2012 Fall Proseminar Class Notes A

Return to Philosophy Proseminar

August 29, 2012

Alfino's Post

First Class Topics

• Course, Material, and Goals
• Course Methods and web sites

• Course website
• Course wiki
• Einstruction site - speech, surveymonkey.

• A typical prep cycle for the course: read, engage, review, prep SQs.
• 6 hours / week !
• Grading Schemes
• Ereserves - pdf print incentive day is coming - Sept 4th.

Philosophy Exercise

We'll try an exercise to bring out some of your ideas about philosophy, and some issues in defining philosophy.

Student Posts

Daniel Bell-Garrison: I've read through two of the week's readings, and thus far the most interesting point being raised is the distinction between philosophy as a way of life (as the ancient philosophers lived) and philosophy as a discourse. On one hand, I do try to use any lessons I've learned in class, whether that be English, history, psychology, or philosophy, in everyday situations instead of just learning the material to move on to the next class, as well as using lessons to make me a better person in general. I feel this is closer to the code of conduct way of thinking that the ancient philosophers lived by. However, I can also agree that much of contemporary learning is lessons in order to reach higher lessons. Anyway, I'm sure we'll mention this in class. I just wanted to write it all out to clear my own thoughts up. Maybe it's helpful for others too.

September 5, 2012

Investigating Philosophy as a Discipline

Question for investigating Philosophy as a discipline

1. What is philosophy?
2. What are the major fields of Philosophy? See this wiki list.
3. What are some basic concepts, issues, and methods of each? Browse.
4. What are the major temporal epochs of Western philosophy?
5. Is philosophy a global phenomenon? What is comparative philosophy? How do you identify philosophy in other cultures? (See course unit)
6. What is the difference between continental and analytic philoosphy? (Course unit)
7. What are: existentialism, postmodernism, positivism, romanticism, enlightenment philosophy, scientific revolution, renaissance, neo-platonism, scholasticism, game theory, cognitive science, moral psychology, ...
8. How does philosophy relate to literature and religion?
9. What are contemporary philosophers saying about art & politics?
10. Why did language become so important in 20th century philosophy?

Major Sub-fields

• See this wiki list of major fields in Philosophy.

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:

• Philosophy Proseminar Instructional Notes on Method

• General List of Philosophical Methods

• Philosophical Methods for Philosophy Majors

Hadot, "Philosophy as a Way of Life"

• Opening quote from Philo of Alexandria - mix of stoic thought. wise are joyous. Who was Philo?

• thesis: Philosophy was a way of life. Discusses Symposium as model.

• Wisdom sought also because it brings peace of mind (ataraxia) and inner freedom (autarkeia). Philosopy as therapeutic.

• "Philosophy presented itself as a method for achieving independence andinner freedom {autarkeia), that state in which the ego depends only uponitself. We encounter this theme in Socrates, among the Cynics, in Aristotle for whom only the contemplativeWhat life is independent - in Epicurus," among the Stoics." Although their methodologies differ, we find in allphilosophical schools the same awareness of the power of the human self tofree itself from everything which is alien to it, even if, as in the case of theSkeptics, it does so via the mere refusal to make any decision." 266

• Hadot claims there was a big distinction between "discourse" on philosophy and doing philosophy. The task of philosophy was living wisely. Anecdote about the carpenter (267). read par. top of 268, "Does the philosophical life..."

• -269: Thesis: "From its very beginnings - that is, from the second century AD on - Christianity had presented itself as a philosophy: the Christian way of life. Indeed, the very fact that Christianity was able to present itself as a philosophy confirms the assertion that philosophy was conceived in antiquity as a way of life. If to do philosophy was to live in conformity with the law of reason, so the argument went, the Christian was a philosopher, since he lived in conformity with the law of the Logos - divine reason. In order to present itself as a philosophy, Christianity was obliged to integrate elements borrowed from ancient philosophy. It had to make the Logos of the gospel according to John coincide with Stoic cosmic reason, and subsequently also with the Aristotelian or Platonic intellect. It also had to integrate philosophical spiritual exercises into Christian life. The phenomenon of integration appears very clearly in Clement of Alexandria, and was intensely developed in the monastic movement, where we find the Stoico/Platonic exercises of attention to oneself (prosoche), meditation, examination of conscience, and the training for death. We also re-encounter the high value accorded to peace of mind and impassibility."

• claims this tradition lapse in medieval period. Revived by Ignatius.

===Deleuze, "What is Philosophy?"

• "Philosophy is the art of forming, inventing, and fabricating concepts." 2

• "The philosopher is expert in concepts and in the lack of them. He knows which of them are not viable, which are arbitrary or inconsistent, which ones do not hold up for an instant." 3

• Note that the rhetorical dimensions of philosophy, "conceptual personae", it's relation to an audience, to the friend, lover, etc. are part of philosophy for Deleuze.

• Philosophy is not contemplation, relfection or communication.6

• "Although concepts are dated, signed, and baptized, they have their own way of not dying while remaining subject to constraints of renewal, replacement, and mutation that give philosophy a history as well as a turbulent geography, each moment and place of which is preserved (but in time) and that passes (but outside time)." 8

• 10: Philosophy confused today? "the general movement that replaced Critique with sales promotion" allusion to simulacrum.

DeBotton, Dillard, and Golding

• We'll briefly discuss each piece and consider them as alternatives to academic writing of philosophy.

Begin Review of Theory of Argument and Explanation

We'll work from the following three documents for this line of instruction:

• Philosophy Proseminar Instructional Notes on Method

• General List of Philosophical Methods

• Philosophical Methods for Philosophy Majors

September 12, 2012

Alfino's Post

Timeline Examples:

• Anarchism [1]
• Existentialism [2]

Philosophical Method

• review of induction and deduction
• review of structure of argument, argument vs. explanation, reconstruction.

Schick and Vaughn, Science and Its Pretenders

• Induction and Deduction in gen/testing hypotheses -- note claim that hyp gen is not automatic or strict induction.
• Methods for testing hypotheses: terms: control group, placebo controlled trial, bling and double blind.
• Hypotheses tested in bundles. "saving the theory" "ad hoc" reasoning p. 169.
• Criteria of adequacy: testability, fruitfulness, scope, simplicity, and conservatism.

Giere, Understanding and Evaluating Thoeretical Hypotheses

• What does the account of the search for the structure of DNA show about science, acc to Giere?
• Models - maps as analogs for theoretical models, relations of map to reality.
• Theoretical Hypothesis, defined, 27.
• Models, Data, Hypotheses.
• Figure 2.9. Indirect realism.

Barnes, Natural Science in the 17th and 18th centuries

• Relation of science to universities and to independent societies.
• Instruments and technology.
• Celestial Mechanics and the Church. (Note on Copernicus, 677)
• What's important about Kepler's laws? relation to Tycho Brahe [3]
• Dev. of stats -- Huygens, 681
• Knowledge of circulation, early surgery, cellular structure
• Locke, Hobbes, and early psychology.
• Newton, Leibniz, and calculus!

September 19, 2012

Student Posts

http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2009/10/26/24271/ http://www.independentliving.org/docs5/singer.html I found an article about protests after Singer was appointed as a professor at Princeton. It seems his majorly controversial views are about the traditional view of the 'sanctity of life'. Basically, he says there are situations where killing humans is fine, and even morally right in some cases. This includes abortion, euthanasia, and infanticide. One of the bigger controversies, along the lines of abortion, is his belief that killing cognitively-handicapped infants up to 28 days after birth is perfectly acceptable. He's a big utilitarian (obviously), and it's pretty easy to see why a lot of people might have opposing views. -Daniel

http://vigilantcitizen.com/moviesandtv/the-hunger-games-a-glimpse-at-the-new-world-order/ I found this article to be an interesting connection to some of Singer's points in Rich and Poor And One World. A slightly different take that I would say we can all relate to a bit. Just a little food for thought. Love, Kate

September 26, 2012

Alfino's Post

Herman, Chapter 8: A Select Society

• How does reading about philosophers in historical context alter our perceptions of them?

• Scottish Enlightenment: societies, Edin/Glasgow, relation to Kirk. (book opens with last execution: theology student Thomas Aikenhead.)

• Smith's views as compromise of tendencies in Scottish Enlightenment (Hutcheson / Kames p. 215)
• Radicalness of Hume's views.
• Importance of contrast between advocates of Liberty then...
• Both Smith and Hume are thinking about moral sense as mix of instinct/habit.
• Smith's "frame" was not so much economy as moral sociology.
• Correctives: 1. invisible hand misunderstood 2. laissez-faire 3. not apology for big business.
• Smith's account of corruption of commercial society. These folks are anticipating modern anthropology/sociology.

Hume's Epistemology

1. Initial charcterization.

2. Implications for nature of knowledge.

3. Problem of Induction. Simple demonstration. Principle of uniformity no solution.

4. Sceptical and Constructive sides of Hume's epistemology. Similarity, Custom & Habit, disputes over status of "necessary connection" -- constant conjunction -- regression analysis...

October 3, 2012

Student Posts

So here is a TED talk from Nick Bostrom.... thought it was kind of interesting. I also could not find his essay, but I thought this was a great TED video. Hopefully someone else will enjoy it!

[4]

-from blue