Introduction to Philosophy

Introduction to Philosophy

Jeffrey White – instructor ([email protected]) Haewon Seo – TA ([email protected])

What is common to every solution to every problem, past, present and future?

That solution is made of ideas.

Philosophy

is

the

study of ideas

,

and

this class

is

designed to develop skills necessary for

the artful appreciation and application of ideas in the

enrichment and enhancement of human life.

Class objectives:

This is an EDU 3.0 class focused on developing practical skills through active inquiry and open discourse. We are aiming for a balance between unpacking, understanding, and assembling complex theoretical constructs in the solution of contemporary problems.

Class methods:

We want students to practice hypothesis testing through self-directed inquiry. To this end, the class adopts a guided inquiry approach aiming to situate students – independently and in teams – within problem environments with a set of clear ideas, some good information on how to find some better ideas, and some limited time (a sense of urgency!) in which to collaboratively develop grounded solutions.

Communication

between students of different backgrounds and from different parts of the world is one of the treasures afforded an International Summer School education. This class is designed to maximize opportunities to develop inter-disciplinary and inter-cultural teamwork skills in a boot-camp engagement with great thinkers and their thoughts.

Course materials:

All materials will be provided. We will use materials from many eras and in different media, including annotated films, news reports and other media. Students are encouraged to introduce outside materials if sufficiently researched and perhaps with some additional discussion during office hours. All outside materials must be cited.

Course assignments:

• Guided reading assignments consist of excerpts from significant historical and contemporary text and professional journals to which clarifications and important background discussions have been added. • Quizzes consist of traditional review type questions. We will have at least one "pop" quiz.

• The micro-theme presentation is a small group student-directed intensive investigation into one specific philosophical issue. The idea here is that students can take an active role in directing their educations while developing public speaking and teamwork skills. Moreover, with the class split into small groups, these presentations offer a broad survey of philosophical materials close to student interests.

• Homework and intermission assignments appear in three types: vocabulary and concept building and review, reading and other materials review, and applications of core concepts and models.

• The final exam is standard format, in-class and comprehensive, consisting half of review questions and half of applications of core concepts and models to contemporary and classical problems.

Course expectations:

It is important to keep up with the work during fast Summer sessions. We will have quizzes, pop-quizzes, micro-theme group presentations, and a traditional final exam. There is no magic involved in scoring an "A". If you stay active, attend daily and do not sleep in class (too much!) then you should do well and learn a lot.

English as a second language:

For many students, English is their second (or even third!) language. Reading assignments will be in English, but these will be heavily annotated, introduced and reviewed. Most problems can be solved diagrammatically, with language employed in support of these graphical representations. Where possible, we use texts that are easily available in most languages. Students will not lose points for incorrect grammar and spelling, and the class will not involve essays and long written projects.

If you have any concerns about any of the above, please do not hesitate to contact me directly at

[email protected]

Core texts

- in PDF format with notes, clarifications, directions, and guided reading questions:

Republic, Euthyphro, Gorgias – Plato

Politics, Nichomachean Ethics, Physics and de Anima – Aristotle

Supplementary selections from Kant, de la Mettrie, Mill, Rawls, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Sartre, Nozick,

Chalmers, Floridi, Searle, Harnad, Magnani, James, Chisholm, Peirce

and many others…

This class

is built from eleven basic models for thought taken from the history of ideas and applied in critical analysis of contemporary and historical issues. The aim is to develop persistent skills in conceptual analysis and constructive resolution through active inquiry and open collaboration.

Week 1, Day 1:

Hour 1 – Introduction and aim. Seating assignments.

Intro lecture: etymology of the word "belief" ('something held dear'). Philosophy as the love of ideas. Psychology and genius (Simonton), creative genius and abduction (Thagard) Peirce bio (Conan Doyle, medical diagnosis and mystery solving, Peirce, Moriarty/Newcomb, and Sherlock Holmes, existential graphs and diagrammatical reasoning, induction and deduction illustrated, "pragmaticism" and James) – selections from "How to make our ideas clear"

Hour 2 – Intermission assignment (keywords and concepts: -isms and –ists with diagrams)

Hour 3 - Socrates' bio. Appearance and reality. What is wisdom? What is enlightenment? What is an idea? What is truth? Knowledge? Virtue? Justice? Theories of justice from Republic bks 1-2 compared.

Homework: guided reading assignment - Republic books 1 and 2. Day 2:

Hour 1 – Day 1 review and homework Q&A. Model for thought #1 – the allegory of the cave. Lecture on selections from books 1, 2, 6, and 7 of the Republic, diagramming the cave. Heidegger authenticity, and "fallenness", Sartre and "bad faith", Nietzsche and "criminality", the beautiful soul and the nomad (prelude to Aristotle's Politics), the cave and modern media. Open discussion on graphical representation and general Q&A.

2 – Introduction to group activities. Group assignment: Diagram the cave with fallenness, authenticity, bad faith and others mapped onto it.

Homework: guiding reading and review of Republic bks 1-2, 6-7. Day 3:

Hour 1 – Day 2 Q&A. Model for thought #2 – Vector analysis of the Euthyphro dilemma. The Euthyphro walkthrough. What does "religion" mean? "Piety"? What is "god"? Plato's "form of the good" (chair). Aristotle's unmoved mover (and zero point energy). Floridi on evil and entropy (order is up, disorder down – prelude to philosophy of information lecture). The psychology of up and down (Meier), envaluation and human

embodiment (prelude to module on philosophy of mind lecture). 2 – Intermission assignment (keywords and concepts)

3 – Diagramming the Euthyphro dilemma. Greek religious imagery and vectors. Vector diagram of the cave (space of value). Life as a work function. Icarus and enlightenment. A basic theory of action in vector notation. Homework: diagram the Euthyphro dilemma, guided reading Euthyphro and Gorgias.

Day 4:

Hour 1 – Day 3 Q&A. Model for thought #3 – Socratic religion. What is freewill? What does it mean to be autonomous? Self-sovereign? Self-determining? Freedom and freewill, survey of current issues. The cognitive science of philosophical self-determination, the psychology of self-actualization, simple inner-discourse models of self (Cooley/Mead/Peirce/Harre) and self-actualization (Maslow/Rogers). Socrates' daemon. Nietzsche's drives. Kant's moral psychology (prelude to Kantian ethics lecture).

2 – Chart comparison: survey of other "greatest goods", heroes, gods and religions - Who was Buddha? Who was Samkara? Lao-tzu? Confucius? Gilgamesh? What is moksa? Brahman? Atman? What is religious enlightenment? Revelation, oracle and prophecy. The cognitive science of prayer, narrative, myth, and personal identity (Ricoeur). Review: representing the relationships between agents and ideals, diagrams as a manipulable medium facilitating public discourse. Walkthrough of the homework assignment

Homework: diagram Euthyphro/cave synthesis according to historical/cultural variants

Hour 1 – Day 4 and homework Q&A. Model for thought #4 – Grounded symbols. Descartes (meditations). la Mettrie and the "spring" of cognition and agency. Interactionism, plants that transplant themselves, brains in vats, symbol grounding, hybrid systems

2 – Microtheme topics chosen/assigned. Group work on presentations begins. Homework: keywords and concepts (mind/body), guided reading assignment Week 2, Day 6:

Hour 1 - homework Q&A, discussion, week 1 review quiz. Model for thought #5 – Zombies of consciousness. Types of consciousness, zombies (Chalmers), why we are (or are not) zombies (Jackson), the problem of other minds (Russell), why they are (or are not) zombies, the apparent irreducibility of subjectivity and

phenomenology within the cognitive sciences and the "hard problem", diagramming consciousness – What is missing?

2 - Intermission assignment – keywords and concepts (mind/body, consciousness)

3 - Model for thought #6 – Conscious machines? What is consciousness review, computational cognition and consciousness - what is needed and what is missing? What is agency, review? What is moral agency and what is missing from machines that would make them "moral"? (prelude to lecture on moral agency and

AMAs) Levels/types of agency (Moor), machines and responsibility (Powers), social implications of technology, artificial moral agency (Coeckelberg, Dietrich)

Homework: keyword and concepts, guided reading assignment (selections from authors, above) Day 7:

Hour 1 – Day #6 Q&A. Model for thought #7 – The tele-transporter and personal identity. What is personal identity? Types of identity. Plato, Locke, Reid, Hume, Parfit, the psychology of personal identity recalled and extended. Diagramming identity.

2 - Group work: microtheme presentation preparation

Homework: keywords and concepts (identity), micro-theme research Day 8:

Hour 1 – Day #7 Q&A. Model for thought #8 – Kantian moral psychology. Kant bio. And natural religion. Kantian moral theory, review. Diagramming the CIs. The Kantian moral agent, sovereignty and statesmanship (prelude to Aristotle). And Hegel. And influence on AI, past and anticipated.

2 – Intermission (keywords and concepts: Kant, moral agency)

3 – Microtheme demonstration and Model for thought #9 –An information processing model of moral cognition. Cognitive science of morality review. And traditional philosophy. The fundamental moral unit currency. The ACTWith model - diagrammed and illustrated (coarse-grain re Harnad/Sun, fine-grain re Saxe 2 parts of the rtpj)

Homework: keywords and concepts (Mill), microtheme research Day 9:

Hour 1 – Day #8 Q&A. Small group and open "democratic steering committee" discussion on class progress and plans. Open microtheme preparation and consultations.

2 – Model for thought #10 – The greatest happiness principle. Mill bio. And "Utilitarianism", distributive justice, types of pleasure, and statesmanship (Aristotle). The Millian moral agent. Diagramming the Millian.

Homework: guided reading (Mill/Kant comparison) Day 10:

Hour 1 – Day #9 Q&A. Model for thought #11 – The veil of ignorance. Rawls' theory of justice and applications. 2 – Group work: Applying Rawls' theory, design the ideal cave and account for it in terms of Kant and Mill as discussed in class so far.

Homework: keywords and concepts (epistemology) Week 3, Day 11:

Hour 1 – Day #10 Q&A. Class feedback. Student input and requests for special topics lectures. Survey of various epistemological –isms and –ists. Proponents, problems, and proposals (Chisholm, Haack)

Diagramming epistemology. Etymology of epistemology, revisited. 2 – Micro theme final consultation

3 – Plato's theory of knowledge and Gettier-type cases, warrant, testimony review Homework: keywords and concepts (truth and ontology)

Hour 1 – Day #11 Q&A. Fundamental ontology and phenomenology, angst, temporality, Heidegger's "theory" of truth, Heidegger and his "heroes", Kant and his "reverence", Heidegger's moral psychology, mitda-sein and mirror neurons, "courage to have a conscience" as philosophy in discovery (re Gilgamesh and related). 2 – Heidegger and the ready-at-hand philosophy of technology, extended, distributed mind, affordances, niches and biosemiotics. Wittgenstein and phenomenology of logical frameworks (sense/nonsense). Magnani and "military" intelligence. Peircean semeiotics.

Homework: keywords and concepts (Heidegger, ontology, phenomenology), microtheme preparations Day 13:

Hour 1 – Day #12 Q&A. Rousseau. Discourse on inequality. Social contract. Emil. Developmental psychology and education. Social-political philosophy and influence

2 – Intermission: keywords and concepts (Rousseau)

3 - Aristotle's Politics. Statesmanship and economy. Fitting constituents to systems. Types of governments. Requirements of leadership and causes of revolution

Homework: guided reading (Aristotle), microtheme preparations Day 14:

Hour 1 – Day #13 Q&A. Cosmology. Aristotle, and history. And Kant. Etymology of cosmology (order) and place as highest study. Information and cosmology. Philosophy of information and information ethics, recalled and extended.

2 – Intermission: keywords and concepts (cosmological –isms and -ists)

3 – Peircean cosmology. Review of later Peirce writings. Peirce end-life bio. And legacy of pragmaticism (Royce and objective idealism) and origins (Emerson and transcendentalism). Recall young Peirce psychological profile.

Homework: microtheme presentation preparations Day 15:

Hour 1 – Day #14 Q&A. Practice exam, examples walkthrough. General class review and discussion. 2 – "Snowpiercer" annotated and edited video – mapped onto the allegory of the cave

3 – In-class work: map "Snowpiercer" onto the cave

Homework: finish Snowpiercer map, microtheme preparation, exam preparation Week 4 -

NOTE about the final week:

Depending on the size of the class, microtheme presentations may take more or less time. The following schedule assumes seven groups of four students, with 20-30 minutes plus discussion for each group. If the class is larger, then the following rough schedule will have to change. Microthemes should focus on one deeply technical issue within some sub-field of philosophy. Each should begin with some background,

overview of the field or sub-field, and some survey of the sorts of issues that arise therein. This should set up the focal issue, and this issue should be explored in some detail. The choice of issue is up to the students. I will support this research through consultations. A list of possibilities will be offered for illustration, and I will have demonstrated the expected format in my own (longer) presentation on moral agency on Day #8.

Note also that some of the (possible) daily subjects below are "by student request". During the first weeks, we will ask students to suggest some specific topics for further coverage, and I will deliver this content per their (your) interests. So, if you want to know more about human enhancement, biomedical ethics, environmental ethics and sustainability, or the economics and ethics of robots and automation in the workplace, decision and game theory, philosophies of war and peace, civil disobedience and conscientious objection, the philosophies and philosophers inspiring the US Constitution, or any other subject which I can responsibly represent with some preparation, then suggest these topics early in the course (ideally in class during feedback and Q&A) and we can get this material integrated into the class.

Day 16:

Hour 1 – Class review Q&A, final week schedule specified. Introduction to first microtheme topic (recalling relationships with class materials covered so far). Student presentation. Introduction to second topic. Presentation. And so on.

2 – short intermission so that next groups can prepare for presentations. Presentations continued. 3 – short intermission. Presentations continued.

Homework: exam preparations

Hour 1 – Day #16 Q&A. Intro to final presentations (if there remain any to be given). Open discussion about microtheme topics and group work experience. Feedback.

Hour 2 – Group work: build your own final exam (to be used in designing the final exam as a measure of student understanding, and also to be used in setting out final days' lecture topics as these DIY finals and class discussions should reveal to me what is clear, and what remains unclear, before the students meet with these ideas on the final exam).

Homework: keywords and concepts (philosophy of technology and human enhancement) Day 18:

Student requested special topic lectures (with intermission and homework to suit) or:

Hour 1 – Visions of the future: transhumanism, posthumanism, and human enhancement. Kurzweil's

"singularity", Moor's law, and so on. Bostrom's "simulation" argument and the value of the problem-solving life of inquiry in light thereof.

2 – Annotated and edited video presentation (Ghost in the Shell) with discussion.

Homework: keywords and concepts (trans/post-humanism, information ethics), simulating the cave Day 19:

Hour 1 – Trolley problems, lifeboat problems, others introduced. Group work: using all of the tools that we have so far, clearly illustrate these problems and use these concepts and media to suggest solutions. 2 – continued group and open class discussion on these (and other) issues.

Homework: final exam preparations Day 20:

Hour 1 – Final class review. Q&A. Final exam distributed. 2 – Final exam submitted. End.