Just in case you need some philosophy in your life.....

Enjoy

Enjoy Part II

Foucalt

Put the following quote into your own words:

n  “By means of such surveillance, disciplinary power became an ‘integrated’ system, linked from the inside to the economy and to the aims of the mechanism in which it was practiced. It was also organized as a multiple, automatic, and anonymous power; for although surveillance rests on individuals, its functioning is that of a network of relations from top to bottom, but also to a certain extent, from bottom to top and laterally. The power in the hierarchized surveillance of the disciplines is not possessed as a thing, or transferred as a property; it functions like a piece of machinery. And, although it is true that its pyramidal organization gives it a head, it is the apparatus as a whole that produces ‘power’ and distributes individuals in this permanent and continuous field.” (pp 176-77) 

Sartre

Read pages 10-14 here.

Which existentialist do you agree with the most? Why? (one paragraph).

Soren Kierkegaard

"Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (b. 1813, d. 1855) was a profound and prolific writer in the Danish “golden age” of intellectual and artistic activity. His work crosses the boundaries of philosophy, theology, psychology, literary criticism, devotional literature and fiction. Kierkegaard brought this potent mixture of discourses to bear as social critique and for the purpose of renewing Christian faith within Christendom. At the same time he made many original conceptual contributions to each of the disciplines he employed. He is known as the “father of existentialism”, but at least as important are his critiques of Hegel and of the German romantics, his contributions to the development of modernism, his literary experimentation, his vivid re-presentation of biblical figures to bring out their modern relevance, his invention of key concepts which have been explored and redeployed by thinkers ever since, his interventions in contemporary Danish church politics, and his fervent attempts to analyse and revitalise Christian faith." (from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kierkegaard/)

In the Comments Section, put the following into your own words. Include concepts from the notes in class on May 7th. 

"Let us speak further about the wish and thereby about sufferings. Discussion of sufferings can always be beneficial if it addresses not only the self-willfulness of the sorrow but, if possible, addresses the sorrowing person for his up building. It is a legitimate and sympathetic act to dwell properly on the suffering, lest the suffering person become impatient over our superficial discussion in which he does not recognize his suffering, lest he for that reason impatiently thrust aside consolation and be strengthened in double-mindedness. It certainly is one thing to go out into life with the wish when what is wished becomes the deed and the task; it is something else to go out into life away from the wish.

Abraham had to leave his ancestral home an emigrate to an alien nation, where nothing reminded him of what he loved – indeed, sometimes it is no doubt a consolation that nothing calls to mind what one wishes to forget, but it is a bitter consolation for the person who is full of longing. Thus a person can also have a wish that for him contains everything, so that in the hour of the separation, when the pilgrimage begins, it is as if he were emigrating to a foreign country where nothing but the contrast reminds him, by the loss, of what he wished; it can seem to him a as if he were emigrating to a foreign country even if he remains at home perhaps in the same locality – by losing the wish just as among strangers, so that to take leave of the wish seems to him harder and more crucial than to take leave of his senses.

Apart from this wish, even if he still does not move from the spot, his life’s troublesome way is perhaps spent in useless sufferings, for we are speaking of those who suffer essentially, not of those who have the consolation that their sufferings are for the benefit of a good cause, for the benefit of others. It was bound to be thus – the journey to the foreign country was not long; in one moment he was there, there in that strange country where the suffering ones meet, but not those who have ceased to grieve, not those whose tears eternity cannot wipe away, for as an old devotional book so simply and movingly says, “How can God dry your tears in the next world if you have not wept?” Perhaps someone else comes in a different way, but to the same place."

• Søren Kierkegaard, Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits, Hong 1993 p. 102-103

Friedrich Nietzsche

First published Fri May 30, 1997; substantive revision Fri Apr 29, 2011

"Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) was a German philosopher of the late 19th century who challenged the foundations of Christianity and traditional morality. He was interested in the enhancement of individual and cultural health, and believed in life, creativity, power, and the realities of the world we live in, rather than those situated in a world beyond. Central to his philosophy is the idea of “life-affirmation,” which involves an honest questioning of all doctrines that drain life's expansive energies, however socially prevalent those views might be. Often referred to as one of the first existentialist philosophers along with Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855), Nietzsche's revitalizing philosophy has inspired leading figures in all walks of cultural life, including dancers, poets, novelists, painters, psychologists, philosophers, sociologists and social revolutionaries." (Info. found at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche/). 

1. Click here to access the text. 

2. Read xxi-xxvii. The 3 sections are titled ‘Good, bad and evil’, The fate of bad conscience, and Sin and the ascetic ideal. 

3. Write a paragraph summary of each section- what are the main ideas expressed in each section?

4. Submit the summaries to the comments section of this blog. 

Marxism- Current Events

Find an article on a current event and give me Marx's point of view on it.

- 1 paragraph summary of article.
- 1 paragraph using Marx's ideas to explore key points raised in the article.
- include the title, author, and web address of the article.
- to be completed in the comments section of this posting.

Marxism- Rest of Ch. 1

Link to Text: Here

1. To many, Globalism and the world economy  have been praised. What do you think Karl Marx would say given this quote "The need of a constantly expanding market for its products chases the bourgeoisie over the entire surface of the globe. It must nestle everywhere, settle everywhere, establish connexions everywhere." What would Marx's main issues with Globalism be. 

2. What do you think Marx means by "the rapid improvement of all instruments of production, by the immensely facilitated means of communication, draws all, even the most barbarian, nations into civilisation." How is this possibly different in 2015 with the amount of technology we have?

3. Capitalism, at its core, is about profit and expansion. How does Marx feel about these two concepts. Give examples from the reading. 

4. Give me a paragraph on the conditions of the proletariat as Marx understands it. What examples or comparisons does he give? Use examples from the reading. 

5. Re-write the last two paragraphs in your own words. What is Marx describing here?

Karl Marx

First published Tue Aug 26, 2003; substantive revision Mon Jun 14, 2010 found http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/marx/

"Karl Marx (1818–1883) is best known not as a philosopher but as a revolutionary communist, whose works inspired the foundation of many communist regimes in the twentieth century. It is hard to think of many who have had as much influence in the creation of the modern world. Trained as a philosopher, Marx turned away from philosophy in his mid-twenties, towards economics and politics. However, in addition to his overtly philosophical early work, his later writings have many points of contact with contemporary philosophical debates, especially in the philosophy of history and the social sciences, and in moral and political philosophy. Historical materialism — Marx's theory of history — is centered around the idea that forms of society rise and fall as they further and then impede the development of human productive power. Marx sees the historical process as proceeding through a necessary series of modes of production, characterized by class struggle, culminating in communism. Marx's economic analysis of capitalism is based on his version of the labour theory of value, and includes the analysis of capitalist profit as the extraction of surplus value from the exploited proletariat. The analysis of history and economics come together in Marx's prediction of the inevitable economic breakdown of capitalism, to be replaced by communism. However Marx refused to speculate in detail about the nature of communism, arguing that it would arise through historical processes, and was not the realisation of a pre-determined moral ideal."

1. Click here to access The Communist Manifesto.

2. Read from the beginning to the sentence that reads The bourgeoisie, historically, has played a most revolutionary part.

3. Identify 3 major ideas Marx is working with in the passages. 

4. In what ways is Marx clearly influenced by Hegel? Give examples from the text. 

Multiple Selves and "Who am I?"

Read "To Thine Own Selves Be True" article. Found on Edline page.
Think about the main ideas discussed in the article.
Compare these ideas to some of the main ideas you have discovered in Hegel.

Write a 3-4 paragraph auto-biography using language/terminology found in the article and Hegel. Who are you? Which self do you think is your real self? How many selves do you have? Is unifying all of your selves possible like Hegel thinks?

Required- use 1 quote from Hegel (or from powerpoint) & use at least 2 quotes from the article.

Paragraphs 178-181 of The Phenomenology of the Mind

 After reading sections 178-181 and reviewing your notes from class today, write a 3 sentence summary of what you think Hegel's main ideas are within the Phenomenology of the Mind. No more, no less than 3 sentences. 

Preface to Phenom. (Part Two)

Read pp.5-10 (so that you have read up to but not including Section 7 of the Preface).

Provide a 2 paragraph summary for EACH section (Section 4, Section 5, & Section 6).

Link to Preface here.

Intro to Hegel & Preface to the Phenomenology of Mind

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

First published Thu Feb 13, 1997; substantive revision Thu Jul 22, 2010

Along with J. G. Fichte and F. W. J. von Schelling, Hegel (1770–1831) belongs to the period of “German idealism” in the decades following Kant. The most systematic of the post-Kantian idealists, Hegel attempted, throughout his published writings as well as in his lectures, to elaborate a comprehensive and systematic ontology from a “logical” starting point. He is perhaps most well-known for his teleological account of history, an account which was later taken over by Marx and “inverted” into a materialist theory of an historical development culminating in communism. For most of the twentieth century, the “logical” side of Hegel's thought had been largely forgotten, but his political and social philosophy continued to find interest and support. However, since the 1970s, a degree of more general philosophical interest in Hegel's systematic thought has also been revived. (Information from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

ASSIGNMENT- Due by start of class on April 14th.

Instructions
Read the quote from Pascal at the front of your packet.
Read the quote from Hegel on the Dialectic in Politics.
Watch the first 10-12 minutes of this video.
Read pp. 2-4 found here.

1. Re-write Pascal's quote in your own words. Afterwards, give a 2-3 sentence synopsis of what you think he is trying to accomplish?
2. Summarize how the dialectic works in Politics? What are some main ideas Hegel is raising in this passage concerning freedom?
3. Write a 2 paragraph summary of pp. 2-4 and the video. How is Hegel defining philosophy? What are some of the key terms he is using? How is he different from the other philosophers we have studied?

Second Part of Intro to the Critique of Pure Reason

1. What is Kant's perspective on "dogmatist promises"? What is a dogmatist? Why do you think Kant may have an issue with their perspective?

2. What are the two indispensable conditions? Do you agree that these two things are indispensable?

3. At the bottom of p. 8, Kant talks about prior investigations and that they had "two sides". Explain his prior investigations into pure reason. What were the issues? Were there any conclusions?

4. Explain/describe the moment when Kant became "aware of the magnitude of my task". What did he realize?

5. How does Kant define and describe Metaphysics in this second reading? How are Reason and Metaphysics related to one another?

6 Write a 6-7 sentence summary of this quote- it is one of the most important ones from the CPR.
"Up to now it has been assumed that all our cognition must conform to the objects; but all attempts to find out something about them a priori through concepts that would extend our cognition have, on this presupposition, come to nothing. Hence let us once try whether we do not get farther with the problems of metaphysics by assuming that the objects must conform to our cognition, which would agree better with the requested possibility of an a priori cognition of them, which is to establish something about objects before they are given to us. This would be just like the first thoughts of Copernicus, who, when he did not make good progress in the explanation of the celestial motions if he assumed that the entire celestial host revolves around the observer, tried to see if he might not have greater success if he made the observer revolve and left the stars at rest. Now in metaphysics we can try in a similar way regarding the intuition of objects. If intuition has to conform to the constitution of the objects, then I do not see how we can know anything of them a priori; but if the object (as an object of the senses) conforms to the constitution of our faculty of intuition, then I can very well represent this possibility to myself. Yet because I cannot stop with these intuitions, if they are to become cognitions, but must refer them as representations to something as their object and determine this object through them, I can assume either that the concepts through which I bring about this determination also conform to the objects, and then I am once again in the same difficulty about how I could know anything about them a priori, or else I assume that the objects, or what is the same thing, the experience in which alone they can be cognized (as given objects) conforms to those concepts, in which case I immediately see an easier way out of the difficulty, since experience itself is a kind of cognition requiring the understanding, whose rule I have to presuppose in myself before any object is given to me, hence a priori, which rule is expressed in concepts a priori, to which all objects of experience must therefore necessarily conform, and with which they must agree. "

Questions from the Critique of Pure Reason

  

1.       Put Slide #5 into your own words.

2.       Desc. Difficulty Reason falls into on pp. 3-4. Do you agree? Why/WN?

3.       How does Kant describe Metaphys.’ Evolution on pp. 4-5. What is the current state of Metaphys, IKO.

4.       Explain K’s “critical investigation of pure reason” starting on top of p.6

5.       Put the last full paragraph on pp. 5-6 into your own words. This should be 7-8 sentences. This is where the thesis of the entire work starts to unfold.

Two Page Paper

PAPERS NOW HAVE A DEADLINE OF MARCH 13th- we do not have class on the 13th, but, you can hand them into me by coming to my office. 

After reading the handout (also available on the Edline page), you are going to write a 2 page paper (double spaced, 12 pt Times New Roman font) on a topic of your choosing based on the reading. 

The paper is to be objective- no use of "I".

An "easy" way to generate a topic would be to choose a philosopher we have studied and compare and contrast. 

This paper is due in class on March 11th. Papers should be printed out and handed in hard copy. 

PAPERS NOW HAVE A DEADLINE OF MARCH 13th- we do not have class on the 13th, but, you can hand them into me by coming to my office. 

Irrational Behavior and Hume

After watching the video (click here), what are some of the key points raised in it.

How would Dan Ariely's research conflict or compliment Hume's philosophy on human nature?

Respond to these questions (or other ones of your own choosing) in the comments section of this posting. This posting should be at least 2 paragraphs in length.

Hume Part II

Moving from Critique to Construction.....Describing and Explaining.

Read pages 5-6. Click here

Answer the following:

1. What does Hume mean by "the most secret recesses of the mind"?
2. What is the "only way to free learning from entanglement"?
3. What is the "only universal remedy"? What is being remedied?
4. What does Hume mean when stating "the eye of the mind can't easily detect the lines..."?
5. Why does Hume reference Astronomers and Newton? What are the major points he is raising on page 6, especially from the right side of the page.

Post- Cartesian Philosophy- David Hume

Full Text of Hume: click HERE

After Reading pp. 1-4, answer the following in the Comments Section of this posting. Complete prior to class on Tuesday. 

1. Describe Descartes' legacy- is it more of a quantity or quality type of impact?

2. How does Hume describe the 1st treatment of philosophy?

3. How does Hume describe moral philosophy in the second way?

4. Which philosophy do you agree with more? Why?

5. If pragmatism is defined as" a philosophical approach that assesses the truth of meaning of theories or beliefs in terms of the success of their practical 

application." How does Hume's philosophy fall into being labelled pragmatic?

6. Describe the harm caused by speculative philosophy? What is the one positive thing about speculative philosophy?

Third Meditation....In Your Own Words

Read the 3rd Meditation- Here. 









Some Central Ideas within this Meditation:

3 possible types of ideas: innate, those originating in myself, and those that originate from something outside of me. We shall be most interested in the third group.

"I must still doubt both my senses and my intuitions concerning mathematical knowledge since God may have constituted me so as to be deceived even about those things I seem most certain."

"The idea of God could not have originated in me, since I am a finite substance."

You are doing the same with this Meditation as you did with the 2nd. 

Your Meditations

As you read the 2nd Meditation of Descartes, think about how you can perform the same mental exercise he is conducting. What would it mean to doubt everything? How do you come to the conclusions? You are to re-write the 2nd Meditation in your own words from the first person perspective- meaning, you are mandated to use "I" throughout your posting.

Text can be found here.
Assignment should be about a page to a page and a half.

Meditations

Link to Text: Here
Why do you think Descartes wrote the Preface? Not many philosophy books have a Preface in the form of a letter to the faculty of a university. What are his goals and intentions? What questions do you have after reading the Preface?

Descartes

After reading the 6 pages on Descartes from the handout, write a paragraph on how Descartes and Modern Philosophy are different than Ancient Greek and Medieval Philosophy. What seems to be Descartes' focus?