2011 Fall Proseminar Professor Blog

1st Class: August 30, 2011

Class:

Thanks for helping the course get off to a good start last night. I'm really looking forward to our philosophical work together. As I said last night, this class offers you some great opportunities to get the big picture on the range of philosophical projects going on today (at least in the English speaking philosophical community). It's also a class that encourages you to pursue topics of your own choice, and practice research skills in pursuing them. We'll look at some crucial "turning points" in philosophy of the last 400 years, but we will also fill out our schedule with topics like the ones you all mentioned last night.

No matter what the topic or problem under discussion (and it's hard to avoid thinking about philosophy as posing problems), we should always be self-conscious about our methods and approaches in doing philosophy. In the early weeks of the semester, I hope you'll try to notice (in this class and others) how you are using (or not using) particular methods in constructing philosophical points of view. See the two versions of the article on philosophical methods on the course wiki for more information about this. In any case, content and method are dual concerns of the course. Sometimes we focus too much on teaching you lots of philosophy without making sure that your ability to practice philosophy is developing as well. Conversation and writing are the main occasions for practicing method and philosophy. Isn't it wonderful that philosophy is so social?!

The reading packets for next week are outside my door. I'll try to have them to distribute in class in the future.

We do try to have deserts for class, but maybe we'll organize that next week.

Looking forward to our first working class next week.

Alfino

2nd Class: September 6, 2011

Thanks for a good class. I thought the reading level was good and most or all of you were engaged in the topics and issues. We need to get more of you on record ahead of the class meeting through the wiki. I hope the range of useful posts is becoming clearer. Let's try to get reading for next week done soon enough to post to the wiki by Sunday night. That allows everyone to read what's posted on Monday and Tuesday. Once we get this right, class discussions start at a more advanced level because the general level of understanding going into the class has been enhanced by the posts.

On topics, I think lots of you resonated with Hadot. That's great. I think we could have spent more time thinking about how "spiritual exercises" really work and why it's reasonable to expect philosophical activities to produce such exercises, such as mindfulness, but that would have required more depth in Hellenistic schools. I think also we appreciated how you could be a philosopher and not focus on spiritual exercises or even think them important.

Wiredu continues to provide a challenging perspective. Maybe some of you will want to do more comparative work. I don't agree with logical positivism (look it up -- the wikipedia has a good page on it), but I take his point that African philosophy should not be identified with magic and animism (since we don't observe the parallel practice when talking about Western thought). I liked the way several of you wanted a "both and" solution here, but there are tensions.

Finally, I hope we got some sense of what alternative styles of writing philosophy might look like. I've got lots more of this, so if you sign up for it in your grading scheme I'll make you a packet of additional examples, which could be models for your writing.

Could someone post links on the wiki (main page) for Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Routledge (through foley) Encyclopedia of Philosophy? Please use them as study aids and to fill in terms and figures you don't know anything about.

Ok, I've got to pack and catch an early plane. Good luck with your reading and grading schemes. Please let me know if you can volunteer for dessert/snacks. Given our class size we might want a couple of volunteers for each week. I'm glad to make sure there are plates and utensils, just let me know what you're planning.

Alfino

3rd Class: September 13, 2011

Thanks for a really good class, folks. I think we're getting some momentum on the whole "seminar" dimension of the class. I meant to spend a bit more time acknowledging the wiki posts for last night. They were good. Check out the article by Singer that Ted linked, for example. As you think about Wiki posts, this week's batch is a good model.

A goal we could have for next week would be to try to get posts up a bit earlier so others have time to read them before class. But I realize time conspires against us. Also, don't overlook other goals for your posts, like summary, critical perspectives, etc.

One of the general goals of the course is to put philosophical culture "in motion" for you. So seeing turning points in the kinds of ethics questions ethicists ask is an example of that. I hope the early/late Singer contrast illustrated it, along with the goofy trolley video. I hope that didn't cause any nightmares.

Some housekeeping:

• Could someone(s) volunteer for dessert/ouere derves next week? email me.
• Read only first three items in packet (follow course website schedule).
• Review sub docs under Instructional Notes on Method
• Review the two lists of Philosophical Methods for next week.

Also, on the wiki I started a list of "Resources for Quick Understanding of terms and ideas." I put the Stanford Encyclopedia up. Could some of you add items? There's Internet Encyclopedia, Episteme links, etc. Let's see what you guys come up with and then I'll add to it if necessary.

Thanks again. Please dig into your readings for next week soon!

Alfino

4th Class: September 20, 2011

Thanks for a good class. The treatment of Giere seemed thorough enough and you all latched onto the issues (metaphysical and epistemological) raised by this characterization of science. My rationale for the Barnes reading was that there seemed to be an analogy between the picture of science in the case study and the picture of science in Barnes treatment. In both cases you see what Giere called "scientific episodes" which develop the model, poses theoretical hypotheses, make new models, do calculation, make prediction, etc. In fact, one way to characterize the scientific revolution is by saying there was an "epidemic" of such episodes. The Barnes narrative, for all of its potential offense, was accurate in characterizing the modern period in terms of the great philosophical challenge of rethinking the basis of traditional ideas. As I pointed out last night, we should avoid characterizing this as challenge between "belief and dis-belief" (though modern atheism is a product of the period). The challenge was to traditional belief and many enlightenment philosophers tried to re-ground their faith commitments in light of the new sciences. That challenge is still with us, so looking at the intial upheavals in thought from science in the 17th century seems pretty relevant. We'll be working with these issues more later in the course under the heading of "faith and reason" and when we look at contemporary naturalism.

In any case, sorry if the Barnes was a slog. You're reading a different intellectual historian as part of your reading next week, so I'll be interested in your comparisons. There's a whole question about the relationship between intellectual history and philosophy, but we should do more of each before we tackle that one.

On your to do list for this course in the coming 1-2 weeks: work out your grading schemes and maybe visit with me about them and about your topical interests. Also, order your copy of Husserl, Origin of Geometry (amazon link on the wiki). Order that soon.

As I said in class, if 9-10 m-th office hours don't work, just email a couple of times that do. If you liked any of the stuff in those books I passed around, let's see if there's an assignment there. I started Logicomix last night. It's pretty fun so far.

We have one more week of history-heavy work and then back to applied topics -- genetic engineering and transhumanism. Other topics I'm working on including (sampling really) in the course based in part on your suggestions and past experience: philosophy of mind, something eastern, shopclass, faith&reason, game theory. That's in addition to tacking a couple of more "turning points" like phenomenology (Husserl) and naturalism. By the end of the course, you should have a nice backpack full of philosophy knowledge and skills for your hike through the major.

Don't forget to check out Philosophy Club. It's a great place to practice philosophy and, as you know, your extra-curricular philosophical lives should be a source of great satisfaction, philosophical development, and pleasure.

Alfino

5th Class: September 27, 2011

We had a pretty successful class in the sense that the main learning goals were presented and discussed. We worked on the concept of validity, reviewed the definitions chapter, and briefly discussed the role of definition in philosophy. We started our research skills work with a look at Philosopher's Index, the Foley site, JStor, including some killer search techniques. We also worked on the reading about the Scottish Enlightenment. Part of the goal there was to see how intellectual societies operate, understand some of the unique issues of the SE, and see the SE in connection with the general problems of Modern Philosophy. Our consideration of Hume's actual epistemology was necessarily brief, but I hope we got a sense of the radicalness of it and how it constitutes a "turning point." When I said that Hume's philosophy was "noisy," I was making reference to a famous comment by Kant, that Hume woke him from his "dogmatic slumber." Hume is loud and we keep trace cool new ideas back to him. Like game theory.

I do think we have some issues to consider as a class. We had a couple of absences from illness and for test preparation, and maybe a couple of more for other reasons. All that is understandable, of course. Of those who showed up, many had prepared well. I don't think we could have accomplished the goals of that class if many of you hadn't. But the wiki posts have not developed much in the last few weeks, and too many of you didn't arrive last night with ideas and questions about the reading. One of the key features of the seminar environment is a higher level of preparation and engagement than you might see in a straight "readings" class. We have the luxury of attempting such an atmosphere because the department's goals for this class, to prepare you, with skills and information about philosophy and philosophical method, for a deeper experience of the major, can be met with a wide variety of content and does not necessarily require content testing.

If we don't get some momentum with the seminar style, we could reassess at mid-terms and change the format of the class to the more traditional reading/study question/exam model. I think it would be better if we could achieve a seminar style class, because there's a bit less freedom in the traditional model, but I don't mind being realistic about it. After all, seminars tend to work when there's a high motivation and you get reading and thinking going ahead of the class meeting. It's really hard or impossible to make that happen with exams. They also work when seminarians have independent interests to pursue in projects and papers. So let's shoot for a higher level of pre-class reflection, evidenced in part by wiki posts and a higher level of informed preparation for discussions. You all should be using your reference sources (encyclopedias, etc., see wiki) to get more out of these readings, for example. On a bright note, I do think you guys are starting to come forward with interesting grading schemes and projects, but I'd like to get more office visits from you in the coming two weeks about your projects to make that generalization true.

Please pick up a reading packet from my office door if you missed class. Don't forget Philosophy Club on Thursday at 5:30pm. This may not be the Scottish Enlightenment, but Philosophy Club is a real way to participate in philosophical culture. I thought our question, "What are the issues of the contemporary intellectual "salon"?" was a good one. Maybe Philosophy Club knows.

So get in touch for an appointment, read everything and think about it more. Sketch arguments for your view, take some notes, share some things with the class online. Then come to class ready to make some philosophical moves! If 1/2 the class achieved this level of preparation (and the rest at least read and reflected a bit), we'd have a taste of philosophical nirvana. There's no shame in failing at that, but let's go for it. And dessert.

Alfino

6th Class: October 4, 2011

Thanks for a really great class, folks. I know the topics are high-interest and that helped, but I also thought the online posts and the live discussions were really productive. Your small groups seemed to be tracking more information from the readings, which is great. We're definitely out of our slump, so let's keep up the momentum this week.

Following Tuesday's class I also had some good follow-ups with several of you about the topics and your grading schemes. I've got plenty of time for office visits from you about your research and writing in the seminar, and I've really enjoyed the meetings I've been having. As I mentioned in class, this is the time to bring the Methods & Research tips together with your interests and plan some of your philosophical work. I'd like you to try to get the formal writing and research done by Thanksgiving, if possible. Yikes! That's not so many weeks away.

Don't forget to grab the packet for next Tuesday outside my office door. The building is open all day today (and tonight for PHILCLUB), so get yours soon. We'll spend about equal time figuring out how Kant creates a "turning point" in philosophy and on Crawford's argument about intellectual labor. A little searching on reactions to Crawford (and related authors like Pirsig) would be great. Someone should post the 3-minute philosophers on Kant and other, even better! video and online material for understanding Kant's major contributions.

Dessert volunteers welcome. Maybe some more of the guys in the class want to step up on that.

Have a great, philosophical weekend.

Alfino