MU Philosophy Club

First Club Meeting

2010-09-01T13:35:00.001-05:00

The first Philosophy Club meeting of the semester will be tonight (Wednesday, September 1) at 7:30pm. We will be meeting at Speaker's Circle before proceeding to another location for the actual meeting.

[snaps fingers]

2009-04-02T17:59:00.002-05:00

Can't believe this near-miss: I mentioned in my talk that i've seen in the New York Times (among many other places) how transhumanist ideas are getting an increasingly serious hearing. Well, on the chore-packed day of my talk, i only gave the paper a quick scan. But it turns out that on that very day, the science column featured on the Op Ed page was titled Computers vs. Brains, and starts this way:
"Inventor Ray Kurzweil, in his 2005 futurist manifesto “The Singularity Is Near,” extrapolates current trends in computer technology to conclude that machines will be able to out-think people within a few decades." They go on to be skeptical (part valid, and part silly: "we can already create a human-level computer by having a child" -- huh?). But they're positive about aspects of brain<->computer research. And the bigger point is that the ideas are filtering out, getting respect, being debated, changing the culture. I could multiply examples endlessly, but this one was too made-to-order to pass up.

Meeting on Transhumanism 3/31

2009-03-19T16:19:00.000-05:00

The action-packed, visual-aid-studded lecture will not assume any
background, so feel free to come as you are. But if you want a head
start, check these out:
First: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transhumanism
Then: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

Below are in-depth resources for those who are not doing anything for
break, are dying of curiosity, or for follow-up after the meeting:

Transhumanism (h+) in academic philosophy:
Here's an online journal that includes phil along with other areas:
http://jetpress.org/
This is the only online phil dissertation i know of that's directly
about h+ -- specifically personal identity, which i hope to deal with
in my talk. (Had a chance to chat with the author at a conference,
btw.):
http://www.maxmore.com/disscont.htm
Now some (openly) h+ philosophers:
http://www.nickbostrom.com/
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/bio/blackford/
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/bio/walker/
And for an mp3 of an interview with another (about his h+ phil book),
you can listen to this:
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/2878/

Next, bioethics, which i separate out because i put out the word to
those folks:
One good overall beginning is this:
http://bioethics.com/?cat=21
And here's an interesting chart of positions:
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/biopolitics
Finally, a notable h+ academic who i guess is more bioethics than phil:
http://www.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/npublicationslisted.htm
, and who just happens to be the latest guest on Philosophy Bites:
http://nigelwarburton.typepad.com/philosophy_bites/2009/03/julian-savulescu-on-the-yuk-factor.html

Penultimately, just for thoroughness, here are general h+ resources:
The biggest umbrella group is moving to a new name/identity:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanity%2B
But the old version has tons of resourses. At (rapidly) increasing length:
A short, close-as-it-comes-to-canonical self-definition:
http://transhumanism.org/index.php/WTA/declaration/
A widely respected explanation that covers some bigger-picture issues
i'll deal with:
http://transhumanism.org/index.php/WTA/more/transhumanist-values/
And a massive(ly informative) and pretty canonical FAQ:
http://transhumanism.org/index.php/WTA/faq/
Here's a "technoprogressive" (not h+, they insist ;^) organization that
i (also) endorse. (Hey, it's my talk; and i'm going to make clear which
strands of h+ i agree with and which i think are nutty):
http://ieet.org/
Finally, i have to toss out this aging but very interesting collection:
http://www.aleph.se/Trans/

And finally-finally (finally!): i'm going to hand out an outline at the
meeting, which will incl schools of thought and organizations for
searching/WPing. But if folks want, i can post it all linkified for
your convenience.

Relevant Primary Source stuff

2009-02-21T13:31:00.003-06:00

Part 5 of Beyond Good and Evil, A Natural History of Morals can be found online at: http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/Nietzsche/beyondgoodandevil5.htm
I'll be going over it before the meeting and I encourage anyone else who's interested in learning about the topic from the man himself to do the same.

Possible Topics

2009-02-04T23:55:00.003-06:00

Possible topics with links to the corresponding articles in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Meeting Topic Brainstorm

2009-01-31T16:09:00.002-06:00

Leave a comment with suggestions for possible topics. Feel free to indicate areas of special interest or expertise or resources you think would be especially helpful in facilitating discussion on a certain topic. I will compile the topics into a master list, and then we can vote to determine actual topics.

Meeting on 1/27: Human Nature

2009-01-25T19:09:00.003-06:00

Alyosha has volunteered to present on and facilitate a discussion about
human nature, as it relates to his future topic of Transhumanism. Quoth alyosha:

"Since HN has long been and often remains misunderstood and out of
fashion within academe (esp humanities/leftie types), i'll focus on
defending a contemporary evolutionary psychological version.

If you want to prep before we meet, i'm coming from somewhere generally
along the lines of
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blank_Slate
http://www.amazon.com/Blank-Slate-Modern-Denial-Nature/dp/0142003344
This work is esp good because he deals with recent academic/leftie
rejections of HN; tho oc i don't agree with him on everything.

And because critiques of HN (or outdated versions of HN being
critiqued) tend to be biologically oversimplified, it's worth glancing
at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norms_of_reaction
Likewise, since i'm mostly going to try to argue for the legitimacy and
truth of a broad idea of HN, it might be stimulating to glance down
this list:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_universals
I'm not attached to this list, but it might serve to get the wheels
turning re the general point that humans occupy a small subset of the
space of possible "species natures" (term not used in the marxian
sense, btw).

If you want to read more (tho don't feel at all obliged), you might
start with:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_nature
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/evolutionary-psychology/
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/sociobiology/

Ok!; sharpen your knives, and i'll see you there!"

Journals With Student Rates

2008-12-10T22:10:00.002-06:00

Just in case anyone is interested, here's a list of a few journals with student rates:

Journal of the History of Philosophy: $28
Analysis: $24
Journal of Philosophy: $20
Philosophical Review: $20
Journal of Political Philosophy: $40
The Philosophical Quarterly: $27
Philosophy and Public Affairs: $23
Australasian Journal of Philosophy: $24

First Person Plural

2008-11-29T11:45:00.000-06:00

[From alyosha, alyosha@bostoncoop.net]
Here's something only somewhat related to liberalism, which i offer
mostly because i'm really into it -- and it's bristling with
philosophical implications. It also allows me to keep grinding my
naturalization ax, incl to point out that naturalization primarily
means philosophizing based on up-to-date info about the world (vs all
too much of academic philosophy), and doesn't necessarily mean
(radical) reductionism.

First Person Plural
An evolving approach to the science of pleasure suggests that each of
us contains multiple selves—all with different desires, and all
fighting for control. If this is right, the pursuit of happiness
becomes even trickier. Can one self bind” another self if the two want
different things? Are you always better off when a Good Self wins? And
should outsiders, such as employers and policy makers, get into the
fray?
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/multiple-personalities

12/2 Meeting: Liberalism

2008-11-25T11:23:00.003-06:00

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (SEP) article on Liberalism - a good overview of the various issues and probably the best place to start.

Wikipedia articles on Liberalism and Classical Liberalism

Google Books of Rawls' Political Liberalism - the first lecture sets out his idea of a political conception of liberalism as opposed to a comprehensive conception; and Rawls' Justice as Fairness - the first section sets out some of the basics of his position.

Other SEP Articles: Autonomy in Moral and Political Philosophy, Distributive Justice, Positive and Negative Liberty, Rights, Limits of Law, Identity Politics, Coercion

Past Philosophy Club Meetings

2008-10-20T19:35:00.004-05:00

November 18th
We will be discussing Trolley Problems. Recommended materials:
Philosophy Bites podcast on the Trolley Problem here
Wikipedia Entry
Variations and Quiz
The Trolley Problem by Judith Jarvis Thomson
SEP Entries: Deontological Ethics, Doing Vs. Allowing Harm, Double Effect

October 28th:
Professor Ariew will be joining us for a discussion of professionalization(what grad school is like, expert performance (how to get ahead in philosophy)). He recommends reading "A Star is Made" before the meeting and consulting The Philosophy Gourmet Report, which ranks philosophy departments.

October 21st:
We will be discussing aesthetics, specifically the Washington Post article "Pearls Before Breakfast" and Morris Weitz's article "The Role of Theory in Aesthetics," which can be found on Jstor.
Other resources you might want to look at:
Audio of Joshua Bell's Performance
Stanford Encyclopedia articles on Definition of Art, Aesthetic Judgment, Conceptual Art, Philosophy of Music

Film screening, radio show episode of note

2008-10-19T12:40:00.005-05:00

Sorry for not getting this info up earlier, but Astra Taylor's Examined Life documentary is playing this afternoon at Stephens College's Citizen Jane Film Festival. According to the site, Taylor will be at the screening, which starts at 3 at Windsor Auditorium. Astra's last film was Zizek! about Slavoj Žižek, the Slovenian cultural theorist, who is featured in Examined Life with Martha Nussbaum, Peter Singer, Cornell West and Kwame Anthony Appiah, among other modern day philosophers, theorists and critics. Tickets are $5 for students and available at Ragtag.

Also worth checking out is Act One of last week's This American Life episode, number 366, "A Better Mousetrap 2008." It might be interesting to listen to with what Dr. Markie's recent talk in mind. You can currently download the episode for free either from the show's site or from iTunes until, most likely, tomorrow, when this weekend's episode becomes available; however, you can always stream any episode of the show, in full, for free from the TAL site. Here's the description of the story:

Act One. Mother of Invention.
Karen Sosnoski's one-year-old son, Anton, was born with what's known as Mosaic Down Syndrome, a rare condition where some of his cells have the extra chromosome that causes Down syndrome and other cells don't. So as he grows, he could end up having all the health risks and challenges of Downs syndrome...or just a few of them. Through a website, Karen found a kid with the same diagnosis, named Tim Colvin, who was doing really well...perhaps because his mother, Kristy, invented a surprising and unusual way to raise her son. When some people hear about what Kristy did, they're shocked. Karen went to talk to Kristy and Tim about how Tim was raised. (13 minutes)

Don't want to miss timely updates? Add this blog to your Google Reader and you won't have to worry about forgetting to check the blog, or wasting time checking it in hopes of a new post, since there aren't that many, that often. Though I doubt the latter is very prevalent! Anyway, enjoy.

Upcoming talks on campus

2008-10-01T18:06:00.007-05:00

Some of our budding classicists and, well, other nerd-types might be wise to take note of a few talks on campus next week sponsored by our History department. For the 2008 Fordyce Mitchel Lecture Series, they're bringing in Dr. Christopher Pelling from Oxford (faculty page here and a slightly more substantive Wikipedia entry here). The general theme is "How Greek Historians Explained History" and information on each is as follows:

"Cleopatra" (7 PM, Monday, October 6, Stewart Hall 100)
"Herodotus: Gods and Men - and Women Too" (4 PM, Tuesday, October 7, Agriculture Building 2-16)
"Thucydides: The Limits of 'Realistic' Thinking" (4 PM, Wednesday, October 8, Tate Hall 104)
"Polybius: What Made Roman History Different" (7 PM, Thursday, October 9, Agriculture Building 2-16)

And the following week from MU Peace Studies, a talk on nonviolence delivered by Dr. Barry Gan, director of the Center for Nonviolence and Professor of Philosophy at St. Bonaventure University in New York. Here's the info:

People who abhor war and domestic violence struggle with the question of how harm to the innocent can be prevented and social justice promoted by non-violent means. You are invited to hear Dr. Barry Gan present a lecture "Out of the Ashes of Violence: Violent Myths and Nonviolent Realities," that addresses these issues at 7:30 p.m., Monday, October 13, in 114 Strickland Hall on the MU Campus. The talk will be free and open to the public. It will deal with misconceptions that lead people to resort to violence when problems can be resolved nonviolently.

A Philosopher on the American Election

2008-09-20T15:24:00.007-05:00

Before too much time passes, I thought I'd post a somewhat recent interview on PRI's The World with French philosopher, journalist and public intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy about his thoughts on the upcoming presidential election in the United States. Lévy was apparently a student of Derrida and Althusser, two of the leading French structuralists, and one of his more recent books was American Vertigo: Traveling America in the Footsteps of Tocqueville, which I haven't read but remember for being savaged by Garrison Keillor (though Lévy was interviewed on The Daily Show around the same time - not universally panned).

Seen any other philosophers muse or opine about the election? Just by glancing at Brian Leiter's blog, one can see he's had a lot on the election; one post that caught my eye a while back was this one, which simply linked to two op-ed type pieces on Obama's campaign strategy at this point. Although at least in this post, Leiter didn't put his own two cents in, I found it interesting that the guy nevertheless found some credibility in the pieces, neither of which really discussed the elephant in the room - race - nor possessed the common sense that anything Obama (or Biden) says about McCain or Palin will be scrutinized (in the sense of misconstrued and belabored).

Anyway. The Club's next discussion will be on Gene Weingarten's Pulitzer-prize winning feature in The Washington Post Magazine, "Pearls Before Breakfast," with a reading on aesthetics for good measure.