Introduction to Philosophy (Fall 07)

Final grades are submitted. Except for cases where required assignments were not turned in and cases of low class participation, they turned out very well.

Don’t forget to pick up your portfolios Thursday, 1-2 pm, in E Building.

Cheers,

Brandon

I’ve had some questions about when final grades will be done; it is unlikely that they’ll be done before Thursday. It takes some work to grade a large number of portfolios fairly.

If anyone was not able to turn in their portfolios due to a medical or family emergency excuse that they can document, please contact me immediately so we can set up a time on Tuesday for you to turn it in.

If people want to pick up their portfolios, with my comments, you’ll have an opportunity to do so Thursday from 1 pm to 2 pm in E building (either the lobby or room 7002). Alternatively you can contact me by email early next semester and set up an appointment for collecting it.

I’d like to thank everyone who made it to the end of term; it was a great experience teaching you, and a privilege to be able to interact with some of you. If I don’t see you on Thursday, have a great break!

Portfolios are due today at the end of class. This is a hard deadline.

If for medical or emergency reasons you are unable to hand in your portfolio today, contact me immediately; we will make an appointment for handing in your portfolio (along with documentation of the medical excuse or emergency) on Tuesday.

Otherwise students not turning in any portfolio material by the end of class today will receive an F grade for the portfolio section of the course.

Today we discussed feminist epistemology and philosophy of science. Those who were interested in today’s topic may also find the following resources interesting:

* Feminist Epistemology and Philosophy of Science at the SEP

* Feminist Social Epistemology at the SEP

* Feminist Epistemology at the IEP 

* Sharon Crasnow’s paper, Feminist Philosophy of Science: ‘Standpoint’ and Knowledge (PDF)

* Laura Aline Ward’s thesis, Objectivity in Feminist Philosophy of Science (PDF) 

* The Knowledge and Experience blog 

*  Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story, The Yellow Wallpaper and her short essay Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper

 ***

Don’t forget to keep working on your portfolios, which are due the 13th at the end of class (hard deadline).

Today we took a brief look at some issues in feminist philosophy with a focus on ethics. Feminist approaches in ethics are very diverse, so we only had time for a quick glimpse at a few approaches.

Those who were interested in the discussion today may also be interested in the following resources:

* Feminist Ethics at the SEP

* Feminist Bioethics at the SEP

* Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s science fiction classic Herland

* The Feminist Philosophers blog

* Mary Wollstonecraft’s 18th-century classic A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

* John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of Women

* Adrienne Rich’s Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence

* Connell and Messerschmidt, Hegemonic Masculinity (PDF)

Thursday we will discuss feminist epistemology and philosophy of science.

DON’T FORGET THAT YOUR PORTFOLIOS ARE DUE THE 13TH! If you are missing one of the quizzes it is imperative that you contact me as soon as possible!

Last one!

For your last reflection paper write about whether this course in philosophy has contributed anything to your worldview (especially those points you mentioned in your first reflection paper). If not, discuss what it would have had to do to make such a contribution. If so, how has it contributed? End with some thoughts about how you might apply philosophical ideas/approaches to your life in the future (or else how you might continue the refinement of your own philosophical ideas). This paper is due with your portfolio (December 13).

"Let us suppose that a man, fallen from the clouds, walks the earth continuously in a straight line, I mean, in one of those great circles by which geographers divide it, and that nothing prevents him from traveling. Could he, after several days’ journey, decide that the earth is infinite, because he did not find its end? If he were wise and reserved in judgment, he would believe it to be quite large, but he would not judge it to be infinite. And as a result of walking, finding himself at the same place from which he departed, he would realise that he had actually gone around it. However, when the mind thinks of intelligible extension, when it seeks to measure the idea of space, it sees clearly that it is infinite. It cannot doubt that this idea is inexhaustible."

Nicolas Malebranche, Dialogues on Metaphysics and on Religion, I.IX (Jolley-Scott translation, p. 15). By ‘intelligible extension’ and ‘the idea of space’ here, Malebranche means the sort of extension and space studied by geometers. You can find out more about Malebranche (1638-1715) at the SEP, which also has an article on his theory of ideas.

Today we will do a brief overview of the early modern period and discuss Hume on testimony (with Shepherd’s response to it) as a class.

Don’t forget that the History Quiz is on Thursday.

ADDED LATER:

Those who found today’s topic interesting may also be interested in the following resources:

Terence Penelhum, The Paranormal, Miracles, and David Hume

Victor Repport, Hume on Miracles, Frequencies, and Prior Probabilities

Miracles at the SEP

Epistemological Problems of Testimony at the SEP

Sample chapter for Fogelin’s A Defense of Hume on Miracles

William Adams, An Essay in Answer to Hume’s Essay on Miracles

George Campbell, A Dissertation on Miracles

"By which it appears that there are some degrees of Knowledge necessary before there can be any  Human Acts, for till we are capable of Chusing our own Actions and directing them by some Principle, tho we Move and Speak and so many such like things, we live not the Life of a Rational Creature but only of an Animal.  If it be farther demanded what these Principles are? Not to dispute the Number of ‘em here, no body I suppose will deny us one, which is, That we ought as much as we can to endeavour the Perfecting of our Beings, and that we be as happy as possibly we may.  For this we see is Natural to every Creature of what sort soever, which endeavours to be in as good Condition as its Nature and Circumstances will permit.  And now we have got a Principle which one would think were sufficient for the Conduct of our Actions thro the whole Course of our Lives; and so indeed it were, Cou’d we as easily discern, wherein our Happiness consists as ’tis natural to wish and desire it."

Mary Astell, A Serious Proposal to the Ladies Part II. Mary Astell (1666-1731) was a self-taught philosopher, and one of a number of important women philosophers in this period. You can read more about Astell at the SEP and find further information, including selections from her works, at Luminarium.

While not all of the following will be on the quiz Thursday in class, all of following are things you should know in order to ace it:

(1) The names of the four major schools and two major movements in the Hellenistic period, and some of their basic characteristics.

(2) The name of at least one Neoplatonist philosopher in the Roman Imperial period.

(3) The difference between the New Academy and the Old Academy.

(4) The four Aristotelian causes.

(5) All of the information on the medieval philosophy handout I gave you in class.

(6) The names of some of the Major Cartesians. *

(7) The names of some of the early modern empiricists. *

(8) The names of some of the Scottish Common Sense philosophers. *

(9) Descartes’s four rules of method.

(10) Hume’s account of testimony. *

(11) You should also be able to summarize, in your own words, the basic arguments of the Gorgias, the Consolation, and the Discourse (each in about six or seven sentences).

Items listed with a star (*) will be discussed in class, at least briefly, tomorrow (Tuesday). You will not be responsible for knowing any dates. The primary purpose of this quiz is to show that you have begun to develop an introductory acquaintance with some of the major people and movements in the history of philosophy. Except for (11), where you should be careful to be as precise as possible, you are primarily responsible for knowing the gist of what we have gone over in the history units of this course, and for not mixing up the major names.