Keep in touch

Grades are in!

I submitted grades for everyone yesterday, so if you're curious as to what you got, you can always e-mail me to find out. Or you could just wait for them to be published, whatever floats your boat.

As I mentioned in class last time, it's been a real pleasure introducing you all to the weird and abstract world of ideas, and I hope you keep in touch and apply your newly learned critical thinking skills to your everyday life.

For those of you who do end up in jail, I can always try to hook you up with a good lawyer, or try to prove to you that you are not really in jail, so either way you might benefit.

Keep in touch.

By the way, for those interested, and I know there are a few, here is a link to my personal blog. It's a fun source for self-education that's not dry, since most of it contains cool documentaries and the occasional hilarious entry (this would be an example). I'm sure everyone will find something interesting there. If you do like it, you can always subscribe to it just like you did for this class blog. Feel free to share with others as well. I always welcome submissions of cool stuff as well.

Bye!

EMAILS

Yeah - I highly doubt that anyone will check this anymore - but I promised to start a post that we can put our emails on...I may be the only one. This way we can stay in touch since we were a cool fuckin' class. :) Just list it in the comment section.

Notes from Mary

Here they are, good luck.

Cosmides & Tooby

Hello everyone - I just had an issue with finding the Cosmides & Tooby paper that we will be tested on tomorrow - apparently I didn't pay very much attention to that part of the blog. Oh well. If anyone else is having a problem finding it, it's posted along with the Dawkins video as a link. I believe we will be tested on the first 16 pages (out of 33) - up until the five principles of evolutionary psychology.

If anyone wants to meet before 2 tomorrow, let me know. :)

~Mary

STUDY GROUP & POOL!

Hello everyone - just wanted to let you know that the only thing I remembered on Cinco de Mayo was that Karan & Angel said we should have the study group meet earlier (very surprised I even remembered that!) - so, the group will meet at the library at 2pm on Thursday. I'll try to post notes on the blog by tomorrow, or the latest on Wednesday morning - so try to read them before the group (or at least print them ahead of time.)

Also - since this is our last class :( I was hoping that we can all go out after the test. We should meet at the pool hall on Dolson Ave - I'm pretty sure a few people have said that it is still open. If it's not - can someone post other suggestions? Good luck, and I'll see you at the study group.

~Mary

Final Test

For Prof. Ruiz or anyone else who knows:
Are the rules of identity the same thing as the 4 criterion for establishing identity (reflexive, symmetry...)?
Also, Cosmedis and Tooby..what do we need to know specifically?

Thanks and good luck everyone!

Prospects for a Transhuman Mind

This is a presentation by Leda Cosmides (from the reading on evolutionary psychology) talking at a conference of people concerned with human immortality through the uses of present and future state-of-the-art technology.

The talk is interesting in and of itself, but I thought you guys might find it useful to understand the relationship to human consciousness and its evolutionary roots from the expert herself.

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The Extended Phenotype

We'll talk about the idea of free will tonight in class to some extent as we explore the question of consciousness and its relationship to evolutionary theory. In the meantime, check this out:

Gordian worms live inside crickets for long periods, feeding on the cricket's diet. Once fully grown, they inject chemicals into the cricket's brain brainwashing it and forcing it to kill itself by jumping into the water. Once in water, the worm wriggles out of the writhing body and swims off in search of a mate.

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Richard Dawkins

For those of you not familiar with Richard Dawkins, here is an interesting lecture he gave about two years ago. Not much specifically related to what we are doing this semester (except perhaps in relation to Hume and Berkeley's epistemology). He is currently receiving a lot of media attention for his latest book, The God Delusion, but his more substantial work has been in evolutionary biology.

Here is the link to the article that we'll start covering this week (after Dawkins) and will continue next week. I'm trying to upload an audio lecture recently given by Leda Cosmides, which I'll post tomorrow. It should help you give you a clearer idea of the implications of the findings of evolutionary psychology and the question of consciousness.

Term Paper

Due date: Thursday, May 3rd (earlier papers will be accepted, and appreciated)

Font: Verdana
Size: 10 (this is the same as Times New Roman 12, but easier for me to read)
Double Spaced
Margins: One inch top, bottom, left and right
Header: Your name
Footer: Page Number

Write a 8-10 page paper on any philosophical issue of your choice. This paper requires no outside sources. In fact, I am discouraging them. I am not interested in what other people think about this issue, but in how you can support your claims through well reasoned and clearly articulated arguments.

If you do end up having to reference something (like the material we have covered during the semester), be sure to acknowledge that in citations. Plagiarism, defined as the use of sources other than your own ideas, whether in verbatum copying or in paraphrasing, is a very serious academic offence, which will not be tolerated. I am very good at catching instances of plagiarism, and will fail papers that are plagiarized, so just be honest with your work.

The assignment is for you to take a position on the philosophical issue you choose and attempt to convince your readers that your point of view on the matter is the one they should adopt themselves. Throughout your college career you will very seldom get the opportunity to write about something purely based on your own beliefs. Take advantage of this opportunity to express yourself and your take on reality, as well as to test how reasonable your beliefs are.

This is an exercise in rational persuasion, which means that you must provide well thought out arguments that reasonable people would be willing to entertain, and possibly even adopt, considering your arguments are good. In other words, you must attempt to explain why your position is correct by providing reasons and well constructed logical arguments.

This assignment requires, as one of its purposes, that you think hard about some idea and provide some sort of principle (or set of principles) that justifies your position. Does using the principle you propose deductively entail some logical consequence that you would not be willing to accept? If so, then that is probably not a very good principle, and may require modification or rejection. Are there counterexamples someone can bring up to show your principle does not account for all possible scenarios? Are there counterexamples someone can bring up to show your principle is probably false? How would you respond to such objections?

Before you start writing your papers, run your topics by me for approval. I’d like to have an idea of what you’re working on, and how you’re approaching your papers, so that you don’t waste your time doing something that will not help your paper, like write a paper on a topic that is not actually philosophical…

Order of Oral Presentations

Here is the order in which we'll do the oral presentations.

Presentations are to last about 10 minutes. Remember, you must present on the day you are scheduled; no exceptions.

If you haven't done so already, go to the original entry and in the comments enter the presentation you'll be doing, providing no one has already chosen it.

Let me know if you don't see your name below.

Week 1

1. Karan
2. Pam
3. Jennifer
4. Helen

Week 2

1. Violeta
2. Tad
3. Ben Newberg
4. Angel
5. Ian

Week 3

1. Ryan
2. Benny
3. Christian
4. Alexandra
5. Jumel

Week 4

1. Michael Shore
2. Mary
3. Joseph Cain
4. Joe Masuck
5. Valerie

Notes for test

Class, Mary has asked me to post a link to this file containing the notes she's put together for tonight's study group session so that everyone can print it. The link will take you to a file hosting service. Simply click on the "start download" button on the right hand side; it's safe.

By the way, tonight we are choosing the order in which the oral presentations will be given.

Exam Questions

Could someone please post the list of what topic areas are on the exam for tommorrow;I have a list Iwrote, but I feel as though I am missing something. I can not make the study group

Thanks Pamela

Notes for Test

Hey guys - I was just wondering if anyone would be able to bring their notes on Hume to the study-group tomorrow? It would be massively appreciated. Also wanted to let you know that I am working on a master note-sheet that will help us in the group tomorrow for the test. It's a combination of most of the notes given in class (minus Hume) and other main ideas from the text that I added.

See you tomorrow. :)

~Mary

Oral Presentations

Below are the choices available for oral presentations. Click on the "comment" link below this entry, then choose something that has not already been chosen by someone else.

Make sure you write your name in the body of the comment so that I know who you are; otherwise it's open game.

For choice 20, two people would be required, since it's a debate.

Here are the choices:

1. Plato - Apology (9)
2. Milgram - Obedience to authority (22)
3. Vihvelin - Time travel: the rules of the road (75)
4. Kolak - The man who mistook himself for the world (86)
5. Reid - Critique of Locke and Hume on behalf of common sense (117)
6. Martin - Personal Identity from Plato to Parfit (124)
7. Parascandola - Trans or me? (139)
8. Augustine - Freedom of the will (148)
9. Hume - Liberty and necessity (158)
10. James - The dilemma of determinism (169)
11. Moore - Free will (177)
12. Taylor - Freedom and determinism (183)
13. Russell - Perception, knowledge and induction (240)
14. Armstrong - The infinite regress of reasons (254)
15. Clifford - The ethics of belief (271)
16. James - The will to believe (277)
17. Hume - God and evil (283)
18. Adams - Must God create the best? (290)
19. Martin - The elusive Messiah (298)
20. Plantinga - Philosophy, the Bible, and God: a debate (requires two participants) (308)
21. Wiredu - Religion from an African perspective (325)
22. Rey - Does anyone really believe in god? (335)
23. Einstein - Considerations on the universe as a whole (361)
24. Wittgenstein - Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (365)
25. Nozick - Fiction (368)
26. Kolak - Quantum cosmology, the anthropic principle, and why there is something rather than nothing? (372)
27. Parfit - The puzzle of reality: why does the universe exist? (396)
28. Kant - Percepts and Concepts (422)
29. Dretske - How do you know you are not a zombie? (434)
30. Thomson and Turetzky - A simple guide to contemporary philosophy of mind (444)
31. Zuboff - The story of a brain (471)
32. Nagel - What is it like to be a bat? (477)
33. Plato - Death and immortality (498)
34. Hume - Of the immortality of the soul (506)
35. Martin - Survival of bodily death: a question of values (510)
36. Clark - Death, nothingness, and subjectivity (526)
37. Kolak - The wine is in the glass (535)
38. Tolstoy - My confession (540)
39. Camus - The myth of Sisyphus (546)
40. Taylor - Is life meaningful? (550)
41. Martin - A fast car and a good woman (556)
42. Bennett - The conscience of Huckleberry Finn (575)
43. Rees - Reclaiming the conscience of Huckleberry Finn (only available if 42 is already taken) (581)
44. De Silva - Buddhist ethics (592)
45. Kolak - Morality and the problem of the other: from Sidwick to Rawls and Parfit (604)
46. Moore - Intrinsic value (658)
47. Mill - On Liberty (665)
48. Marx - Alienation and the power of money (675)
49. Chandavarkar - Philosophy and economics: issues and questions (684)

How our memories ultimately are not us...

So - Prof. Ruiz was right when he had said the video on his blog was from Dawkins and not an excerpt from Waking Life (I must've listened to both in a row and mixed up the two)...

Anyways, this is taken from his blog and makes an interesting point on what our brains' interpret as our reality and an interesting note that in our memories we are not the same person, as matter changes in our make-up over time. That part occurs around 10 1/2 minutes in...but nevertheless, it is a very enlightening video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADPc3ZF5Yok

What boat is the original

Im a little confused about this story with Theseus and his boat. I believe "his boat" is the one he is in.. possession is 9/10th's of the law. As far as originality goes, that is where its clouded there can't be one

Fingerprints

So - I know that I promised a post on how thought can be photographed - and I may have leaned a bit far out on a limb believing a book that I read without first checking the exact sources and researching the science behind it...however, in my own research last night I did find something similar to back up my theories - so please be patient...and I will post my findings within the next few days.

I did find an answer to whether identical twins' fingerprints are structurally the same - and unfortunately, that is not the case.

So, do identical twins have identical fingerprints? The basic answer is NO. Identical -- or monozygotic -- twins form when a single fertilized egg splits in two after conception. Because they form from a single zygote, the two individuals will have the same genetic makeup. Their DNA is virtually indistinguishable.
However, fingerprints are not an entirely genetic characteristic. Scientists love to use this topic as an example of the old "nature vs. nurture" debate. Fingerprinting, along with other physical characteristics, is an example of a phenotype -- meaning that it is determined by the interaction of an indivdual's genes and the developmental environment in the uterus.
The ultimate shape of fingerprints are believed to be influenced by environmental factors during pregnancy, like nutrition, blood pressure, position in the womb and the growth rate of the fingers at the end of the first trimester. Thus, you will find similar partterns of whorls and ridges in the fingerprints of identical twins. But there will also be differences -- just as there are differences between the fingers on any individual's hands.
Taken from Pamela Prindle Fierro,Your Guide to Parenting of Multiples on www.multiples.about.com

In the next few days I will post my findings on energy and the "soul", though I'm not sure that what I believe can be considered a soul as it is not ethereal, only existing in the physical realm. We shall see...

Spirit/Soul/Ghost.

I started to question the existence of "souls" after class, but then when Prof. Ruiz said something about how we can't see air but we know its there because we can measure it. I immediately remember this show called "Ghost Hunters". This shows a couple of different ways we can measure a soul and its pretty interesting...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH7KrjIFV6s

Logic take home test

Click here to download the test. For those of you who were absent tonight, this is an opportunity for you to improve your grade for the first test. Just print it out, complete it and hand it in next Thursday.

Second item of business. As I mentioned in class, there will be one surprise test this semester. Whoever can figure out the exact date of the test will automatically get an A. The reason for this is that figuring out the correct answer is a rational project, so if you think about this hard enough, you should be able to solve this problem. You will hand in your response to this riddle next Thursday, so hand in your answer on a piece of paper with your name on it.

I'm sure there's more stuff I'm forgetting about right now, so I'll have to post later when it comes back to me.