Midterm report presentations

UPDATED 10.19 Let me know in comments below if you're still not on it.

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Suggested topics. We’ll schedule three or four presentations per class, 10 minutes each plus discussion time. Your goal is to tell us something interesting and important about your topic that we’d not have learned by reading our assigned texts. Indicate your top two preferences in the comments space below, remember to include your section #. When midterm presentations conclude we'll commence final report presentations, in the same order. (Your final presentation can be a continuation of the midterm topic, or you can select a new topic related to our concluding texts.)

If it's a nice day when you report, you can take us outside (so avoid being tied to a PowerPoint or other indoor-dependent tech).

 

SEP 27

1. Immanuel Kant vs. Jeremy Bentham: Is ethics about creating the greatest happiness for the greatest number?: #7 Griffin Kennedy, #11 Desiree Douthier

 

2. Arthur Schopenhauer's philosophy of pessimism: #7 Jon Blalock [This topic is available, if anyone wants to impress me at the last minute. -jpo]

#11 Hannah Crumley, Leah Knight #12

 

3. The rise of virtue ethics: Lydia Ashby #7, #11 Sabirin Elmi, Daisy Gonzalez #12

 

4. [FL 19-20 or HWT 20-22] Kaleb Toon #12

 

SEP 29

1. Charles Darwin's natural selection: its importance for philosophy: #7 Sam Hutto, #11 Alexa Nolan, Betti Houser #12

 

2. Karl Marx's revolutionary philosophy: Amy Menendez #7,  Seth Cook #11, Edgar Reyes #12

 

3. Moksa: Heidi Engle #7, Rumi Wein #11, Emily Seeto #12

 

4. [ FL 21-22 or HWT 23-24]

 

OCT 4

1. William James's pragmatic philosophy: #7 Matthew Zipp, #11 David King, #12 Chris Barnes

 

2. Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy: What's an "ubermensch"? What is "eternal recurrence"?: #7 Cason Neill #11, John Wright #12

 

3. Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents OR The Future of an Illusion: #7 Will Abell, #11 D'Andre Phillips, #12 Mia Hubbard

 

4. Nietzsche and Dostoevsky on Nihilism, David King #11

[FL 23-24 or HWT 25-26]

 

OCT 6 - Exam 1 (So probably time for just one or two presentations today) 

1. Bertrand Russell's "Why I Am Not a Christian" or "The Conquest of Happiness" : Chloe Rush #7, Cesar Zapata #11

 

2. The French Existentialists (Sartre, de Beauvoir, Camus): Jon Blalock #7, Kenny York #11, Kharis Djao #12

 

3. The distinctiveness of American pragmatism: Will Abell #7, Laney #11, Josh Holmes #12

 

4. [HWT 27-28]

 

OCT 13

1.Ludwig Wittgenstein’s philosophy: Cole McBee #7, Wilder Strong #11, Josh Keifer #12

 

2. Hannah Arendt on “the banality of evil”: Savannah Spann #7, Isaak Cadet #11, tyler walker #12

 

3. Karl Popper & Thomas Kuhn on philosophy of science: #7 Alex H, Sydney Boyce #11, samantha pleitez #12

 

4. Phillipa Foot’s & Judith Thomson’s thought experiments: Benjamin Anderson #7, Yesenia Garcia #11; Grecia Landeros #12

 

 

OCT 18

1.  John Rawls’ theory of justice: mona ikbariah #7, Ardiola Medi #11, Devon McNeal #12

 

2. Alan Turing & John Searle on Artificial Intelligence: Aaron Petty #7, Reid Robertson #12

 

3.Peter Singer’s utilitarian philosophy Sophia Williams #7, Karissia Gonzalez #11, Gabriel Rocha #12

 

4. Free Will in relation to John Rawls' theory of justice, Jacob Cuva #7

5. Aviree Moore #11 Dante Alighieri's philosophy of morality and judgement (Divine Comedy)

OCT 20

1. Meghan Hodges #7 Hypatia (her history and death); Ariana Arenas #11 Hypatia's history, her endurance in a patriarchal society, and death; 

2. Ashley G #7 Diogenes of Sinope: one man's peculiar approach to philosophy; Rudolph Serrat #11 Diogenes and his Cynic philosophy

3. Delanney Hight #11 Laura Bassi's feminism; Reid #12 Why philosophers ask questions 

4. [WGU -p.122. FL 31-32] Rejgar Tovi- #7, Nathan Buckley #11, William McDonald #12

   --Some topic suggestions related to WGU: Kant on Enlightenment; Orwell and Huxley on dystopia; Jean-Jacques Rousseau's philosophy of childhood education in Emile; Rousseau's relationship with David Hume; Voltaire's view of  Rousseau; Rousseau and Kant on the meaning of freedom; Rousseau's character flaws in relation to his philosophy; Hannah Arendt on natality; Nietzsche's "metaphysical wound" (see p.93); Philosophy's role in helping us grow up; ...

 

OCT 25 

1. [WGU -p.165] Kayla Pulling #7, William James #7, #12 Nathan Sysenkham

   --Some topic suggestions related to WGU: How education, travel, and/or work may contribute to growing up; the importance of raising free and happy children (and how to do it); the impact of the Internet on brain development, attention, etc. (see p.145); Rousseau on walking (see Reveries of the Solitary Walker); ...

2. [FL 33-34] Noah Ferguson #7

 

OCT 27 

1. [WGU -p.165-192. Simone Dobelbower #7

    --Some topic suggestions related to WGU: Kant, Arendt, Hegel, and/or Marx on the meaning of work; Paul Goodman's Growing Up Absurd;  "Planned obsolescence" (see p.178); Herbert Marcuse's One Dimensional Man and the culture of advertizing; ...

2. [FL 35-36] Abanoub #7

Neiman, Kant, & Why Grow Up

 Useful background for Susan Neiman's Why Grow Up...

 

 

Hannah Arendt on the banality of evil

"In refusing to be a person Eichmann utterly surrendered the single most defining human quality: that of being able to think; and consequently he was no longer capable of making moral judgements..." 

 

(Trailer)

Wittgenstein

 

 

 

Questions October 20

 Rawls, Turing & Searle, Singer-LH 38-40, FL 29-30, WGU -p.79.

LH

1. What did John Rawls call the thought experiment he believed would yield fair and just principles, and what was its primary device?

2. Under what circumstances would Rawls' theory permit huge inequalities of wealth between people?

3. What was the Imitation Game, and who devised a thought experiment to oppose it?

4. What, according to Searle, is involved in truly understanding something?

5. How do some philosophers think we might use computers to achieve immortality?

6. What does Peter Singer say we should sacrifice, to help stranger

7. Why did Singer first become famous?

8. How does Singer represent the best tradition in philosophy?

Susan Neiman, Why Grow Up? Subversive Thoughts for an Infantile Age (WGU -p.35)

1. Being grown-up is widely considered to be what?

2. Why did Kant say we choose immaturity?

3. Why is judgement important?

4. What is "the most pernicious bit of idealization"?

5. What is philosophy's greatest task?

FL

1. What changed for pro wrestling in the 1980s?

2. What happened in the 1980s to make dressing up for Halloween a "thing"?

3. What former child star had a ranch called Neverland in middle age?

4. How did the advent of home video, cable, and the Internet make adults more childlike?

Discussion Questions:

WGU

• Do you think of growing up as "a matter of renouncing your hopes and dreams"? 1
• Do you like the "well-meaning Uncle's" advice? Or the Rolling Stones'? 4
• Is Kant right, in "What is Enlightenment?," about why people "choose immaturity"? 5
• If distractions, especially "since the invention of cyberspace," are "literally limitless," is Enlightenment in Kant's sense a realistic goal for most people? 9
• Do you agree that it takes courage to think for yourself? 11
• Is travel necessary for growing up? 13-16
• Is Larry Summers wrong about language-learning? 16
• Do you believe the best time of life is between the ages of 18 and 28? 20
• How innocent should childhood be? What do you think of the way French children were raised in the 17th century? 24
• Do you wish you'd had a Samoan childhood? Do you think tests in school prepare you for life? 27
• Is it bad to be "WEIRD" (In the sense of the acronym)? 32
• COMMENT?: "...the important decisions are made by others we cannot even name. Or did you choose a world in which oil companies profit from wrecking the planet? Women are stoned for adultery or murdered for going to school? Children die of easily preventable diseases or are collaterally damaged by drones? Do your choices make a difference to any of these?" 34

Mar17

Questions Oct 18

Wittgenstein, Arendt, Popper & Kuhn, Foot & Thomson-LH 34-37, FL 27-28, WGU Introduction-p.35... 

1. What was the main message of Wittgenstein's Tractatus?

2. What did the later Wittgenstein (of Philosophical Investigations) mean by "language games," what did he think was the way to solve philosophical problems, and what kind of language did he think we can't have?

3. Who was Adolf Eichmann, and what did Arendt learn about him at his trial?

4. What was Arendt's descriptive phrase for what she saw as Eichmann's ordinariness?

5. Both Popper and Kuhn changed the way people understood science. What did Popper say about the method for checking a hypothesis and what name did Kuhn give to major breaks in the history of science? 

6. What is the Law of Double Effect? Many people who disagree with its principle--and with Thomson's violinist thought experiment--think that whatever our intentions we shouldn't play who?

WGU

1. Being grown-up is widely considered to be what? Do you agree?

2. Is Leibniz's optimism more likely to appeal to a small child? Why? 3

3. What was Kant's definition of Enlightenment? 5

4. What do Susan Neiman's children say she can't understand? Do you agree? 9

5. Why is judgement important? Is this a surprising thing to hear from a Kantian? 11

6. Being a grown-up comes to what? 12

7. What did Paul Goodman say about growing up? Are his observations are still relevant? 19

8. Why (in Neiman's opinion) should you not think this is the best time of your life, if you're a young college student? 20

9. What did Samoan children have that ours lack? 27 Can we fix that?

10. What is philosophy's greatest task? 31

Discussion Questions:

• Was Wittgenstein's main message in the Tractatus correct? 203
• What are some of the "language games" you play? (What are some different things you use language for?) 204
• Can there be a "private language"? 206
• "Eichmann wasn't responsible..." 208 Agree?
• Are unthinking people as dangerous as evil sadists? 211
• Is "the banality of evil" an apt phrase for our time? 212
• Was Popper right about falsifiability? 218
• Was Kuhn right about paradigms? 220
• How would you respond it you woke up with a violinist plugged into your kidneys? Is this a good analogy for unwanted or unintended pregnancy? 226

FL

• Pro wrestling is obviously staged. Why is it so popular?
• What do Burning Man attendees and other adults who like to play dress-up tell us about the state of adulthood in contemporary America? 245
• What do you think of Fantasy sports? 248
• Was Michael Jackson a tragic figure? 250
• Is pornography "normal"? 251

Sam Harris on free will

Wanted to share this (slightly long) speech about free will that Sam Harris gave about ten years ago.  Given that it is the most compelling case against the existence of free will that I have heard, and that Harris had me convinced after watching this some years ago, I thought it'd be worth sharing for any who are curious about weather or not our neurophysiology calls the shots. 

Hope you enjoy 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCofmZlC72g&t=145s

Acorns and oaks

"Simple, everyday acts can go a long way”... If planting an oak tree is the first small step in rethinking everyday life, it could matter a lot. https://t.co/QTAOuf2MhN

— Phil Oliver (@OSOPHER) October 17, 2022

Overthinking

If you're an Eeyore, befriend a Pooh.

Eeyore stood by himself and thought about things. Sometimes he thought sadly to himself, “Why?” and sometimes he didn’t know what he was thinking. So when Pooh came stumping along, Eeyore was very glad to be able to stop thinking for a little. ~A.A.Milne #mondaythoughts pic.twitter.com/MPYzadzCE7

— A.A.Milne (@A_AMilne) October 17, 2022

What is Existentialism?

 

Midterm report presentations continue

 Check the revised presentation schedule, make sure you're on it. Let me know if you still need help identifying a topic.

Big weekend ahead

Also looking forward to the return of the Southern Festival of Books, though it’ll be Saturday afternoon before we get there. https://t.co/ksEsgpqfmV

— Phil Oliver (@OSOPHER) October 11, 2022

Questions Oct. 13

Russell, Ayer, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Camus-LH 31-33, HWT 24-26 (Transience, Impartiality), FL 25-26

1. Reading whose autobiography led young Bertrand Russell to reject God? OR, What did he see as the logical problem with the First Cause Argument? Do you agree with Russell about this?

2. The idea of a barber who shaves all who don't shave themselves is a logical ______, a seeming contradiction that is both true and false. Another example of the same thing would be a statement like "This sentence is ___." Do these examples show a deep problem with language and its ability to accurately portray reality?

3. A.J. Ayer's ______ Principle, stated in his 1936 book Language, Truth and Logic, was part of the movement known as _____ ______. Is unverifiability the same thing as meaninglessness?

4. Humans don't have an _____, said Jean Paul Sartre, and are in "bad faith" like the ____ who thinks of himself as completely defined by his work. Is it possible to avoid bad faith in every situation?

5. What was Sartre's frustrating advice to the student who didn't know whether to join the Resistance? Should he have said something else?

6. When Simone de Beauvoir said women are not born that way, she meant that they tend to accept what? Are any essential identities conferred by birth?

7. Which Greek myth did Albert Camus use to illustrate human absurdity, as he saw it? Do you ever feel that way? Do you worry that someday you might, in work or relationships or something else?

HWT

1. What do you think of the Japanese sensitivity to nature and the seasons? 293
2. What do you think of Shinto's "no clear-cut separation between the aesthetic, the moral, and the religious"? 294
3. What do you think it means to think without concepts? 295
4. Do you agree with what "the enlightened [Buddhist] declares"? 296
5. Is time more a feeling than a concept? 296 What would Kant say?
6. What do you think of Hume's "is/ought gap"? 297
7. What can tea teach us? 299
8. What is wabi-sabi? 300
9. Was Kravinsky crazy? 301 How about Peter Singer? 302
10. Should we consider the welfare of distant strangers as much as of kith and kin? 303
11. Are Mozi and Mill saying the same thing? 304
12. Kant's categorical imperative, again: any comment? 309
13. Do you like Rawls' veil of ignorance idea? 309
14. Do you agree with the key principles of the Enlightenment? 310
15. Is Owen Flanagan right about "no sensible person"? 312
16. Is the mixing desk a good metaphor for moral pluralism? Do you agree that it's not the same as laissez-faire relativism? 314-15

Discussion Questions

• Reading Mill's autobiography led young Bertrand Russell to reject God. Do you agree or disagree with his reasoning? Why? 185

I for a long time accepted the argument of the First Cause, until one day at the age of eighteen I read _____'s Autobiography, and I there found this sentence: "My father taught me that the question 'Who made me?' cannot be answered, since it immediately suggests the further question `Who made god?'" That very simple sentence showed me, as I still think, the fallacy in the argument of the First Cause. If everything must have a cause, then God must have a cause. If there can be anything without a cause, it may just as well be the world as God, so that there cannot be any validity in that argument. It is exactly of the same nature as the Hindu's view, that the world rested upon an elephant and the elephant rested upon a tortoise; and when they said, "How about the tortoise?" the Indian said, "Suppose we change the subject." The argument is really no better than that. Why I Am Not a Christian

(More Russell Quotes)

• Should it bother us that logical paradoxes that seem to be true AND false can be formulated in grammatically correct statements? Does this show something important about the limits of language, thought, and (thus) philosophy? 186
• Were young A.J. Ayer and the Positivists on the right track with their Verification Principle? Or was the older, post-Near Death Experience Ayer wiser about beliefs that cannot be conclusively verified? 190, 194
• Do you agree with Sartre that humans, unlike inanimate objects such as inkwells, don't have an essential nature? Is our common biology, DNA etc. not essential to our species identity? 197
• If you become deeply involved in your work  (or seem to, like Sartre's Waiter) are you in "bad faith"? 198
• What do you think of Sartre's advice to the student who didn't know whether to join the Resistance? 199
• Do you agree with Simone de Beauvoir about accepting a gender identity based on men's judgments? 200
• Is life a Sisyphean struggle? Is it "absurd"? Do you agree with Camus that Sisyphus must be happy? Why or why not? 201

FL

• Do you see any parallels between 1962 (as reflected in the SDS Manifesto, for instance) and today? 212
• What's your opinion of "Gun nuts"? And what should we do about the epidemic of gun violence in America? 218
• Do you think of The Force (in Star Wars) as a "spiritual fantasy" or does it name something you consider real? 222
• Was the sudden and widespread availability of contraception (The Pill) in the '60s a positive development, all things considered? 230
• Is the fantasy of perpetual youth an infantilizing force in America? 233 (Compare with our next read, Why Grow Up)
• Are we becoming "fake humans"? 234

Oct13/14

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Podcasts-Sartre, de Beauvoir, Camus, Russell, Wittgenstein, Ayer, Arendt, Popper, Ordinary Language, Trolley Problems

In Our Time

Sartre. Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Jean-Paul Sartre, the French novelist, playwright, and philosopher who became the king of intellectual Paris and a focus of post war politics and morals. Sartre's own life was coloured by jazz, affairs, Simone de Beauvoir and the intellectual camaraderie of Left Bank cafes. He maintained an extraordinary output of plays, novels, biographies, and philosophical treatises as well as membership of the communist party and a role in many political controversies. He produced some wonderful statements: "my heart is on the left, like everyone else's", and "a human person is what he is not, not what he is", and, most famously "we are condemned to be free". Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss how Sartre's novels and plays express his ideas and what light Sartre's life brings to bear on his philosophy and his philosphy on his life.

Simone de Beauvoir. Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Simone de Beauvoir. "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman," she wrote in her best known and most influential work, The Second Sex, her exploration of what it means to be a woman in a world defined by men. Published in 1949, it was an immediate success with the thousands of women who bought it. Many male critics felt men came out of it rather badly. Beauvoir was born in 1908 to a high bourgeois family and it was perhaps her good fortune that her father lost his money when she was a girl. With no dowry, she pursued her education in Paris to get work and in a key exam to allow her to teach philosophy, came second only to Jean Paul Sartre. He was retaking. They became lovers and, for the rest of their lives together, intellectual sparring partners. Sartre concentrated on existentialist philosophy; Beauvoir explored that, and existentialist ethics, plus the novel and, increasingly in the decades up to her death in 1986, the situation of women in the world.

Camus. Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Algerian-French writer and Existentialist philosopher Albert Camus. Shortly after the new year of 1960, a powerful sports car crashed in the French town of Villeblevin in Burgundy, killing two of its occupants. One was the publisher Michel Gallimard; the other was the writer Albert Camus. In Camus’ pocket was an unused train ticket and in the boot of the car his unfinished autobiography The First Man. Camus was 46. Born in Algeria in 1913, Camus became a working class hero and icon of the French Resistance. His friendship with Sartre has been well documented, as has their falling out; and although Camus has been dubbed both an Absurdist and Existentialist philosopher, he denied he was even a philosopher at all, preferring to think of himself as a writer who expressed the realities of human existence. Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1957, Camus’ legacy is a rich one, as an author of plays, novels and essays, and as a political thinker who desperately sought a peaceful solution to the War for Independence in his native Algeria.

Bertrand Russell. Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the influential British philosopher Bertrand Russell. Born in 1872 into an aristocratic family, Russell is widely regarded as one of the founders of Analytic philosophy, which is today the dominant philosophical tradition in the English-speaking world. In his important book The Principles of Mathematics, he sought to reduce mathematics to logic. Its revolutionary ideas include Russell's Paradox, a problem which inspired Ludwig Wittgenstein to pursue philosophy. Russell's most significant and famous idea, the theory of descriptions, had profound consequences for the discipline.

In addition to his academic work, Russell played an active role in many social and political campaigns. He supported women's suffrage, was imprisoned for his pacifism during World War I and was a founder of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. He wrote a number of books aimed at the general public, including The History of Western Philosophy which became enormously popular, and in 1950 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Russell's many appearances on the BBC also helped to promote the public understanding of ideas.

Ludwig Wittgenstein. Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life, work and legacy of Ludwig Wittgenstein. There is little doubt that he was a towering figure of the twentieth century; on his return to Cambridge in 1929 Maynard Keynes wrote, “Well, God has arrived. I met him on the 5:15 train”.Wittgenstein is credited with being the greatest philosopher of the modern age, a thinker who left not one but two philosophies for his descendents to argue over: The early Wittgenstein said, “the limits of my mind [language] mean the limits of my world”; the later Wittgenstein replied, “If God looked into our minds he would not have been able to see there whom we were speaking of”. Language was at the heart of both. Wittgenstein stated that his purpose was to finally free humanity from the pointless and neurotic philosophical questing that plagues us all. As he put it, “To show the fly the way out of the fly bottle”.How did he think language could solve all the problems of philosophy? How have his ideas influenced contemporary culture? And could his thought ever achieve the release for us that he hoped it would?With Ray Monk, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southampton and author of Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius; Barry Smith, Lecturer in Philosophy at Birkbeck, University of London; Marie McGinn, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of York.

Ordinary Language Philosophy. Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Ordinary Language Philosophy, a school of thought which emerged in Oxford in the years following World War II. With its roots in the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein, Ordinary Language Philosophy is concerned with the meanings of words as used in everyday speech. Its adherents believed that many philosophical problems were created by the misuse of words, and that if such 'ordinary language' were correctly analysed, such problems would disappear. Philosophers associated with the school include some of the most distinguished British thinkers of the twentieth century, such as Gilbert Ryle and JL Austin.

Hannah Arendt. In a programme first broadcast in 2017, Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the political philosophy of Hannah Arendt. She developed many of her ideas in response to the rise of totalitarianism in the C20th, partly informed by her own experience as a Jew in Nazi Germany before her escape to France and then America. She wanted to understand how politics had taken such a disastrous turn and, drawing on ideas of Greek philosophers as well as her peers, what might be done to create a better political life. Often unsettling, she wrote of 'the banality of evil' when covering the trial of Eichmann, one of the organisers of the Holocaust.

Karl Popper. Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century, Karl Popper whose ideas about science and politics robustly challenged the accepted ideas of the day. He strongly resisted the prevailing empiricist consensus that scientists' theories could be proved true. Popper wrote: “The more we learn about the world and the deeper our learning, the more conscious, specific and articulate will be our knowledge of what we do not know, our knowledge of our ignorance”. He believed that even when a scientific principle had been successfully and repeatedly tested, it was not necessarily true. Instead it had simply not proved false, yet! This became known as the theory of falsification.He called for a clear demarcation between good science, in which theories are constantly challenged, and what he called “pseudo sciences” which couldn't be tested. His debunking of such ideologies led some to describe him as the “murderer of Freud and Marx”. He went on to apply his ideas to politics, advocating an Open Society. His ideas influenced a wide range of politicians, from those close to Margaret Thatcher, to thinkers in the Eastern Communist bloc and South America. So how did Karl Popper change our approach to the philosophy of science? How have scientists and philosophers made use of his ideas? And how are his theories viewed today? Are we any closer to proving scientific principles are “true”?

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The Scientific Method. Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the evolution of the Scientific Method, the systematic and analytical approach to scientific thought. In 1620 the great philosopher and scientist Francis Bacon published the Novum Organum, a work outlining a new system of thought which he believed should inform all enquiry into the laws of nature. Philosophers before him had given their attention to the reasoning that underlies scientific enquiry; but Bacon's emphasis on observation and experience is often seen today as giving rise to a new phenomenon: the scientific method.The scientific method, and the logical processes on which it is based, became a topic of intense debate in the seventeenth century, and thinkers including Isaac Newton, Thomas Huxley and Karl Popper all made important contributions. Some of the greatest discoveries of the modern age were informed by their work, although even today the term 'scientific method' remains difficult to define.

The Meaning of Life According to AJ Ayer. What was an English philosopher doing at a New York party, saving the young model Naomi Campbell from a rather pushy boxing heavyweight champion, Mike Tyson? The philosopher was Alfred Jules Ayer, who was just as at home mixing with the glitterati as he was with Oxford dons. On the one hand he was an academic, on the other a celebrity and bon viveur.

So what does this logician have to say about the meaning of life?

In 1988, a year before his death, he gave a lecture at the Conway Hall in which he set out his notion of existence. By this time, ‘Freddie’ Ayer was one of the UK’s most prominent public intellectuals, with regular television and radio appearances, discussing the moral issues of the day.

Ayer’s former student at Oxford, philosopher AC Grayling, remembers the tutor that became his friend. He explores the man of contradictions – the atheist who almost recanted after a near-death incident; the deep thinker with a weakness for mistresses and Tottenham Hotspur. What was his contribution to philosophy? How did it inform the way he lived his life? What, if anything, can we learn from Freddie’s view on the big question?

Trolleyology
The Philosopher's ArmsSeries 4 Episode 2 of 4

Pints and Philosophical Problems with Matthew Sweet. This week, trolleyology: how should you decide between two morally troubling courses of action? This is a question which affects both soldiers in the heat of action and decision-makers in the NHS. Matthew is joined in the snug by philosopher David Edmonds.

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Philosophy Bites

Sebastian Gardner on Jean-Paul Sartre on Bad Faith

Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness is sometimes described as the bible of existentialism. At its core is the notion of Bad Faith. For this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast Sebastian Gardner, author of a recent book about Bei...

Kate Manne on Misogyny and Male Entitlement

Cornell philosopher Kate Manne discusses misognyn, male entitlement, together with the notion of 'himpathy', a term she coined, in this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast. Manne is the author of two recent highly influential books, ...

Ray Monk on Philosophy and Biography

Ray Monk discusses the relationship between philosophy and a philosopher's life in this interview with Nigel Warburton for the Philosophy Bites podcast. Can understanding the biographical context of a philosopher and the type of person t...

David Edmonds on Wittgenstein's Poker

For this second special lockdown episode of Philosophy Bites, Nigel Warburton interviewed David Edmonds about his bestseller Wittgenstein's Poker, which he wrote with John Eidinow. This brilliant book is an exploration of an event that...

Melissa Lane on Plato and Totalitarianism

Was Plato's ideal state a totalitarian one? Karl Popper, thought so, and made his case in The Open Society and Its Enemies. Melissa Lane, author of Plato's Progeny discusses Popper's critique of Plato in this episode of Philosophy Bites....

David Edmonds on Trolley Problems

Is it ever morally acceptable to kill one person to save five? Most people think that it can be. But are we consistent in this? In this episode of the Philosophy Bites podcast Nigel Warburton interviews David Edmonds (co-creator of Philo...

Julian Baggini on Thought Experiments

Philosophers often use elaborate thought experiments in their writing. Are these anything more than rhetorical flourishes? Or do they reveal important aspects of the questions under discussion. Julian Baggini, editor of The Philosophers'...

Here's to October

Happy Fall Break! Good time to head up the mountain and into the woods for some forest bathing. And post-season baseball. See you Thursday.

“I can face the winter with calm. Crisp and sparkling days, long pleasant evenings, cheery fires. Good work shall be done this winter. Life shall be lived well. The end of the summer is not the end of the world. Here’s to October.” ~A.A.Milne #nature pic.twitter.com/IQMnUI3FV9

— A.A.Milne (@A_AMilne) October 4, 2022

Happy Fall Break

Whether your #midtermexams are done & you can relax, or you're still preparing, we hope your #FallBreak is a good one, #MTSU students & faculty! Travel safely after classes Friday, & we'll see you back on campus next Wednesday, 10/12! 😎☀️🚙💨🍁🏈🍂☕🔕 #TrueBlue pic.twitter.com/Q6ulYSFhhG

— MTSU News (@MTSUNews) October 6, 2022

Against nihilism

A life that partakes even a little of friendship, love, irony, humor, parenthood, literature, and music, and the chance to take part in battles for the liberation of others cannot be called ‘meaningless’ except if the person living it is also an existentialist and elects to call it so. It could be that all existence is a pointless joke, but it is not in fact possible to live one’s everyday life as if this were so. Whereas if one sought to define meaninglessness and futility, the idea that a human life should be expended in the guilty, fearful, self-obsessed propitiation of supernatural nonentities… but there, there. Enough.”

Christopher Hitchens, Hitch 22: A Memoir

Denis Diderot

Today is the birthday of French philosopher and writer Denis Diderot, born in Langres (1713). He was a prominent thinker during the French Enlightenment, and he was good friends with Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The two men met regularly at cafés in Paris to discuss music, philosophy, and their troubles with women.

From 1745 to 1772, Diderot was the chief editor of Encyclopédie, a book meant to replace the Bible as the source of knowledge. It was the first book of its kind to subject all the entries to rational analysis, debunking a lot of ancient wisdom along the way. For instance, it included an entry on Noah’s ark that tried to estimate how many man-hours Noah and his sons must have spent shoveling manure off their boat. Previous encyclopedias restricted themselves to serious topics like theology and philosophy and science, but Diderot tried to cover everything he could think of: emotions, coal mines, fleas, duels, bladder surgery, stockings, the metaphysics of the human soul, and how to make soup.

Diderot said “Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.”

WA

Eternal recurrence, maybe?

The Mysterious Phenomenon of Déjà Vu Is Finally Closer to Being Explained

Have you ever had that weird feeling that you've experienced the same exact situation before, even though that's impossible?

Sometimes it can even seem like you're reliving something that already happened. This phenomenon, known as déjà vu, has puzzled philosophers, neurologists, and writers for a very long time…

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-mysterious-phenomenon-of-dj-vu-is-finally-closer-to-being-explained

Stay a little longer

"I just wish I could stay a little longer." On a day when we discussed Nietzsche's "eternal recurrence" in class, Jack Thomas's words are particularly resonant. He died yesterday at 83. https://t.co/4oCNUAXq5k via @BostonGlobe

— Phil Oliver (@OSOPHER) October 5, 2022

Why Think for Yourself? - The Philosophers' Magazine

…We can think for ourselves while still recognising our own intellectual limitations. While there are reasons to think for yourself, a love of truth requires that you do so while being intellectually humble and appreciating the limits of your understanding. As long as you are intellectually humble, thinking for yourself can bring about intellectual rewards without compromising your love of the truth.

https://philosophersmag.com/essays/298-why-think-for-yourself

Art exhibit through Oct.10

A note from Prof. Gray-Hildenbrand:

Dear Students and Colleagues,

I want to congratulate Prof. Meerzaei, again, on the amazing art exhibit in Todd Art Gallery, Todd Hall, Room 224A: Beholding ME: Video Artworks from the Middle Eastern Diaspora.

 It is absolutely moving. I plan to return and sit with it prior to it leaving on October 10. If you have not seen it, PLEASE go. We are so lucky to have access to such great work here on campus.

I would also like to share some of Prof. Meerzaei's words from the reception (if I may):

I always say the Middle East is not real, but Middle Eastern stuff is always too real. This exhibition, a great part of which addresses the expressions of womanhood in the Middle East, happens to coincide with what I do not hesitate to call a feminist revolution on the streets of Iran. I would like to pay my respect to the men and women, especially the youth, who are putting their lives on the line, chanting: “Zan, Zendegi, Azadi/Women. Life, Freedom.” As some of our artists have expressed through their art creations, in the Middle Eastern societies, as is the case all around the world, liberating the female body from the control of the authority of patriarchic political powers has been an important venue for liberation and empowerment for the entire society. I would like to ask you to show, in any way possible, your solidarity with this ongoing revolution, which is not only an Iranian revolution but a decisive moment for the feminist movements of our times. Mohammad Meerzaei

See you all tomorrow (Tuesday, 4:30PM State Farm Room) for Dr. Karl Ernst's Lecture.

Jenna

 

Dr. Jenna Gray-Hildenbrand
Associate Professor, Religious Studies
Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies
Middle Tennessee State University

Are You the Same Person You Used to Be?

Researchers have studied how much of our personality is set from childhood, but what you're like isn't who you are.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/10/10/are-you-the-same-person-you-used-to-be-life-is-hard-the-origins-of-you

Exam Study Guide

The Exam on October 6, worth 25 points, will be drawn from the texts referenced by the EVEN-numbered questions below (2, 4, 6 etc.) -- AUDIO REVIEW HERE. 

UPDATE Oct.1: there are 25 questions from Little History of Philosophy, and 9 additional bonus questions mostly from How the World Thinks. Each correct answer is worth a point, up to a maximum of 25.

LH
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?

HWT

1. What really distinguishes utilitarianism, for Baggini?

2. How did Mozi's maxim resemble J.S. Mill's principle of utility?

3. Each item of Jonathan Israel's key principles of Enlightenment concerns what?

4. Pluralism is often mistaken for what?

LH

2. What view did Mill defend in On Liberty? Is that view consistent with his criticisms of Bentham?

3. What's the benefit to society of open discussion, according to Mill, and what's wrong with being dogmatic? Is our society generally "open" in this sense, or dogmatic?

4. Who did Bishop Wilberforce debate at Oxford in 1860? What do you think of his response to the Bishop on the matter of ancestry?

5. The single best idea anyone ever had was what, according to whom? Can you think of a better one?

6. What scientific developments since Darwin's time establish evolution by natural selection as more than just a theory or hypothesis? What does it take to turn a theory into something more?

7. Who was the Danish Socrates, and what was most of his writing about? What do you think of his "leap" and his irrationalism?

8. Why is faith irrational, according to Nigel Warburton? Do you agree?

9. What is "the subjective point of view"? Do we need to value objectivity as well?

10. Why was Karl Marx angry? How did he think the whole of human history could be explained? DId he have a point?

11. What was Marx's "vision"? Is it an appealing one

12. What did Marx call religion? Was he being unfair?

HWT
1. What two concepts from Indian and Buddhist philosophy are essentially the same? 

2. What are the four stages of Hindu life?

LH

2. What was Kant's great insight? Is this a credible form of "armchair philosophy"? Or does it also depend on experience?

3. What, according to Kant, is irrelevant to morality? Is it really?

4. Kant said you should never ___, because ___. Kant called the principle that supports this view the ____ _____.  Have you ever violated this principle? If so, do you regret it?

5. Who formulated the Greatest Happiness principle? What did he call his method? Where can you find him today? If everyone followed this principle would it be a better world?

6. Who created a thought experiment that seems to refute Bentham's view of how pleasure relates to human motivation? Would you opt for the machine? Why or why not?

7. What did Hegel mean when he spoke of the "owl of Minerva"? What did he think had been reached in his lifetime? What would Socrates say about that?

8. What Kantian view did Hegel reject? What would Kant say?

9. What is Geist? When did Hegel say it achieved self-knowledge? Does this seem supernatural and mystical to you, or could it be naturalistic?

10. What "blind driving force" did Schopenhauer allege to pervade absolutely everything (including us)? Could anyone really know that?

11. What did Schopenhauer say could help us escape the cycle of striving and desire? Is that the only way? Is that cycle really universal?

HWT

1. What one word most characterizes the ideal Chinese way of life?

2. Western suspicion of hierarchy is built on what?

3. What did the late Archbishop Tutu say was "the greatest good"?

4. What omission in western ethics would seem bizarre to the classical Chinese thinkers?

5. What is the most famous Confucian maxim?

6. Virtue is never solitary, said Confucius, it always has ____.

LH

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?

LH

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?

LH

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?

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?

LH

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?

LH

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?

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?

LH

1. According to Epicurus, fear of death is based on what, and the best way to live is what? Are (or were) you afraid of death, or of dying? Are you more afraid of losing others?

2. How is the modern meaning of "epicurean" different from Epicurus's? Do you consider yourself epicurean in either sense of the term?

3. What famous 20th century philosopher echoed Epicurus's attitude towards death? Do you agree with him?

4. How did Epicurus respond to the idea of divine punishment in the afterlife? Is the hypothesis of a punitive and torturous afterlife something you take seriously, as a real possibility? Why or why not?

5. What was the Stoics' basic idea, and what was their aim? Are you generally stoical in life? 

6. Why did Cicero think we shouldn't worry about dying? Is his approach less or more worrisome than the Epicureans'?

7. Why didn't Seneca consider life too short? Do you think you make efficient use of your time? How do you think you could do better?

8. What does the author say might be the cost of stoicism? Is it possible to be stoical but also appropriately compassionate, caring, sensitive to others' suffering, etc.?

HWT

1. Who were the three great founders of American pragmatism?

2. When does philosophy "recover itself" according to John Dewey, and what should it not doubt according to Charles S. Peirce? 

3. What did Richard Rorty say pragmatists desire?

4. As earlier noted in Kurt Andersen's Fantasyland, Karl Rove said what about "reality"? What do you say about what he said?

LH

1. How did the most extreme skeptics (or sceptics, if you prefer the British spelling) differ from Plato and Aristotle? What was their main teaching? Do you think they were "Socratic" in this regard?

2. Why did Pyrrho decide never to trust his senses? Is such a decision prudent or even possible?

3. What country did Pyrrho visit as a young man, and how might it have influenced his philosophy?

4. How did Pyrrho think his extreme skepticism led to happiness? Do you think there are other ways of achieving freedom from worry (ataraxia)?

5. In contrast to Pyrrho, most philosophers have favored a more moderate skepticism. Why?

HWT

1. Logic is simply what? Do you consider yourself logical (rational)?

2. What "law" of thinking is important in all philosophies, including those in non-western cultures that find it less compelling? Do you think it important to follow rules of thought? What do you think of the advice "Don't believe everything you think?"

3. For Aristotle, the distinctive thing about humanity is what? How does Indian philosophy differ on this point? What do you think is most distinctive about humanity?

4. According to secular reason, the mind works without what? Are you a secularist? Why or why not?

LH

1. What point was Aristotle making when he wrote of swallows and summer? Do you agree?

2. What philosophical difference between Plato and Aristotle is implied by The School of Athens? Whose side are you on, Plato's or Aristotle's?

3. What is eudaimonia, and how can we increase our chances of achieving it, and in relation only to what? Do you think you've achieved it?

4. What reliance is completely against the spirit of Aristotle's research? Are there any authorities you always defer to? Why or why not?

HWT

10. What is pratyaksa in classic Indian philosophy, and how does the Upanishads say to seek it? 

11. There is widespread belief in India that the practice of yoga can lead to what? Do you think it can?

12. What is metanoetics, in Japanese philosophy?

13. What does ineffable mean?  Is it possible, though paradoxical, to use words to indicate something you can't put into words?

14. Unlike the west, religion in Japan is typically not about what? And what is it about to you?

LH
1. What kind of conversation was a success, for Socrates, and what did he mean by wisdom?

2. What theory is Plato's story of the cave connected with? Do you think some or all humans are naturally, in some allegorical sense, stuck in a cave?

3. What did Socrates say his inner voice told him? Do you think "inner voice" is literal?

HWT

1. What's one of the great unexplained wonders of human history?
2. Do you agree that we cannot understand ourselves if we do not understand others?
3. What was Descartes's "still pertinent" conclusion?
4. Why did the Buddha think speculation about ultimate reality was fruitless? 
5. What aspects of western thought have most influenced global philosophy?
6. What do Africans not have, according to Kwame Appiah?