2011 Fall Proseminar Class Notes A

Return to Philosophy Proseminar

This is the main page for posting information relevant to our Seminar Sessions. You should post for the Tuesday evening seminar by Sunday night.

---

September 6, 2011

Readings by Hadot, Wiredu, de Botton, Dillard, and Golding

(I'll post some questions here to prompt some of you, but don't limit yourself to these in considering responses and postings. - Alfino)

Hadot

1. Identify some of Hadot's main theses in "Spiritual Exercises"?

2. What questions do you have about Stoicism and Epicureanism in light of this reading?

Favorite quote: When Antisthenes was asked what profit he had derived from philosophy, he replied: "The ability to converse with myself." 91

3. What is dialectic? 92

4. How was Christianity able to present itself as a philosophy, according to Hadot? What is the other possibility?

Laura Fitzgibbon Stoicism vs. Epicureanism

Epicureanism: belief that pleasure is the ultimate good, but virtue is necessary to help us differentiate higher from lower pleasures. Techniques of doing so is meditation and "detach our thought from the vision of painful things, and fix our eyes on pleasurable ones. We are to relive memories of past pleasures, and enjoy the pleasures of the present" (Haidt 88). Epicureanists theological values are not atheist but rather feel that if there are gods they do not concern themselves with the affairs of man. "Gods have no effect on the profess of the world and that death, being complete dissolution, is not part of life" (Haidt 87).

Stoicism: belief that virtue is the ultimate good. A virtuous life is a happy life. Felt philosophy was an exercise and was an art of living. Must attain self-consciousness. Stoics achieved virtue by spiritual exercises such as attention (being fully aware in each instant and wills actions fully). "Practice negative visualization (praemeditatio malorun) we are to represent to ourselves poverty, suffering, and death...they can help us accept such event, which are, after all, part of the course of nature" (Haidt 85). In order to meditate must read, listen, research, and investigate. "We pass beyond the limits of individuality, to recognize ourselves as a part of the reason-animated cosmos" (Haidt 86). To train soul must stretch itself tight. Their theology is pantheism (god in all nature); metaphysics is the belief in rationality of universe.

September 6, 2011

A contemporary utilitarian on our international obligations, a recent argument for rethinking aid, and, is there a universal moral sense?

• Moyo, Dambisa. "Chapter 3: Aid Is Not Working." Dead Aid. Dambisa Moyo. New York: Farrar, Straus and Griroux, 2009.
• ---. "Chapter 4: The Silent Killer of Growth." Dead Aid. Dambisa Moyo. New York: Farrar, Straus and Griroux, 2009.
• Singer, Peter. "Chapter 1: A Changing World." One World. Peter Singer. Australia: Yale University Press, 2002.
• ---. "Chapter 5: One Community." One World. Peter Singer. Australia: Yale University Press, 2002.
• ---. "Is There a Universal Moral Sense?" Critical Review (1995): 325-39.

Suggested posts

There are some obvious posting topics for this week. You could look up something about utilitarianism and start a thread on it's general adequacy as a moral theory. You might want to formulate a concise argument about what our obligations to others (especially those in absolute poverty) is. There are lots of voices on development. Moyo has her critics and we should have some information about that as we approach Tuesday's seminar. Singer isn't just a utilitarian. He's a somewhat controversial one. Find out why and inform the class. Assess Singer's arguments in "One World." Of course, you can also respond to other's posts.

Student Posts

Sparky Garcia - Paul Collier's The Bottom Billion

So, I have actually read one of Paul Collier's other books, The Bottom Billion. Since he was quoted extensively in this week's reading I thought I might post a "book report" of sorts that I have pieced together from what I read in the packet and what I had previously written on this book.

Paul Collier’s book, The Bottom Billion describes the plight of the billion poorest people on earth. The fate is not sealed for these fifty-eight countries, but we must act now to rehabilitate these clearly stagnant nations. Collier outlines four main traps that these countries have fallen into and proposes four corresponding instruments for these traps. The book both promises hope for the future if something is done, and despair if nothing changes.

In essence, The Bottom Billion is long problem-solution essay, with the problems defined as traps and the solutions as instruments. Collier outlines the four traps, has a brief intermission to talk about globalization, talks about the instruments then ends with a call to action. The traps include the conflict trap (elaborated on in our second packet essay), the natural resources trap, the landlocked with bad neighbors trap, and the bad governance trap. The instruments are aid, military intervention, laws and charters, and trade. Collier’s discussion on globalization makes an argument both for and against its helpfulness to the bottom billion but ultimately decides not to include it as an instrument.

Early in the book, Collier states that more aid is not the answer to the problems of the bottom billion. In fact, he calls developmental aid, “the headless heart.” He essentially argues that for aid, which was the subject of our first packet essay, that more than more giving is more effective giving. He outlines processes that could be taken to rehabilitate aid so that the money given is put to good use. His argument, then, is not for more aid but for better administration and distribution of aid.

One interesting aspect of this book is that Collier refuses to provide a list of the 58 countries that make up the bottom billion. His reason for not presenting the reader with the list is out of consideration for the countries. He argues that when a country is damned to be on a list of the poorest countries, it tends to live up to that prophecy instead of rise above it.

The final chapter is definitely worth reading for anyone in class who has an interest in developmental economics. It would be an effective essay almost all on its own, if not for the assumption that the reader has read the one hundred and seventy pages preceding it.It precisely outlines his argument, including the traps and instruments clearly and what needs to be done. Despite some vague descriptions earlier in the book, or maybe because of them, Collier is incredibly specific during this final chapter. He briefly outlines the traps, states how countries can escape the traps using one or more instruments, then talks about how to and who can implement these solutions. And even what ordinary people can do, which is slightly disappointing but realistic. Once all the evidence has been presented, the arguments have been made, and it is all brought together masterfully; which makes the final call for action seem pressing and hopeful.

Hope that was helpful!!

Elle Ossello - NATGEO: "Population 7 Billion"

Although I realize that this will inevitably be a controversial point I wish to raise (Thank you, "Social Dynamics of Philosophical Reflection"), I think that the more I have read into our reading for the week, the more I think that the key to managing the exponential growth of our population is a shift in consciousness and new management our self-awareness. While, obviously there is no way to regulate or institutionalize any of this, I think that a change in the way we view child-bearing and raising a family would be invaluable to our ever-growing global population.

Here is a link to an article from the January 2011 issue of National Geographic entitled: Population 7 Billion. Throughout this article, the author frequently mentions "replacement fertility" as more and more people around the world are viewing child bearing as a way of replacing themselves rather than child bearing as a status symbol or as a way to increase an individual family's economic stability. I think that while it is key for people living in developing countries to be educated on birth control, it is also of equal importance to help families change the ways in which they view childbearing.

It is becoming more and more important, in my opinion that there be a shift in consciousness in our own country as well. While many of us grew up with big, loud families and the American Dream leaves us fantasizing about having a bunch of little ones of our own running around in 10 years, we can't ignore the ever pressing problems of population growth in this country and what it would mean for every couple (or even a good portion of couples) that arises from our generation to embody something other than a mindset of 'replacement fertility.'

Like I said, there would be no way to properly regulate this and I think that it would be a terrible idea on almost all fronts to get the government involved, so I propose that the most effective way to raise awareness of this idea and to help our generation shift our self-awareness would be to create independent and private campaigns to travel to colleges around the country. While there would undoubtedly be much opposition to the suggestion that people re-think the American Dream, one of the biggest generations that this country has ever seen needs to have a really good idea of the road that we could possibly be headed down if every one of us graduates, buys a house and fills it with 3.24 children [1].

Some interesting quotations pulled from the article

"The bad news is that 2030 is two decades away and that the largest generation of adolescents in history will then be entering their childbearing years. Even if each of those women has only two children, population will coast upward under its own momentum for another quarter century."

"In 1952, just five years after it gained independence from Britain, India became the first country to establish a policy for population control."

"The Indian government tried once before to push vasectomies, in the 1970s, when anxiety about the population bomb was at its height. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay used state-of-emergency powers to force a dramatic increase in sterilizations. From 1976 to 1977 the number of operations tripled, to more than eight million. Over six million of those were vasectomies. Family planning workers were pressured to meet quotas; in a few states, sterilization became a condition for receiving new housing or other government benefits. In some cases the police simply rounded up poor people and hauled them to sterilization camps."

"The excesses gave the whole concept of family planning a bad name. “Successive governments refused to touch the subject,” says Shailaja Chandra, former head of the National Population Stabilisation Fund (NPSF). Yet fertility in India has dropped anyway, though not as fast as in China, where it was nose-diving even before the draconian one-child policy took effect. The national average in India is now 2.6 children per woman...The southern half of the country and a few states in the northern half are already at replacement fertility or below."

Let me know what you all think!