Rawls, Turing & Searle, Singer-LH 38-40, FL 29-30, WGU -p.79.
LH
1. What did John Rawls call the thought experiment he believed would yield fair and just principles, and what was its primary device?
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 stranger
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:- 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
Kayla Pulling #7
ReplyDeleteLH
4. "mental states with what philosophers call "intentionality"
6. significant portions of one's wealth
7. his work in applied ethics and utilitarianism
1. It was called ‘The Original Position.’ It’s primary idea was “design a better society not knowing where you will be in that society.”
ReplyDelete2. It would allow huge wealth inequalities if the difference was still helping the worst off. The book uses the example of a banker getting paid 10,000x more than the lowest paid worker because this would result in the lowest paid worker still being paid well than if it was any less.
3. It’s a test that all computers have to pass. Someone that doesn’t know if they are having a conversation with another human or with a computer says which they think it was, and if they say human but it was the computer, then the computer passes. John Searle made his Chinese Room experiment to oppose it.
4. He thought understanding was more than just giving right answers. “You can’t get semantics from syntax alone.”
5. By using computers to map out functional connections in our brains.
6. He says we should sacrifice a few luxuries to help the less fortunate.
7. He first became famous because of his books about the treatment of animals.
8. By constantly challenging widely held views.
Laney #11
Ariana Arenas #11
ReplyDelete1. 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, and to design a better society without knowing what position in that society you will be in
2. Under what circumstances would Rawls' theory permit huge inequalities of wealth between people?
The difference principle
3. What was the Imitation Game, and who devised a thought experiment to oppose it?
- It is a test that computers have to pass , and Searle opposed it.
4. What, according to Searle, is involved in truly understanding something?
- He believed understanding went beyond just giving the right answer.
5. How do some philosophers think we might use computers to achieve immortality?
- "Then perhaps one day it will be possible to transfer minds from people’s brains into computers."
6. What does Peter Singer say we should sacrifice, to help stranger
- "So we should give up one or two of the luxuries that we don’t really need in order to help people who are unfortunate."
7. Why did Singer first become famous?
- He became famous because of his influential books over the treatment of animals .
8. How does Singer represent the best tradition in philosophy?
- He is constantly challenging widely held assumptions.