To be a Philosopher, one must Axolotl questions

 

Just say Yes

 LISTEN. Today in Happiness, after our little exam, we'll discuss what it means to Stoics to live in accordance with nature. We'll also consider the shared Stoic-Buddhist aversion to "drug-induced bliss." That's my cue to bring Michael Pollan and William James into the conversation.

In The Varieties of Religious Experience James said 

The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold facts and dry criticisms of the sober hour. Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes. It is in fact the great exciter of the Yes function in man. It brings its votary from the chill periphery of things to the radiant core. It makes him for the moment one with truth. Not through mere perversity do men run after it. To the poor and the unlettered it stands in the place of symphony concerts and of literature;

That's a remarkable observation, which he quickly tempered with the crushing corollary that 

it is part of the deeper mystery and tragedy of life that whiffs and gleams of something that we immediately recognize as excellent should be vouchsafed to so many of us only in the fleeting earlier phases of what in its totality is so degrading a poisoning.

So, much as we should wish to affirm the Yes function, we can't sanction the degradation and poisoning. 

Does the same caveat apply to all drugs? James had (pardon the pun) high hopes for nitrous oxide... (continues)

Star-runner

	Marcus Aurelius ⁦‪@AureliusQuots‬⁩ Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.   9/29/21, 2:17 AM

Perseverance & rationality

 17! LISTEN.

“Well, it starts with perseverance. I mean, it starts there,” said Adam Wainwright, whose poetic 17th win of the season in his 17th year with St. Louis led his club to its 17th consecutive victory. “We had to overcome probably the worst baseball I've ever seen a Cardinals team play. We just weren't doing anything right. … It was just understanding that we're a better team than what we were showing and we could go out there and compete with anybody when we play right.

And now I'll stop crowing about my team. For now. Kant probably wouldn't have much to say about them. 

But he had plenty to say about rationality, as has Steven Pinker...

Questions Sep 30

 Mac 5-6

We'll discuss these chapters after the exam. 

Happy Hour on the Boulevard patio, weather permitting, on the quieter end... But if we ever want to travel a bit further afield, Mayday might be an option.

1. What's the anachronistic misunderstanding of the Stoical ideal?

2. What's up to us and what isn't, according to Epictetus?

3. How did the Stoics radically redefine human life?

4. What did Cicero call "weak and womanish"?

5. What is Charles Taylor's distinction between two types of flourishing?

6. What does the Dalai Lama say about the purpose of life?

7. What's wrong with a life of "drug-induced bliss"? 

 

"I am not identical with my ego..."

How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence by Michael Pollan

“The usual antonym for the word “spiritual” is “material.” That at least is what I believed when I began this inquiry—that the whole issue with spirituality turned on a question of metaphysics. Now I’m inclined to think a much better and certainly more useful antonym for “spiritual” might be “egotistical.” Self and Spirit define the opposite ends of a spectrum, but that spectrum needn’t reach clear to the heavens to have meaning for us. It can stay right here on earth. When the ego dissolves, so does a bounded conception not only of our self but of our self-interest. What emerges in its place is invariably a broader, more openhearted and altruistic—that is, more spiritual—idea of what matters in life. One in which a new sense of connection, or love, however defined, seems to figure prominently.”

Discussion Questions

• What does it mean to you to live in accordance with nature? Are you stoical?
• Can we non-arbitrarily declare some things up to us and some not? How can we decide which is which?
• Should we really be "indifferent" to everything besides virtue and vice? In what sense? Is apathy of this sort admirable or execrable, or are you indifferent to that very concept?
• Can we or should we excuse (or at least try to understand) the sexist attitudes of earlier times? Should we "cancel" those of a less enlightened era? Or rebuke? Or forgive? 
• Are you more humanist or transcendentalist, in your pursuit of a good life? 
• William James's reference to an "unseen order" is described by Macaro as transcendental. James called his philosophy humanist. Can you reconcile these claims?
• Is there anything wrong with cherry-picking? 74
• Are weddings and babies really beyond our control? 77
• Do you disagree with the Buddha about sensual pleasure? Can you relate to "the bliss of renunciation"? 80 
• Do you find wisdom in memento mori? Is it wise to "contemplate a corpse"? 81
• Do you agree that gratitude, not despair, is the better response to "the ephemeral nature of things"? 82
• Do you agree that an action is not right without "right intention"? 84
• Is "drug-induced bliss" always wrong? 86

The sway of alcohol over mankind is unquestionably due to its power to stimulate the mystical faculties of human nature, usually crushed to earth by the cold facts and dry criticisms of the sober hour. Sobriety diminishes, discriminates, and says no; drunkenness expands, unites, and says yes. It is in fact the great exciter of the Yes function in man. It brings its votary from the chill periphery of things to the radiant core. It makes him for the moment one with truth. Not through mere perversity do men run after it. To the poor and the unlettered it stands in the place of symphony concerts and of literature; and it is part of the deeper mystery and tragedy of life that whiffs and gleams of something that we immediately recognize as excellent should be vouchsafed to so many of us only in the fleeting earlier phases of what in its totality is so degrading a poisoning. The drunken consciousness is one bit of the mystic consciousness, and our total opinion of it must find its place in our opinion of that larger whole.

Nitrous oxide and ether, especially nitrous oxide, when sufficiently diluted with air, stimulate the mystical consciousness in an extraordinary degree. Depth beyond depth of truth seems revealed to the inhaler. This truth fades out, however, or escapes, at the moment of coming to; and if any words remain over in which it seemed to clothe itself, they prove to be the veriest nonsense. Nevertheless, the sense of a profound meaning having been there persists; and I know more than one person who is persuaded that in the nitrous oxide trance we have a genuine metaphysical revelation.

Some years ago I myself made some observations on this aspect of nitrous oxide intoxication, and reported [pg 388]them in print. One conclusion was forced upon my mind at that time, and my impression of its truth has ever since remained unshaken. It is that our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are there in all their completeness, definite types of mentality which probably somewhere have their field of application and adaptation. No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded. --William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience

Happiness through sickness.

Hello Everyone! I hope you can see this. The graphics aren't too great, but I thought it kind of fit in with the questions and reading for today! 

I missed class last week due to a conference and I find myself in the hospital this week. If I have luck, it's in a drawer somewhere.

I have completed the Quizlet up to this class, so I hope you all find it useful! 

See you all on Thursday(Hopefully),

Patricia 

Forest (with just one "r") happiness

 LISTEN. Today in Happiness we consider Buddhist and Stoic prescriptions for  the "existential illness" that finds us deluded, grasping, and erroneously attaching to the impermanent world's chintzy shiny baubles. Both traditions propose therapies.

Our campus counseling center sent out a flyer yesterday, advertising its services "free of charge" to the campus community. Freer still for many of us, and more effective, might simply be a walk in the woods or down the street. Or on a sandwalk... (continues)

Probablistic Methodology in Philosophy

 https://dailynous.com/2021/09/24/evidence-for-a-probabilistic-turn-in-philosophy-guest-post/

I thought this short blog post might be interesting to y'all. I thought it was particularly interesting as it coincides with a shift in my thinking while reading Montaigne to prepare for my midterm project.

Hume

Lots of good happiness wisdom in Julian Baggini's new book on Hume, which takes us "to the places that inspired Hume the most, from his family estate near the Scottish border to Paris, where, as an older man, he was warmly embraced by French society" and "includes 145 Humean maxims for living well, on topics ranging from the meaning of success and the value of travel to friendship, facing death, identity, and the importance of leisure." g'r... g'b

Cheap therapy

In Japan this is called Forest Bathing. It's cheaper than counseling.

Yesterday I visited this green chapel and kept my head pic.twitter.com/M59GiZiUD9

— Nigel Warburton 🧡 #RejoinEU (@philosophybites) September 27, 2021

Register!

This week is National Voter Registration Week. Please take the time to check your voter registration to confirm if and where you’re officially registered: Tennessee Voter Lookup. If you’re not already registered, please register at mtsu.edu/vote. If you need to change or update your voting county, please re-register in the county where you are currently living so you can easily vote in person in 2022.

 

QR codes to check yourself and register/re-register are posted throughout campus all week long. Use the QR codes to register or re-register. To use the Tennessee online system, you need a Tennessee driver’s license from any TN county, which does not need to reflect your current address.

 

On Tuesday 9/28 on campus, go to the two voter registration tables, on Peck lawn and Honors lawn, 9:00-3:00 and we’ll assist you! On Saturday 10/2 on campus, go to the voter registration table at the tailgate party at Walnut Grove, 3:00-6:00 and we’ll assist you! You can register in Tennessee if you currently live here even with an out-of-state DL if you have a U.S. passport, but you’ll need to register on a paper form and we’ll help you with that at any of the in-person registration tables.

 

Get registered during National Voter Registration Week! mtsu.edu/vote

 

 

    

American Democracy Project

amerdem@mtsu.edu

 

National Voter Registration Day, Sept. 28, 2021

Counseling

Happy people seek help when they need it.

FYI-The MTSU Center for Counseling and Psychological Services currently has available counseling appointments for Fall 2021 semester. We are providing both in person and distance counseling services. Our hours of operation are Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from 1 to 7 pm.

CCPS is a training clinic affiliated with the MTSU Professional Counseling graduate program. Students in the program provide services to the community while being supervised by licensed mental health professionals. Our services are free of charge to MTSU faculty, staff, and students. For those not affiliated with MTSU, our fee is $10.00 per session... (continues)

23

 My intro students are all younger than Google.

Play

  LISTEN. 16.

One more clinches the wildcard, but more importantly the streak has already clinched Grantland Rice's point about living: winning (as Nuke LaLoosh learned) is more fun than losing, but winning and losing matters less than playing the right way. Playing with confidence and style and mutual support and a spirit of fair play will look great on the last scorecard, whether you get to fly the W or not.

But my team does, today. Again. Hey Chicago, what do you say? I say I want to play life the way Harrision Bader plays centerfield... (continues)

Voice and spirit

Which comes first,voice (and body,larynx etc. to speak it) or spirit? I think Faulkner may have it backwards.

The poet’s, the writer’s duty is to write about these things...The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.” I agree, but in reverse: we have a voice that births a spirit that MAY possibly endure.

— Phil Oliver (@OSOPHER) September 25, 2021

Light and dark

This reminds me of the question we considered in class on Thursday: What do we think about Nabokov's "common sense" view of our predicament, our "cradle above the abyss," our "brief crack of light between two eternities of darkness"? And also of "the truest vision of life I know, that bird in the Venerable Bede that flutters from the dark into a lighted hall, and after a while flutters out again into the dark"...

…the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light…—Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

"But where is everybody?"—Enrico Fermihttps://t.co/ZByk8FjQTz

— Phil Oliver (@OSOPHER) September 24, 2021

Riding the streak

Enjoying it while it lasts...

“It is foolish and childish, on the face of it, to affiliate ourselves with anything so insignificant and patently contrived and commercially exploitative as a professional sports team…” Right, Roger Angell. But, https://t.co/0WMF06HgwS

— Phil Oliver (@OSOPHER) September 25, 2021

Walk and talk, and occasionally sit

 In case anyone's interested in purchasing a collapsible stool like mine, for peripatetic days like Thursday...

$15.99 at amazon

Gull happiness

Was having a low day and then a slab of sunlight appeared beside me and I looked out and saw two seagulls on a roof and they flew off and disappeared into the sky and for a moment I felt intense gratitude to be alive on this unique planet. Hope you have a little moment of wonder. Matt Haig

“Remember when old December's darkness is everywhere about you, that the world is really in every minutest point as full of life as in the most joyous morning you ever lived through; that the sun is whanging down, and the waves dancing, and the gulls skimming down at the mouth of the Amazon, for instance, as freshly as in the first morning of creation; and the hour is just as fit as any hour that ever was for a new gospel of cheer to be preached. I am sure that one can, by merely thinking of these matters of fact, limit the power of one's evil moods over one's way of looking at the Kosmos.”—William James (1842-1910), in a letter to friend Thomas Ward, 1868

James wrote this a couple of years before confiding to his diary that he'd "just about touched bottom" but had discovered a way of thinking about free will that might rescue his spirits. And it did. Recalling the gulls didn't hurt either.

Searching for Plato With My 7-Year-Old

In Athens with his daughter, Thomas Chatterton Williams could finally pay homage in person to the classical education his own father gave him.

When my father was a small boy in Galveston, Texas, with no siblings to play with or anything like a helicopter parent regimenting his time, he roamed the inscrutable world of adults all around him. On one such sortie, rummaging behind his neighbor's property, he found a neglected box of books, the names of which he recalls to this day with awe and precision. The first and most important was Will Durant's 1926 classic, "The Story of Philosophy." In its pages, he was immediately drawn to an image of Socrates, whose features reminded him of his grandmother's pig. Far from repulsed, he lingered on the image, longing to comprehend why this funny-looking man who never wrote a word was revered throughout the ages...

nyt

Questions Sep 28

Yesterday was good: all of it outside on a beautiful Fall day, more peripatetic motion this time, followed by a larger turnout for Happy Hour at the Boulevard. Let's keep it growing! (But maybe let's find a quieter corner of the patio... or even consider a quieter venue, if anyone would care to suggest one.)

Mac 3-4

1. What is our "existential illness" that needs treatment?

2. Why are emotions problematic in Stoicism? 

3. What did Cicero and Seneca say about medical self-help? 

4. What is RAIN?

5. What's the promise of Buddhist awakening?

6. What useful function do the jhanas perform?

7.  Mental health of the nirvana kind would be what?

Discussion Questions:

• Are all of us really "deluded and grasping"? About what? For what?
• Are the Stoics right to equate virtue with rationality? 29
• Aren't things outside us really good or bad?
• Are emotions really unnatural? 30
• Is there really no such thing as moderate emotion? (What would Spock say?)
• How do you keep your own emotions from getting "out of hand"? 32
• What "worldly cravings" have you happily satisfied? 35
• Was the Buddha's resigned acceptance of backache just a product of his misfortune in being born before the advance of medical science? 37 Or was the Buddha in fact resigned? 
• Is CBT (and Epictetus) right about "things"? 39
• Were you (like many westerners) under the impression that karma-as-rebirth was a good thing? From a western perspective, wouldn't multiple lives be desirable? What does this say about the respective attitudes of eastern and western traditions of thought towards life, suffering, the future etc.?
• Were you (are you) a fan of Kurt Cobain's Nirvana? What element of Buddhist nirvana (if any) did they represent?
• Is "What goes around comes around" a reasonable paraphrase of karma?
• Is an impermanent world devoid of substantial/enduring selves really so bad?
• Do you meditate? What do you get out of it?
• Have you had an experience you'd describe as "mystical"? Did it meet James's criteria? 49
• Do you think Kant and Nagel were right about our inability to discover reality in itself? 50
• 
  

More than happy

LISTEN. Who could ask for anything more? Cards have now won eleven in a row. I want twelve.

Stoics and Buddhists, according to our new author in Happiness today, want more. But more what? More life? More time? More equanimity? More acceptance? Just more, says Thor. "I just think that’s what being a New Yorker is all about, being hungry for more," says the star hurler with the high school education who is also "a multidimensional human being with feelings and problems and goals outside of sports."

More Than Happiness: Buddhist and Stoic Wisdom for a Sceptical Age is Antonina Macaro's contribution to the growing body of literature commending "mindfulness" and (in the blurbed words of secular Buddhist Stephen Batchelor) "the pragmatic and therapeutic dimensions of philosophy." (continues)

Winning, reading, hiking...

 LISTEN. Ten in a row for the Cards. And they've not had a losing season in fourteen years. The manager credits players, teams, and organizational leaders over the years for being "very intentional about passing on to the next group.” There's a life-lesson for us all there. Even Cubs fans.

As Crash Davis said in Bull Durham, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. And sometimes it rains. Maybe the secret of happiness is to enjoy the wins, look beyond the losses, and carry an umbrella.

Seriously. You can't win 'em all, but win or lose tomorrow's always another day. Lose or win, we'll never be precisely here again. So take it easy. Give 110%. And practice your cliches. 

Lots to catch up on in CoPhi today, on the heels of Constitution Day and Library Day, from Hobbes to Descartes to Spinoza to Locke...

But it was time well spent over in Walker Library with Writing Center staff and librarian Rachel Kirk, preparing to succeed with midterm presentations and school and life.

“The most successful students are those who know that they can do better than grasp at the closest source of information. Reference librarians, who spend their days learning what is available in a broad range of fields and how to search for it, provide a great service for students and other library patrons... Democracies can work only if all citizens have access to information and culture that can help them make good choices, whether at the voting booth or in other aspects of public life.” --John Palfrey, BiblioTech: Why Libraries Matter More Than Ever in the Age of Google g'r

"Reading is at the center of our lives. The library is our brain. Without the library, you have no civilization...If you know how to read, you have a complete education about life, then you know how to vote within a democracy. But if you don’t know how to read, you don’t know how to decide... You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them." --Ray Bradbury

Facts, Fake News, & Critical Literacy

Books about Books

 

And one more thing: A delightful trip to New Hampshire and a hike up Mt. Chocorua, across from William James's summer place, with Kyle Finn Dempsey...

LISTEN (9.'20). Today in CoPhi we'll turn to three French philosophers, Descartes the pretend-skeptic, Montaigne the real one, and Pascal the gambler who wanted desperately to suppress his doubts in deference to the promises of faith... (continues)

Questions Sep 23

 More Than Happiness 1-2

1. What is Macaro's aim in this book? ix

2. Who was the ancient Greek skeptic controversially thought by some to have been influenced by Buddhism?

3. Why did the Buddha consider metaphysics irrelevant? 9

4. How did the ancient Stoics say our minds relate to God? 12

5. What does common sense tell us, according to Nabokov? 18

6. What, according to Irvin Yalom, is the mother of all religions? 20

7. What is dukkha? 22

Discussion Questions

• Do you "feel most in tune" with any particular ancient philosopher? Do you have a favorite Stoic or Buddhist?
• Have you tried CBT or "mindfulness"? WIth what result? viii
• Have you ever had any form of an "awakening" or "transformative experience" that led you to a significant change of lifestyle, goals, or way of thinking about things? Are you seeking one? 2
• Is "homeless spiritual life" an oxymoron, so far as most Americans are concerned? 3
• Do you think supernatural abilities can be achieved through meditative states? 10 (How about Sidd Finch?)
• Is it wrong to "select the texts that suit us" to fashion a secular, naturalistic version of Buddhism? (See Stephen Batchelor, Owen Flanagan...)
• Can karma and rebirth be plausibly reconstructed as naturalistic concepts not implying literal past lives?
• Do you agree with Marcus Aurelius about the genesis of "every harmful thing"? 13
• Have you read any of IrvingYalom's philosophical novels featuring Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Freud et al?
• Is it really missing the point to notice that besides suffering life offers pleasure and joy? 22
• In addition to training ourselves to recall the fleeting nature of all that exists, should we also train ourselves to appreciate the beauty and fragility of existence? 23
• COMMENT?: "We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones..."

MEDITATIONS

By Marcus Aurelius

MARCUS AURELIUS ANTONINUS THE ROMAN EMPEROR

THE FIRST BOOK

I. Of my grandfather Verus I have learned to be gentle and meek, and to refrain from all anger and passion. From the fame and memory of him that begot me I have learned both shamefastness and manlike behaviour. Of my mother I have learned to be religious, and bountiful; and to forbear, not only to do, but to intend any evil; to content myself with a spare diet, and to fly all such excess as is incidental to great wealth. Of my great-grandfather, both to frequent public schools and auditories, and to get me good and able teachers at home; and that I ought not to think much, if upon such occasions, I were at excessive charges.

II. Of him that brought me up, not to be fondly addicted to either of the two great factions of the coursers in the circus, called Prasini, and Veneti: nor in the amphitheatre partially to favour any of the gladiators, or fencers, as either the Parmularii, or the Secutores. Moreover, to endure labour; nor to need many things; when I have anything to do, to do it myself rather than by others; not to meddle with many businesses; and not easily to admit of any slander.

III. Of Diognetus, not to busy myself about vain things, and not easily to believe those things, which are commonly spoken, by such as take upon them to work wonders, and by sorcerers, or prestidigitators, and impostors; concerning the power of charms, and their driving out of demons, or evil spirits; and the like. Not to keep quails for the game; nor to be mad after such things. Not to be offended with other men's liberty of speech, and to apply myself unto philosophy. Him also I must thank, that ever I heard first Bacchius, then Tandasis and Marcianus, and that I did write dialogues in my youth; and that I took liking to the philosophers' little couch and skins, and such other things, which by the Grecian discipline are proper to those who profess philosophy... (continues)

Happy International Day of Peace!!!

Simple wisdom

 LISTEN. John Dewey got a mention in the Times. In an opinion piece, by an academic, but still it's a rare and welcome echo of a time in this country when philosophers' views were valued and sought after and considered by the broad educated public. Dewey's (and Molly Worthen's) rejection of academic irrelevance is as timely as ever.

I'm also happy this morning that one of my favorite novelists has a new book out. Richard Powers has just published Bewilderment. Hope for a Grieving Kid and Planet May Lurk in the Human Brain, headlines the Times review.  That sounds right. Where else are we going to find it? The brain is wider than the sky.

Also, the Cards won again. Nine straight. Roger Angell was surely right, “It is foolish and childish, on the face of it, to affiliate ourselves with anything so insignificant and patently contrived and commercially exploitative as a professional sports team," but forming and honing the habit of caring is anything but foolish. It teaches me to care in class and in life about bigger things. It's an affiliation that pays its way. 

We conclude our very short intro to Epicureanism today. I wanted us to read it early in the semester because it's a view I find both enticing and challenging, and thus a good benchmark against which to measure subsequent Happiness philosophies... (continues)

I Have All The Time in the World to Decide...

 This video I watched recently asks the universally expounded questions of death/immortality through the lens of hyper evolved humans in a hypothetical distant future. I found it really interesting and believe it pairs well with our recent discussions in class about happiness and it's correlation to our finitude as humans.

(Anyone else think the thumbnail character looks eerily like Aang from Last Airbender? lol)

Why Living Forever Would (Probably) Be Awful

- Camden W.

Quote

 Given the rainbow that cast itself over our campus on Monday, I thought I'd share this.

Last Week's Class

 It is not often we get to engage in a peripatetic discussion. While we did not walk through the whole class, it was nice to stroll a bit and have class outside. I took a picture to capture the memory. 

The library

If any of you would like to join us and learn more about the MTSU library, just show up in LIB 272 at 12:40 or 2:20 today, or 1 pm tomorrow... 

LISTEN. Rained all weekend, so I didn't get to do the bikeride the doc finally greenlighted.

But I did have fun watching the Cards solidify the second wildcard, and the first installment of Ken Burns' latest trip down history lane. (And okay, I confess: the Titans' OT win in Seattle.)

And reading.

Having fun isn't hard when you've got a library card, Arthur used to sing to our girls.

(Older Daughter reminded me yesterday of another studious friend of our childhood, or rather her childhood and my lucky dadhood: Morris. Reminded me in turn of Wallace and Gromit and Frog and Toad...)

We're going to the Walker Library in CoPhi today and tomorrow, to prepare for October reports. After hearing from the librarians and reps of the writing center, I hope we'll have time to wander into the stacks. That was one of the more important components of my own undergraduate education at Mizzou, just roaming Ellis Library and pulling this or that volume from its random obscurity to see if it had anything to teach me. Kids these days don't do that or know why they'd want to. They don't know what they're missing... (continues)

Social media & mental health

 

Practical stoicism

	Massimo Pigliucci ⁦‪@mpigliucci‬⁩ A member of the audience captured my mini course on practical Stoicism ⁦‪@HTLGIFestival‬⁩ pic.twitter.com/UtIWvQkici   9/19/21, 7:00 AM

Phil.Oliver@mtsu.edu

👣Solvitur ambulando

💭Sapere aude

Philosophy Majors Discord Server!!

There is now a discord server for philosophy majors!! Here is the link for anyone interested: https://discord.gg/8PmPKgf6

Lucky stoics

	Brain Pickings ⁦‪@brainpickings‬⁩ The good luck of your bad luck – Marcus Aurelius on the Stoic strategy for weathering life's waves and turning suffering into strength brainpickings.org/2021/09/19/mar…   9/19/21, 7:45 AM

Adam Smith

	TPM: The Philosophers Magazine ⁦‪@philosophersmag‬⁩ What can be added to the happiness of the man who is in health, who is out of debt, and has a clear conscience?--Adam Smith   9/17/21, 9:10 AM

Phil.Oliver@mtsu.edu

👣Solvitur ambulando

💭Sapere aude

Questions Sep 21

E 7-9. Garden wisdom @dawn - LISTEN ('19) 

ch 7
1. Any human who can't uphold a contractual agreement to behave justly should be treated how, said Epicurus? 81

2. What was Plato's egalitarian initiative? 82

3. What was exceptional about Epicurean social philosophy? 83

4. How did the Epicureans depart from the Stoics with regard to politics and public life? 85

5. What connection did Thomas Hobbes see between his political philosophy and the Epicureans? 87-8

6. What was Karl Marx's doctoral dissertation about? 91

DQs

• Is there anything to be said for Plato's idea that people should be designated gold, silver, and bronze? 82 In a genuinely utopian society, would social (or "natural") class exist at all?
• Do you agree that "all societies evolve"? 84 Do some de-volve? How about ours, at present?
• How engaged with politics do you need to be, to be a responsible citizen?
• Is it possible or even likely that most "civilized" humans will choose not to be driven by the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain? 
• Was Thomas Hobbes wrong about human nature?
• Given Marx's early interest in Epicureanism, why do you think Marxism became a philosophy of political revolution rather than personal/communal experimental living?

ch 8

1. How do ancient and contemporary ethics fundamentally differ? 92

2. What produces the pleasant life, according to Epicurus? 94

3. Epicurus's attitude to sex is best described as what? 95

4. Why is love indispensable, for Lucretius? 96

5. What did Tom Nagel point out about what makes death frightening? 101

6. What was the main Stoic objection to Epicureanism? 105

DQs

• Must mind and body forever "succumb to the 'stress and strain of age'"? 92 Or will medical science one day "defeat" aging (if not death)? Are the Transhumanists crazy?
• Do you employ "sober calculation" in charting your pleasures? 94 Do you think you always should? Or is it sometimes okay to surrender to the spirit of Dionysus?
• Do you side more with Epicurus or Lucretius on marriage and procreation? 96
• What do you think of Lucretius's "random-roving" advice? 97
• Do you agree with the Epicurean perspective on why death is not so horrible after all? 101
• Do you agree with Kant that happiness and morality are entirely different issues? 105
• Do we have an obligation to distant strangers? 107

ch 9
1. Different people inhabit what, according to atomists and Epicureans? 109

2. What Cartesian position is almost universally rejected? 111

3. In what Stoic conception does Wilson find beauty and nobility? 117

4. Epicureans lay great weight on what? 119

DQs

• If our ordinary "notions... may not apply to the fundamental particles discovered by physics," 110 would that be an objection to Epicurean atomism?
• "Man is not the measure of all things." 111 Should an Epicurean be so quick to repudiate Protagoras? If we're not the measure(rs) of our own happiness, who or what is? (But: does "man" mean  each of us, individually, or all of us, collectively?)
• Did Aristotle and the Stoics have a better grasp of the intrinsic satisfaction of intellectual understanding? 112
• Do you think theists are happier than atheists? 113
• Would an atheistic world be more pacific? 114 (Was John Lennon an Epicurean? --"Imagine all the people, living life in peace..." )
• Are intellectual pleasures "higher"? 116
• 
  

Material minds

LISTEN. Today in Happiness it's "Material Minds"--Epicureans believe in them--and "Religion and Superstition"--they don't. They don't, that is, believe in the supernatural sorts of religion that sponsor fear-mongering superstition. "The only incorporeal entity for the Epicureans was the void," in which nothing we'd call spiritual or soulful is apt to root... excepting, of course, our natural selves. "The mind grows up with the body," and departs with it. The entire interest and importance of life must find its place in the interim.This may surprise or even shock the sensibilities of those who've been trained in the dualist mind-body tradition so favored for so long in the western philosophical tradition, but a corporeal notion of soul is actually "more appealing" than the strange specter of a "puppet-like" immaterial soul pulling our strings. The invasive alien-homunculus hypothesis is quite creepy, when you think about it.

[Before class, btw, there's another opportunity to participate in a public reading of the Constitution, in front of the Bragg Building. Yesterday's was kinda ruined by that fire-and-brimstone hellmonger who took up residence in front of Honors and forced us inside. But I did still get to read the 8th amendment and condemn cruel and unusual punishment. Time in the company of crazed fundy preachers counts as that, in my book.

Do any of us want to launch this season's Happiness Hour after class? Or is it still unwise to congregate in public places? If we do, it needs to be out on the patio.]

(continues)

Happiness hour?

An old and happy tradition in this course is to meet (voluntarily, of course) on Thursdays after class at the Boulevard. COVID disrupted that. Perhaps we'd like to revive it. But, too soon?

If anyone's up for it today, let's see if we can snag a table outdoors on the patio.

A happy authoritarian

LISTEN. In CoPhi today we take up Niccolo Machiavelli and Thomas Hobbes. 

First, though, we participate in a public reading of the U.S. Constitution, a document that used to compel the reflexive assent of all our representatives in all three branches of the federal government. No more. So I think it's an entirely appropriate ritual demonstration of our commitment to the rule of law that we should line up behind the microphone in front of our building and take turns reading it out. Imagine what it will be like to live in this country when Constitutional law is no longer credible or enforced. Why, it might be something like living in a state of nature, in a war of all against all. It might be nasty, brutish, and short... (continues)

Does football make you happy?

 Football is giving players brain damage. Is it time to stop watching?

It’s the start of another N.F.L. season, the time of year Americans turn on their televisions to watch their favorite teams make spectacular plays and their favorite players commit incredible acts of athleticism. But is America’s favorite pastime actually its guiltiest pleasure? Can fans ethically enjoy watching a football game?

The effects of the tackles on players’ brains is one reason you might feel guilty for watching. The injuries come on top of long-running disagreements between players and the league. How do you balance the brutality of the sport with the athleticism and beauty? (continues)

Questions Sep 16

 ch5

1. How did the Epicureans depart from the Platonic and Aristotelian traditions? 52

2. The standards of meaning and truth are what, for Epicurus? 55

3. Epicureans believe that our beliefs about the physical world ought to be recognized as true or false how? (p. 59) 

4. What alternatives to materialism appeared between the 17th and 18th centuries? Pg. 63 

5. No contemporary investigator will accept what, but will nevertheless insist what? 65

6. The zombie thought experiment does and does not show what? 66

DQs

• Do you agree that the mind requires an animal body? 53 What do you think Epicurus would say about AI?
• Is the idea of a "distributed and corporeal" soul more appealing to you than an immaterial, dualistic soul in uncertain relation to the body/brain? Why or why not?
• Dualism holds that the conscious mind is incorporeal, or non-physical. Neo-materialism holds that brain activity is the cause of the conscious mind. What do you think; is there more to you than neural activity? Ed
• Following up on Ed's question: what kinds of experience do you find difficult to attribute to neural activity? Is there a parallel to the objections some lodge against empiricism, that matter could not possibly do x/y/z? -To which the reply must be: why not? 
• 
  

ch6

1. Epicurean gods have no what? 69

2. Why did Epicureans consider the gods "blessed"? 70

3. What is the Epicurean hope, with regard to the human tendency to invoke or solicit divine intervention in our lives? 72

4. What gave the clergy control and powers of preservation over philosophical texts in the middle ages? 73 

5. Epicurus asked what, regarding evil? 77

6. What does Epicurean philosophy offer non-believers? (p. 80) 

DQs

• Is belief in god(s) natural but mistaken, and explainable? 70 (Daniel Dennett's Breaking the Spell supports this view...)
• What do you think of Spinoza's god? 74
• Baron d’Holbach said that theology was “ignorance of natural causes reduced to a system.” (p. 75.) If that is the case, what are the implications for religions based on a belief in a creator God that is involved with the affairs of men?
• Descartes believed that souls did not play a role in maintaining life, do you agree or disagree? (60) [a past student proposed this question, I'm not sure I accept the premise...]
• Are there cultural and social benefits from participating in religion, whether or not there is actually a God? 

Many times this is credited to my favorite Philosopher, Anonymous, but it's not his!

Philosophy's contribution

LISTEN. In Happiness today we consider  the Epicurean notion that "the alleviation of suffering and especially the suffering produced by fear and anxiety" is "the most important contribution of philosophy to life." That might be right. Surely, philosophies are deficient that fail to address the problem of suffering, that fail to acknowledge the contribution of fear and anxiety to our unhappiness, or that blame the victims. These are our problems, the gods have other problems of their own. If, that is, they have the problem and opportunity of existing in the first place... (continues)

Happy & free

Freedom and/or free will seem to me inseparable from the pursuit of happiness, though philosophers like Boethius and Spinoza seem to have a different notion. But aren't we glad those 9/11 heroes weren't stoic determinists!

LISTEN. A good night's sleep, especially after a bad one, is restorative. Of perspective, and cheer, and gratitude. I got one last night. Thank goodness, or just good fortune.  Either way, acknowledging and expressing gratitude is itself restorative, as I heard A.J. Jacobs saying in the middle of the night Saturday on my smart speaker when (I hypothesize) our Ubered Paneer Masala wasn't sitting quite right. Among the wise insights he shared with TED was the Jamesian psychology he paraphrased: it's easier to act your way into a new way of thinking than the reverse. Maybe that's how Augustine of Hippo finally consummated his conversion and stopped acting licentiously...  (continues)

Gratitude & happiness

Listen Again: The Gratitude Chain: A.J. Jacobs
TED Radio Hour

Original broadcast date: February 19, 2021. When A.J. Jacobs set out to thank everyone who made his morning cup of coffee, he realized the chain of thank-yous was endless. This hour, Jacobs shares ideas on gratitude—and how to make it count.

Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ted-radio-hour/id523121474?i=1000534877889

Phil.Oliver@mtsu.edu

👣Solvitur ambulando

💭Sapere aude