LH
1. What did John Rawls call the thought experiment he believed would yield fair and just principles, and what was its primary device?
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?
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?
Susan Neiman, Why Grow Up? Subversive Thoughts for an Infantile Age (WGU -p.35)
1. Being grown-up is widely considered to be what?
2. Why did Kant say we choose immaturity?
3. Why is judgement important?
4. What is "the most pernicious bit of idealization"?
5. What is philosophy's greatest task?
FL
1. What changed for pro wrestling in the 1980s?
2. What happened in the 1980s to make dressing up for Halloween a "thing"?
3. What former child star had a ranch called Neverland in middle age?
4. How did the advent of home video, cable, and the Internet make adults more childlike?
Discussion Questions:WGU
- Do you think of growing up as "a matter of renouncing your hopes and dreams"? 1
- Do you like the "well-meaning Uncle's" advice? Or the Rolling Stones'? 4
- Is Kant right, in "What is Enlightenment?," about why people "choose immaturity"? 5
- If distractions, especially "since the invention of cyberspace," are "literally limitless," is Enlightenment in Kant's sense a realistic goal for most people? 9
- Do you agree that it takes courage to think for yourself? 11
- Is travel necessary for growing up? 13-16
- Is Larry Summers wrong about language-learning? 16
- Do you believe the best time of life is between the ages of 18 and 28? 20
- How innocent should childhood be? What do you think of the way French children were raised in the 17th century? 24
- Do you wish you'd had a Samoan childhood? Do you think tests in school prepare you for life? 27
- Is it bad to be "WEIRD" (In the sense of the acronym)? 32
- COMMENT?: "...the important decisions are made by others we cannot even name. Or did you choose a world in which oil companies profit from wrecking the planet? Women are stoned for adultery or murdered for going to school? Children die of easily preventable diseases or are collaterally damaged by drones? Do your choices make a difference to any of these?" 34
==
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 »
Section #9
ReplyDeleteLH
1. John Rawls though experiment was called The Original Position, and its primary device is choosing a perfect society where you don't know what position you would be in it.
2. Wealth inequality is only allowed if a poor person would be richer if a rich person was richer. If a rich person would be poorer if a rich person was poorer, that would be unjust.
3. The imitation game is a test to see if a computer can fool a person into thinking they are talking to another person and is therefore intelligent. John Searle's thought experiment opposed it.
4. Semantics are important to true understanding.
5. Some philosophers think that we can achieve immortality by uploading our brains as computer programs.
Rieley Mitchell Section 9
ReplyDeleteDo you think of growing up as "a matter of renouncing your hopes and dreams"? 1
No, I believe as people age they don't give up their hopes and dreams, they just become more realistic. Although I may not want a unicorn or to be an astronaut, I still have plenty of hopes and dreams.
Do you like the "well-meaning Uncle's" advice? Or the Rolling Stones'? 4
I believe the "well-meaning uncle's" advice is very well put. To enjoy life you need to realize that although life isn't rainbows and butterflies, it isn't as bad as you though when you were 13 and emo. I would much rather listen to some rolling stones than read philosophy even though it may not be as scholarly.
Is Kant right, in "What is Enlightenment?," about why people "choose immaturity"? 5
I don't agree with Kant about why people choose immaturity. I don't believe people choose immaturity because they are lazy or scared because you can be immature while being hardworking or courageous. I think people choose immaturity to make life seem less boring and to spark a little bit of joy in the mundane.
If distractions, especially "since the invention of cyberspace," are "literally limitless," is Enlightenment in Kant's sense a realistic goal for most people? 9
Kant's enlightenment is extremely unrealistic today. There is no way to not be led by authorities when they are telling us everything they want us to know in the form of bright colored apps while distracting us from things we do not want to think about.
LH
ReplyDelete1. Rawls called it the “The Original Position.” The primary device was to design a better society without knowing your position.
2. Rawls thought that those that were gifted or intelligent should not be paid more because Rawls did not see the connection of being good at something and deserving more.
3. It is known as the Turing test for artificial intelligence and was originally called the Imitation Game. John Searle made a thought experiment that opposed it.
4. Semantics is involved.
5. Some philosophers think that we could upload our minds/brains to computers.
7. Singer had influential books about the treatment of animals.
8. Singer challenges widely held assumptions. Singer also supports his conclusions with reasonable arguments and facts.
Section 6.
FL
Delete1. Cable TV programming arrived.
2. Live action role-playing, also known as LARP, took off and lets people act out stories in the real world.
3. Michael Jackson had a ranch called Neverland.
4. Jackson wanted to look younger and other people turned to cosmetic surgery to look more like those seen on home videos, cables, and the Internet.
Section 6.
Section 6
ReplyDeleteWGU
1. Being grown-up is widely considered to be what? Being grown-up is widely considered to be a matter of renouncing your hopes and dreams, accepting the limits of the reality you are given, and resigning yourself to a life that will be less adventurous, worthwhile and significant than you supposed when you began it.
2. Why did Kant say we choose immaturity? We choose immaturity because we are lazy and scared: how much more comfortable it is to let someone else make your decisions!
3. Why is judgement important? Judgement is important because none of the answers to the questions that really move us can be found by following a rule.
4. What is "the most pernicious bit of idealization"? The most pernicious bit of idealization is the very widespread view that the best time of one’s life is the decade between sixteen and twenty-six, when young men’s muscles and young women’s skin are at their most blooming.
5. What is philosophy's greatest task? Philosophy’s greatest task is to enlarge our sense of possibility.
LH
Delete1. What did John Rawls call the thought experiment he believed would yield fair and just principles, and what was its primary device? The Original Position’ – that plays down some of the selfish biases we all have. In his case to investigate the nature of justice and the best principles for organizing society.
2. Under what circumstances would Rawls' theory permit huge inequalities of wealth between people? Rawls thought that those that were gifted or intelligent should not be paid more because Rawls did not see the connection of being good at something and deserving more.
3. What was the Imitation Game, and who devised a thought experiment to oppose it? This
has come to be known as the Turing Test for artificial intelligence but he originally called it the Imitation Game. John Searle made a thought experiment that opposed it.
4. What, according to Searle, is involved in truly understanding something? Semantics is involved
5. How do some philosophers think we might use computers to achieve immortality? They believe they can transfer minds from people’s brains into computers.
6. What does Peter Singer say we should sacrifice, to help strangers? we should give up one or two of the luxuries that we don’t really need in order to help people who are unfortunate about where they were born.
7. Why did Singer first become famous? Singer had influential books about the treatment of animals.
8. How does Singer represent the best tradition in philosophy? Singer challenged several widely held views.
Section 6
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMidterm Report Summary
ReplyDeletePragmatism is a philosophical tradition that revolves around logic and belief. The founders of pragmatism include John Dewey, Charles Peirce, and William James. William James popularized his pragmatic theory through research, lectures, and writings. His view of pragmatism slightly differed from the other founders. James believed it was important for us to understand how much we didn’t know, and pushed acknowledging other perspectives in order to get to the truth.
William James represented pragmatism as anything through experimentation and consequences could have it’s meaning revealed. He connects this with religion as he researched the existence of God and the nature and the nature of our souls. One of William James writings, The Will to Believe, justifies faith and religion and reflects on how he believed consequences would reveal the meaning of things. His main idea was that when we do not know what to believe, or have enough evidence on why we should believe something, we still have to make a choice.
William James influenced the way new philosophers were thinking and became the center of new life for philosophy. He focused his lectures on how things work and believed that his pragmatic theory could be applied to anything real. One visible trait that James believed was that change and chance changes every being and alters every ideal. Pragmatism is the approach that evaluates the truth and our belief. James viewed that our belief in something that is already deemed credible, is considered faith. Again this represents his emphasis on pragmatism in religion.
Discussion Questions
Do you consider your belief or lack of belief credible or not credible?
Do you believe that things must be proven to be true, or is faith and belief enough?