the banality of pessimism

Enchantment and the courage of joy – René Magritte on the antidote to the banality of pessimism.

https://www.themarginalian.org/2023/05/31/rene-magritte-enchantment/

Questions Aug 29

Questions pertaining to the assigned reading will normally be posted prior to each class.Always share your thoughts in the comments space below the post (at least three comments per class, so you can shade the whole diamond on the scorecard and receive full participation credit each time). Give yourself a base on the scorecard for every question you posted a response to before class. (You can also respond to your own questions(s) or your classmates' posted comments. Respond not merely with the authors' textual statements but also with your own thoughts & reflections.) 25 exam questions will pertain to the required texts. Additional bonus questions pertaining to the recommended texts will also appear.

Remember to share your thoughts on Laughing Without an Accent...

LHP

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?

Weiner

1. "Philosopher" means what? Philosophy was what, in ancient Athens? (Introduction) 
2. What did Camus say is the one truly serious philosophical problem? Do you agree?
3. What did Marcus Aurelius need, at dawn, to remind himself of? (And ask me about his morning mantra, which I daily remind myself of. UPDATE: Turns out it wasn't Marcus, but a 19th century American named Elbert Hubbard, whose morning mantra* has been falsely attributed to the Stoic emperor.)
4. What was the first question young Needleman experienced? Have you experienced it? Do you think it is a good question? How do you answer it?
5. What kinds of questions most interested Socrates?
6. The Socratic dialogues consisted of what kinds of conversations? Do you enjoy participating in such conversations?
7. What did Socrates say about the unexamined life? What corollaries does Weiner propose? Do you think Socrates was wrong?

Plato's Euthyphro:

...EUTHYPHRO: Yes, I should say that what all the gods love is pious and holy, and the opposite which they all hate, impious.

SOCRATES: Ought we to enquire into the truth of this, Euthyphro, or simply to accept the mere statement on our own authority and that of others? What do you say?

EUTHYPHRO: We should enquire; and I believe that the statement will stand the test of enquiry.

SOCRATES: We shall know better, my good friend, in a little while. The point which I should first wish to understand is whether the pious or holy is beloved by the gods because it is holy, or holy because it is beloved of the gods.

EUTHYPHRO: I do not understand your meaning, Socrates.

SOCRATES: I will endeavour to explain...

Trial and death of Socrates:Plato's Apology, Crito, and Phaedo

...Having thus brought his subject to a conclusion, Socrates proposes to bathe himself, in order not to trouble others to wash his dead body. Crito thereupon asks if he has any commands to give, and especially how he would be buried, to which he, with his usual cheerfulness, makes answer, "Just as you please, if only you can catch me;" and then, smiling, he reminds them that after death he shall be no longer with them, and begs the others of the party to be sureties to Crito for his absence from the body, as they had been before bound for his presence before his judges.

After he had bathed, and taken leave of his children and the women of his family the officer of the Eleven comes in to intimate to him that it is now time to drink the poison. Crito urges a little delay, as the sun had not yet set; but Socrates refuses to make himself ridiculous by showing such a fondness for life. The man who is to administer the poison is therefore sent for; and on his holding out the cup, Socrates, neither trembling nor changing color or countenance at all, but, as he was wont, looking steadfastly at the man, asked if he might make a libation to any one; and being told that no more poison than enough had been mixed, he simply prayed that his departure from this to another world might be happy, and then drank off the poison, readily and calmly. His friends, who had hitherto with difficulty restrained themselves, could no longer control the outward expressions of grief, to which Socrates said, "What are you doing, my friends? I, for this reason, chiefly, sent away the women, that they might not commit any folly of this kind; for I have heard that it is right to die with good omens. Be quiet, therefore, and bear up."

When he had walked about for a while his legs began to grow heavy, so he lay down on his back; and his body, from the feet upward, gradually grew cold and stiff. His last words were, "Crito, we owe a cock to Æsculapius; pay it, therefore, and do not neglect it."

"This," concludes Phædo, "was the end of our friend—a man, as we may say, the best of all his time, that we have known, and, moreover, the most wise and just." Phaedo

Phaedo audio...

==

*"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love." -Elbert Hubbard, probably... and not Marcus Aurelius, though the Internet seems to think otherwise. Don't confuse him with looney L. Ron...

And check out:

Virtual tour, map, & glossary of Ancient Athens

"Rescuing Socrates"

Socrates documentaries, podcasts

• 
  

Rec-

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?

FL

1. What statement by Karl Rove began to "crystallize" Fantasyland, in Kurt Andersen's mind?

2. What are half of Americans "absolutely certain" about? What do a quarter believe about vaccines?

3. What is Andersen trying to do with this book?

 

More from The School of Life

 

==

In class on Opening Day I was asked if I could summarize my philosophy in a word or phrase like Sally Brown, who finally decides her philosophy is simply "No!"

I should have said Yes! The word is meliorism (closely related, in my philosophy as in WJ's, to possibility):

 Meliorism:

 

"...there are unhappy men who think the salvation of the world impossible. Theirs is the doctrine known as pessimism.

Optimism in turn would be the doctrine that thinks the world's salvation inevitable.

Midway between the two there stands what may be called the doctrine of meliorism, tho it has hitherto figured less as a doctrine than as an attitude in human affairs. Optimism has always been the regnant DOCTRINE in european philosophy. Pessimism was only recently introduced by Schopenhauer and counts few systematic defenders as yet. Meliorism treats salvation as neither inevitable nor impossible. It treats it as a possibility, which becomes more and more of a probability the more numerous the actual conditions of salvation become.

It is clear that pragmatism must incline towards meliorism..." Pragmatism by William James

Hegel

It's the birthday of the philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (books by this author), born in Stuttgart, Germany (1770). He started out as a philosopher of Christianity, and he was particularly interested in how Christianity is a religion based on opposites: sin and salvation, earth and heaven, church and state, finite and infinite. He believed that Jesus had emphasized love as the chief virtue because love can bring about the marriage of opposites.

Hegel eventually went beyond religion and began to argue that the subject of philosophy was reality as a whole. He wanted to create a philosophy that described how and why human beings created communities and governments, made war, destroyed each other's societies, and built themselves up to do it all over again.

What Hegel came up with was his concept of dialectic, which is the idea that all human progress is driven by the conflict between opposites. 

At the time of his death, Hegel was the most prominent philosopher in Europe, and his school of thought gave rise to a group of revolutionaries, including Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx, who argued that the most important dialectic of history was between worker and master, rich and poor, and their ideas lead to the birth of Communism.

Hegel said, "Reason is the substance of the universe ... the design of the world is absolutely rational."

http://writersalmanac.org/

Phil.Oliver@mtsu.edu

👣Solvitur ambulando

💭Sapere aude

Introductions: who are you, why're you here?

My longer intro is in the sidebar. 

My short answer to those two questions:

• I'm the teacher, and have been doing this at MTSU for about a quarter century. 
• I'm here because, like my favorite philosopher William James (1842-1910), I believe in philosophy devoutly.

Tell us who you are, and why you're here, in the comments space below. (Try to say something more interesting and original than that you're here because you need the credit.)

See you on the 27th.

Dr. Oliver

==

P.S. Almost forgot to tell you to please include your section # (1, 2, or 3) with your posted comments (#H1 meets at 9:40, #H2 at 1 pm, #H3 at 2:40.

What the Freshman Class Needs to Read

"…What should first-year students read? We would suggest not only Solzhenitsyn but also François Furet, Leszek Kolakowski, Vasily Grossman, and Czesław Miłosz. Rather than imbibe a just-so story about colonialism and anti-colonialism, freshmen need to understand the true nature of totalitarian empires.

Today's students tend to value social influence more than human excellence. Worse, they pay more heed to antiheroes—people who tear down civilization—than heroes: those who protect, repair, and rebuild it. So, at the outset of their studies, we think undergraduates should encounter not just thinkers and writers but also founders, doers, leaders, and pioneers such as Abraham and Socrates, da Vinci and Mozart, Lincoln and Churchill. They should study the works of great men, to use another unfashionable phrase, but also of great women: Sojourner Truth and Malala Yousafzai, Ada Lovelace and Lise Meitner. It is no small part of a liberal education to show students the broad range of meaningful lives they might aspire to lead.

No matter what they are obliged by their professors to read, most intelligent 18-year-olds will wrestle with what the creators of the Columbia Core called "the insistent problems of the present." But a true educational foundation draws on ancient as well as modern wisdom, enabling students to understand the difference between the timeless and the ephemeral…"

The Atlantic

Freshman summer reading: "Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of a Global Citizen"

 If you read it, post your thoughts in the comments section below.

If you didn't read it, post an explanation of why not.

 

Our Summer Reading Program choice for 2024 is Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of a Global Citizen, by Firoozeh Dumas. 

Storytelling about life's adventures and opportunities is where Dumas shines in her 2008 New York Times bestseller. Dumas' wit, humor, and candid look at the world around us provides a glimpse into the commonalities we all share despite our varied backgrounds. Laughing Without an Accent shows how perspective has a lot to do with success. Much like becoming a college student, Dumas encounters unchartered territory while embracing challenges as opportunity for discovery about herself and the world around her.

We hope you will join us in welcoming author Firoozeh Dumas to MTSU on Saturday, August 24, 2024. As the university's 23rd Summer Reading keynote speaker, Dumas will address MTSU's incoming class at this year's Convocation.

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/43547/laughing-without-an-accent-by-firoozeh-dumas/9780345499578/reading-guide.

MTSU Convocation 2024 Convocation marks the official opening of the academic year, and welcomes all new students to MTSU! This event is an MTSU tradition and a must-attend for the entering Class of 2028. Convocation is hosted by President McPhee. New students will take the True Blue Pledge, led by Student Government Association President Michai Mosby.Our keynote speaker will be Firoozeh Dumas, author of “Laughing Without an Accent: Adventures of a Global Citizen” 

WATCH on Vimeo https://vimeo.com/event/4524573 

 LISTEN: Do your own research, think for yourself, talk to people (and suffer less anxiety), don't take 2d-hand misinformation at face-value, be the author of your own story...

 

Welcome, CoPhi class of Fall '24!

Welcome, Intro (aka CoPhilosophy or just CoPhi) Honors class of Fall '24. The syllabus is under construction and coming soon. Meanwhile, these are the texts (which I'm happy for you to access on any and every platform you find useful: book, ebook, or audiobook):

REQUIRED:

• Nigel Warburton, LITTLE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY (Note: etext is linked in the right sidebar)
• Susan Neiman, WHY GROW UP: Subversive Thoughts for an Infantile Age
• John Kaag, SICK SOULS, HEALTHY MINDS: How William James Can Save Your Life
• Eric Weiner, THE SOCRATES EXPRESS: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers

RECOMMENDED (and available for 3-day checkout at the library):

• Mariana Allesandri, NIGHT VISION: seeing ourselves through dark moods
• Kurt Andersen, FANTASYLAND: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History
• Julian Baggini, HOW THE WORLD THINKS
• Catapano & Critchley, eds., QUESTION EVERYTHING: A Stone Reader
• Kaag & J. van Belle, BE NOT AFRAID OF LIFE: In the Words of William James
• Robert Richardson, THREE ROADS BACK: How Emerson, Thoreau, and William James Responded to the Greatest Losses of Their Lives
• Kieran Setiya, LIFE IS HARD: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way

See you soon.

Dr. Oliver

(posted to D2L)

==

UPDATE, Aug. 19:

Welcome, Intro to Philosophy (aka CoPhilosophy or just CoPhi) Honors class of Fall '24. The syllabus is now linked on our blogsite in the right sidebar. Go to the comments space under Introductions and introduce yourself: Introductions: who are you, why're you here?

If you read Laughing Without an Accent, scroll down and tell us what you thought of it. (If you didn't, tell us why not.)

...

See you on the 27th!

jpo

U-turn

The U-shaped curve that pegged youth and old age as the happiest times of life has changed

https://www.threads.net/@scientific_american/post/C9dVh-YyM_L/?xmt=AQGzQfZ7Zv477JQMGfzRMjTD8A-OdrdjxCgRUZc9TSwM6w

Baruch Spinoza and the Art of Thinking in Dangerous Times

"… it is Spinoza's dedication to freedom of thought—what he called libertas philosophandi—that makes him a thinker for our moment. In his new book, "Spinoza: Freedom's Messiah," a short biography in Yale University Press's Jewish Lives series, Ian Buruma observes that 'intellectual freedom has once again become an important issue, even in countries, such as the United States, that pride themselves on being uniquely free.'"

…
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/02/12/baruch-spinoza-and-the-art-of-thinking-in-dangerous-times?utm_source=threads&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tny&utm_social-type=owned

An appalling place

Ray Kurzweil Still Says He Will Merge With A.I.

Now 76, the inventor and futurist hopes to reach "the Singularity" and live indefinitely. His margin of error is shrinking.

...He recalled a conversation with his aunt, a psychotherapist, when she was 98 years old. He explained his theory of life longevity escape velocity — that people will eventually reach a point where they can live indefinitely. She replied: "Can you please hurry up with that?" Two weeks later, she died.

Though Dr. Hinton is impressed with Mr. Kurzweil's prediction that machines will become smarter than humans by the end of the decade, he is less taken with the idea that the inventor and futurist will live forever.

"I think a world run by 200-year-old white men would be an appalling place," Dr. Hinton said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/04/technology/ray-kurzweil-singularity.html?smid=em-share

==

Unless we eliminate the threat of dementia (and patriarchy) first, maybe...

Racing to Retake a Beloved Trip, Before Dementia Takes Everything

My dad always remembered his childhood journey through Europe. Now, with Alzheimer's claiming his memories, we tried to recreate it.
by Francesca Mari

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/30/magazine/dementia-alzheimers-reminiscence-therapy.html

A.I.-coming for my job?

…Unlike Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa, ElliQ can initiate conversations and was designed to create meaningful bonds. Beyond sharing the day's top news, playing games and reminding users to take their medication, ElliQ can tell jokes and even discuss complicated subjects like religion and the meaning of life...

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/06/nyregion/ai-robot-elliq-loneliness.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Freud's harshest critic

Frederick Crews, Withering Critic of Freud's Legacy, Dies at 91

A literary critic, essayist and author, he was a leading voice among revisionist skeptics who saw Freud as a charlatan and psychoanalysis as a pseudoscience.

...He also examined broader subjects like recovered memory therapy, the Rorschach test, alien abduction cases and, particularly, psychoanalysis, which he considered a pseudoscience, as well as the scourge of what he called Freudolatry...

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/24/books/frederick-crews-dead.html?pvid=JOSmglOKXSWPRoKC2Y__4izy&smid=em-share

How to Avoid Work: A 1949 Guide to Doing What You Love – The Marginalian

"…Actually, there is only one way in this world to achieve true happiness, and that is to express yourself with all your skill and enthusiasm in a career that appeals to you more than any other. In such a career, you feel a sense of purpose, a sense of achievement. You feel you are making a contribution. It is not work..."
https://www.themarginalian.org/2012/12/14/how-to-avoid-work/

"Who's pulling your strings?"

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John Kaag's A.I. experiment

Now You Can Read the Classics With A.I.-Powered Expert Guides
Margaret Atwood and John Banville are among the authors who have sold their voices and commentary to an app that aims to bring canonical texts to life with the latest tech.

For the past year, two philosophy professors have been calling around to prominent authors and public intellectuals with an unusual, perhaps heretical, proposal. They have been asking these thinkers if, for a handsome fee, they wouldn't mind turning themselves into A.I. chatbots.

John Kaag, one of the academics, is a professor at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He is known for writing books, such as "Hiking With Nietzsche" and "American Philosophy: A Love Story," that blend philosophy and memoir... (nyt, continues)

Freud's relevance

 Come for the Oedipus complex. Stay for the later troubled musings on the fate of humanity.

...he had written the most influential biography of us—of man, a creature of pleasure who had been civilized into unhappiness, and of mankind, its members instinctively bound by Eros and aggression...

Merve Emre, NYer 

Night Vision on reserve

 Good Morning Dr. Oliver,

 

The book Night vision : seeing ourselves through dark moods has been placed on Reserves for your PHIL 1030H course. It is available and can be checked out at the Circulation/Reserves Desks.

 

Please let me know if you have any questions or if I can be of further assistance.

 

Thank you,

 

Suzy

 

 

Suzy Burkhardt

Reserves Coordinator

Middle Tennessee State University

James E. Walker Library

PO Box 13, Murfreesboro, TN 37132

615-904-8544

 

Suzy.Burkhardt@mtsu.edu

"thought experiments may not translate well to the real world"

"...Rawls devised one of the most powerful of all thought experiments: the idea of the "veil of ignorance," behind which we must imagine the society we would want to live in without knowing which role in that society's hierarchy we would occupy. Simple as it is, it has ever-arresting force, making it clear that, behind this veil, rational and self-interested people would never design a society like that of, say, the slave states of the American South, given that, dropped into it at random, they could very well be enslaved. It also suggests that Norway might be a fairly just place, because a person would almost certainly land in a comfortable and secure middle-class life, however boringly Norwegian.

Still, thought experiments may not translate well to the real world. Einstein's similarly epoch-altering account of what it would be like to travel on a beam of light, and how it would affect the hands on one's watch, is profound for what it reveals about the nature of time. Yet it isn't much of a guide to setting the timer on the coffeemaker in the kitchen so that the pot will fill in time for breakfast. Actual politics is much more like setting the timer on the coffeemaker than like riding on a beam of light. Breakfast is part of the cosmos, but studying the cosmos won't cook breakfast..."

Adam Gopnik

Why Liberals Struggle to Defend Liberalism | The New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/05/27/why-liberals-struggle-to-defend-liberalism

Humility

https://www.threads.net/@adamgrant/post/C7EyZO1P-eL/?xmt=AQGzDfMd9y1cUGRIH7ywFqTGwDUtSs3RKCq1mbR1K_n1XQ

That's all

Posting is now closed for Spring '24. Grades will soon be reported to the registrar. 

Have a good break. Keep asking questions. Stay humble like Socrates and Ambrose Bierce. 

And consider registering for Environmental Ethics in the Fall.