2. Under what circumstances would Rawls' theory permit huge inequalities of wealth between people?
3. What was the Imitation Game, and who devised a thought experiment to oppose it?
4. What, according to Searle, is involved in truly understanding something?
5. How do some philosophers think we might use computers to achieve immortality?
6. What does Peter Singer say we should sacrifice, to help strangers?
7. Why did Singer first become famous?
8. How does Singer represent the best tradition in philosophy?
Discussion Questions:
- What can we do to restore a public/political commitment to facts, reality, and truth?
- Will Drumpf's exploitation and encouragement of partisan division and narrow nationalism have lasting consequences for the country and world? Or will we put it behind us with the election of the next progressive president?
- Why do so many extreme conservatives proudly proclaim their lack of knowledge and expertise ("I'm not a scientist but..." etc.)? Is Know-Nothingism a winning political strategy? What are its long-term implications for the nation?
- Do you value truth and honesty, even though our "leaders" increasingly do not?
- Are we at peak Fantasyland yet? Or does just about every day set a new low-mark?
- Is religious missionary fieldwork inherently hypocritical? How can missionaries avoid hypocrisy?
- What does it mean for philosophy to be "realistic"?
- What is the point of preserving the memory and legacy of our ancestors? Do you hope to be similarly "preservesd" by our descendants?
- Is "maybe" the best answer to the question of life's being worth living?
- Should college students be required OR encouraged to devote a year or two to public service immediately after graduation?
- Is Descartes' "cogito ergo sum" too individualistic, or even solipsistic?
- Have you had to "push beyond your awkwardness" like Royce? 165
- Do you agree with Hegel and Royce that you can know yourself only insofar as you are known by others?
- Do you possess a loyalty and sense of belonging to "a greater whole"? What community/-ties do you consider inseparable from your own sense of self? 169
- If you were in Rawls's "Original Position," what kind of economic system would you argue for?
- In what sense are we "better off" in a society that allows huge income discrepancies between the least and best well-off?
- Will Artificial Intelligence surpass human intelligence, or has it already? Is this something we should worry about?
- What "luxuries" are you prepared to give up, to help people less fortunate than yourself?
- Are you a speciesist? Why or why not?
- Is meat-eating ethically defensible?
- Are we "guests and cast members" in the USA? (402) What's good and bad about that?
- Do you find it odd, charming, or just normal that so many childless adults, like Peter Pan, don't want to grow up-and keep going to Disneyland?
- Have we become an infantilized culture, living fantasy lives, playing video games, and extending childhood indefinitely?
- Is Mark Zuckerberg a hero, villain, neither... ?
- Do you engage in magical thinking?
- "Most men of Hocking's age fell in love at a very early age. With themselves." (185) Has this changed? Do you think sexist assumptions and attitudes continue to dominate philosophical thinking, and life in general?
- Why isn't Jane Addams more famous? 194
==
Arts & Letters Daily search results for “john rawls” (3)
2017-10-25 | John Rawls called it "the best of all games"; Mark Kingwell calls it "the most philosophical of games." What is it about baseball and philosophy? more »
2018-09-04 | What's the meaning of freedom? Isaiah Berlin, John Rawls, and Robert Nozick disagreed on much. But they all emphasized universal values over group identity more »
2018-08-24 | The famously liberal philosopher John Rawls has been recast as a sharp critic of capitalism. If Rawls really was a socialist, why was he so reticent about it? more »
Arts & Letters Daily search results for “ alan turing” (2)
2012-12-22 | Alan Turing was a courageous, patriotic, but sad, unconventional man. He was also gay. Can homosexuality help explain his genius? more »
2014-01-01 | Alan Turing predicted that computers would be able to think by 2000. No dice. Not even close. We still don't understand what thinking is more »
Arts & Letters Daily search results for “john searle” (2)
2015-04-18 | John Searle has a bone to pick with Bacon, Descartes, Locke, and Kant. He blames them for the basic mistake of modern epistemology more »
2015-06-23 | Everything you know about perception is wrong – and it’s the fault of Western philosophers, starting with Descartes. Or so John Searle would have you think more »
“I believe that at the end of the century the use of words and general educated opinion will have altered so much that one will be able to speak of machines thinking without expecting to be contradicted.”
“I'm afraid that the following syllogism may be used by some in the future:
Turing believes machines think
Turing lies with men
Therefore machines do not think."
LA Theater Worksw dramatization, "Breaking the Code" - recording
==
Jaron Lanier on the future of virtual reality etc. - and he says AI is not a thing... On Point 11.29.17... Dawn of the New Everything
==
“To protest about bullfighting in Spain, the eating of dogs in South Korea, or the slaughter of baby seals in Canada while continuing to eat eggs from hens who have spent their lives crammed into cages, or veal from calves who have been deprived of their mothers, their proper diet, and the freedom to lie down with their legs extended, is like denouncing apartheid in South Africa while asking your neighbors not to sell their houses to blacks.”
==
Jaron Lanier on the future of virtual reality etc. - and he says AI is not a thing... On Point 11.29.17... Dawn of the New Everything
==
“To protest about bullfighting in Spain, the eating of dogs in South Korea, or the slaughter of baby seals in Canada while continuing to eat eggs from hens who have spent their lives crammed into cages, or veal from calves who have been deprived of their mothers, their proper diet, and the freedom to lie down with their legs extended, is like denouncing apartheid in South Africa while asking your neighbors not to sell their houses to blacks.”
“If possessing a higher degree of intelligence does not entitle one human to use another for his or her own ends, how can it entitle humans to exploit non-humans?”
“The notion that human life is sacred just because it is human life is medieval.”
“If it is in our power to prevent something bad from happening, without thereby sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance, we ought, morally, to do it.”
“To give preference to the life of a being simply because that being is a member of our species would put us in the same position as racists who give preference to those who are members of their race.”
Just as we have progressed beyond the blatantly racist ethic of the era of slavery and colonialism, so we must now progress beyond the speciesist ethic of the era of factory farming, of the use of animals as mere research tools, of whaling, seal hunting, kangaroo slaughter, and the destruction of wilderness. We must take the final step in expanding the circle of ethics. -”
“Philosophy ought to question the basic assumptions of the age. Thinking through, critically and carefully, what most of us take for granted is, I believe, the chief task of philosophy, and the task that makes philosophy a worthwhile activity.”
- Out for
#GivingTuesday, Animal Charity Evaluators has a new list of recommended organizations working for animals: animalcharityevaluators.org/blog/introduci…
 | Peter Singer (@PeterSinger) |
"Philosophy Changing Lives" - an interview with me on Why? Radio: goo.gl/ztR4m9 | |
Arts & Letters Daily search results for “peter singer” (3)
2011-01-01 | For Peter Singer, the defining idea of the coming decade will be the Internet, which will democratize education, economics, and the media more »
2010-01-01 | Abhorring animal cruelty does not entail the idea that all animals, humans included, sit at the same moral level. Peter Singer has an argument to answer more »
2015-07-07 | Where morality meets rationalism. Is Peter Singer’s “effective altruism” the apotheosis of ethics, or an unempathetic, politically naive, elitist doctrine? more »
Is Life Worth Living? by William James
These, then, are my last words to you : Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is
worth living, and your belief will help create the fact. The "scientific proof " that
you are right may not be clear...
Should college students be required OR encouraged to devote a year or two to public service immediately after graduation?
ReplyDeleteI think they should be encouraged to not required to. Some students when they graduate can't take the time to do two years of community service. Some of them will jump directly into a job and others will want to pursue an even higher education. Although public service will look good on a resume and its good for the community, it's just not viable for some people.
Do you agree with Hegel and Royce that you can know yourself only insofar as you are known by others?
Yes, I think there is a limit to how well you can know yourself. I think for a lot of people that it is hard to look inward and thoroughly examine yourself completely. I think that other people are essential to helping you figure out yourself. I also think that there are just some parts of yourself that you will never be able to figure out even with other people helping you. The mind is too complicated to unravel completely.
What can we do to restore a public/political commitment to facts, reality, and truth?
I don't think we will ever be able to completely restore a public commitment to facts and truth. If we did, we would have to take serious measures in controlling every news outlet which to me seems impossible. I think people will always have some agenda to put out there own version of the truth which may or may not be true. I think there are just too many people in the world to be able to truly restore public/political facts and truth.
(H03)”What can we do to restore a public/political commitment to facts, reality, and truth?”
ReplyDeleteI don’t think there is much we can do. I believe that social media has distorted our perception of truth to a point that restoring a commitment to facts/truth is not likely. Making a personal commitment is possible and helpful but I don’t think a widespread commitment is possible.
“Are you a speciesist? Why or why not?”
Yes. I think being a speciest is natural according to evolution.
The Cynic movement generally sees itself as a shortcut to virtue. The general values of Cynicism are that living in tune with nature and experiencing a life outside the constraints, expectations, and conventions of society is the ideal way to live a good life. A life filled with value made up by relations or physical objects is not virtuous, but rather the lack thereof and living with the hardships of nature allows one to rise. Diogenes is one such Philosopher that exemplified these views, living in a tub with only the clothing on his back. Known as a dog due to his shameless cynical behaviour, or Diogenes of Sinope, he brought much discussion directly to other philosophers, and his exemplified free use of speech regardless of consequence set him apart from his peers and other people in society in general. I also discuss David Hume, and his relative connections to our lesson through the sense of self, as well as his commitment to feelings and self over rationality and fact, and distaste to political/religious discourse, and show the contrast though both have been considered cynics.
ReplyDelete--GENERALLY: Cynicism is to deconstruct the values and conventions of society and why they would matter--
Questions:
Would you choose to live as a sceptic in the methodology of Diogenes, and if so, what would your reasoning be to do so?
Do you thing Diogenes was right in his more aggressive or straightforward speaking, or do you think that obscuring your whole thoughts or truths is better?
Do you see yourself as a sceptic? Either way, are there aspects of Diogenes’ skepticism that you can identify or agree with?
If you were called a dog by others, would you choose to own the name or see it as derogatory and attempt to be rid of it?
Do you see Hume as a sceptic? Would he be, in the same way as Diogenes is? Which do you agree with more?
Sources used:
https://iep.utm.edu/cynics/
https://www.etymonline.com/word/cynic
https://www.yourdictionary.com/dogmatic
https://pantheon.world/profile/person/Diogenes/
https://www.existentialcomics.com/comic/219
https://medium.com/@amereattempt1/the-story-of-diogenes-and-alexander-the-great-e59f85971f3f
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/animals/miscellany/plato-and-diogenes-debate-featherless-bipeds
https://pantheon.world/profile/person/David_Hume/
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume/
*Why they would or would not apply, and if they are relevant to a virtuous life. Rusty definition.
DeleteH03
ReplyDeleteDo you value truth and honesty, even though our "leaders" increasingly do not?
I do value truth and honesty, and I find it odd that most of our leaders don’t value that. I know for some people that they may feel it’s sometimes better to bend the truth to protect others from freaking out or getting hurt, but to me if you lie in the first place it’ll be difficult to earn the trust again of someone or society as a whole in general.
Should college students be required OR encouraged to devote a year or two to public service immediately after graduation?
The high school I went to students had to do a certain amount of hours to graduate and I can personally say from doing public service I was able to meet and connect with many other people so I do think it would be beneficial for students from all academic levels to participate in some form of volunteer work, especially since I feel people are becoming more disconnected with each other.
Do you find it odd, charming, or just normal that so many childless adults, like Peter Pan, don't want to grow up-and keep going to Disneyland?
I do sometimes find it a little odd that childless adults like Peter Pan don’t want to grow up. Sometimes it’s ok to maybe live out a childhood fantasy every once in a while but to just live by that standard as a lifestyle is a bit peculiar.
Have we become an infantilized culture, living fantasy lives, playing video games, and extending childhood indefinitely?
I do feel we have become a culture that focuses more so on fantasy in different realms whether we create an unrealistic life for ourselves, play video games or extend childhood memories. But I think this takes place because people may feel life is worth living when there’s an opportunity to escape from reality.
Is "maybe" the best answer to the question of life's being worth living?
ReplyDeleteI think whether life is worth living or not is entirely up to the person and how they approach it. Some people are nihilists who have no outlook on life. Others are pessimists who have a very bleak output on it. It's up to the person to decide what they want to do with their life and how they want to live it. I personally would like to say, "Yes, of course life is worth living." But I can also similarly argue that maybe it isn't since our planet and eventually universe will all die out one day. But it's better to look on the bright side of things.
Should college students be required OR encouraged to devote a year or two to public service immediately after graduation?
No. This should be a choice from the individual. Some people have enough on their hands as is, and forcing something else on them could be detrimental. While it is nice, and everyone should try it, it should not be force fed to college students.
Is meat-eating ethically defensible?
I don't think so. The fact that we can survive without any meat in our diets is proof of this. But people just enjoy it. Myself included. I wouldn't personally give it up, and that's my own flaw. It would be too much for me to work it out of my diet because I enjoy eating it so much. That doesn't mean I can or will defend it, because there's not much defense I can make.
H03-
ReplyDeleteWhy do so many extreme conservatives proudly proclaim their lack of knowledge and expertise ("I'm not a scientist but..." etc.)? Is Know-Nothingism a winning political strategy? What are its long-term implications for the nation?
I do think there are people on either side of the political spectrum who go along with the crowd with no backing of reason. It’s a human thing that a lot of people are subject to. Addressing the second part of the question, when folks are blinded by a leader’s or political figure’s ethos, they may become less critical of what they are actually saying. For example, during recent debates for the 2020 Presidential Election, each political candidate explained their policies, but it seemed like more of an argument than a debate. It seemed most people watching were not persuaded to one side. Most people I know who watched it only watched it in support of one candidate. Each candidate spoke on topics they had already addressed leading up to the debate. There weren’t new statements to persuade voters to change their minds. Each candidate seemed to be addressing their supporters by loudly restating things their supporters knew the candidates already stood for. After the debate, the supporters of either party saw it as a fight and cheered on their favorite. In my humble opinion, Know-Nothingism is inevitable, but lots of people should have a boundary where they can catch themselves. Long-term, the lack of critiquing and logic could continue affecting the country greatly. The term supporter may have a blinder meaning. Imagine a world where people blindly follow political figures or leaders ‘just cause,’ it seems there’s nothing you could do to persuade them the danger in that unless they see it themselves.
Do you value truth and honesty, even though our "leaders" increasingly do not?
Truth and honesty are very important to me. While some leaders do not see the importance of truth, others do. It’s something you have to decide for yourself, regardless of who does value it or does not. Your life becomes simpler when you do not constantly have to think, to remember, “what did I say this was” instead of knowing what something was or how something happened honestly.
Do you possess a loyalty and sense of belonging to "a greater whole"? What community/-ties do you consider inseparable from your own sense of self? 169
Yes, I do possess a loyalty to a higher power and sense of belonging to the universe as a whole. I consider all people connected to one another by a creator. Each person has a sense of self by their thoughts and the decisions they make.
I agree with your first point, after looking at the election debate, it did seem like it was not persuasive, but just catering to the party they were arguing for.
DeleteHO3
ReplyDeleteDo you find it odd, charming, or just normal that so many childless adults, like Peter Pan, don't want to grow up-and keep going to Disneyland?
I don't think they're hurting anybody, so I don't think it's too odd, but I do see how those people may be holding onto their childhood and refusing to grow up. However, I know lots of childless adults that go to Disneyland just to drink and ride rides, so not everything there is coded for children. I know my parents both still love it, but they never got to go as kids, and went for the first time in their thirties. They aren't stuck in their childhoods and refusing to grow up, but it might be a way to fulfill the childhood they wanted, not the one they got.
Should college students be required OR encouraged to devote a year or two to public service immediately after graduation?
I don't think anyone should volunteer that doesn't want to. Helpers without hearts shouldn't be serving, because they don't really want to. We should instead try to build people in a way that they WANT to help others. Also, not everyone has the financial situation to allow this.
Is religious missionary fieldwork inherently hypocritical? How can missionaries avoid hypocrisy?
I think there's easy ways to avoid this, as someone who's been on mission trips before and hates feeling overbearing. If you go and serve and do good in the world, eventually someone will ask why, then missionaries can explain their beliefs if the person is interested. Sometimes people are just curious what would make a person voluntarily spend a summer building homes and schools, so that's the time to explain. Going into missionary work with the mindset of "I'm going to Christianize all these people" is never the way to start.
I agree with your second point, forcing people to do service won't improve them as a person, but living by virtue around each other, is more likely rub off one each other, to create a virtuous society.
DeleteShould college students be required OR encouraged to devote a year or two to public service immediately after graduation?
ReplyDeleteI would say anyone who doesn't want to partake in this shouldn't be forced because they have the wrong mindset and wrong things at heart. Serving is something that comes from the good of the heart so if people are miserable about it, the intentions are completely altered.
Is meat-eating ethically defensible?
Yes because from the perspective of humans as animals, we are omnivores, meaning we eat both animals and plants. Meat is naturally supposed to be a part of our diet because we get fats and proteins from other animals.
Will Artificial Intelligence surpass human intelligence, or has it already? Is this something we should worry about?
I honestly don't know the answer to this. I feel like in some cases yes but in others no. I think it should be something to worry about because technology is so advanced that it has become a tool for manipulation and false information. But then again, there are people behind the algorithms and technical aspects that create these contraptions, so I think it's important to understand that human intelligence affects the way A.I. can perform.
H03
I do not think college students should be required to devote a year to public service. If they wanted to do it they would volunteer on their spare time to centers. If they were forced to they wouldn't be doing it because they actually care and they probably wouldn't take it seriously in any way.
Delete[ HANNAH LITVJAK : H2 ]
ReplyDelete(1) What can we do to restore a public/political commitment to facts, reality, and truth?
I think what our society misses constantly is having perspective for all aspects of a problem. Corruption is also integrated within many departments of many Governments, where there is a vast imbalance between citizen and Government. By taking back some power is by having political news channels refrain from opinions and provide directly-sourced facts and have multiple political sides present when it is appropriate to give insight. Division needs to stop.
(2) Do you value truth and honesty, even though our "leaders" increasingly do not?
Absolutely. Our leaders control more and more aspects of our lives, so keeping our eyes and minds open, and to not criminalize those who think differently from us or blindly follow politicians because they are "red" or "blue". Also, too many times I have seen news channels become increasingly opinionated or do not show or even misrepresent events, quotes or situations.
(3) Is religious missionary fieldwork inherently hypocritical? How can missionaries avoid hypocrisy?
At heart, it is not. However, there is some matter of exploitation with SOME missionaries; I don't really think indigenous peoples want to have their or their children's picture taken to be posted on Instagram with some pretentious caption of feeling "one" with indigenous people or "humbled". It is a thin line of hypocrisy and not. Being sincere about missionary work means to respect other people's beliefs, traditions and religion. You can be a missionary, preach with permission and help the community without exploiting, harming or bringing about a false narrative back at home. Again, it's not inherently hypocritical, but it has hypocritical narratives to it.
I will always value truth and honesty. I believe those are some of the best qualities someone can have and be a genuine person!
Delete1. What did John Rawls call the thought experiment he believed would yield fair and just principles, and what was its primary device?
ReplyDeleteThe Original Position and The veil of ignorance. The veil of ignorance causes you not to know where you'll end up, so Rawls developed his theory of justice.
2. Under what circumstances would Rawls' theory permit huge inequalities of wealth between people?
The inequality is only allowed if it directly helps the worst off.
3. What was the Imitation Game, and who devised a thought experiment to oppose it? The imitiation game was devised by Alan Turing (also called the Turing Test for Artificial Intelligence). This determines whether or not something/someone is intelligent. A tester is in a room typing a conversation on a screen. If the tester cannot determine whether the responses are coming from a computer or a person the computer wins. The computer is intelligent in the same way a human is.
4. What, according to Searle, is involved in truly understanding something?
Getting semantics from words.
H01
ReplyDeleteIs "maybe" the best answer to the question of life's being worth living?
I can see why people would say maybe, since it's hard to explain if life is worth living, but i think with more optimism, people will see why life and would we are able to experience is valuable.
Will Artificial Intelligence surpass human intelligence, or has it already? Is this something we should worry about?
I think it will eventually, it is already smarter than us in terms of information, but I feel like a while from now, science will progress and computers will be able to be programmed to feel emotions and have their own consciousness.
In what sense are we "better off" in a society that allows huge income discrepancies between the least and best well-off?
I don't think we are better off, but I think that a person's duty to society should be trying to be less greedy and selfish, and think about others. It doesn't have to be extreme, but it would solve a lot of problems.
H01 Barnes
ReplyDeleteDiscussion Question:
With the argument of everyone has the right to life, why is it ok to take the life of a person who is connected to you with no consent and not ok to perform an abortion with a fetus who formed with no consent?
Does anyone have the right to step in and intervene a situation leading to death of one or more people, or should we stand aside and watch the events unfold? Would you be the person to save five people at the cost of one or claim to not play God and watch as five died but could have been saved?
https://mtmailmtsu-my.sharepoint.com/:p:/g/personal/clb2cv_mtmail_mtsu_edu/Ec4VutYsrSFMqJfUfnm2Y9gBGLBMaqlrN3tCA4FVjtOGKg?e=VYhFUM
h2
ReplyDeleteIs "maybe" the best answer to the question of life's being worth living?
Personally, I would like to think “yes” is a more appropriate answer to the question because life is such a precious and valuable thing that everyone is worth living. However, my mind came to this decision because I tend to consider a more optimistic approach to most topics. I believe this answer ultimately depends on the specific individual. For instance, some people have a more pessimistic or nihilistic approach when pertaining to life, so for them, life may be considered meaningless.
What is the point of preserving the memory and legacy of our ancestors? Do you hope to be similarly "preserved" by our descendants?
The preservation of memories and legacies of our ancestors encourages and motivates us to hold onto our culture and heritage. Without it, various aspects and pieces of history would be forgotten or completely neglected. Furthermore, it could possibly teach us how to avoid future tragedies because we have access to past experiences of others. Although I do not expect to be similarly preserved by my descendants, I would not oppose the idea.
Do you value truth and honesty, even though our "leaders" increasingly do not?
I value truth and honest heavily in my life. A prominent reason why I participate little in political discussions and news is because our leaders do not always uphold these ethics which just contributes to why I hold truth and honesty to such high regards. Bias or misrepresentative news outlets and reports may be discouraging or upsetting, but that is why people must always remember their values.