Sycamore Gap tree at Hadrian's Wall cut down by 'vandals' - BBC News

Sadly symbolic of the Anthropocene

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-66947040

"SAD" 2.0

"Back in my day" it meant Seasonal Affective Disorder. Same therapy applies (at least for me)...

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A post shared by Phil Oliver (@osopher)

Afterlife

What's the point?

 https://www.instagram.com/p/CxxuA2uuIHV/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igshid=ZGUzMzM3NWJiOQ==

Confucius

Today we celebrate the birthday of the teacher, philosopher, and political theorist popularly known as Confucius, born near what is now Qufu, in Shandong Province, China, in 551 BCE.

Not a lot is known about Confucius's childhood. He was probably a member of an aristocratic family that had lost its wealth, because he was born in poverty. His father died when Confucius was three years old, and his mother took charge of his education. The boy had a real thirst for knowledge, and asked many questions wherever he went. He took some minor government jobs when he was a teenager, but also made an effort to seek out knowledgeable masters to instruct him in the six arts: ritual, music, archery, chariot driving, calligraphy, and arithmetic. He began to turn his thoughts to practical questions of morality and ethics.

As a young man, he traveled widely throughout China, meeting with leaders of the various provinces and trying to impress upon them the importance of self-discipline and virtue. He didn't approve of what he saw as the moral decline of China after years of political unrest. He also believed that there was a connection between the personal and the universal, and that poor political decisions could lead to natural disasters like floods. At one point in his travels, he was imprisoned for five days due to a case of mistaken identity. He didn't let it ruffle his feathers, though, and reportedly sat calmly playing his lute while the muddle was sorted out.

In his 30s, he returned home and started a school that was open to rich and poor alike. Teaching was a way of life to him, not just a career. His teaching philosophy was revolutionary: rather than simply training apprentices in particular skills, education could and should be used for the welfare and improvement of society. He felt obligated to bring back an emphasis on humility, compassion, and tradition, to encourage people to exercise self-discipline, and to always act on the principle of "ren," or "loving others." "What you do not wish for yourself," he wrote, "do not do to others." He hoped that his students would carry these principles with them into positions with the government, and thereby form a generation of leaders who would set a virtuous example for the people of China. He also began to write, including two books of poetry — the Book of Odes and the Book of Documents. None of his books contained his philosophy, however; what we know about Confucianism today is what was passed down to his many students.

Confucius died in 479 BCE, but his stature continued to grow after his death. By the second century BCE, Confucianism formed the basis for China's state ideology, and he is considered one of the most influential minds in Chinese history. His birthday is an official holiday in Taiwan, where it is celebrated as Teachers' Day. His writings were first translated into English by James Legge in 1867, and a more readable translation was published by Oxford University in 1907.

Confucius wrote: "There are three things which the wise man holds in reverence: the Will of Heaven, those in authority, and the words of the sages. The fool knows not the Will of Heaven and holds it not in reverence: he is disrespectful to those in authority; he ridicules the words of the sages."

And: "He who does not understand the Will of God can never be a man of the higher type. He who does not understand the inner law of self-control can never stand firm. He who does not understand the force of words can never know his fellow-men."

https://www.writersalmanac.org/index.html%3Fp=10732.html

Spinoza’s God: a convenient deity

"Perhaps the most famous self-proclaimed disciple of Spinoza in the twentieth century was Einstein, who, when asked by a rabbi whether or not he believed in God, replied, "I believe in Spinoza's God, who reveals himself in the harmony of all being, not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and actions of men." Einstein was probably just being diplomatic when he answered the rabbi. Spinoza's God is, after all, a convenient deity for those who might more accurately be described as non-religious. The "religion" of Spinozism is in fact rather close to modern secularism. It insists that morality has nothing to do with the commands of a supremely powerful being, and that it does not require a priesthood or the threat of an unpleasant afterlife to sustain it. It rejects the idea of a personal God who created, cares about and occasionally even tinkers with the world. It dismisses the notion of the supernatural, and regards religious ceremonies as merely comforting or inspiring, if you like that sort of thing. It advocates freedom of thought in religious matters... And it places its faith in knowledge and understanding—rather than in faith itself—both to improve the circumstances of human life and to make that life more satisfying. The poet Heine, writing in the 1830s, seems to have glimpsed how far ahead of his times Spinoza was in this respect: "There is in Spinoza's writings a certain inexplicable atmosphere, as though one could feel a breeze of the future. Perhaps the spirit of the Hebrew prophets still rested on their late descendant." What would this "God-intoxicated" man have made of his own intellectual descendants? They include many people who openly profess atheism, and even though atheism now carries no stigma in economically developed countries except the United States, it is hard to imagine Spinoza being altogether happy to embrace it. What were for him the most important qualities among those traditionally attributed to God are, in his philosophy, qualities of the universe itself. God is not fictitious; He is all around us. Spinoza's God is admittedly so different from anyone else's that a case can be made for saying that he was an atheist without realising it; but it does appear that he believed that he believed in God. It is sometimes said that the birth of Judaism constituted an intellectual advance over most earlier religions because it reduced a panoply of gods to the one God of monotheism. On this way of thinking, Spinoza may be considered to have continued the work of his distant Hebrew ancestors by performing a further subtraction of the same sort, and reducing the duo of God and world to one."

— The Dream of Enlightenment: The Rise of Modern Philosophy by Anthony Gottlieb

Philosophy Tutor

 The tutor for this year is Elle Robinson. Her email address, should you need to contact her, is:

      ljr3s@mtmail.mtsu.edu ...

Her hours will be Monday, Wednesday, Thursday from 5:30 pm until 6:40 pm, beginning this week. She will offer tutoring in the library... 

The last tutoring session for the semester will be 7 December 2023. No tutoring will be offered during either Fall Break or Thanksgiving Break...

And don't forget 

THE WRITING CENTER: https://www.mtsu.edu/writing-center/ 

And, your personal librarian Rachel Kirk: rakirk@mtsu.edu

Questions SEP 28

 LHP

1. How did Samuel Johnson "refute" Berkeley's theory? Did he succeed? Why or why not?

2. What made Berkeley an idealist, and an immaterialist? Are you one, the other, both, neither?

3. In what way did Berkeley claim to be more consistent than Locke? DId Berkeley have a point about that?

4. What was Berkeley's Latin slogan? Do you think existence depends upon being perceived?

5. What obvious difficulty does Berkeley's theory face? Is it possible to have ideas that are consistent (non-contradictory) but still about non-realities?

6. What English poet declared that "whatever is, is right," and what German philosopher (with his "Principle of Sufficient Reason") agreed with the poet? Does this imply that nothing is ever wrong or bad? Is it really possible or reasonable to believe this?

7. What French champion of free speech and religious toleration wrote a satirical novel/play ridiculing the idea that everything is right (for the best)? 

8. What 1755 catastrophe deeply influenced Voltaire's philosophy? Do you have a philosophical perspective on natural catastrophes that makes rational and moral sense of them?

9. What did Voltaire mean by "cultivating our garden"? Do you agree with hin?

10. Did Hume think the human eye is so flawless in its patterned intricacy that, like Paley's watch, it constitutes powerful evidence of intelligent design? Why would an omnipotent designer design a flawed organ?

11. What was Hume's definition of "miracle"? Did he think we should usually believe others' reports of having witnessed a miracle? Where would you draw the line between events that are highly improbable and events that are impossible (according to known laws)?

12. Rousseau said we're born free but everywhere are in ____, but can liberate ourselves by submitting to what is best for the whole community, aka the _______. Are we all more free when we act not only for ourselves but for the good of the whole community (world, species)?

HWT

1. In what way was the idea of a separable soul a "corruption"? What French philosopher of the 17th century defended it? What Scottish skeptic of the 18th century disputed it?

2. What do Owen Flanagan's findings suggest, that contrasts with Aristotle's view of human nature?

3. If you ask an American and a Japanese about their occupation, how might they respond differently?

FL

1. What amazing theme park was erected in Brooklyn at the turn of the 20th century?

2. Who was Robert Love Taylor?

3. What was Birth of a Nation?

4. What did H.L. Mencken say about southerners?

5. What did The New Theology say about the supernatural?

6. How did Modernists reconcile science and religion?

7. What famous trial was held in Tennessee in 1925, and what did Clarence Darrow say about it, and what was its cultural impact?

 

Feb 17

Tennessee, on the cutting edge…

of anti-democracy in America.

"…Tennessee shows what gerrymandering does at the state level. There, Republicans tend to get about 60% of the votes but control 76% of the seats in the House and 82% of the seats in the Senate. This supermajority means that the Republicans can legislate as they wish.

Gerrymandered seats mean that politicians do not have to answer to constituents; their purpose is to raise money and fire up true believers. Although more than 70% of Tennessee residents want gun safety legislation, for example, Republican legislators, who are certain to win in their gerrymandered districts, can safely ignore them.

Tennessee shows the effects of gerrymandering at the national level as well. Although Republican congressional candidates in Tennessee get about 65% of the vote, they control 89% of Tennessee's congressional delegation. In the elections of 2022, Florida, Alabama, and Ohio all used maps that courts have thrown out for having rigged the system to favor Republicans. The use of those unfair maps highlights that the Republicans took control of the House of Representatives by only the slimmest of margins and explains why Republicans are determined to keep their gerrymanders.
Because their seats are safe, Republicans do not have to send particularly skilled politicians to Congress; they can send those whose roles are to raise money and push Republican ideology. That likely explains at least a part of why House Republicans are no closer to agreeing on a deal to fund the government than they have been for the past several months, even as the deadline is racing toward us, and why they are instead going to hold an impeachment hearing concerning President Joe Biden on Thursday..."

https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/september-25-2023?r=35ogp&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

Walking like a Stoic

"…Get into the habit of examining your own mind and the world around you while walking in deep philosophical contemplation, Epictetus says, so that you may come to know who you really are, rather than losing yourself in society, among the chatter of other people's voices."

https://open.substack.com/pub/donaldrobertson/p/how-to-walk-like-a-stoic-e1a41c8d5af0?r=35ogp&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

Questions SEP 26

 LHP

1. Spinoza's view, that God and nature (or the universe) are the same thing, is called _______. What do you think of that view?

2. If god is _____, there cannot be anything that is not god; if _____, god is indifferent to human beings. Is that how you think about god?

3. Spinoza was a determinist, holding that _____ is an illusion. Do you think it is possible (and consistent) to choose to be a determinist?

4. According to John Locke, all our knowledge comes from _____; hence, the mind of a newborn is a ______.  If Locke's right, what do you think accounts for our ability to learn from our experiences?


5. Locke said _____ continuity establishes personal identity (bodily, psychological); Thomas Reid said identity relies on ______ memories, not total recall. How do you think you know that you're the same person now that you were at age 3 (for example)? If you forget much of your earlier life in old age, what reassures you that you'll still be you?

6. Locke's articulation of what natural rights influenced the U.S. Constitution? Do you think it matters if we say such rights are discovered rather than invented?

HWT
1. What are atman and anatta, and what classical western idea do they both contradict?

2. What was John Locke's concept of self or soul? What makes you you?

3. Shunning rigid essentialized identities, younger people increasingly believe what?

4. What cultural stereotype did Baggini find inaccurate when he went to Japan?

5. What important distinction did Nishida Kitaro draw?

6. What point about individuality did Monty Python make?

7. What is ubuntu?

FL

1. Who wrote a memoir of life on the Kentucky frontier that turned him into a "real-life superhero"? (He's in my family tree, btw.)

2. Who built a cabin by a lake, moved in on the 4th of July, and epitomized a perennial American pastoral fantasy? What do you think he'd say about modern suburbia?

3. What did The New York Sun announce in a week-long "news" story in 1835? Who believed it?

4. Who was P.T. Barnum, and what was his fundamental Fantasyland mindset?

5. Whose touring play marked what key milestone in America's national evolution?

6. Who was Aunt Jemima?

Feb15

 Irvin Yalom's novel The Spinoza Problem suggests that Epicurus's view of the gods as real but distant was "bold, but not foolhardy"... and that it presaged Spinoza's pantheism. 

 

"I believe in Spinoza's God..." --Albert Einstein, as reported in the New York Times April 1929...

It's okay...

to live a simple life. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cwuxn_PIriz/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igshid=ZGUzMzM3NWJiOQ==

Don't Hesitate

More Cousin Mary-
http://www.wordslikethis.com.au/dont-hesitate/

Questions Sep 21

Meeting today (Sep 21) in the Library, go directly there.

1. What state of mind, belief, or knowledge was Descartes' Method of Doubt supposed to establish? OR, What did Descartes seek that Pyrrho spurned? Was his approach more sensible than Pyrrho's? Do you think it's possible to achieve the state of mind Descartes sought?

2. Did Descartes claim to know (at the outset of his "meditations") that he was not dreaming? Do you ever think you might be?

3. What strange and mythic specter did Gilbert Ryle compare to Descartes' dualism of mind and body? ("The ____ in the ______.") Does that specter seem strange or silly to you?

4. Pascal's best-known book is _____.  Do you like his aphoristic style?

5. Pascal's argument for believing in God is called ________.  Do you find it persuasive or appealing?

6. Pascal thought if you gamble on God and lose, "you lose ______." Do you agree?

7. (T/F) By limiting his "wager" to a choice between either Christian theism or atheism, says Nigel Warburton, Pascal excludes too many other possible bets. Is that right?

(See Montaigne questions below*)

HWT

1. What familiar western distinction is not commonly drawn in Islamic thought? 

2. According to Sankara, the appearance of plurality is misleading. Everything is ____.

3. The Islamic concept of unity rules out what key western Enlightenment value, and offers little prospect of adopting modern views on what?

4. What Calvinist-sounding doctrine features heavily in Islamic thought?

5. What deep philosophical assumption, expressed by what phrase, has informed western philosophy for centuries? To what concept did Harry Frankfurt apply it?

* BONUS QUESTIONS 

Also recommended: (How to Live, ch1); LISTEN Sarah Bakewell on Michel de Montaigne (PB); A.C. Grayling on Descartes' Cogito (PB); WATCH Montaigne(SoL); Descartes (HI)

• Sarah Bakewell says Montaigne's first answer to the question "How to live?" is: "Don't worry about _____."
• What was Montaigne's "near death experience," and what did it teach him?
• Montaigne said "my mind will not budge unless _____."
• What pragmatic American philosopher was Descartes' "most practical critic"?
• (T/F) A.C. Grayling thinks that, because Descartes was so wrong about consciousness and the mind-body problem, he cannot be considered a historically-important philosopher.
• What skeptical slogan did Montaigne inscribe on the ceiling of his study?

FL

1. Conspiratorial explanations attempt to make what kinds of connections?

2. What was the Freemasons' grand secret, according to Franklin?

3. What conspiracy did Abe Lincoln allege in his famous "House Divided" speech in 1858?

4. Why did many northerners think the Civil War went badly for them early on?

5. What did the narrator of a popular 1832 work of fiction say about the slaves?

Feb 10 

==

Will machines ever say "I think, therefore I am"?

Something to consider when we talk about Descartes... 

We had a serious and sober conversation in Environmental Ethics yesterday about the difference between living longer vs. living better, between a life of many years vs. a life of completion and earned satisfaction. I was encouraged by the maturity and wisdom of the young people in the room, whose acceptance of mortality stands in striking contrast to that of futurologist/transhumanist Raymond Kurzweil. 

Ray's the guy who pioneered optical character recognition (OCR), text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology etc., and then went to work for Google to help Larry and Sergei figure out how to conquer aging and the biological restrictions of mortal life. He's the very antithesis, in this regard, of Wendell Berry.

I first became aware of Ray when I read his The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence, which audaciously and (we should see now) prematurely, if not ludicrously, predicted that we'd have self-conscious machines "before 2030"... We'll talk about this in CoPhi soon, when we turn to Descartes.

Descartes’s famous dictum “I think, therefore I am” has often been cited as emblematic of Western rationalism. This view interprets Descartes to mean “I think, that is, I can manipulate logic and symbols, therefore I am worthwhile.” But in my view, Descartes was not intending to extol the virtues of rational thought. He was troubled by what has become known as the mind-body problem, the paradox of how mind can arise from non-mind, how thoughts and feelings can arise from the ordinary matter of the brain. Pushing rational skepticism to its limits, his statement really means “I think, that is, there is an undeniable mental phenomenon, some awareness, occurring, therefore all we know for sure is that something—let’s call it I—exists.” Viewed in this way, there is less of a gap than is commonly thought between Descartes and Buddhist notions of consciousness as the primary reality. Before 2030, we will have machines proclaiming Descartes’s dictum. And it won’t seem like a programmed response. The machines will be earnest and convincing. Should we believe them when they claim to be conscious entities with their own volition?

Ask that again when they make that claim. If they do. 

At least Ray has inspired entertaining films like Her, Ex Machina, Transcendence...

But his desperate quest to "live long enough to live forever"-- see the Wired Magazine feature story on Ray,wherein it was revealed that he'd daily been popping upwards of 200 pill supplements and downing oceans of green tea every day in hopes of beating the Reaper (lately he's cut back to just 90)-- really does look sad and shallow, alongside the mature view we've explored in The World-Ending Fire and that I was gratified to hear echoed by my fellow mortals in class yesterday.

==

The World Is Waiting to Be Discovered. Take a Walk.

…Study after study after study have proved what we feel, intuitively, in our gut: Walking is good for us. Beneficial for our joints and muscles; astute at relieving tension, reducing anxiety and depression; a boon to creativity, likely; slows the aging process, maybe; excellent at prying our screens from our face, definitely. Shane O'Mara, a professor of experimental brain research in Dublin, has called walking a "superpower," claiming that walking, and only walking, unlocks specific parts of our brains, places that bequeath happiness and health.

I have no beef with any of this, but I believe we have it backward. We are asking what we can get out of a walk, rather than what a walk can get out of us. This might seem like a small distinction, a matter of semantics. But when we begin to think of walking in terms of the latter, we change the way we navigate and experience — literally and figuratively — the world around us... nyt

Dogs

Spent Friday morning (& $600) at the vet's. They're worth it.

Pita & Nell

For my fellow dog people: Maira Kalman is one of us.

Cousin Mary too.

Dogs are great happiness therapists.

And they're self-accepting.

Vote!

"…Four days ago, Vice President Kamala Harris kicked off a month-long tour of college campuses to mobilize younger voters to "fight for our freedoms." Today is National Voter Registration Day, and in Reading, Pennsylvania, she noted that young people have spent their whole lives in the climate crisis, have seen the Supreme Court stop recognizing the constitutional right to abortion, and have spent their earlier years practicing active shooter drills. They are now stepping up to lead the country toward solutions.

Harris told a cheering, overflow audience at the Reading Area Community College that voting "determines whether the person who is holding elected office is going to fight for your freedoms and rights or not. Whether that be the freedom that you should have to just be free from attack, free from hate, free from gun violence, free from bias, free to love who you love and be open about it, free to have access to the ballot box without people obstructing your ability to exercise your civic right to vote, in terms of who will be the people holding elected office and leading your country."

The political power of young voters will be important in determining the outcome of the 2024 elections..."

https://open.substack.com/pub/heathercoxrichardson/p/september-19-2023?r=35ogp&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

Cosmic perspective

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cw2t6S8urx4/?igshid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==

“Life is a comedy”

Download Attachment

Available until Oct 18, 2023

Questions Sep 19

 1. What did Machiavelli say a leader needs to have? Do you agree? Is it important to you for our leaders to be reliably honest, with exceptions only for instances of national security and the nation's best interests? 

2. Machiavelli's philosophy is described as being "rooted" in what? Does your own experience confirm his appraisal of human nature and what's "realistic"?

3. The idea that leaders should rule by fear is based on what view of human nature? Do you respond more positively to politicians who appeal to pessimism and fear, or to those who appeal to hope?

4. Life outside society would be what, according to Hobbes? Do you think your neighbors would threaten your survival if they could get away with it? 

5. What fear influenced Hobbes' writings? Do any particular fears influence your political opinions?

6. Hobbes did not believe in the existence of what? Do you? Why or why not?

HWT
1. How do eastern and western philosophies differ in their approach to things, and what is ma? Which do you find more appealing?

2. An interest in what is much more developed in eastern thought? Do you share it?

3. What is dukkha?

4. What is Sakura?

5. What takes the place of religion in China? Do you know people here who have found religion-substitutes?

6. Chinese thought does not distinguish between natural and ____, focusing on what?

7. What is the famous story of Zhuangzi? What's your reaction to it?

8. The Japanese fascination with robots reflects what traditional view? Are you similarly fascinated?

FL

1. What was Arthur C. Clarke's 3d law regarding technology, and what's its converse?

2. What was the original "alternative medicine" and what is its "upside"?

3. What national craze of the 1830s relied on a "totally bogus extrapolation"?

4. Who was Mary Baker Eddy and what are her followers misleadingly called?

5. Who was Dr. William A. Rockefeller?

6. What did Mark Twain say about history?

7. How was the California Gold Rush an "inflection point" in how Americans thought about reality?

8. What did de Tocqueville say was "the chief or secondary motive in everything Americans do"?

Feb 8 

Niccolo Machiavelli (in From Humanism to Hobbes by Quentin Skinner)

 

Calvin sounds like (Thomas) Hobbes describing the state of nature. Hobbes (the tiger) behaves like Machiavelli's Prince. (And check out Hobbes, Machiavelli & others in Existential Comics...)

Thomas Hobbes (in "The Dream of Enlightenment" by Anthony Gottlieb)

Ken Burns: Being an American means...

Proud, but also aspirational...

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cw-UHcQtkpM/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igshid=ZGUzMzM3NWJiOQ==

Old Friends

Attended the 70th birthday party of an old friend last night, a native Minnesotan who fittingly read this poem to us in gratitude (which was mutual):

Old Friends

BY FREYA MANFRED

Old friends are a steady spring rain,

or late summer sunshine edging into fall,

or frosted leaves along a snowy path—

a voice for all seasons saying, I know you.

The older I grow, the more I fear I'll lose my old friends,

as if too many years have scrolled by

since the day we sprang forth, seeking each other.

 

Old friend, I knew you before we met.

I saw you at the window of my soul—

I heard you in the steady millstone of my heart

grinding grain for our daily bread.

You are sedimentary, rock-solid cousin earth,

where I stand firmly, astonished by your grace and truth.

And gratitude comes to me and says:

 

"Tell me anything and I will listen.

Ask me anything, and I will answer you."

Old friends really do compensate for most of the added aches and pains, and even the eventual subtraction of old friends.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/151351/old-friends

The simple meaning of life

https://www.instagram.com/p/CwxHh-DuAhc/?igshid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==

The art of paying attention

https://www.instagram.com/p/CxEUkKMMUff/?igshid=MTc4MmM1YmI2Ng==

Sadly, most people don’t know this…

Why novels are a richer experience than movies

Novels solve what philosophers call "the problem of other minds." It's the problem that we can never know for sure what a person is thinking, or, from a metaphysical perspective, if they even have a mind at all! We must infer, we must guess, we must speculate. Novels, however, take place in an imaginary world where the problem of other minds does not exist, where mental states, like rage or ennui, can be referred to as directly as one does tables and chairs. There's an entire academic field that highlights this, like Dorrit Cohn's Transparent Minds, published in 1978, in which she emphasizes that this is "the singular power possessed by the novelist: creator of beings whose inner lives he can reveal at will." Or as another scholar put it: "Novel reading is mind reading." … (Nautilus)

Massimo Pigliucci

https://open.substack.com/pub/figsinwinter/p/suggested-readings-530?r=35ogp&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

Questions Sep 14

 Augustine, Boethius, Anselm, Aquinas-LH 6-8. FL 9-10, HWT 9-10

 LH

1. How did Augustine "solve" the problem of evil in his younger days, and then after his conversion to Christianity? Why wasn't it such a problem for him originally?

2. What does Boethius not mention about himself in The Consolation of Philosophy?

3. Boethius' "recollection of ideas" can be traced back to what philosopher?

4. What uniquely self-validating idea did Anselm say we have?

5. Gaunilo criticized Anselm's reasoning using what example?

6. What was Aquinas' 2nd Way?

FL

1. How did Enlightenment values advance in America in the 19th century?

2. What fantasy about 1776 has been accepted as fact by Americans across the religious spectrum (and Ronald Reagan) ever since?

3. How was religion in America, unlike Europe, non-binary?

4. How did Thomas Jefferson characterize America's religious differences in the north and the south?

5. What happened in Cane Ridge, KY in 1801, and how did a Vanderbilt historian describe it?

6. Who was Charles Finney, and what did he understand about American Christianity?

7. What did de Tocqueville say was different about religion in America, compared to Europe?

8. Who was William Miller and what beliefs did he help revive?

9. Who was Joseph Smith and what is the most interesting thing about him?

HWT

1. What fundamental and non-western sense of time has underpinned much of human history?

2. What is "dreamtime" and how is it alien to the modern west?

3. The universalism of western universities implies that what is unimportant?

4. What does John Gray say about the idea of progress?

5. Karma originally concerned what, and lacked what connotations now commonly associated with it?

6. What western ideas have displaced karma, for many young Indians?

Discussion Questions

• [Add your own DQs]
• Would the existence of evil equivalent to good, without guarantees of tthe inevitable triiumph of the latter, solve the problem of suffering?
• Why do you think Boethius didn't write "The Consolation of Christianity"? 
• Do you think you have a clear idea of what it would mean for there to be an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-good supernatural being?
• Do you think knowledge is really a form of remembering or recollection? Have we just forgotten what we knew?
• Is there a difference between an uncaused cause (or unmoved mover) and a god?
• Which is the more plausible explanation of the extent of gratuitous suffering in the world, that God exists but is not more powerful than Satan, or that neither God nor Satan exists? Why?
• Are supernatural stories of faith, redemption, and salvation more comforting to you than the power of reason and evidence? Why or why not?
• What do you think of the Manichean idea that an "evil God created the earth and emtombed our souls in the prisons of our bodies"? (Dream of Reason 392)
• Do you agree with Augustine about "the main message of Christianity...that man needs a great deal of help"? (DR 395). If so, must "help" take the form of supernatural salvation? If not, what do you think the message is? What kind of help do we need?
• What do you think of Boethius' proposed solution to the puzzle of free will, that from a divine point of view there's no difference between past, present, and future? 402
• Did Russell "demolish" Anselm's ontological argument? (See below)
• COMMENT: “The world is so exquisite with so much love and moral depth, that there is no reason to deceive ourselves with pretty stories for which there's little good evidence. Far better it seems to me, in our vulnerability, is to look death in the eye and to be grateful every day for the brief but magnificent opportunity that life provides.” Carl Sagan
• COMMENT: “Science is not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we recognize our place in an immensity of light‐years and in the passage of ages, when we grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual. So are our emotions in the presence of great art or music or literature, or acts of exemplary selfless courage such as those of Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. The notion that science and spirituality are somehow mutually exclusive does a disservice to both.”  Carl Sagan
• If you were falsely imprisoned, tortured, and scheduled for execution, would you be able to achieve "consolation"? How?
• Can the definition of a word prove anything about the world?
• Is theoretical simplicity always better, even if the universe is complex?
• Does the possibility of other worlds somehow diminish humanity? 
• How does the definition of God as omniscient, omnipotent, and perfectly good make it harder to account for evil and suffering in the world? Would it be better to believe in a lesser god, or no god at all?
• Can you explain the concept of Original Sin? Do you think you understand it?
• Is it better to embrace (or renounce) religious faith early in life, or to "sow your wild oats" and enjoy a wide experience of the world before committing to any particular tradition or belief? Were you encouraged by adults, in childhood, to make a public profession of faith? If so, did you understand what that meant or entailed?
• Does the concept of a never-ending struggle between good and evil appeal to you? Does it make sense, in the light of whatever else you believe? Would there be anything "wrong" with a world in which good was already triumphant, happiness for all already secured, kindness and compassion unrivaled by hatred and cruelty?
• Do you find the concept of Original Sin compelling, difficult, unfair, or dubious? In general, do we "inherit the sins of our fathers (and mothers)"? If yes, give examples and explain.
• What kinds of present-day McCarthyism can you see? Is socialism the new communism? How are alternate political philosophies discouraged in America, and where would you place yourself on the spectrum?
• Andersen notes that since WWII "mainline" Christian denominations were peaking (and, as evidence shows, are now declining). What do you think about this when you consider the visible political power of other evangelical denominations? Are you a part of a mainline traditon? If so, how would you explain this shift?

Feb 3

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If our brains seem to be a step ahead of our minds, does that mean we do not possess free will?

 

Are all our actions inevitable? (Don't confuse that with ineffable.)

 

Is belief in free will better for some of us, while belief in determinism is better advised for others?

 

"Liberty consists in doing what one desires." — John Stuart Mill (But what if you always desire to do what nature has determined that you'll do? Is liberty the same as free will, if you couldn't have done otherwise... whether or not you desired to? What if you were a domino in one of those elaborately-prepared configurations, and you desired nothing more of life than to topple elegantly when your time came? Should we call you free?

The first sin that Augustine remembers doing was as a child stealing pears, just to steal them. That is, it was the crime itself that made him want to do it, he didn't even want the pears, he just wanted to sin. It was his "original sin" in a sense, and he always felt most guilty about it.

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Aquinas...

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I share these provocative cartoons not in hostility to religion, but because they reflect genuine puzzlements some of us have regarding the seeming incongruity of saying that God is ineffable AND being confident that one knows God's precise attitudes towards quite specific human concerns... and regarding the paradox of human free will in a universe allegedly governed by omniscience. I hope we'll all choose not to take offense, but to think about and discuss the experiences of ineffability, faith, agency, the unseen objects of belief, etc.