Spring 2014 Philosophy of Italian Culture Class Notes 1

Return to Philosophy of Italian Culture

JAN 14

1. Call roll. Brief Student introductions.
2. Introduce 4 units, homework, deadlines (TH)
3. Introduction to Course websites - start at Alfino.org. (MA)
4. Preparing for class. Study questions will be put up after each class
5. Tell us a bit about yourself:

• Name, major and goals for immediate future.
• Motivation for taking this course
• Relevant experiences - past course, travels, etc

Time remaining: Introduction to Girlfriend in a Coma - show clip from la mala italia, distribute file. Answer 4 questions posted on wiki page.

JAN 16

• Initial impressions of the films; question 1 & 2 together

• Group work: Find someone in the class you don't know. Answer questions 3-4

• Transition to historical unit.

• Goal to understand historical origins contemporary fragmentation in Italy
• Congress of Vienna, animation.

JAN 21

Wilson, The Social Conquest of EarthChs. 1-7

• Cautions: Not biological or evolutionary determinism, necessarily. Can't nec. tell that from 1st part of reading.

Here's a summary of the key ideas I'd like to focus on in the next half hour. Below this segment, you'll see more extensive notes from when I taught this more slowly.

Wilson, Prologue, Chapters 1 and 2

• Gaugin painting: Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?
• 7: Star Wars culture from Stone Age emotions
• Do myths explain origins or do origins explain myths? -- Strong claim for latter position.
• Our evolutionary equipment for survival predates our capacities for self-reflection on that equipment. Claims science can solve the riddle of Gaugin's painting.
• Evolutionary Account:

• pre-human evolutionary lines -- most went extinct
• Dates for invertebrates: 220 million years ago for termites; 150 million for ants; bees 70-80 million years. Stabilized around 65 million years ago.
• Dates for homo sapiens: several 100 thousand years ago; diaspora (out of Africa) 60,000 years ago; neanderthals, homo floresiensis (hobbits!); agriculture 10,000 years ago;

• Eusocial: lives with multiple generations and altruistic; diffs: culture, language, intelligence, empathy, judging intentions, mental maps of social space.
• How to explain differences? large size and low mobility --

Wilson, Chapter 3, The Approach

• Some points to make about evolution (paralleling Wilson a bit): What does it mean to say evolution is "radically contingent" but also involves "design". Concept of "design space" and Wilson's concept of "preadaptation."
• Preadaptation (22): a step in evolution which opens up (or closes off) other possibilities.
• Major pre-adaptations leading to culture:

• Large size and relative immobility
• Large brain
• Emphasis on sight over smell.
• Bipedalism, freeing up the hands. (australopithicenes rock)
• Sweat glands and long distance running (Racing the Antelope)
• Control of fire (not available to insects and aquatic life)

• Big step toward eusociality: camping! Seriously, campsites (what's valuable about a campsite?) cf. hives, nests

Wilson, Chapter 4

• Dietary changes: Australopithecenes were vegetarians, Homo species (Habilis and later, Sapiens) scavenged meat before hunting.
• Changes marking Homo Habilis: facial structure, similar neocortex wrinkling to moderns, Broca and Wernicke areas of brain grow.
• Traditional explanations for growth of Hominins vs. recent speculation: 37-39
• Meat and hunting.
• Wilson's emphasis on the "nest" and, for Hominins, the campsite. Defensive architecture and lifestyle in modern culture.
• Importance of nests: division of labor, defense, sharing food, group competition.

Wilson, Chapters 5 & 6

• More lists of "pre-adaptations":

• Land (allowing for fire)
• Large size (allowing for large brain)
• Grasping hands with soft "spatulate" fingers & and free to use (not needed for walking)
• Meat -- cooperation to get it --
• Cooking
• Nest/Camp
• Division of Labor

Wilson, Chapter 6

• More on encephalization: australopithicenes 500-600 cubic centimeters --> Homo Sapiens 1500-1700!
• Kin Selection: Altruism benefits group members proportionally to genetic similarity.

• Note: Wilson believes he and some colleagues have disproven kin selection, but not everyone agrees.

• Multi-level selection: A broader range of scientists believe in multi-level selection (individual and group), whether they agree that kin selection is true.
• Group Selection: Holds that group competition affects the fitness of individuals.

• Traits such as group size, "tightness" and "cooperativeness" (quality of communication and division of labor) matter.
• Group selection advocates think this is a meaningful question: How do the costs and benefits of membership in a group affect my fitness (ability to pass on genes)?
• 54: If costs (of group membership) exceed benefits (of group membership), defection will increase.

Wilson, Chapter 7

• Tribalism -- examples from Sports
• Research on in-group and out-group judgements (59)
• Is this nurture or nature? "pre-pared learning" (like language, incest, other ev. psycho traits)
• Ethnocentrism -- in experience and in the lab. implicit racism