SEPT 4

2: SEP 4 - 1. Some Classical Ideas on Happiness and Wisdom (after some hors d'oeuvres)

Assigned

• Tiffany, Kaitlyn, "No One Knows Exactly What Social Media is Doing to Teens"
• Hertz, Noreena, Chapter 6, "Our Screens, Our Selves"
• Hall, C2 – “The Wisest Man in the World” (18)
• McMahon C1, “Highest Good” (19-40)

In-class

• Emotional Connection - example story - also, example of an exp. Happiness practice. Ties in to today’s reading about “thinned relationships” and lower empathy.
• Deaths of Despair
• 1st Writing and Dropbox Practice

Tiffany, Kaitlyn - No One Knows Exactly What Social Media is doing to Teens

• Independent evidence of increase in high school students experiencing "persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness." 2011: 28% 2021: 42%. But this trend may have started before the big increase in S.M. use for this age group.

• Some Evidence:

• Facebook papers - unscientific, but internal research. 2021: body image and teen perception of s.m. as cause.
• Haidt's focus on teen girls may be plausible.
• Study suggesting that feeling in control of your social media use may be an indicator variable of health use.

• Problems with the research.

• Effects may dependent upon specific use patterns.
• Study showing no correlation bt screen time and well-being in adolescents.
• "Screen time" too broad a concept.
• Ecological fallacy - you don't know if people reporting poor mental health are the screen users.
• As with TV viewing research, alot depends upon what else you are doing or not doing. Time with friends or physical activity may have a protective effect.
• Self-fulfilling prophecy. Telling people its hurting them may cause them to believe that even if it's not true.

Hertz, Noreena C6, “Our Screens, Our Selves”

• Kaleidoscopes - popular and disparaged by elites. Is the comparison to screens reasonable? doubts, also, about printed writing over hand copies. (Print pdfs over screen reading.)

• We check our phone 221 times a day.

• thesis, 94: Cell phone use is contributing to loneliness. Hmm?

• trading off digitally mediated interactions for live ones. Everyone?
• evidence of impaired language skills. Parents distracted from kids.

• 97: study showing effect of smartphone on table on “closeness” bt couples.
• Jamil Zkai - “thinned” relationships reduce empathy.

• Covid - large increase in phone volume. Video.

• 99: evidence from empathy neuroscience - emotional engagement distinctive. Claims video interaction not the same.

• ”How to read a face” - Cites educators who claim that students are not reading faces and non-verbal information well due to cell phone use. 102: U Bristol study on kids and emo expression. Other studies…. Intervention studies show improvement after screen-free days.

• Would you advocate for “no cell phone” policies at your kid’s school? Harder for low income people to avoid using tech as a babysitter.

• Acknowledges that digital media and internet connect some people more than they used to be. Example of lgbt folks finding community digitally when their live community is not supportive.

• 106: studies connecting phone use and loneliness in adolescents. Direction of causation problem. Maybe lonely people use their phone more?

• 107: Best Intervention studies so far. Hunt Allcott. [1].

• 107 - trolling, doxxing, swatting, abusive language, threatening behavior, cyberbullies, “…a mean cruel world is a lonely one.” 109.

• BOMP - FOMO - digital exclusion - heightened adverse social comparison for some.

• Remedies - self-regulation, parental regulation of minors, age limits on some media.

Hall, C2 – “The Wisest Man in the World”

• Socratic wisdom -- Chaerephon and the story from the Apology.

• Socratic wisdom -- Knowing that you do not know something. Awareness of ignorance, but also, by implication, of standards for knowing.
• Does Socrates behavior in the Apology, toward Meletus and his verdict, show wisdom or contempt?

• Axial Age Hypothesis, 23 -- for more on this, see the wiki page, "Axial Age"

• digress on cultural evolution -- maybe a better way to theorize this idea.

• Greek

• Heraclitus - wisdom in recognizing the "flux" of reality. Note contrast with Platonic/Socratic model - forms.
• Contrast between Pericles and Socrates, p. 28

• Pericles -- "civic wisdom" - Athenian model for decision making. Quasi-democratic. (Wise culture/ wise person)
• Socrates -- anti-body. renunciation of desire. p.29: Hall hints at the modern research on emotion and evolved responses. He might have said: Emotions are "epistemic".
• both selling "deliberation" as a virtue

• Confucius

• 6th century BC China - collapse of Zhou dynasty. Period of chaos and suffering.
• Characteristics of Confucian ideas of wisdom - concept of "gen," put above even wisdom. (gloss)
• By contrast with Plato, Confucian wisdom is practical, meant to guide life, recognizes primacy of emotion.
• Like Socrates, Confucious was not personally well-integrated into society.

• Buddha 563-483bc.

• slight corrective to Jaspers quote on 32. A bit old school
• "awakening" vs. "wisdom"

• Theological (divine wisdom) vs. Secular (practical wisdom)

• Hall makes the point that Christian thought re-emphasizes the distinction between "Sapientia" and "Scientia"
• Solomon's wisdom came in a dream from the divine. (More about him later.)
• Are models of divine wisdom at odds with secular views?

McMahon, "Chapter 1: The Highest Good" (first half 19-40)

1. Classical Greek Models of Happiness

Key theme: Greek cultural break with accommodation to destiny. Recognition of possibility of control of circumstances determining happiness. The emergence of "autonomy" (self-rule, self-government) at the social and individual level.

Implicit historical narrative: Classical Greek philosophy has a point of connection with Periclean Athens, but develops Athenian cultural values in a radically new way. This begins a distinctive kind of narrative about happiness in the West.

1. The Greek Cultural Model

• Connection of the culture with tragedy, appreciation of fate, happiness as gift of gods.
• Dionysian culture
• Athenian democracy as a contrasting force representing control of the destiny of the polic by the peeps.
• Socratic culture as a radicalization of autonomy. Socratic method intended to liberate us from tradition and the pretense of knowledge. (Socrates was, however, no demo-crat.)
• Post-Socratic Schools -- Hellenism and Hellenistic culture (we'll be returning to some of these schools later in the course)

2. The Greek Philosophical Models of Happiness: Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, and Zeno.

A. Plato - Symposium gives us picture of Plato's view.

• Summary of the Symposium (not McMahon)

• The Symposium is presented by Plato as the record of a drinking party in which each participant was obligated to give a speech on the nature of love. You can check the wikipedia for an overview of the specific speeches. Our excerpt is taken from Socrates famous speech on love, in which he quotes Diotima, a real female ancient Greek philosopher (rare then). Love turns out to be a semi-divine force that motivates us to pursue the highest forms, including Wisdom. Wise people do not get stuck chasing pretty lovers (especially boys for these guys); they realize that beyond the specific beautiful people, there is the form of beauty. Climbing the "ladder of love" reorients our lives in a practical way toward less transitory things. That is supposed to be a wise thing to do. Start at 201D for the main part of the reading.

• Socrates/Plato raise the question of happiness in the Euythedemus

• Contrast the Symposium with the cult of Dionysius - Dionysian 'ecstasy' (quote at p. 29) vs. Platonic transcendence. A private symposium often replicated public debauchery for the elite. "Komos"
• Reasoning our way to the Good (Happiness). Symposium as purification ritual (Summary including Alcibiades twist). bad desire/good desire. We will find real happiness in the pursuit of transcendent knowledge.
• The Symposium itself: Speeches on love. (Eros as a force that draws us toward happiness.)

• Phaedrus - Eros is the oldest of gods, most useful to man.
• Agathon - Eros is the most happy, most blessed.
• Pausanias - distinction bt Common Eros / Heavenly
• Erixymachus - eros as broad natural force in all life.
• Aristophanes - the fable of "finding your better half"
• Socrates - Eros is the child of Poverty and Plenty. (Socratic analysis of desire - lack.) Eros needs guidance, not auto-telic. Socrates proposes an educational model, a "ladder of love" (read at 35) that guides eros toward its proper object.

• Object of desire is transcendent. (Reminder about Platonic metaphysics.) "intellectual orgasm" (36)
• McMahon: "radical reappraisal of the standards of the world" 37

• Stop here for first half reading assignment

B. Aristotle (note McMahon pp. 41ff and Aristotle reading)

• end, function, craft, techne. Hierarchy of arts.
• end vs. final end -- the universal good is the final end, not relative. sec. 6-7.
• happiness as activity of the soul in accordance with virture (def., but also consequence of reasoning from nature of human life)
• Section 13: nature of the soul. two irrational elements: veg/appetitive and one rational. Note separation/relationship.
• As M notes, Aristotle's focus on the rational part of the soul leaves him with a similar problem as Plato -- a model of happines that few (not the Alcibiades in the world) will attain.

• Is the Greek Classical model of happiness (as seen in the Symposium and Aristotle's thought), a revelation of truth about happiness or the beginning of a repressive line of thought in happiness studies?
• If happiness requires a disciplined practice, how do you maintain solidarity with those who do not maintain the discipline (the Alcibiades problem)? Possible weakness of an individual enlightenment model of happiness.

• Surgery for the Soul

• Zeno (335) and Epicurus (341). Vitality of Platonic/Socratic teaching in Hellenistic schools. Eudaimonia a common focus.
• General thesis: Epicurean and Stoic thought might be related to political changes (53). From city-state to Empires and tyrants. Note how this might track away from Aristotle, with his "external goods" list.
• Epicurus' definition of pleasure. Not really hedonism. absence of pain (aponia), absence of mental anguish or anxiety (ataraxia). Internal strategy: Eliminate unnecessary pleasures, be satisfied with simple ones.

• Note near overlaps with Stoic message.

• Note metaphor for both schools -- surgery for the soul.

• Prodicus' The Choice of Hercules - represents the tragic cultural motif in contrast to Platonic/Hellenistic thought.

1st Writing and Dropbox practice

• Please write a 250 word maximum answer to the following question by TBD, 11:59pm. This assignment will give us some initial writing to look at and give you practice with the dropbox protocol for turning in pseudonymous writing in the course. For this assignment, the writing itself is ungraded, but you will receive 15 points for following the instructions accurately.

• Topic: TBD?

• Prompt Advice: While this is ungraded and informal writing which asks for your opening impressions, try to give your answer some organization and structure. Try to pay attention to word choice and sentence structure. I strongly encourage you to draft your answer the night before it is due and return to it on the night that it is due.

• Advice about collaboration: Collaboration is part of the academic process and the intellectual world that college courses are based on, so it is important to me that you have the possibility to collaborate. I encourage you to collaborate with other students, but only up to the point of sharing ideas, references to class notes, and your own notes, verbally. Collaboration is also a great way to make sure that a high average level of learning and development occurs in the class. The best way to avoid plagiarism is to NOT share text of draft answers or outlines of your answer. Keep it verbal. Generate your own examples.

1. To assure anonymity, you must remove your name from the "author name" that you may have provided when you set up your word processing application. For instructions on removing your name from an Word or Google document, [click here].
2. Format your answer in double spaced text, in a typical 12 point font, and using normal margins. Do not add spaces between paragraphs, but do indent the first line of each paragraph.
3. Do not put your name in the file or filename. You may put your student ID number in the file. Always put a word count in the file. Save your file for this assignment with the name: MythosLogos.
4. To turn in your assignment, log into courses.alfino.org, click on the "1 Points Dropbox" dropbox.
5. If you cannot meet a deadline, you must email me about your circumstances (unless you are having an emergency) before the deadline or you will lose points.