2011 Fall Proseminar Class Notes A
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This is the main page for posting information relevant to our Seminar Sessions. You should post for the Tuesday evening seminar by Sunday night.
Contents
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.
