Hope you had (or are having )a great Spring Break!
1. What's the point of James's squirrel story? Have you ever been involved in a "metaphysical dispute" of this sort? How was it resolved?
2. Who said truth is what we would end up with if we could run all the experiments and investigations we'd like to? (And what's a word his name rhymes with?) What does it imply about the present status of what we now consider true?
3. What did Bertrand Russell say about James's theory of truth? Was he being fair?
4. What 20th century philosopher carried on the pragmatist tradition? What did he say about the way words work? Does his approach seem reasonable to you?
5. What did Nietzsche mean by "God is dead"? (And what's a word his name rhymes with?) Does that statement seem nihilistic to you?
6. Where did Nietzsche think Christian values come from? What do you think about that?
7. What is an Ubermensch, and why does Nigel find it "a bit worrying"? Does it worry you that some of our peers think of themselves as exempt from the rules and norms that the rest of us follow?
8. How did Nietzsche differ from Kant but anticipate Freud? Is rationality less available to us than we think?
9. What were the three great revolutions in thought, according to Freud? Was he overrating his own contributions?
10. The "talking cure" gave birth to what? Have you had any direct experience with it, or any other form of "talking cure"?
11. Why did Freud think people believe in God? Was he right, about some people at least?
12. What was Karl Popper's criticism of Freudian psychoanalysis? Do you agree?
- What is Weiner's favorite movie? What philosophical themes does it wrestle with? What Nietzschean idea does it resemble? How would you respond to the "demon" who proposes it?
- How do we write well, according to Nietzsche? Have you tried it?
- What is amor fati? Do you have an "all or nothing" attitude towards life? What does that mean to you?
- What is the "as if" approach to life? Do you take it? Does it work?
- What is Sonya's opinion of Nietzsche and Eternal Recurrence? Do you share it?
- How does the "Hollywood version" of ER differ from Nietzsche's? Which do you prefer? Why?
Ed Craig (a distinguished MTSU alum, class of '21) introduces the philosophy of William James
MY FIVE STEP PLAN FOR KNOWING WILLIAM JAMES by Ed Craig ("Grandfather Philosophy" on YouTube)
I never had heard of William James before I went back to college at age 74, and I think of myself as a fairly well-educated man. I knew his brother Henry, the author. I have discovered that I am not alone in not encountering James in my education. I have been educating myself in James over the past couple of years and have come to love him. I have found that James speaks to me, and that there are great lessons in how to live in his writings. It has been worthwhile for me to know him better, and I think it would be for others. For any interested, here is a 5-step plan to get to know (perhaps) America’s greatest philosopher.
Step 1 Do a quick Google search. Read Wikipedia.
It helps your introduction to William James to get some sense of who he was and his place as an American philosopher. James is not part of the philosophical canon and does not belong to any “school” of philosophy. English philosopher Alfred North Whitehead (1861 – 1947) claimed that the four great philosophical “assemblers” were Plato, Aristotle, Leibniz, and William James. Good company. James was a remarkable man. A quick read of his Wikipedia entry on his early life, career, and family gives a taste of who he was. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James
Step 2 Watch an address by James biographer Robert Richardson.
An address by James biographer Robert Richardson in August 2010 to the William James Symposium in Chocorua, New Hampshire, on the 100th anniversary of the death of James, provides helpful insight into the type of thinking that makes James so valuable in understanding how to live. (Chocorua was one of James’s homes, and the view of Mount Chocorua from his home, which “had 14 doors which all opened outwards,” is on the home page of Phil Oliver’s blog, Up@dawn 2.0) https://jposopher.blogspot.com/
Robert Richardson, Will You or Won’t You Have It So
A second video from the conference contains the introduction of Robert Richardson and the Q&A discussion after the talk. Watch from @17:40. Note specifically James scholar John McDermott beginning at 19:40 when the discussion turned to James’s philosophical “school,” in which he says that James was not a part of any school, nor would he want to be, and that “in my experience there are persons who suddenly get introduced to James and things change, and that James becomes some kind of a presence in their lives.” (Richardson and Phil Oliver @26:04)
Step 3 Read Jamesian scholar John McDermott’s introduction to The Writings of William James.
John McDermott edited an excellent collection of James’s work in The Writings of William James. In his introduction to this collection, McDermott presents James's thinking in all its manifestations, stressing the importance of radical empiricism and placing into perspective the doctrines of pragmatism and the will to believe. The critical periods of James's life are highlighted to illuminate the development of his philosophical and psychological thought. The Preface and Introduction are the best place to start your journey into James.
Step 4 Read John Kaag’s Sick Souls and Healthy Minds: How William James Can Save Your Life.
Before turning to James’s essays and his biography, read John Kaag’s popular book, Sick Souls and Healthy Minds: How William James Can Save Your Life. John Kaag is professor and Chair of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts. In addition to Sick Souls, he is the author of American Philosophy: A Love Story (2016), and Hiking with Nietzsche: Becoming Who You Are (2018). It is a good story that shows how James can be a positive influence in your life.
Step 5 Read biographies and essays.
Now begins the study of James. He was a prolific writer and popular public lecturer. The best way to begin a study of James is with a biography and selected essays in hand and read the essays as they appear in the biography.
Biographies:
Robert Richardson, William James: In the Maelstrom of American Modernism
Perry, The Thought and Character of William James, two volumes (the gold standard for James biographies)
Essays:
Robert Richardson, The Heart of William James
John McDermott, The Writings of William James
William James: Writings – The Library of America, two volumes (Best collection for the serious)
(essays can be found online at https://www.gutenberg.org/
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"Best book in the MTSU library" (more modestly, the best book by me in the library):
Hannah Ferreira H01
ReplyDelete3. What did Bertrand Russell say about James's theory of truth? Was he being fair?
Bertrand Russell said that James’s theory of truth would justify belief in Santa Claus because it would be nice to believe or make somebody feel better to believe. He has a good point I think, and is being fair because he is pointing out a way that James’s theory fails to take into account belief in something that is clearly false. The theory would have to imply that truth is subjective and totally based on personal experience, which not many people believe is absolutely true.
4. What 20th century philosopher carried on the pragmatist tradition? What did he say about the way words work? Does his approach seem reasonable to you?
Richard Rorty carried on the pragmatist tradition and he said that words were tools that we do things with rather than symbols that reflect how the world actually is. This seems totally reasonable to me, words mean different things to different people and how people use them changes over time and may not totally reflect reality at all times.
6. Where did Nietzsche think Christian values come from? What do you think about that?
Nietzsche claimed that Christian values originated from envy. This is certainly an interesting position to take. I don’t really see his reasoning, Christianity and its morals don’t just pity the weak, they want to make the weak, strong, not just impede the strong from taking over. Christianity also applauds courage and sacrifice, just not at the cost of valuable imagebearers.
What is Weiner's favorite movie? What philosophical themes does it wrestle with? What Nietzschean idea does it resemble? How would you respond to the "demon" who proposes it?
ReplyDeleteHis favorite movie is Groundhog Day. The movie questions what makes an action moral and whether or not humans have free will. This resembles Nietzche’s ideas about a demon who proposed to you that you would experience your entire life over and over again forever. He called this idea The Eternal Recurrence of Same. The thought of living your whole life over again in exact detail sounds excruciating at first, but the more I think about it the more it would make sense to accept ER over nonexistence. If all the bad in life outweighs the good, what makes it worth living the first time anyways?
2. CS Pierce said this. This implies that everything we know to be true right now may not be true because we haven’t continued experimenting with it to disprove it.
ReplyDelete9. The Copernican revolution- idea that our planet isn’t the heart of the solar system.
Darwinian Revolution- theory of evolution by natural selection
The third revolution in human thought was the unconscious. Much of what we do is driven by wishes that are hidden from us.
I don’t think he was overrating his contributions; this laid a lot of groundwork for psychology and understanding why we do what we do.
10. The talking cure gave birth to psychoanalysis. I think simply just talking through what you have in your mind can help enlighten you to some thoughts that you wouldn't be able to think about if it were just in your head.
LHP 1
ReplyDeleteThe point of James’ squirrel story is to show that pragmatism is concerned with practical consequences. It focuses on questions, whose answers really matter. It claims that if nothing hangs on the question then the answer isn’t really important. I can’t remember a specific instance when I have been involved in a metaphysical dispute, but I’m sure I have. I think the only way that these kinds of arguments are resolved is through respectful debate and choosing to agree to disagree at the end.
LHP 2
ReplyDeleteC.S. Pierce said truth is what we would end up with if we could run all the experiments and investigations we’d like to. His name rhymes with curse. I think this implies that the present status of what we now consider true is flawed. There are a lot of things we believe that are just theories. We don’t have a definite way to prove them, but based on what we can prove, they are most likely correct, like the atomic theory for example.
LHP 5
ReplyDeleteBy this statement, Nietzsche meant that the belief in God was no longer reasonable. I have no idea what real word his name rhymes with. I just can’t think of one, but his name rhymes with meetcha, which isn’t a real word. The statement doesn’t seem nihilistic to me because Nietzsche doesn’t see life as meaningless. Instead he sees it as an opportunity for the strong to get stronger and possibly trample the weak. His philosophy sounds like a kind of survival of the fittest way of thought to me.
HWT 1. What really distinguishes utilitarianism, for Baggini? Its absolute impartiality distinguishes it.
ReplyDelete3. Each item of Jonathan Israel's key principles of Enlightenment concerns what? “Each item concerns the elimination of all partiality in the treatment of citizens.”
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ReplyDelete4. Pluralism is often mistaken for what? It is often mistaken for laissesz-faire relativism.
Weiner #6
ReplyDeleteHow does the "Hollywood version" of ER differ from Nietzsche's? Which do you prefer? Why?
Nietzsche's version of Eternal Recurrence offers no deviation or opportunity to change course on the next go around; you will always walk the same path. "Hollywoods version" allows you to make corrections and seek the optimal outcome. I personally prefer the Hollywood version as the thought of being able to make corrections seems more enticing, however the flip side to that is you may become consumed with trying to perfect every little thing and never truly be satisfied.
H02 - LHP 6
ReplyDeleteNietzsche believed that Christianity originated from envy. I don't agree with the foundations for his belief being based on enslaved people's envy for aristocrats, and I don't agree with this view of Christianity.
H02 - LHP 5
ReplyDeleteNietzsche believed that the belief in God wasn't reasonable. This statement isn't nihilistic to me because he isn't saying that life is meaningless.
Will Slaughter- H02- question 5
ReplyDeleteHe is saying that belief in God is unreasonable; and yes, that is a very nihilistic stance in my opinion, because from an atheistic viewpoint, it is illogical to believe that there is any final purpose or meaning to life, which is the core doctrine of nihilism, that life is meaningless. The only way for an Atheist to say that things happen for a purpose or that life has some ultimate meaning would involve elevating some natural thing to a godlike status, therefore undoing the entire premise of atheism.
Another great example of choreography and artistic direction is Childish Gambino's This is America. https://youtu.be/VYOjWnS4cMY?si=cekkoUCv2F02WfNR
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