Difference between revisions of "Tem"

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==October 20, 2010==
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==11: OCT 6==
  
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===Assigned===
  
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===Hall, Chapters 7 & 8: Compassion & Humility===
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:*Haidt, Chapter 5, "Beyond WEIRD Morality" (17)
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:*Writing exercise: How WEIRD is Morality?
  
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Compassion
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===Brief Survey on Student Engagement in Hybrid course delivery===
  
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:"By compassion is meant not only the willingness to share another person's pain and suffering; in a larger sense, it refers to a transcendent ability to step outside the moat of one's own self-interest to understand the point of view of another; in a still larger sense, it may take this "feeling for" to the level of mind reading, for the theory of mind—one of the most powerfiil implements that evolution placed in the human cognitive tool kit—requires us to understand the way another person's feelings inform his or her intentions and actions." 116
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:*Please take the following anonymous [https://gonzaga.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3I98g1ecsTe59ZP survey].
  
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:Matthieu Ricard and Richard Davidson studies.  (no overarching theory here, but note Davidson on p. 121)  Davidson believes in poss of "training" toward increased well being.
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===Final Stage of Sapolsky Writing Assignment===
  
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:Ricard makes the case, on 122, that direct cultivation of compassion could aid in promoting wisdom.  follow his view.
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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/1FAIpQLSdgKCYITDTSOOHcvC3TAVNK-EZDsP4jiiyPj-7jdpRoNUsLPA/viewform?usp=sf_link].  '''Fill out the form for each reviewer, but not Alfino.'''  Up to 10 points, in Points.
  
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:general point: importance in this research of thinking of compassion as having a neural substrate.
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::*Back evaluations are due '''Thursday, October 8, 11:59pm'''.
  
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:126: mirror neurons and empathy.
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===Some samples from Henrich's, "The Weirdest People on Earth"===
  
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Humility
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:*p. 25: "Who Am I?" task.  Show charts
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:*p. 28: sociocentric vs. individualistic
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:*p. 34: guilt vs. shame
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:*p. 44: impersonal honesty research (recall Ariely). 
  
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:puzzle about humility.  can't be a major mark of wisdom, since you could be humble about the fact that you're not wise.  [Still, if you can be wise, perhaps you must be humble?  or not?]
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===Haidt, Chapter 5, "Beyond WEIRD Morality"===
  
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:in religion -- piety and obedience to God. 137
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====WEIRD Morality====
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:*WEIRD morality is the morality of Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic cultures
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::*just as likely to be bothered by taboo violations, but more likely to set aside feelings of disgust and allow violations
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::*only group with majority allowing chicken story violation.
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::*"the weirder you are the more likely you are to see the world in terms of separate objects, rather than relationships"  "sociocentric" moralities vs. individualistic moralities; Enlightenment moralities of Kant and Mill are rationalist, individualist, and universalist. 
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::*survey data on East/West differences in sentence completion: "I am..."
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::*framed-line task 97
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:*Kantian and Millian ethical thought is rationalist, rule based, and universalist.  Just the ethical theory you would expect from the culture.
  
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:narcissism among CEOs. correlates with white collar crime.  inverse of humility.  best CEOs blend humility with strong will.
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====A 3 channel moral matrix====
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:*Schweder's anthropology: ethics of autonomy, community, divinity 99-100 - gloss each...
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::*claims Schweder's theory predicts responses on taboo violation tests, is descriptively accurate.
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::*ethic of divinity: body as temple vs. playground
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::*vertical dimension to values.  explains reactions to flag desecration, piss Christ, thought exp: desecration of liberal icons.  (Note connection to contemporary conflicts, such as the Charlie Hebdot massacre.)
  
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====Making Sense of Moral/Cultural Difference====
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:*'''Haidt's Bhubaneswar experience''': diverse (intense) continua of moral values related to purity. (opposite of disgust). Confusing at first, but notice that he started to like his hosts (elephant) and then started to think about how their values might work.  Stop and think about how a mind might create this.  Detail about airline passenger.
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:*Theorizing with Paul Rozin on the right model for thinking about moral foundations: "Our theory, in brief" (103)
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:*American politics often about sense of "sacrilege", not just about defining rights (autonomy).  Not just harm, but types of moral disgust.
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:*'''Stepping out of the Matrix''':  H's metaphor for seeing his own cultural moral values as more "contingent" than before, when it felt like the natural advocacy of what seem true and right.  Reports growing self awareness of liberal orientation of intellectual culture in relation to Shweder's view.  Social conservatives made more sense to him after studying in India.
  
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===Introduction to Buddhism===
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===Small Group Discussion===
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:*Discussion questions:
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* The Four Noble Truths
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::*Does it make sense to talk about "stepping out of a matrix"? Is this a temporary thing? What value might it have in your experience?
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::*Do you have a parallel story to Haidt's?  (Mention travel experiences.)
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:1  There is suffering.
 
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:2  There is the origination of suffering: suffering comes into existence in dependence on causes.
 
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:3  There is the cessation of suffering: all future suffering can be prevented by becoming aware of our ignorance and undoing the effects of it.
 
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:4  There is a path to the cessation of suffering.
 
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::8 fold path.  (see above and in Feuerstein.)
 
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===Holder, The Greater Discourse on the Destruction of Craving===
 
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:The Greater Discourse on the Destruction of Craving starts with the "bad" monk, Sati, who thinks that reincarnation might involve the same consciousness (and so the survival of the self after death).  The other bhikkhus rat him out to the Buddha, who calls him out over the issue (in a gentle Buddha way) and goes on to describe both the process of "devolution" by which ignorance leads us to craving (65) and the process of purification that brings about a reversal (66) of the process.  Prior to following the eightfold path, our experience (seeing, hearing, etc.) entails an unhealthy attachment.  After, we presumably have the same kinds of experiences, but without unhealthy attachment.
 
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===Matthieu Ricard, "Alchemy of Suffering" and "The Veils of the Ego"===
 
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Just a few points:
 
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:*follow his dicussion of suffering.  including the story of woman who begged the Buddha to restore her dead son. the possibility of learning from suffering (so, buddhists are not saying that all suffering is "pointless;" just something we can in fact overcome. 72) 
 
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:*Notice the "exercises" in this kinds of writing. Again, endorsing idea of direct training of emotional response.  Challenging to some views of the emotions.
 
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:*From "Veils of the Ego" -- the concern in this chapter is with the status of the ego in buddhism.  Seems like "annihilation" is the protocol, but Ricard makes some important distinctions here. 
 
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:*"The ego, writes Buddhist philosopher Han de Wit, "is also an affective reaction to our field of experience, a mental withdrawl based on fear." Out of fear of the world and of others, out of dread of suffering, out of anxiety about living and dying, we imagine that by hiding inside a bubble — the ego — we will be protected. We create the illusion of being separate from the world, hoping thereby to avert suffering. In fact, what happens is just the opposite, since ego-grasping and self-importance are the best magnets to attract suffering." 82
 
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:*example of how perspective dependent the possessive ego is: Notice in different reactions to breaking of the vase.  84.
 
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:*86:  Ricard reconstructs a challenge to Buddhist line of thought.  Aren't egos great?  Ricard claims, in response, that a higher level of self-confidence is possible through egoless involvement in the world.
 
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:*"The notion of the per-son is valid and healthy so long as we consider it simply as con-noting the overall relationship between the consciousness, thebody, and the environment. It becomes inappropriate and un-healthy when we consider it to be an autonomous entity."  91
 

Latest revision as of 19:51, 6 October 2020

11: OCT 6

Assigned

  • Haidt, Chapter 5, "Beyond WEIRD Morality" (17)
  • Writing exercise: How WEIRD is Morality?

Brief Survey on Student Engagement in Hybrid course delivery

  • Please take the following anonymous survey.

Final Stage of Sapolsky Writing Assignment

  • 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: [1]. Fill out the form for each reviewer, but not Alfino. Up to 10 points, in Points.
  • Back evaluations are due Thursday, October 8, 11:59pm.

Some samples from Henrich's, "The Weirdest People on Earth"

  • p. 25: "Who Am I?" task. Show charts
  • p. 28: sociocentric vs. individualistic
  • p. 34: guilt vs. shame
  • p. 44: impersonal honesty research (recall Ariely).

Haidt, Chapter 5, "Beyond WEIRD Morality"

WEIRD Morality

  • WEIRD morality is the morality of Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic cultures
  • just as likely to be bothered by taboo violations, but more likely to set aside feelings of disgust and allow violations
  • only group with majority allowing chicken story violation.
  • "the weirder you are the more likely you are to see the world in terms of separate objects, rather than relationships" "sociocentric" moralities vs. individualistic moralities; Enlightenment moralities of Kant and Mill are rationalist, individualist, and universalist.
  • survey data on East/West differences in sentence completion: "I am..."
  • framed-line task 97
  • Kantian and Millian ethical thought is rationalist, rule based, and universalist. Just the ethical theory you would expect from the culture.

A 3 channel moral matrix

  • Schweder's anthropology: ethics of autonomy, community, divinity 99-100 - gloss each...
  • claims Schweder's theory predicts responses on taboo violation tests, is descriptively accurate.
  • ethic of divinity: body as temple vs. playground
  • vertical dimension to values. explains reactions to flag desecration, piss Christ, thought exp: desecration of liberal icons. (Note connection to contemporary conflicts, such as the Charlie Hebdot massacre.)

Making Sense of Moral/Cultural Difference

  • Haidt's Bhubaneswar experience: diverse (intense) continua of moral values related to purity. (opposite of disgust). Confusing at first, but notice that he started to like his hosts (elephant) and then started to think about how their values might work. Stop and think about how a mind might create this. Detail about airline passenger.
  • Theorizing with Paul Rozin on the right model for thinking about moral foundations: "Our theory, in brief" (103)
  • American politics often about sense of "sacrilege", not just about defining rights (autonomy). Not just harm, but types of moral disgust.
  • Stepping out of the Matrix: H's metaphor for seeing his own cultural moral values as more "contingent" than before, when it felt like the natural advocacy of what seem true and right. Reports growing self awareness of liberal orientation of intellectual culture in relation to Shweder's view. Social conservatives made more sense to him after studying in India.

Small Group Discussion

  • Discussion questions:
  • Does it make sense to talk about "stepping out of a matrix"? Is this a temporary thing? What value might it have in your experience?
  • Do you have a parallel story to Haidt's? (Mention travel experiences.)
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