What did he say about the way words work? Does his approach seem reasonable to you?
5. What did Nietzsche mean by "God is dead"? (And what's a word his name rhymes with?) Does that statement seem nihilistic to you?
6. Where did Nietzsche think Christian values come from? What do you think about that?
7. What is an Ubermensch, and why does Nigel find it "a bit worrying"? Does it worry you that some of our peers think of themselves as exempt from the rules and norms that the rest of us follow?
8. How did Nietzsche differ from Kant but anticipate Freud? Is rationality less available to us than we think?
9. What were the three great revolutions in thought, according to Freud? Was he overrating his own contributions?
10. The "talking cure" gave birth to what? Have you had any direct experience with it, or any other form of "talking cure"?
11. Why did Freud think people believe in God? Was he right, about some people at least?
12. What was Karl Popper's criticism of Freudian psychoanalysis? Do you agree?
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"Best book in the MTSU library" (more modestly, the best book by me in the library):
Thanks to all of you who showed up, it was a terrific talk.
https://jcbmtsu.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=1672d5a1-5adf-4e85-bc23-b4d6015ff3e5
...Many of us think that the goal of life is to work hard, succeed and live softly for the rest of our days. Get on the sailboat to nowhere. Go to the South of France and sample every wine-paired dish. Float from one music festival to the next.
This, many think, is happiness. And plenty of prominent thinkers would agree. The utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham said we should seek maximum pleasure at all times and do all we can to avoid pain. Oscar Wilde, a lifelong sybarite, wrote in his letter “De Profundis”: “I don’t regret for a single moment having lived for pleasure. I did it to the full, as one should do everything that one does. There was no pleasure I did not experience.”
Yet there are others who think that happiness of this sort is, if not to be avoided altogether, then taken in guarded doses...
This is from John Kaag’s Rebind project… https://youtu.be/wgk5gXEEV9U?is=1CFu-YEAHQ4llqHJ
