Difference between revisions of "2010 Fall Proseminar Class Notes"
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===Begin Review of Theory of Argument and Explanation=== | ===Begin Review of Theory of Argument and Explanation=== | ||
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| + | We'll work from the following three documents for this line of instruction: | ||
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| + | *[[Philosophy Proseminar Instructional Notes on Method]] | ||
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| + | *[[Philosophical Methods | General List of Philosophical Methods]] | ||
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| + | *[[Philosophical Methods for Philosophy Majors]] | ||
===Discussion of Haidt, "The Divided Self"=== | ===Discussion of Haidt, "The Divided Self"=== | ||
Revision as of 00:13, 8 September 2010
Return to Philosophy Proseminar
August 31, 2010
Introductory Class:
- Student Introductions: Prompt:
- General awareness and curiosities about history of philosophy (pitch for timelines)
- Philosophy Problem 101
- What If . . . Searle's Brain Replacement
Student Interests (in no particular order):
- Eastern Philosophies -- Daoism
- Postmodernism
- Applied Ethics / Env. Ethics / Business Ethics
- Political Philosophy
- Descartes / Scientific Revolution
- Phenomenology
- Philosophy NOW
- Aesthetics
- Philosophy/Econ - Game Theory
- Lonergan
- Analytic
- Feminism
- Existtentialism
- Kant
September 7
Investigating Philosophy as a Discipline
Question for investigating Philosophy as a discipline
- What is philosophy?
- What are the major fields of Philosophy? See this wiki list.
- What are some basic concepts, issues, and methods of each? Browse.
- What are the major temporal epochs of Western philosophy?
- Is philosophy a global phenomenon? What is comparative philosophy? How do you identify philosophy in other cultures? (See course unit)
- What is the difference between continental and analytic philoosphy? (Course unit)
- What are: existentialism, postmodernism, positivism, romanticism, enlightenment philosophy, scientific revolution, renaissance, neo-platonism, scholasticism, game theory, cognitive science, moral psychology, ...
- How does philosophy relate to literature and religion?
- What are contemporary philosophers saying about art & politics?
- Why did language become so important in 20th century philosophy?
Major Sub-fields
Discussion of Hadot, "Spiritual Exercises"
- "Spiritual exercises can be best observed in the context of Hellenistic and Roman schools of philosophy. The Stoics, for instance, declared explicitly that philosophy, for them, was an "exercise."n In their view, philosophy did not consist in teaching an abstract theory - much less in the exegesis of texts'n, out rather in the art of living.n It is a concrete attitude and determinate life-Style, which engages the whole of existence. The philosophical act is not situated merely on the cognitive level, but on that of the self and of being. It is a progress which causes us to be more fully, and makes us better.'n It is a conversion'n which turns our entire life upside down, changing the life of the person who goes through it.n It raises the individual from an inauthentic condition of life, darkened by unconsciousness and harassed by worry, to an authentic state of life, in which he attains self-consciousness, an exact vision of the world, inner peace, and freedom." 82
- 86: "For the Stoic, then, doing philosophy meant practicing how to "live": thatis, how to live freely and consciously. Consciously, in that we pass beyond thelimits of individuality, to recognize ourselves as a part of the reason-animatedcosmos. Freely, in that we give up desiring that which does not depend on usand is beyond our control, so as to attach ourselves only to what depends onus: actions which are just and in conformity with reason."
- Philosophers as therapists / Philosophy as therapeutic.
- In Epicurean thought -- the tetrapharmakos; also in Phaedrus.
- 88: "For the Epicureans, in the last analysis, pleasure is a spiritual exercise. Notpleasure in the form of mere sensual gratification, but the intellectual pleasurederived from contemplating nature, the thought of pleasures past and present,and lastly the pleasure of friendship. "
- Prosoche -- attention.
- Learning to Die -- It's role in defining philosophy.
- Plotinus - sculpting your statue.
Begin Review of Theory of Argument and Explanation
We'll work from the following three documents for this line of instruction:
Discussion of Haidt, "The Divided Self"
September 14
Topics to browse and possibly report back on for this week: the field of genetic engineering, transhumanism, torts, the field of Philosophy of Law. Additional scholarship on Hart & Honore's view. Research on HLA Hart.
