Difference between revisions of "MAR 31"

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(Created page with "==20: MAR 31== ===Assigned=== :*Dennett, Daniel. Chapter 7: "The Evolution of Moral Agency" Freedom Evolves. (300) (193-221) (28) ===Dennett, Daniel. Chapter 7: "The Evolut...")
 
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==20: MAR 31==
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==18. MAR 31==
  
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===Assigned===
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===Assigned Work===
  
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:*Dennett, Daniel. Chapter 7: "The Evolution of Moral Agency" Freedom Evolves. (300) (193-221) (28)
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:*Ogle, Maureen, ''In Meat We Trust,'' C2, "We Are Here To Make Money" (44-62) (18)
  
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===Dennett, Daniel. Chapter 7: "The Evolution of Moral Agency" Freedom Evolves===
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===In-Class===
  
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:*Sober and Wilson quote.
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:*Slaughter house food culture.
  
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:*Theme of the chapter: How nature supports the emergence of morality and moral agency. A further argument is needed to show that moral agency gives us a kind of freedom "worth having."
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===Slaughter vs. Hyperslaughter===
  
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:*Benselfishness - "far sighted self-interest" 
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:*A few slides from some research on the history of the slaughterhouse and industrial slaughter.  I will present this power point in class.
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::*Sober and Wilson '03 book ''Unto Others'' - altruism can evolve. 
 
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::*Is altruism a "cul de sac" in evolutionary terms?  Not if it can be established incrementally in a population as a stable strategy.
 
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:::*Back to Prisoner's Dilemma -- problem is to undermine defection as the best strategy.  198: In a sense evolution solved an analogue of this problem at the cellular level - competition between organism and parasite.
 
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:::*By modelling payoffs and costs of defection, you can build an artificial life toy version of the problem of altruism. You can then add in "choice" and "learning".  Now you can detect freeloaders and even punish extreme altruists.  (Mention evidence on prosocial punishment vs. altruistic punishment.)
 
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:::*Conclusion: The benselfish agent would prevail.  "prudent disposition to cooperate plus shared disposition to punish" (Let's pause on this. Is game theoretic punishment retributivist?)
 
  
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:*Being Good to Seem Good
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===Ogle, Maureen, ''In Meat We Trust,'' C2, "We Are Here To Make Money"===
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::*Mencken quote.
 
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::*203: Note that he is lacking the cultural evo thesis about universalizing religions and city size. 
 
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::*Frank "commitment problems" when it's in our interest to limit future self-interest."
 
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::*freeloaders set off an "arms race" for bluffing and bluff detection.  "Part of becoming a responsibile agent is making oneself into a being that can be relied upon to be relatively impervious to such offers (to defect or freeload)."  Zahavi's "costly signal" theory.  (Think of examples.  Church all week, transparency, showing concern, showing up early . . . ).
 
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::*self-control problems - Ulysses and the Sirens - we often solve control problems by "self-binding" (a metaphor in the lit on self-control that connects with old Ulysses' problem).
 
  
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:*Learning to Deal with Yourself (Discounting)
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:*Tells the story of the rise of the "dressed beef" supply chain, and the fortunes of Swift, an innovator.
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::*Recall the psychological adaptations in Henrich that relate to this: patience, discounting.
 
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::*209: We have evolved a psychology with hyperbolic discounting, which does not serve our long term interests (and makes it harder to have long term interests).
 
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::*"willpower" reimagined (using the Anslie source) as a competition in our heads of reward seeking possibilities.  Like Ulysses, we have to take a different attitude toward our future selves to make sense of the competition.  (Think about how you manage this conflict in your own life.  Willpower, but also habit.
 
  
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:*Our costly merit badges
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:*Opens with Summer 1882 building of Swift's warehouse at the tip of Manhattan.  Backs up to tell the story of the rail monopolies practices of overcharging for shipping costs of live beef.  (29) details.
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::*Thesis: Being good is an effective way of solving a control problem. Recall the Luther example.  "Making yourself so that one could not have done otherwise" is an innovation.  Reputation (our merit badges) help with this. 
 
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::*The fear that determinism robs us of possibility (which he addressed theoretically early in the book) almost gets it backwards: "We can only be free in a morally relevant sense, if, in fact, we learn how to render ourselves insensitive to many opportunities that come our way."
 
  
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===SW2: Assessing Dennett===
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:*Bringing animals into the city live was becoming impractical, a health hazard, and unsightly (also happenening in Europe, French in the lead in developing the modern ''abattoir'').  Note: old slaughterhouses could handle from 1-12 animals a day.  But there were hundreds of them in a city like NY.
  
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:*'''Stage 1''': Please write an 1000 word maximum answer to the following question by '''Wednesday, April 12, 11:59pm.'''
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:*Boards of Health moving against small butchers. Early modern abattoir: Communipaw. Communipaw abattoir [https://blog.historian4hire.net/2012/11/01/views-of-communipaw/]. Could handle 2,000 animals a day.
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::*Topic: Critically evaluate Dennett's argument in ''Freedom Evolves''. Specifically, consider whether he has convinced you of two major claims: 1. Determinism is compatible with the way we think (or should think) about possibility, causation, and at least some features of freedom, such as "evitability" (early chapters); and, 2. Freedom evolved in us along with (in the form of?) moral agency, which helps solve problems of cooperation and expand our "degrees of freedom" (later chapters).
 
  
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:*'''Advice about collaboration''': I encourage you to collaborate with other students, but only up to the point of sharing ideas, references to class notes and readings, and your own notes.  Collaboration is part of the academic process and the intellectual world that college courses are based on, so it is important to me that you have the possibility to collaborate.  It's a great way to make sure that a high average level of learning and development occurs.  The best way to avoid plagiarism is to '''NOT''' share text of draft answers or outlines of your answer.  Keep it verbal.  Generate your own examples.   
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:*Courts battles as butchers argued that regulation of their busines was unconstitutional.  The "Slaughterhouse Cases" at the Supreme Court.   
  
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:*Prepare your answer and submit it in the following way:
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:*Another version of this fight in the Vanderbilt’s proposal to build a big slaughterhouse in central Manhattan.  NIMBY issue with local residents. Vanderbilt gets his stockyard and abattoir at West 59th Street, NYC.   
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::# '''Do not put your name in the file or filename'''.  You may put your student id number in the file.  Put a word count in the file.
 
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::# In Word, check "File" and "Inspect Document" to make sure your name does not appear as author.  You may want to change this to "anon" for this document.
 
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::# Format your answer in double spaced text in a 12 point font, using normal margins. 
 
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::# Save the file in the ".docx" file format using the file name "DennettEvaluation".
 
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::# Log in to courses.alfino.org.  Upload your file to the '''Points dropbox'''.   
 
  
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:*'''Stage 2''': Please evaluate '''four''' student answers and provide brief comments and a score. Review the [[Assignment Rubric]] for this exercise.  We will be using all four areas of the rubric for this assignment.  We will tie specific elements of the prompt to the content assessment, so be sure to consider that in composing your answer! Complete your evaluations and scoring by '''Wednesday, April 19, 2021 11:59pm.''' 
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:*Live shipped animal also suffered in transit, meat damaged, lost 200 pounds.   
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::*Use [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeqN-Xt99HnSsPmvh94XMElTSwD4S1OPZ-QyaLzWl_i8nJcGg/viewform?usp=sf_link this Google Form] to evaluate four peer papers. The papers will be on the Sharepoint site under Student Writing.
 
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::*To determine the papers you need to peer review, I will send you a key with saint names in alphabetically order, along with animal names.  You will find your saint name, look to the right for your animal name, and review the next four (4) animals' work in the list, going to the top of the list if necessary. 
 
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::*Some papers may arrive late.  If you are in line to review a missing paper, allow a day or two for it to show up.  If it does not show up, go ahead and review enough papers to get to four reviews.  This assures that you will get enough "back evaluations" of your work to get a good average for your peer review credit.  (You will also have an opportunity to challenge a back evaluation score of your reviewing that is out of line with the others.)
 
  
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:*'''Stage 3''': I will grade and briefly comment on your writing using the peer scores as an initial ranking.  Assuming the process works normally, I will give you the higher of the two grades.
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:*34-35: initial account of slaughter process.  We’ll see more of this in ethics unit.
  
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:*'''Stage 4''': Back-evaluation: After you receive your peer comments and my evaluation, take a few minutes to fill out this quick "back evaluation" rating form: [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc-sH_CeUb06ks_y3iIhQ3Ix2JorgY7jox9e58HoxIsVMgVlw/viewform?usp=sf_link].  '''Fill out the form for each reviewer, but not Alfino.'''  You will receive 5 points for doing your back evaluations and up to 5 points, from the back evaluation score (averaged and divided by 2).
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:*36: Legal fights over forced closure of private slaughterhouses.  Supreme Court “slaughterhouse cases” affirmed authority of municipalities to regulate slaughter and create municipal slaughterhouses.
  
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::*Back evaluations are due '''TBD, 11:59pm'''.
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:*40: Before Swift, other entrepreneurs tried shipping dressed beef.  Hammond.  Refrigertor cars (with ice, not compressors) in use and developing. 
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:*Swift's success: read at 41. Search “chicago stockyard images”.  Era of "cheap beef"
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:*46: Philip Armour story -- not a meat guy, but understood how to corner the market with futures contracts.  Went to Chicago to build a pork processing plant.  Enters the New York market along with Swift. 
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:*50: Interesting point about meat culture and American culture: read.  Choice meats available to all classes.
 +
 
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:*Meat Ideology -- 19th/early 20th century idea that meat protein is special and accounts for European hegemony.  (add notes: Japan responds by developing "Kobe" meat culture.) 
 +
 
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:*Meat Bubble - profits of 33%, era of free range livestock production with very low costs, ending. 1870: one steer per 5 acres, 1880: one steer per 50-90 acres, due to overgrazing. 52.  Bubble bursts.
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:*Margins on dressed beef were actually very low. Demanded high volume to be profitable. Byproducts were important. 
 +
 
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:*Beef Trust -- already a focus on the Railroad Trusts, Congress investigates collusion in pricing. 57ff. 1888.
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:*1890: Sherman Antitrust Act.

Latest revision as of 15:55, 31 March 2025

18. MAR 31

Assigned Work

  • Ogle, Maureen, In Meat We Trust, C2, "We Are Here To Make Money" (44-62) (18)

In-Class

  • Slaughter house food culture.

Slaughter vs. Hyperslaughter

  • A few slides from some research on the history of the slaughterhouse and industrial slaughter. I will present this power point in class.

Ogle, Maureen, In Meat We Trust, C2, "We Are Here To Make Money"

  • Tells the story of the rise of the "dressed beef" supply chain, and the fortunes of Swift, an innovator.
  • Opens with Summer 1882 building of Swift's warehouse at the tip of Manhattan. Backs up to tell the story of the rail monopolies practices of overcharging for shipping costs of live beef. (29) details.
  • Bringing animals into the city live was becoming impractical, a health hazard, and unsightly (also happenening in Europe, French in the lead in developing the modern abattoir). Note: old slaughterhouses could handle from 1-12 animals a day. But there were hundreds of them in a city like NY.
  • Boards of Health moving against small butchers. Early modern abattoir: Communipaw. Communipaw abattoir [1]. Could handle 2,000 animals a day.
  • Courts battles as butchers argued that regulation of their busines was unconstitutional. The "Slaughterhouse Cases" at the Supreme Court.
  • Another version of this fight in the Vanderbilt’s proposal to build a big slaughterhouse in central Manhattan. NIMBY issue with local residents. Vanderbilt gets his stockyard and abattoir at West 59th Street, NYC.
  • Live shipped animal also suffered in transit, meat damaged, lost 200 pounds.
  • 34-35: initial account of slaughter process. We’ll see more of this in ethics unit.
  • 36: Legal fights over forced closure of private slaughterhouses. Supreme Court “slaughterhouse cases” affirmed authority of municipalities to regulate slaughter and create municipal slaughterhouses.
  • 40: Before Swift, other entrepreneurs tried shipping dressed beef. Hammond. Refrigertor cars (with ice, not compressors) in use and developing.
  • Swift's success: read at 41. Search “chicago stockyard images”. Era of "cheap beef"
  • 46: Philip Armour story -- not a meat guy, but understood how to corner the market with futures contracts. Went to Chicago to build a pork processing plant. Enters the New York market along with Swift.
  • 50: Interesting point about meat culture and American culture: read. Choice meats available to all classes.
  • Meat Ideology -- 19th/early 20th century idea that meat protein is special and accounts for European hegemony. (add notes: Japan responds by developing "Kobe" meat culture.)
  • Meat Bubble - profits of 33%, era of free range livestock production with very low costs, ending. 1870: one steer per 5 acres, 1880: one steer per 50-90 acres, due to overgrazing. 52. Bubble bursts.
  • Margins on dressed beef were actually very low. Demanded high volume to be profitable. Byproducts were important.
  • Beef Trust -- already a focus on the Railroad Trusts, Congress investigates collusion in pricing. 57ff. 1888.
  • 1890: Sherman Antitrust Act.
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