2014 Fall Proseminar Professor Blog

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SEP 2

Thanks for a good start. I hope the structure and goals of the course are clear and that we can get right to the fun part -- doing philosophy and getting better at doing philosophy. From class and from reading through your introductions this morning, I see that we have a nice diversity of intellectual interests and motivations. Your suggestions for topics were very helpful. I think we can implement a couple of them.

Some details: You should have received an invitation to share a google docs folder with me. Start keeping a log in Word or Google Doc format. My main interest is in tracking your reading experience prior to each class and having a sense of the browsing you are doing.

Next week we'll make sure everyone can add content to the wiki. For next week, I'll supply some notes. Just enjoy your reading and browsing.

Also, feel free to set up a time to come by the office and talk about about your philosophical interests. The more I know about your motivations and interests in philosophy the better!

Alfino

SEP 9

I hope the class went well for all of you. The topic of the nature of philosophy can be a bit slippery and daunting at the same time, so don't feel like there is something here to master. Hopefully, discussing it will keep you wondering a bit, as you go through the major, just what you think philosophy does and can do. So the goal here doesn't need to be defining philosophy so much as having a sense of the range of its employment.

Next week we have a somewhat ambitious task: to consolidate a view of the nature of science and its relationship to philosophy. I want to throw in a chapter or two of Bill Bryson's "A History of Nearly Everything," so I will send an email when that's posted to ereserves.

Thanks for starting the "email logs." I'm looking forward to following your interests and getting a sense of your responses to course reading prior to each class. The logs can also include exchanges on research.

Alfino

SEP 16

Class,

Thanks for your good work last night. Between the argument theory and the nature of science we looked at a lot of questions and information. I hope the contrast between the theoretical nature of science to the actual social history of science was fruitful. The task of understanding the limits of scientific knowledge and what to call everything else (non-scientific knowledge or something other than knowledge) is very live in philosophy today. Finally, we just scratched the surface of what to do with writing like Bryson. In a sense, the new cosmology is perhaps almost as radical to us as the Copernican revolution was in its time. While there hasn't been a similar revolution in neuroscience, the progress there is impressive as well and motivates lots of contemporary philosophy from epistemology to moral psychology.

Next week's readings are pretty diverse. You essentially have to short anthologies to browse and read through. Consider printing, but bring some version of them to class. Our goal will be to understand some borderlines between philosophy and non-philosophy and the extent to which non-academic writing (both creative fiction and creative non-fiction) can be used to accomplish the goals of philosophy.

Enjoy your reading and thanks for sending me you logs.

Alfino

SEP 23

Thanks for a fun and, I hope, useful class. I think we're back on more recognizable philosophy terrain next week, but I find it useful to think about what philosophy is by some of its limit conditions. So I do think a story can not only make a philosophical point, but "work out" an issue in a concrete instance. Sartre's Nausea is a classic to recommend in this regard. So I go beyond "illustration" on the continuum, but you should each make your own choices. In any case, I think we were looking at some of the "edges" of what counts as philosophy and that might help you identify more clearly what it means to make a philosophical point, for example.

On a practical level, I hope some of you will consider adding an assignment to your grading scheme which allows you to explore creative fiction or non-fiction as a tool for doing philosophy.

I hope you'll come forward if the argument theory isn't settling well or if you're not sure about the reconstruction. It's an exercise. Also, a reminder to think about your views on our obligations to the absolutely poor as you work through next week's readings. That will be the prompt for our first peer review exercise. Feel free to go beyond the resources I've provided, and perhaps (in the style of a seminar) you could bring some of your own information and viewpoints (post to wiki?) to class on this question. We will write our 2.5 page philosophical responses after next week's class. I'll also have a rubric to guide the writing assignment.

Thanks again for great snacks and coffee. A snack wiki page? Now, we've never had one of those, but it's a very good idea.

Alfino

SEP 30

Thanks for your work last night, gang. I have some regrets about not structuring things with more small group work, but I got it into my head that we were going to connect a bunch of questions together a bit more systematically than we in fact did. In spite of this, I hope you got a glimpse at several levels in which theorizing and empirical investigation could enter into philosophical work in ethics, especially involving aid and globalism in politics. The obligation to aid discussion has changed in important ways since the time of Singer's original article, "Rich and Poor." A question I was left with from last night was, "To what extent are obligations to aid reinforced by the growing sophistication of the "aid industry," from which we might eventually learn better and more effective methods of promoting well-being in countries that struggle with low development indicators.

I'm grateful for the group dynamic we have in the class. Thanks. That should help us as we attempt to become a more critical group in upcoming assignments like the reconstructions and the short paper you are uploading to the peer review program by Friday evening (say 8:30pm). It's a real challenge to say helpful things about other people's work, but trying to do this also helps you think about your own work.

I'll make short audio comments on the reconstructions I've received and post them and a pdf of the work itself for your review. You might find it helpful to look at a couple and listen to the comments.

Looking forward to next week's work on Thought Experiments, which will also take us into some applied ethics topics. Feel free to volunteer to present key ideas from the reading. It's good practice and it reminds me not to talk the whole time!

Alfino

OCT 7

Thanks for your energy and hard work last night. I noticed that our discussions are focused enough to have noticeable digressions and tangents (such as the focus on immortality in the early transhumanism discussion). Also, there's a bit more comfort in sharing different views, asking critical questions (in the spirit of the midwife), and outright disagreeing. The sheer number and quality of rationales that were flying around was encouraging. On top of that you all seem to be taking pretty good care of each other.

That's important, of course, in any case, but also because we're now engaging in critical work by looking at writing and showing understanding through the logs (some missing and some noticeably more general this week -- please use your calendars and philosophical superpowers to spread the work out over the week). Of course, Socrates would be thrilled with us since we're also making some fun out of this.

With the History of Philosophy focus next week, jot down some names along the way, a couple of dates, and a couple of ideas. We'll try to put the story of modern philosophy together so that you can feel the importance of Kant's "Copernican Revolution." This is a pretty big structure in the history of philosophy but to see it you have to appreciate the problems philosophers were wrestling with since Descartes.

I would very much like to meet with each of you in the next couple of weeks about how your browsing interests might turn into research interests (keep on browsing) and about your philosophical writing. We can also talk about your grading scheme. Just email me with times that work for you. My new drop in office hours are M-W 11-1, but I still advise making an appointment. Other times that are good include MWF mornings and afternoons.

Have a great week, spread out the joy of reading for the proseminar, and write those logs a bit earlier if you would.

Alfino