Introductions

LISTEN. Opening Day will be a little different this year. 2020 has been a year like no other, hasn't it? [LISTEN to my Opening Day intro last January, which now seems a small eternity ago.]

But Opening Days are still a big deal. We get to introduce ourselves, and I get to begin introducing the course. Everybody's still in first place, we've all still got high hopes (I hope).

If you haven't guessed, from my sporting metaphors, I'm a baseball fan. Raised in the St. Louis area, I went to my first live Cardinals game several stadia ago. I've not got to see them in action much yet in 2020, bunch of them came down with the virus.

My wife and I were in Scottsdale, AZ back in March, enjoying Cactus League Spring Training, when the plug was pulled on this baseball season. The rest of Spring Training was canceled (glad we got to see David Price pitch for LA earlier in the week), MLB's Opening Day delayed ('til late July, it turned out, and that turned out to be too soon). Resumption of our Spring semester was also delayed, and we haven't been in the brick-and-mortar classroom since.

But let's look on the Bright Side. Many of us, thanks to these extreme measures, social distancing, masking etc., have managed to dodge COVID-19. We're healthy enough to carry on by other means. We'll be communicating, in my classes, on this platform and on Zoom. And we'll look forward to the day when we can again share physical space on our currently-lonely campus.

Meanwhile, in spite of everything, it's Opening Day again. As Mr. Cub used to say, let's play two! (He got to play on grass under the big sky at Wrigley Field, before they conformed and added lights and night games, we'll play on Zoom-CoPhi first, then Environmental Ethics). But since I'm a peripatetic, I'll again urge us all to find our own piece of turf and sky each day. I guarantee it will improve your and our experience of the course. As Chris Orlet reminds, in Gymnasiums of the Mind: Solvitur Ambulando, "it is solved by walking"--for pretty much any it.

Nearly every philosopher-poet worth his salt has voiced similar sentiments. Erasmus recommended a little walk before supper and “after supper do the same.” Thomas Hobbes had an inkwell built into his walking stick to more easily jot down his brainstorms during his rambles. Jean- Jacques Rousseau claimed he could only meditate when walking: “When I stop, I cease to think,” he said. “My mind only works with my legs.” Søren Kierkegaard believed he’d walked himself into his best thoughts. In his brief life Henry David Thoreau walked an estimated 250,000 miles, or ten times the circumference of earth. “I think that I cannot preserve my health and spirits,” wrote Thoreau, “unless I spend four hours a day at least – and it is commonly more than that – sauntering through the woods and over the hills and fields absolutely free from worldly engagements.” Thoreau’s landlord and mentor Ralph Waldo Emerson characterized walking as “gymnastics for the mind.” 

Read the rest, if you're curious about the peripatetic life. It's a short essay, but if you follow the peri-philosophers' footsteps it may just change your life.

Also by way of introducing myself, I suggest you take a look at Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot [video]- he was an early influence on me and my version of Cosmic Philosophy.

And William James's opening lecture on Pragmatism, wherein he insists that we all have a philosophy whether we know it or not.

And my book...

And Brian Cohen...

For the record, here's how things began the last time we commenced a real (on ground, in person) semester:

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Opening Day!

Or Opening Deja-vu, all over again. Like last time, and the time before, and the time before that, but also different. [Fall 2019]

Another fresh start, a blank slate, a return to that form of life we call academia and philosophia. Call it what you will, the first day of a new semester is an always-welcome recurrence I'm happy to affirm. I say yes to the challenge of introducing the next generation to this odd but essential practice of mature reflection on behalf of our adolescent species. The break was actually a little long, in some ways, though the break from that congested commute down I-24 to the 'boro was (as always) a time-giving, anxiety-relieving happy respite.

We'll do our usual Opening Day round of introductions: Who are you? Why are you here? I always encourage students to be creatively and playfully thoughtful with their responses to those questions, and there's usually a small handful of creatively playful responses mixed in with the dull literal Joe ("Just the facts, M'am") Fridays. "I'm Bill, I'm in concrete management, I'm here for the GenEd credit..." Thanks, Bill. Anybody given any thought to who you are independent of your academic and career aspirations, why you're living this life, in this place, with these goals and intentions?

Philosophers and physicists wonder why there's something rather than nothing, a universe where there might (we suppose) have been nought at all. Beyond that, as William James said, there's a mystery as to the existence of every particular, "this very thing," in its very particularity. Today begins, again, the worthy task of getting more of my young charges to grasp and grapple with (or at least acknowledge and value) that mystery, and grow from the encounter.

Atheism and Philosophy begins again today too. In addition to the usual questions we'll ask: Do you have firm convictions regarding religion, spirituality, an afterlife, a deity...? Do you think religion and science are (or can be) compatible? What sources of meaning and purpose in life do you recognize?

So, shall we hit the ground running? And not say, like that jaded bowl of petunias, "Oh no, not again!"

Or maybe I'll just talk about my dogs again, and my canine philosophy. (Did someone mention Diogenes? (He revelled in the nickname of 'the dog' (kyon), which is how the Cynics, or 'dogmen', got their name...)

Let's introduce ourselves, Fall 2020 CoPhilosophy collaborators. (I'll tell you "in class"--eventually I'll stop putting scare quotes around Zoom "classes," I actually had some really good ones in July with my MALA Evolution in America course--why I call my version of the Intro course "CoPhilosophy." But maybe you can guess, from the William James quote above.)

I invite you all to introduce yourselves in the comments section below, and answer some very basic questions: Who are you? Why are you here? (in this course, on this campus, in this state, on this planet...) What do you think Philosophy is? Do you have a favorite philosopher? Do you have an easily-summarized personal philosophy? (Maybe something short like Charlie Brown's sister Sally's?--"No!")

We'll not go over the syllabus or get bogged down in the nuts and bolts of course mechanics on Day One, there's plenty of time for those details later. Peruse the blogsite and syllabus (linked in the right margin) before next class and let me know what's unclear. Meanwhile, read your classmates' intros and post your own.

I'm Dr. Oliver. I live in Nashville with my wife, two dogs we "rescued" in 2018 (Nell, a sweet & gentle Pit/Boxer, and Pita, a sweet and feisty Dachsund/Lab), and an old cat (Zeus). Older Daughter lives in California. Younger Daughter is one of your peers.

My office is 300 James Union Building (JUB), but of course I'm not going to be around there much in the foreseeable future. Remote office hours are listed in the right sidebar, call or text at those times and let me know if you'd like to arrange a private Zoom session.

I've been at MTSU since the early '00s, teaching philosophy courses on diverse subjects including atheism, childhood, happiness, the environment (I'm teaching the Environmental Ethics course this semester, check out my Honors Lecture on the subject if you're interested), evolution, the future, epistemology, identity, metaphysics, Anglo-American philosophy, consciousness, and bioethics. I'm always open to working with students on Independent Readings courses as well, if you don't find a listed course in something you're interested in. Let me know if I can ever help you with that.

My Ph.D. is from Vanderbilt. I'm originally from Missouri, near St. Louis. My undergrad degree is from the University of Missouri ("Mizzou") in Columbia MO. (I wish my schools weren't in the SEC-I don't approve of the inordinate emphasis on major collegiate sports culture or football brain injuries, as I'm sure to tell you again. But I admit, I did enjoy the Titans' playoff run last winter.)

My philosophical expertise, such as it is, centers on the American philosophical tradition of William James and John Dewey. A former student once asked me to respond to a questionnaire, if you're curious you can learn more about me there.

What you most need to know about me, though, is that I'm a peripatetic and encourage you to be one too (If you're not sure what a peripatetic is, ask me. Or look it up.)

I post my thoughts regularly to my blogs Up@dawn and Delight Springs, to this and other course-specific sites, and to Twitter (@osopher). I've experimented with podcasting as a classroom tool, and with supplemental audio and video content. Follow me if you want to.

But of course, as Brian Cohen said, you don't have to follow me or anyone else. (Rhetorical extra credit if you get that reference.) Sapere aude, as Immanuel Kant said. (Real extra credit if you get that one. NOTE: my extra credit is in the form of "bases," as in the umpire's instruction to "take your base.")

So you don't have to follow me, but when a blog or audio link ("LISTEN") or video turns up you might find it helpful to read, listen, or watch.

I think maybe the best way to introduce myself is to introduce you to some recommended texts, videos, and pdocasts:

William James, Pragmatism lecture 1; Gymnasiums of the Mind (on the Peripatetic philosophy); Pale Blue Dot, & WATCH: Pale Blue Dot (Sagan). Also recommended, for general knowledge: What's Philosophy for? School of Life (SoL); LISTEN: What is Philosophy? and Who's Your Favourite Philosopher? (PB Philosophy Bites). And check out the This I Believe website, for examples of others' personal philosophies succinctly summarized.

But, enough about me. Who are you? (Where are you from, where have you been, what do you like, who do you want to become,...?) Why are you here? (On Earth, in Tennessee, at MTSU, in philosophy class)? Reply below with your introduction, and read your classmates'...

Looking forward to seeing you on Zoom starting Monday the 24th (connection info emailed and, eventually, in the right sidebar under "NEXT")...

Please always include your section number (10, 11, or 12) in your reply below, and in all future posts on this site.

Our assignments for our second class meeting: (you can always find future assignments listed under "NEXT" in the upper right corner):

W 26/Th 27 Socrates and Plato-LH1, FL 1-2, HWT Intro & prologue

Look for my dated Questions posts, before each scheduled class date, if you need ideas for what to think and write about in connection with our assigned readings.