Difference between revisions of "SEPT 13"

Latest revision as of 21:22, 13 September 2023

4: SEP 13

Assigned

McMahon C1, “Highest Good” (40-50)
Epictetus, Enchiridion (12)

In-class

Lecture notes on modern stoicism (Irving)
The Stoic Worldview
Some writing concepts

Plato v Aristotle - McMahon (40-50)

Repasting McMahon notes from p. 40-50

big contrast between Plato and Aristotle -- School of Athens fresco.

end, function, craft, techne. Hierarchy of arts.
end vs. final end -- the universal good is the final end, not relative. sec. 6-7.
happiness as activity of the soul in accordance with virtue (def., but also consequence of reasoning from nature of human life). Gloss on eudaimonia.
Section 13: nature of the soul. two irrational elements: veg/appetitive and one rational. Note separation/relationship.
As M notes, Aristotle's focus on the rational part of the soul leaves him with a similar problem as Plato -- a model of happiness that few (not the Alcibiades in the world) will attain. In spite of the huge contrast between them, they are both classical Greek philosophers who see Reason as central. Perhaps "hyper-rationalists".

Note how Aristotle's analysis of happiness entails a view of wisdom.

"The Stoic Worldview"

Some Dates

Way before the stoics: "What is wise is one thing, to understand rightly how all things are steered through all." -- Heraclitus

Most global philosophical cultures have deep philosophical commitments to some form of this principle. For example, the “serenity prayer” in Christianity is stoic. Daoism also connects here.

Example of modern stoic / CBT connection: [1] and a broader net. [2]

Theology & Ontology -

pantheism -- theos is in all things - pneuma = fine matter.
ontology - All is corporeal, yet pneuma distinguishes life and force from dead matter.
determinism and freedom - Ench. #1
The Hegimonikon ("A ruling or governing power; specifically human reason"): God in us.
Model of Growth and Development toward Sagehood & Wisdom - Soul-training. Realizing the divine in you.

Epictetus, The Enchiridion

Our challenge is to pick through Epictetus' language and give the most useful reconstruction we can. Often this involves re-interpreting some of the radical claims.

Key Idea: To realize our rational nature (and the freedom, joy and, really, connection to the divine, that only rational being can know), we need to adjust our thinking about our lives to what we know about reality.

Key Claim: You need wisdom (soul training) to realize your nature, but if you succeed, you will flourish and be happy. (This is a typical way to unite wisdom and happiness.)

Some passages that define the practical philosophy:

1: A first principle, really. "Some things are in our control and others are not."
Notice the "re-orientation" which is recommended in #1 and #2. "confine your aversions" and understand the limits of things. (Sounds like an “aversion” retraining program based on knowledge claims.)
3: Infamous. ceramic cups, but then at #11, your partner's death. Read with #7, #8, and #14, in case we’re being too subtle. "confine your attractions". Very much like "attachment" in Buddhism. Or, in CBT.
4: Something like mindfulness?
6: Limits of pride. Catching the mind exaggerating.
8: Alignment
11: awareness of change
15: Desire,
26: observing asymmetries. I find this interesting and challenging. It might need modification.
importance of commitment
34: note specific advice in 34 (attend to the phenomenology of desire and future pleasure), 35 (own it). "measure" in 39, read 41. 43
46: Advice about comportment. -- stay inside yourself, don't be showy or ostentatious.

Example of a modern "update" to Epictetus

William Irvine does a great job of updating Epictetus with a more modern psychology. We'll will look briefly at his "trichotomy of control. See links for two chapters from his A Guide to the Good Life: the ancient art of stoic joy

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-==5: SEPT 13==
+==4: SEP 13==
 ===Assigned===
-:*Haidt, Chapter 2, "The Intuitive Dog and It's Rational Tail" (25)
+:*McMahon C1, “Highest Good” (40-50)
-:*Sapolsky, Chapter 10: The Evolution of Human Behavior 328-387 (59).  For this class read only pages 354-374.
+:*Epictetus, Enchiridion (12)
-===In-class topics===
+===In-class===
+:*Lecture notes on modern stoicism (Irving)
+:*The Stoic Worldview
+:*Some writing concepts
-:*Note from last class
+===Plato v Aristotle - McMahon (40-50)===
-:*Small group:  Haidt’s social intuitionist model
-::*”Why do we take advice more easily from friends?”
-:*Second look: What does the prisoners' dilemma show about the problem of reciprocal altruism and the emergence of cooperation?
-===Second look: What does the prisoners' dilemma show us about the problem of reciprocal altruism and the emergence of cooperation?===
+:*Repasting McMahon notes from p. 40-50
-:*Reciprocal altruism emerges in our species when we use our big brains to decide when it is rational to incur a fitness cost to help others in expectation of a fitness benefit from their future cooperation. It is rational for us to try to optimize our fitness by benefiting from cooperative relationships.  The big questions here is: '''When and with whom should I cooperate?'''
+::*big contrast between Plato and Aristotle -- School of Athens fresco.
-:*In the Prisoner's Dilemma, there is a '''discrepancy''' between the "rational" outcome (defect, rat the other guy out) and the optimal outcome (both stay quiet). The discrepancy is caused by '''uncertainty''' about the other person's behavior.  '''Will they cooperate?  Will they make me a "sucker"?'''
+::*end, function, craft, techne.  Hierarchy of arts.
+::*end vs. final end -- the universal good is the final end, not relative.  sec. 6-7.
+::*happiness as activity of the soul in accordance with virtue (def., but also consequence of reasoning from nature of human life).  Gloss on eudaimonia.
+::*Section 13: nature of the soul.  two irrational elements: veg/appetitive and one rational.  Note separation/relationship.
+::*As M notes, Aristotle's focus on the rational part of the soul leaves him with a similar problem as Plato -- a model of happiness that few (not the Alcibiades in the world) will attain. In spite of the huge contrast between them, they are both classical Greek philosophers who see Reason as central.  Perhaps "hyper-rationalists".
-:*Resolving this uncertainty is an ethical problem (a problem that can be addressed by values).  Values like promising, sincerity, reputation, accountability, punishment (talking stink about defectors) are all means by which we try to realize the benefits of cooperation.
+:*Note how Aristotle's analysis of happiness entails a view of wisdom.
-===Sapolsky, Chapter 10: The Evolution of Human Behavior 354-374===
+==="The Stoic Worldview"===
-:*'''How can cooperation get started and become stable?''' 353-
+:*[https://wiki.gonzaga.edu/alfino/index.php/Some_Really_Important_Dates Some Dates]
-::*In other words, how does "tit for tat" survive among defectors? Coalitions, green beard effects.
-::*Sometimes natural event cut a group off.  Inbreeding promotes stronger kin bonds. That group may outperform others once they out migrate.  (Give example from Henrich of Inuits with meat sharing behaviors.  A better "cooperative package".)
-::*Effects of ind. selection, kin selection, and reciprocal altruism:
-:::*Tournament vs. Pair bonding  - lots of traits and behaviors follow from sexual dimorphism.  This also happens in degrees.
-:::*Parent-Offspring competition - in spite of kin selection, there are some "zero sum" situations bt parents and offspring.  parent-offspring weaning conflict and mother-fetus conflict. Over insulin. Dad even has a vote through paternal "imprinted genes," which promote fetal growth at expense of mom.  (Intersexual Genetic Conflict)
-:*Multilevel Selection MLS
+:*Way before the stoics: "What is wise is one thing, to understand rightly how all things are steered through all."  -- Heraclitus
-::*Remember the "bad" group selection from the beginning of the chapter?  Group selection returns in the last few decades.  (Tell story of visits with Bio prof friends over the years.)
-::*Genotypic and Phenotypic levels of explanation - unibrows.
-::*Organism (expressed individual) is a vehicle of the genome, but the genome has alot to say about how the organism turns out.  .
-::*Big debate in Biology. Three positions: 1. Dawkins took the "selfish gene" view that the best level of explanation is individual genes. 2. Others say the genome - "a chicken is an egg's way of making another egg" (It's the whole genome travelling through evolutionary "space".); finally, 3. Others like Gould take the phenotype.  After all, it's visible to the world.  Selection could operate on a single phenotypic trait or the whole individual.  Dawkins cake metaphor. 362.  (So that's really four levels of selection.)
-::*'''Four levels and counting'''.
-:::*Fifth level: neo-group selection - the idea that some heritable traits are maladaptive for the individual, but increase the group's fitness (note difference from the bad old group selection).
-::::*Examples:
-:::::*Encouraging patriotism might lead you to enlist, taking a fitness risk that we benefit from.
-:::::*Jailing someone for their reproductive life is a serious fitness hit, but we're better off with murderers locked up.
-:::::*
-::*Neo-group selection happens when groups impose fitness costs or benefits on members or sub-groups.
+:*Most global philosophical cultures have deep philosophical commitments to some form of this principle.  For example, the “serenity prayer” in Christianity is stoic. Daoism also connects here.
-:::*Postive (fitness benefits): zags helping zags, .
-:::*Negative for some, positive for others(fitness costs): Slavery, racism, class bias, criminal punishment, patriotism, heroism, priests.
-:*Some scientists agree that neo-group selection can occur, but think it's rare. Sapolsky points out that it is not rare in humans, due to Green Beard effects.
+:*Example of modern stoic / CBT connection:  [https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Cognitive-Behavioural-Therapy-Psychotherapy/dp/1855757567]  and a broader net. [https://www.google.com/search?q=stoicism+and+cognitive+behavioral+therapy&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS918US918&oq=stoicism+and+cognit&aqs=chrome.0.0i355i512j46i512j69i57j0i22i30.4238j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8]
-:*Remember "Green Beard" effects from p. 341 -- a thought experiment in extending/recognizing kin.  With neo-group, we go further, and hypothesize that we can form groups around almost anything (sport teams in an imaginary baseball league).  Human mind does not limit partiality or commitment to kin or even social group.
+:Theology & Ontology -
+::*pantheism -- theos is in all things - pneuma = fine matter.
+::*ontology -  All is corporeal, yet pneuma distinguishes life and force from dead matter.
+::*determinism and freedom - Ench. #1
+::*The Hegimonikon ("A ruling or governing power; specifically human reason"): God in us.
+::*Model of Growth and Development toward Sagehood & Wisdom - Soul-training. Realizing the divine in you.
-:*Where do we fit in? AND US?
+===Epictetus, The Enchiridion===
-::*We're bit of chimp and a bit of bonobo.  Men 10% larger, 20% heavier than women.  Slight dimorphism. Not quite pair-bonding, not quite tournament
-::*'''US and Individual Selection''': Example of divorce: natural experiment when cultural taboos are lifted.  Note that increased divorce rates are confined to the same percentage of population.  Lift culture and you get to see who the "less pair-bonding" people are!  Likewise with historically powerful (and not very romantic) rulers.  Point: with absolute power, tyrants often adopt extreme reproductive behaviors with many hundreds of women, if possible.
-::*'''US and Kin selection''': Still very powerful, most feuds are clan based, but we can go to war against kin, and we give to strangers. We can be disgusted by people who betray their families: Story of Pavlik Morozov, 368.   368: study about preferring dog to x, y, z.  vmPFC involved.
-::*Why do humans deviate from kin selection so much.  Biologists also want to find '''mechanisms'''.  Animals recognize kin by MHC or imprinted genes.  We do it cognitively. Much more flexibility.
-===Haidt, Chapter 2, "The Intuitive Dog and Its Rational Tail"===
+:*Our challenge is to pick through Epictetus' language and give the most useful reconstruction we can.  Often this involves re-interpreting some of the radical claims.
-:*'''Some complaints about philosophers'''
+:*'''Key Idea''':  To realize our rational nature (and the freedom, joy and, really, connection to the divine, that only rational being can know), we need to adjust our thinking about our lives to what we know about reality.
-::*Philosophy's "rationalist delusion" ex. from Timaeus.  but also in rationalist psych.  -- Assuming reason is our perfection.  Desire is a necessary evil for mortals.  Desire is a slave to reason.
-::*Three models for the relation of reason to desire:
-:::*Plato - Reason ought to be the master of emotions. (Timaeus myth of the body - 2nd soul(emotional)), but also image of human as charioteer holding the reigns on desire (the horses). The "ultimate rationalist fantasy" is to believe that passions only serve reason, which controls them.
-:::*Hume (Reason is slave of passions) Examples: Reason comes in to justify emotion. Inner lawyer.
-:::*Jefferson (The Head and The Heart model. Nature has made a "division of labor" - Haidt thinks Jefferson got it right.). Jefferson’s racy trip to Paris.
-:*'''The troubled history of applying evolution to social processes'''
+:*'''Key Claim''':  You need wisdom (soul training) to realize your nature, but if you succeed, you will flourish and be happy.  (This is a typical way to unite wisdom and happiness.)
-::*A brief history of attempts to apply Darwinian thinking to social life (and morality).
-::*Darwin - a nativist - thought nature selected for moral emotions like sympathy and concern about reputation.  '''First wave''': Late 19th century: “Social Darwinism” (not Darwin’s conviction). (Note that it violates Sapolsky’s warning about evolution being prospective.)
-::*'''Second wave''' 60s (hippie/boomer) ideology suggesting that we can liberate ourselves from our biology and traditional morality (as contraception appeared to). Resists idea, for example, that men and women might have different evo strategies. Resists culture and authority as oppressive.
-::*Example: Resistance to E. O. Wilson’s ''Sociobiology''. Wilson advanced the claim we saw in Sapolsky: Evolution shapes behavior. But he dared to apply it to humans.
-::*Wilson also suspected that our rational justifications might be confabulations to support our intuitions.  Roughly, we are disgusted by torture so we believe in rights.  Read at 32: “Do people believe…?
-:*'''The emotional nineties (Third Wave)'''
+:*Some passages that define the practical philosophy:
-::*Even though Wilson was shouted down and “de-platformed”, history proves him right.
-::*de Waal, primatologist, who studied moral behavior in primates. Monkey fairness.
-::*Damasio's research on vmPFC disabled patients. They could watch gruesome images without feeling, but had trouble planning. (Phineas Gage) Lesions shut down the "valence" (flashes of positive neg emotions) encoded in memory.  (Quick examples.)
-::*Point: '''Reasoning about practical matters requires feeling.'''
-:*'''Why Atheists Won’t Sell Their Souls'''
+::*1: A first principle, really. "Some things are in our control and others are not."
-:*Evolutionary Psychology in moral psychology: Dual Processing model. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual_process_theory#System_1]
+::*Notice the "re-orientation" which is recommended in #1 and #2.  "confine your aversions" and understand the limits of things.  (Sounds like an “aversion” retraining program based on knowledge claims.)
-::*Do we make moral decisions under controlled or automatic processing?  No problem making moral decisions under cognitive load.  Suggests automatic processing.  Note this also suggests that we shouldn't think of our "principles" as causal.
+::*3: Infamous.  ceramic cups, but then at #11, your partner's death.  Read with #7, #8, and #14, in case we’re being too subtle.  "confine your attractions".  Very much like "attachment" in Buddhism.  Or, in CBT.
-::*Can we see automatic processing when reasons are missing?
+::*4: Something like mindfulness?
-:::*Roach-juice
+::*6: Limits of pride.  Catching the mind exaggerating.
-:::*Soul selling
+::*8: Alignment
-:::*Incest story (Harmless taboo violation). Note how interviewer pushes toward dumbfounding.
+::*11: awareness of change
+::*15: Desire,
+::*26: observing asymmetries.  I find this interesting and challenging.  It might need modification.
+::*importance of commitment
+::*34: note specific advice in 34  (attend to the phenomenology of desire and future pleasure), 35 (own it).  "measure" in 39, read 41.  43
+::*46: Advice about comportment. -- stay inside yourself, don't be showy or ostentatious.
-:*'''How to explain dumbfounding: Pattern matching v. Reasoning'''
+===Example of a modern "update" to Epictetus===
-::*Margolis: seeing that (pattern matching - automatic) vs. reasoning why (controlled thought); we have bias toward confirmation, which is seen in the mistake people make on the Wasson Card test.  "Judgement and justification are separate processes."  At least sometimes, it appears the justification is ex post facto. (Reason a slave to the passions.)
-:*'''Rider and Elephant''' (System 2 (reason) and System 1 (passions; emotions)
+:*William Irvine does a great job of updating Epictetus with a more modern psychology.  We'll will look briefly at his "trichotomy of control.  See links for two chapters from his ''A Guide to the Good Life: the ancient art of stoic joy''
-::*Important to see Elephant as making judgements (Emotions are epistemic), not just "feeling" (Hard for traditional philosophers to do.)  (Pause for examples of "intelligent emotions")
-::*45: Elephant and Rider defined. Emotions are a kind of information processing, part of the cognitive process. Not just “gut feeling”. Intuition and reasoning are both cognitive.
-::*Values of the rider: seeing into future, treating like cases like; post hoc explanation, but "expensive" in terms of attention and time. (Like education itself!)
-::*Values of the elephant: automatic, valuative, ego-maintaining, opens us to influence from others.
-::*Note Carnegie's advice -- fits with Haidt's model.  If you want to persuade people, talk to the elephant.  (Note: If the elephant is very afraid and powerless, this can lead to bad outcomes.)
-:*'''Social Intuitionist Model'''
-::*How does Rider and Elephant interact socially? Examples from everyday life: Who do you take advice and criticism from?  People who’s elephants you like and like you.
-:*Bring up Repligate issue. [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-nature-nurture-nietzsche-blog/201509/quick-guide-the-replication-crisis-in-psychology]

Difference between revisions of "SEPT 13"

Latest revision as of 21:22, 13 September 2023

Contents

4: SEP 13

Assigned

In-class

Plato v Aristotle - McMahon (40-50)

"The Stoic Worldview"

Epictetus, The Enchiridion

Example of a modern "update" to Epictetus

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