If you've not been to class lately, you probably are NOT yet on the final report presentations schedule. Let me know if you want to be, ASAP.
PRESENTATIONS NOV 7
1. WGU -p.193-234 - #10 ELLISON. #11 SIDNEY M. #13 ALLIE.
2. FL 37-38 - #10 JACOB C. #11 PRESTON. #13 LIAM C.
3. WGU 193-234 or FL 37-38 - #10 JONATHAN R. #11 ABBIE M-S. #13 JADEN R.
WGU -192
1. What hallmark of modernity reversed Plato's and Aristotle's judgment?
2. What gives life meaning, for Kant?
3. In a truly human society, according to Marx, how would our capacities to work develop?
4. Most jobs involve what, according to Paul Goodman?
5. People were certain, as late as 2008, that what?
6. What alternatives to consumerism have small groups begun to develop?
2. What is distinctive about "our age" that makes James particularly relevant?
3. What happened on Feb. 6, 2014 that prompted Kaag to write this book?
(See "Is Life Worth Living...)
5. Human history is "one long commentary on" what?
6. A "wider world... unseen by us" may exist, just as our world does for ___.
7. The "deepest thing in our nature," which deals with possibilities rather than finished facts, is a "dumb region of the heart" called (in German) ___.
SSHM ch1
1. Calvinism set out, for Henry James Sr., what impossible task?
2. Kaag thinks the Civil War gave WJ his first intimation that what?
3. WJ's entire life had been premised on what expectation?
4. What did WJ say (in 1906, to H.G. Wells) about "SUCCESS"?
5. What Stoic hope did young WJ share with his friend Tom Ward?
6. What thought seeded "the dilemma of determinism" for WJ?
7. As WJ explicated determinism in 1884, the future has no what?
8. WJ found what in Huxley's evolutionary materialism alarming?
9. Determinism has antipathy to the idea of what?
10. To the "sick soul," what seems blind and shallow?
==
LH Intro, ch1
1. What reminder does Kieran Setiya say he needed when he was younger? What kind of philosophy did his teachers say he needed? (pref) What has he experienced since age 27?
2. What is moral philosophy about?
3. Does Setiya think "everything happens for a reason"? What were Job's friends wrong about?
4. What did Nietzsche say about happiness and the English?
5. Who is Susan Gubar?
6. To whom should disability matter?
7. What's the difference between disease and illness?
8. What does Setiya think Aristotle gets wrong?
9. Who are Setiya's heroes?
10. What does Setiya say about Marx's vision of communist society?
11. What was Harriet Johnson's reply to Peter Singer?
12. What did Setiya appreciate about his fifth urologist?
13. What, contrary to Descartes, does pain teach us about our bodies?
Discussion questions:
- Have you ever felt "pulled in too many directions"? 2 How did you respond?
- Do you approach philosophy as a "detached intellectual exercise," an "existential life preserver," or something else?
- Where would you place yourself on the spectrum between "sick soul" and "healthy-minded"? Does that change, over time?
- Can belief that life is worth living become self-fulfilling?
- Do you know any "sick souls"? 3 Or "healthy minds"? 4 Are they the same person?
- Do you agree that believing life to be worth living "will help create the fact"? 5
- Do you like WJ's answer to the question "Is life worth living?" 9
- Is suicide always "the wrong way to exit life"? 10
- Have you ever visited the Harvard campus? What were your impressions?
- Is "maybe" a good answer to the eponymous question of James's essay below?
- Do you like Whitman's poetic expression of "the joy of living"?
- Have you ever been as happy as Rousseau at Annecy?
- Do you agree that nature cannot embody the ultimate "divine" spirit of the universe? What if you remove (or re-define) "divine"? 489
- Do you agree that "sufferings and hardships do not, as a rule, abate the love of life..."? 491
- Does the "purely naturalistic basis" suffice to make life worth living? 494
- Does life feel like a "real fight" to you? 502
*IS LIFE WORTH LIVING? (see the Library of America's terrific William James : Writings 1878-1899... vol.2 is William James : Writings 1902-1910).
When Mr. Mallock's book with this title appeared some fifteen years ago, the jocose answer that "it depends on the liver" had great currency in the newspapers. The answer which I propose to give to-night cannot be jocose. In the words of one of Shakespeare's prologues,—
"I come no more to make you laugh; things now,
That bear a weighty and a serious brow,
Sad, high, and working, full of state and woe,"—
must be my theme. In the deepest heart of all of us there is a corner in which the ultimate mystery of things works sadly; and I know not what such an association as yours intends, nor what you ask of those whom you invite to address you, unless it be to lead you from the surface-glamour of existence, and for an hour at least to make you heedless to the buzzing and jigging and vibration of small interests and excitements that form the tissue of our ordinary consciousness. Without further explanation or apology, then, I ask you to join me in turning an attention, commonly too unwilling, to the profounder bass-note of life. Let us search the lonely depths for an hour together, and see what answers in the last folds and recesses of things our question may find... (continues)
- Why does anyone give Alex Jones any credibility at all?
- Why do people like Ayn Rand's message that selfishness is a virtue?
- Was Mencken right about the Scopes Trial? 375
Kieran Setiya's Five Questions podcast... Five questions for Setiya in TPM...
Map of William James's Cambridge...
- Do you feel more resentful or grateful to have been "thrown" into the world? 11
- Do you agree with Jennifer Michael Hecht? “None of us can truly know what we mean to other people, and none of us can know what our future self will experience. History and philosophy ask us to remember these mysteries, to look around at friends, family, humanity, at the surprises life brings — the endless possibilities that living offers — and to persevere. There is love and insight to live for, bright moments to cherish, and even the possibility of happiness, and the chance of helping someone else through his or her own troubles. Know that people, through history and today, understand how much courage it takes to stay. Bear witness to the night side of being human and the bravery it entails, and wait for the sun. If we meditate on the record of human wisdom we may find there reason enough to persist and find our way back to happiness. The first step is to consider the arguments and evidence and choose to stay. After that, anything may happen. First, choose to stay.” Stay: A History of Suicide and the Arguments Against It by Jennifer Michael Hecht
- Does Calvinism "set out an impossible task"? 13
- Do you agree with WJ's father about "the point of life"?
- Can there be a constructive, non-violent "moral equivalent of war"? 21
- Do you agree with James about "our national disease"? 22
- Would it be bad if all your wishes "were fulfilled as soon as they arose"? 23
- Was "Mark" right about the three parts of a person? 26
- If there's no "soul" is determinism true? 28
- If humans are animals, do we have no soul? 31
- Were Nietzsche and Buber right about suicide? 34-5
- Are you one of the lucky "once-born"? Does that make you "blind and shallow"? 40
- If we possess free will, would it be wrong to insist on a coercive demonstration that we do? DD 566
- Do you believe you regularly experience opportunities to really choose between alternative futures? Could you decide, for instance, to take an alternate route home from school today? 573
- Are some regrets appropriate and unavoidable? 577
- Does determinism define our universe as one in which it is impossible to close the gap between how things are and how they ought to be? 578
- Which is better, pessimism or subjectivism? 584f.
- Does life lose zest and excitement, if things were foredoomed and settled long ago? 594
1. What became of the 1998 study that promoted the false belief that vaccines cause autism?
LISTEN (11.4.21). The World Series may be over, but "radical evil gets its innings" still (wrote William James in the "Sick Soul" chapter of Varieties of Religious Experience). That's what's really at stake in the free will-determinism debate: whether we'll get ours, and have a shot at amelioration.
Sick Souls, Healthy Minds: How William James Can Save Your Life
by John Kaag (author of American Philosophy: A Love Story and Hiking with Nietzsche)
In 1895, William James, the father of American philosophy, delivered a lecture entitled "Is Life Worth Living?" It was no theoretical question for James, who had contemplated suicide during an existential crisis as a young man a quarter century earlier. Indeed, as John Kaag writes, "James's entire philosophy, from beginning to end, was geared to save a life, his life"--and that's why it just might be able to save yours, too. Sick Souls, Healthy Minds is a compelling introduction to James's life and thought that shows why the founder of pragmatism and empirical psychology--and an inspiration for Alcoholics Anonymous--can still speak so directly and profoundly to anyone struggling to make a life worth living.
Kaag tells how James's experiences as one of what he called the "sick-souled," those who think that life might be meaningless, drove him to articulate an ideal of "healthy-mindedness"--an attitude toward life that is open, active, and hopeful, but also realistic about its risks. In fact, all of James's pragmatism, resting on the idea that truth should be judged by its practical consequences for our lives, is a response to, and possible antidote for, crises of meaning that threaten to undo many of us at one time or another. Along the way, Kaag also movingly describes how his own life has been endlessly enriched by James.
Eloquent, inspiring, and filled with insight, Sick Souls, Healthy Minds may be the smartest and most important self-help book you'll ever read. g'r
==
By William James
A common opinion prevails that the juice has ages ago been pressed out of the free-will controversy, and that no new champion can do more than warm up stale arguments which everyone has heard. This is a radical mistake. I know of no subject less worn out, or in which inventive genius has a better chance of breaking open new ground--not, perhaps, of forcing a conclusion or of coercing assent, but of deepening our sense of what the issue between the two parties really is, of what the ideas of fate and of free will imply. At our very side almost, in the past few years, we have seen falling in rapid succession from the press works that present the alternative in entirely novel lights. Not to speak of the English disciples of Hegel, such as Green and Bradley; not to speak of Hinton and Hodgson, nor of Hazard here --we see in the writings of Renouvier, Fouillée, and Delbœuf how completely changed and refreshed is the form of all the old disputes. I cannot pretend to vie in originality with any of the masters I have named, and my ambition limits itself to just one little point. If I can make two of the necessarily implied corollaries of determinism clearer to you than they have been made before, I shall have made it possible for you to decide for or against that doctrine with a better understanding of what you are about. And if you prefer not to decide at all, but to remain doubters, you will at least see more plainly what the subject of your hesitation is. I thus disclaim openly on the threshold all pretension to prove to you that the freedom of the will is true. The most I hope is to induce some of you to follow my own example in assuming it true, and acting as if it were true. If it be true, it seems to me that this is involved in the strict logic of the case. Its truth ought not to be forced willy-nilly down our indifferent throats. It ought to be freely espoused by men who can equally well turn their backs upon it. In other words, our first act of freedom, if we are free, ought in all inward propriety to be to affirm that we are free. This should exclude, it seems to me, from the freewill side of the question all hope of a coercive demonstrations,-- a demonstration which I, for one, am perfectly contented to go without.
With thus much understood at the outset, we can advance. But not without one more point understood as well. The arguments I am about to urge all proceed on two suppositions: first, when we make theories about the world and discuss them with one another, we do so in order to attain a conception of things which shall give us subjective satisfaction; and, second, if there be two conceptions, and the one seems to us, on the whole, more rational than the other, we are entitled to suppose that the more rational one is the truer of the two. I hope that you are all willing to make these suppositions with me; for I am afraid that if there be any of you here who are not, they will find little edification in the rest of what I have to say. I cannot stop to argue the point; but I myself believe that all the magnificent achievements of mathematical and physical science--our doctrines of evolution, of uniformity of law, and the rest--proceed from our indomitable desire to cast the world into a more rational shape in our minds than the shape into which it is thrown there by the crude order of our experience. The world has shown itself, to a great extent, plastic to this demand of ours for rationality. How much farther it will show itself plastic no one can say. Our only means of finding out is to try; and I, for one, feel as free to try conceptions of moral as of mechanical or of logical rationality. If a certain formula for expressing the nature of the world violates my moral demand, I shall feel as free to throw it overboard, or at least to doubt it, as if it disappointed my demand for uniformity of sequence, for example; the one demand being, so far as I can see, quite as subjective and emotional as the other is. The principle of causality, for example--what is it but a postulate, an empty name covering simply a demand that the sequence of events shall some day manifest a deeper kind of belonging of one thing with another than the mere arbitrary juxtaposition which now phenomenally appears? It is as much an altar to an unknown god as the one that Saint Paul found at Athens. All our scientific and philosophic ideals are altars to unknown gods. Uniformity is as much so as is free will. If this be admitted, we can debate on even terms. But if anyone pretends that while freedom and variety are, in the first instance, subjective demands, necessity and uniformity are something altogether different, I do not see how we can debate at all...
...determinism leads us to call our judgments of regret wrong, because they are pessimistic in implying that what is impossible yet ought to be. But how then about the judgments of regret themselves? If they are wrong, other judgments, judgments of approval presumably, ought to be in their place. But as they are necessitated, nothing else can be in their place; and the universe is just what it was before,--namely, a place in which what ought to be appears impossible. We have got one foot out of the pessimistic bog, but the other one sinks all the deeper. We have rescued our actions from the bonds of evil, but our judgments are now held fast. When murders and treacheries cease to be sins, regrets are theoretic absurdities and errors. The theoretic and the active life thus play a kind of see-saw with each other on the ground of evil. The rise of either sends the other down. Murder and treachery cannot be good without regret being bad: regret cannot be good without treachery and murder being bad. Both, however, are supposed to have been foredoomed; so something must be fatally unreasonable, absurd, and wrong in the world. It must be a place of which either sin or error forms a necessary part. From this dilemma there seems at first sight no escape. Are we then so soon to fall back into the pessimism from which we thought we had emerged? And is there no possible way by which we may, with good intellectual consciences, call the cruelties and treacheries, the reluctances and the regrets, all good together?
...
The dilemma of this determinism is one whose left horn is pessimism and whose right horn is subjectivism. In other words, if determinism is to escape pessimism, it must leave off looking at the goods and ills of life in a simple objective way, and regard them as materials, indifferent in themselves, for the production of consciousness, scientific and ethical, in us... (continues)
Section 13
ReplyDelete1. The hallmark of the reversal that contemplation was not the highest form of living but activity came to be seen as most fundamentally human.
2. It is action that gives life meaning, so much so that action becomes duty.
3. We would hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, and do philosophy after dinner.
4. Involve doing things that are patently useless, possibly harmful, certainly wasteful, and demeaning and dumb to boot.
5. That America would not elect a black president or would murder him before he could take office.
6. They are committed to determining the world, not simply being determined by it, to consume some things wisely rather than being consumed by them.
#11
ReplyDeleteWGU
1. What hallmark of modernity reversed Plato's and Aristotle's judgment?
-"Not contemplation but activity came to be seen as most fundamentally human."
2. What gives life meaning, for Kant?
-Action gives meaning to life.
3. In a truly human society, according to Marx, how would our capacities to work develop?
-"Hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, and do philosophy after dinner."
4. Most jobs involve what, according to Paul Goodman?
-"Patently useless, possibly harmful, certainly wasteful, and demeaning and dumb to boot."
5. People were certain, as late as 2008, that what?
-America wouldn't elect a black president or would murder him.
6. What alternatives to consumerism have small groups begun to develop?
-Production and consumption, labor and work. The groups are committed to determining our world, not being determined by it.
#11
DeleteSSHM
1. Young William James's problem, as he felt "pulled in too many directions" and worried that we might be nothing but cogs in a machine, was ____.
-Meaningless was the problem
2. What is distinctive about "our age" that makes James particularly relevant?
-"Believe life is worth living, Be not afraid of life, and your belief will help create the fact."
3. What happened on Feb. 6, 2014 that prompted Kaag to write this book?
-He was riding his bike and slipped Infront of the Charlestown into Cambridge. The last leg of his ride was in front of the William James Hall, but there was yellow police tape around it. After an hour, when the police tape got removed, he decided not to do his morning routine and write a book about James to explore if life is worth living.
(See "Is Life Worth Living...)
4. "Too much questioning and too little active responsibility lead" to what?
-"To the edge of the slope, at the bottom of which lie pessimism and the nightmare or suicidal view of life."
5. Human history is "one long commentary on" what?
-"cheerfulness that comes with fighting ills."
6. A "wider world... unseen by us" may exist, just as our world does for ___.
-"A wider world... unseen by us, as out world is by him"
7. The "deepest thing in our nature," which deals with possibilities rather than finished facts, is a "dumb region of the heart" called (in German) ___.
-Binnenleben
SSHM CH1
Delete1. Calvinism set out, for Henry James Sr., what impossible task?
-"To exercise the human will freely, meaningfully, in order to satisfy a god who was both omnipotent and infinitely removed."
2. Kaag thinks the Civil War gave WJ his first intimation that what?
-That he was not free but fated.
3. WJ's entire life had been premised on what expectation?
-He could exercise free will
4. What did WJ say (in 1906, to H.G. Wells) about "SUCCESS"?
-Success is our national disease
5. What Stoic hope did young WJ share with his friend Tom Ward?
-"Everything can be stripped from a person except his or her free response to the horrible situation into which he or she has been thrown."
6. What thought seeded "the dilemma of determinism" for WJ?
-Life is determined by nature and suffered as one long senseless tragedy.
7. As WJ explicated determinism in 1884, the future has no what?
-"No ambiguous possibilities hidden in its womb; the part we call the present is compatible with only one totality."
8. WJ found what in Huxley's evolutionary materialism alarming?
-teetered on the edge of casual determinism and jeopardizing free will.
9. Determinism has antipathy to the idea of what?
-To the chance of idea
10. To the "sick soul," what seems blind and shallow?
-"Morbid-minded way... Healthy-mindedness pure and simple seems unspeakably blind and shallow."
LH CH1
Delete1. What reminder does Kieran Setiya say he needed when he was younger? What kind of philosophy did his teachers say he needed? (pref) What has he experienced since age 27?
-"People suffer in ways they don't express. hardship is routinely hidden." The original philosophy, The love of wisdom. Chronic pain: persistent, fluctuating, strange, a constant drone of sensory distraction."
2. What is moral philosophy about?
-Expansive, addressed to everything that matters in life."
3. Does Setiya think "everything happens for a reason"? What were Job's friends wrong about?
-"Worse than denial." Jobs friends were wrong about making excuses for his misery.
4. What did Nietzsche say about happiness and the English?
-"humanity does not strive for happiness, only the English do."
5. Who is Susan Gubar?
-His mother-in-law.
6. To whom should disability matter?
-Anyone hoping to get old.
7. What's the difference between disease and illness?
-disease biological, illness is "phenomenological" a matter of how life feels.
8. What does Setiya think Aristotle gets wrong?
-Focusing only on the single ideal of life.
9. Who are Setiya's heroes?
-Martin Luther king JR, Iris Murdoch, and Bill Veeck.
10. What does Setiya say about Marx's vision of communist society?
- He said "a good life is selective, limited, fractional. It has good things in it, but many it omit don't necessarily make it worse."
11. What was Harriet Johnson's reply to Peter Singer?
-"Are we worse off?"
12. What did Setiya appreciate about his fifth urologist?
-It was the first urologist that took his experience seriously, confessed it was difficult to treat, and talked him through the whole process.
13. What, contrary to Descartes, does pain teach us about our bodies?
-Pain shows us we are not minds somehow tethered to bodies but are essentially embodied
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWGU -192
ReplyDelete1. What hallmark of modernity reversed Plato's and Aristotle's judgment?
"Not contemplation but activity came to be seen as most fundamentally human
2. What gives life meaning, for Kant?
For Kant it is action that gives life meaning, so much so that action becomes a duty.
3. In a truly human society, according to Marx, how would our capacities to work develop?
"In a truly human society, Marx thought all our capacities to work would develop: we would hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, and do philosophy after dinner.
4. Most jobs involve what, according to Paul Goodman?
"Doing thins that are patently useless, possibly harmful, certainly wasteful and demeaning and dumb to boot." 😍😍😍
5. People were certain, as late as 2008, that what?
Other ideologies would be replaced.
6. What alternatives to consumerism have small groups begun to develop?
They are trying to find other means of production and consumption, labour and work.
SSHM Prologue
1. Young William James's problem, as he felt "pulled in too many directions" and worried that we might be nothing but cogs in a machine, was ____.
Meaningless and a problem.
2. What is distinctive about "our age" that makes James particularly relevant?
It is described as "one that eschews tradition and superstition but desperately craves existential meaning; one that is defined by affluence but also depression and acute anxiety; one that valorizes icons who ultimately decide that the life of fame is one that really ought to be cut short prematurely.
3. What happened on Feb. 6, 2014 that prompted Kaag to write this book?
A man suicided from the roof of William James Hall.
(See "Is Life Worth Living...)
4. "Too much questioning and too little active responsibility lead" to what?
Suicidal ideas, pessimism.
5. Human history is "one long commentary on" what?
"The history of our own race is one long commentary on the cheerfulness that comes with fighting ills."
6. A "wider world... unseen by us" may exist, just as our world does for ___.
7. The "deepest thing in our nature," which deals with possibilities rather than finished facts, is a "dumb region of the heart" called (in German) ___.
The "Binnnenleben." The dumb regionm of the heart which holds feelings like unwillingess and fear.
- Kelly Molloy, Section #13
SSHM Ch1
Delete1. Calvinism set out, for Henry James Sr., what impossible task?
To exercise the human will freely, meaningfully, in order to satisfy a God who was both omnipotent and infinitely removed.
2. Kaag thinks the Civil War gave WJ his first intimation that what?
That he was not free, but rather fated.
3. WJ's entire life had been premised on what expectation?
That he could exercise his free will.
4. What did WJ say (in 1906, to H.G. Wells) about "SUCCESS"?
"The moral flabbiness born of the exclusive worship of the bitch-goddess SUCCESS... is our national disease"
5. What Stoic hope did young WJ share with his friend Tom Ward?
He told him about Marcus Aurelius, "It seems to me that any man who can, like him, grasp the love of a "life according to nature." and the fact that "Everything can be stripped from a person except his or her free response to the horrible situation"
6. What thought seeded "the dilemma of determinism" for WJ?
"Life was fully determined by nature and suffered as one long, senseless tragedy."
7. As WJ explicated determinism in 1884, the future has no what?
"Any other future complement than the one fixed from eternity is impossible."
8. WJ found what in Huxley's evolutionary materialism alarming?
"Huxley's materialism teetered on the edge of casual determinism and jeopardized free will.
9. Determinism has antipathy to the idea of what?
"The stronghold of the deterministic sentiment is the antipathy to the idea of chance."
10. To the "sick soul," what seems blind and shallow?
"healthy-mindedness pure and simple seems unspeakably blind and shallow."
- Kelly Molloy, Section #13
WGU -192
ReplyDelete1. Activity rather than contemplation began to be seen as more fundamentally human.
2. For Kant action gave life meaning, he believed it so much that he thought of it as a duty.
3. Hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, and do philosophy after dinner.
4. In the book Paul Goodman says, "Most involve doing things that are patently useless, possibly harmful, certainly wasteful, and demeaning and dumb to boot."
5. Supposedly there was a nationwide poll in America in 2008, and that poll concluded that as of then America would never have elected a black president, or if they did they would have killed him before he could get into office.
6. They are determined to find other means of production and consumption, labor and work. They are committed to determining the world, not simply being determined by it, to consume some things wisely rather than being consumed by them.
6.
WGU -192
ReplyDeleteSection #10
1. What hallmark of modernity reversed Plato's and Aristotle's judgment?
“Not contemplation but activity came to be seen as most fundamentally human”.
2. What gives life meaning, for Kant?
Action gives life meaning.
3. In a truly human society, according to Marx, how would our capacities to work develop?
“Hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, and do philosophy after dinner."
4. Most jobs involve what, according to Paul Goodman?
"Patently useless, possibly harmful, certainly wasteful, and demeaning and dumb to boot.”
5. People were certain, as late as 2008, that what?
America would not elect a black president.
6. What alternatives to consumerism have small groups begun to develop?
Determining the world, not being determined by it.
1. What hallmark of modernity reversed Plato's and Aristotle's judgment?
ReplyDelete"Not contemplation but activity came to be seen as most fundamentally human."
2. What gives life meaning, for Kant?
Action
3. In a truly human society, according to Marx, how would our capacities to work develop?
Hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, and philosophize at night.
4. Most jobs involve what, according to Paul Goodman?
useless, harmful, wasteful, demeaning, and dumb to boot.
5. People were certain, as late as 2008, that what?
America would never elect a black president
6. What alternatives to consumerism have small groups begun to develop?
To not be consumed by consumerism, and not to be determined by other things but to determine it.
#13
ReplyDelete1. "Not contemplation but activity came to be seen as most fundamentally human."
2. Action gives life meaning for Kant.
3. "Hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, and do philosophy after dinner."
4. "Patently useless, possibly harmful, certainly wasteful, and demeaning and dumb to boot."
5. People were certain, as late as 2008, that America wouldn't elect a black president or would murder him.
6. Production, consumption, labor, and work are all alternatives to consumerism that small groups have began to develop.
1. Not contemplation but activity came to be seen as most fundamentally human.
ReplyDelete2. For Kant, it is action that gives life meaning, so much that action becomes a duty.
3. We would hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, and do philosophy after dinner.
4. most involve doing things that are patently useless, possibly harmful, certainly wasteful, and demeaning and dumb to boot.
5. People were certain that America would not elect a black president or would murder him before he could take office.
6. They are committed to determining the world, not simply being determined by it, to consume some things wisely rather than being consumed by them.
13
ReplyDelete1. "Not contemplation but activity came to be seen as most fundamentally human"
2. action
3. hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, philosophize at night
4. useful, harmful, wasteful, demeaning, and dumb
5. there would never be a black president elected
6. production, consumption, labor, and work
#11
ReplyDelete1. Not contemplation but activity came to be seen as most fundamentally human.
2. Kant believes that action gives life meaning.
3. We should hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, and study philosophy after dinner.
4. useful, harmful, wasteful, demeaning, and dumb.
5. That Americans would not vote a black president into office or would murder him before he took office.
6. Production, consumption, labor, and work
Section 13
ReplyDelete1. Not contemplation but activity came to be seen as most fundamentally human.
2. Kant believes that action gives life meaning.
3. We should hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon and study philosophy after dinner.
4.useful, possibly harmful, wasteful, demanding, and dumb
5. America would not elect a black president.
6. production, consumption, labor, and work.
#11
ReplyDelete1. What hallmark of modernity reversed Plato's and Aristotle's judgment? "Not contemplation but activity came to be seen as most fundamentally human"
2. What gives life meaning, for Kant? action and duty
3. In a truly human society, according to Marx, how would our capacities to work develop? hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, philosophize at night.
4. Most jobs involve what, according to Paul Goodman?
Doing things that are useless, demeaning, and wasteful.
5. People were certain, as late as 2008, that what?
People would not elect a black president.
6. What alternatives to consumerism have small groups begun to develop? To not be consumed by consumerism and determining the world they want to be in.
SSHM Prologue
Delete1. Young William James's problem, as he felt "pulled in too many directions" and worried that we might be nothing but cogs in a machine, was ____.
meaninglessness was the problem.
2. What is distinctive about "our age" that makes James particularly relevant? Believe life is worth living, do not be afraid of life, and your belief will help create the fact.
3. What happened on Feb. 6, 2014 that prompted Kaag to write this book?
He decided not to do his morning routine and write a book about James to explore if life is worth living after he slipped in front of William James Library.
(See "Is Life Worth Living...)
4. "Too much questioning and too little active responsibility lead" to what? Too much pessimism and thoughts of suicide.
5. Human history is "one long commentary on" what?
cheerfulness that comes with fighting ills.
6. A "wider world... unseen by us" may exist, just as our world does for ___.
A wider world unseen by others.
7. The "deepest thing in our nature," which deals with possibilities rather than finished facts, is a "dumb region of the heart" called (in German) ___.
Binnenleben.
Cannon Cofran
ReplyDelete#13
1. What hallmark of modernity reversed Plato's and Aristotle's judgment?
“Not contemplation but activity came to be seen as most fundamentally human”
2. What gives life meaning, for Kant?
Action is what gives life meaning for kant
3. In a truly human society, according to Marx, how would our capacities to work develop?
He claimed that it would evolve to “ hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, and do philosophy after dinner.
4. Most jobs involve what, according to Paul Goodman?
He said that they involve things that are useless, wasteful and demeaning to the individual
5. People were certain, as late as 2008, that what?
We would never have a black president
6. What alternatives to consumerism have small groups begun to develop?
They have developed alternative venues to production and consumption.
#13
ReplyDelete1."Not contemplation but activity came to be seen as most fundamentally human”
2. Actions
3. Hunting in the morning, fishing in the afternoon, and philosophy after dinner
4. Useless, harmful, wasteful, demeaning, and dumb
5. A president of color would never be elected
6. Production, consumption, labor, and work
WGU -192
ReplyDeleteSection 13
1. What hallmark of modernity reversed Plato's and Aristotle's judgment?
The hallmark of modernity that reversed plato and aristotles judgement was that “not contemplation but activity came to be seen as most fundamentally human”.
2. What gives life meaning, for Kant?
To kant, action gives life meaning.
3. In a truly human society, according to Marx, how would our capacities to work develop?
In a truly human society, according to marx, we would hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, and philosophize after dinner.
4. Most jobs involve what, according to Paul Goodman?
According to paul goodman, most jobs involve doing things that are “Patently useless, possibly harmful, certainly wasteful, and demeaning and dumb to boot."
5. People were certain, as late as 2008, that what?
People were certain that America would not elect a black president in 2008, or that he would be murdered.
6. What alternatives to consumerism have small groups begun to develop?
Small groups have begun to develop alternatives to mass corporation consumption and labor.
1. "Not contemplation but activity came to be seen as most fundamentally human."
ReplyDelete2. Action
3. Hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, and philosophize after dinner
4. "Patently useless, possibly harmful, certainly wasteful, and demeaning and dumb to boot."
5. People would not vote for a black president
6. Production, consumption, labor, work
SSHM Prologue
Delete1. Meaninglessness is a problem
2. "Believe life is worth living, Be not afraid of life, and your belief will help create the fact."
3. Someone took their life at he William James Hall.
4. Thoughts of suicide and pessimism
5. "The history of our own race is one long commentary on the cheerfulness that comes with fighting ills."
6. Him
7. Binnnenleben
SSHM ch1
Delete1. "To exercise human will freely, meaningfully, in order to satisfy a God who is omnipotent and infinitely removed"
2. We are not free but we are fated
3. We could exercise free will
4. He said that success was is our national disease
5. Everything can be stripped from a person expect the reaction of being put in a bad situation
6. Life was fully determined by nature and suffered as one long tragedy
7. No ambiguous possibilities hidden in its womb
8. It teetered on the edge of causal determinism and jeopardized free will
9. Chance
10. Healthy-mindedness pure and simple
LH Intro, ch1
Delete1. That people keep their struggles hidden. His teachers said he needed the original philosophy. He experiences chronic pain.
2. Everything that matters in life
3.He did not. Job's friends were wrong about making excuses for his misery.
4. Humans does not strive for happiness, english does
5. His mother-in-law
6. Anyone who hopes to grow old
7. Disease is biological, illness is a matter that how life feels
8. Focusing on a single ideal life
9. Bill Veeck, Martin King Jr
10. Good life is selective
11. Johnson's reply was that they are not worse off in a meaningful sense
12. That he took his pain seriously
13. Pain shows us that are not just minds tethered to bodies but are essentially embodied
SSHM Prologue
ReplyDelete1. Young William James's problem, as he felt "pulled in too many directions" and worried that we might be nothing but cogs in a machine, was ____.
Meaningless
2. What is distinctive about "our age" that makes James particularly relevant?
"Believe life is worth living, Be not afraid of life, and your belief will help create the fact."
3. What happened on Feb. 6, 2014 that prompted Kaag to write this book?
Was riding his bike and slipped. Decided to discontinue his morning routine and write his book.
(See "Is Life Worth Living...)
4. "Too much questioning and too little active responsibility lead" to what?
"To the edge of the slope, at the bottom of which lie pessimism and the nightmare or suicidal view of life."
5. Human history is "one long commentary on" what?
Cheerfulness and ills.
6. A "wider world... unseen by us" may exist, just as our world does for ___.
“A wider world... unseen by us, as out world is by him".
7. The "deepest thing in our nature," which deals with possibilities rather than finished facts, is a "dumb region of the heart" called (in German) ___.
Binnenleben
SSHM #10
ReplyDelete1. Calvinism set out, for Henry James Sr., what impossible task?
To exercise the human will freely, meaningfully, in order to satisfy a God who was both omnipotent and infinitely removed.
2. Kaag thinks the Civil War gave WJ his first intimation that what?
He was not freed, but fated.
3. WJ's entire life had been premised on what expectation?
Exercise free will.
4. What did WJ say (in 1906, to H.G. Wells) about "SUCCESS"?
Success is our national disease.
5. What Stoic hope did young WJ share with his friend Tom Ward?
"Everything can be stripped from a person except his or her free response to the horrible situation into which he or she has been thrown.".
6. What thought seeded "the dilemma of determinism" for WJ?
Life is determined by nature.
7. As WJ explicated determinism in 1884, the future has no what?
“No ambiguous possibilities hidden in its womb; the part we call the present is compatible with only one totality”.
8. WJ found what in Huxley's evolutionary materialism alarming?
Teetered on the edge of casual determinism and jeopardized free will.
9. Determinism has antipathy to the idea of what?
"The stronghold of the deterministic sentiment is the antipathy to the idea of chance”. 10. To the "sick soul," what seems blind and shallow?
“healthy-mindedness pure and simple seems unspeakably blind and shallow”.
LH Intro, ch1
ReplyDelete#10
1. What reminder does Kieran Setiya say he needed when he was younger? What kind of philosophy did his teachers say he needed? (pref) What has he experienced since age 27?
People keep their struggles hidden, original philosophy, chronic pain.
2. What is moral philosophy about?
Everything that matters in life.
3. Does Setiya think "everything happens for a reason"? What were Job's friends wrong about?
No, making excuses for his misery.
4. What did Nietzsche say about happiness and the English?
Humans don’t strive for happiness, English does.
5. Who is Susan Gubar?
Mother in-law.
6. To whom should disability matter?
Anyone who hopes to be old.
7. What's the difference between disease and illness?
Disease is biological, illness is how life feels.
8. What does Setiya think Aristotle gets wrong?
Focusing on one ideal life.
9. Who are Setiya's heroes?
Bill Veeck and Martin Luther King Jr.
10. What does Setiya say about Marx's vision of communist society?
Good life is completely selective.
11. What was Harriet Johnson's reply to Peter Singer?
Not worse off in a meaningful sense.
12. What did Setiya appreciate about his fifth urologist?
Took his pain seriously.
13. What, contrary to Descartes, does pain teach us about our bodies?
That we are embodied.
WGU
ReplyDelete1."Not contemplation but activity came to be seen as most fundamentally human."
2. Action
3. "Hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, and do philosophy after dinner."
4. "Patently useless, possibly harmful"
5. If America elected a black president they would surely murder them
6. Production and consumption, labor. Determine our world
SSHM Prologue
1. Meaningless
2. Life is worth living. Do not be afraid of life
3. He rode upon William James Hall, and once the police tape was removed he felt the urge to write about him and abandon his normal routine
4. "To the edge of the slope, at the bottom of which lie pessimism and the nightmare or suicidal view of life."
5. Cheerfulness that comes with fighting ills."
6. A wider world... unseen by us as our world is by him
7. Binnenleben
SSHM ch 1
1. "To exercise the human will freely, meaningfully, in order to satisfy a god who was both omnipotent and infinitely removed."
2. Free but not fated
3. Exercise free will
4. Success in a national disease
5. Everything can be stripped from a person except his or her free response to the horrible situation into which he or she has been thrown.
6. Life is determined by nature, and suffers a long senseless tragedy.
7. No ambiguous possibilities hidden inits womb, the part we call the present is compatible with only one totality.
8. Edge of casual determinism and jeopardizing free will
9. Chance
10. Morbid-minded way... healthy mindedness pure and simple seems unspeakably blind and shallow.
Section 13
ReplyDeleteSSHM
1.Young William James's problem, as he felt "pulled in too many directions" and worried that we might be nothing but cogs in a machine, was meaningless
9.Libertarianism/Indeterminism
Section 13
DeleteLH
3.Kieran Setiya does not believe everything happens for a reason; she believes that mindset is worse than denial. When her friends expressed that behavior, she blames it on their failure of accountability.