Introductions

Let's introduce ourselves, Spring 2019 CoPhilosophy collaborators. (I'll tell you in class why I call my version of the Intro course "CoPhilosophy." But maybe you can guess, from the William James quote above.)

I invite you all to hit "comments" below share your own introductions, and (bearing in mind that this is an open site) answer two basic questions: Who are you? and Why are you here? (in this course, on this campus, in this state, on this planet...)

Our first class meeting will consist mainly of introductions and a heads-up that this is an unconventional course in ways I hope you'll find delightful, instructive, and rewarding. If you don't like to move, breathe, and converse in the open air on nice days, this course may be a challenge. But, if you don't especially like the conventional lecture-style academic model in which I talk and you scribble silently in your seats, it may be just what you've been looking for.

We'll not go over the syllabus or get bogged down in the nuts and bolts of course mechanics on Day One, there's plenty of time for those details later. Peruse the blogsite and syllabus (linked in the right margin) before next class and let me know what's unclear. Meanwhile, read your classmates' intros and post your own.

I'm Dr. Oliver. I live in Nashville with my wife, two dogs we "rescued" in May (Pita and Nell) and a cat (Zeus). Older Daughter lives in Illinois. Younger Daughter is a college sophomore.

My office is 300 James Union Building (JUB). My office hours are Tuesday/Thursday 11:15-12:45, & by appointment. Graduate Teaching Assistant Jamil Grimes is not officially working with me this semester but he's still a good person to talk to, if you have questions or just want a good philosophical conversation. He's in 300B, next door.

On nice days office hours may be outside, check my office door for details. I answer emails during office hours, but not at all on weekends. Surest way to get a quick response: come in or call during office hours.

I've been at MTSU since the early '00s, teaching philosophy courses on diverse subjects including atheism, childhood, happiness, the environment, the future, epistemology, metaphysics, Anglo-American philosophy, consciousness, evolution, and bioethics.

My Ph.D. is from Vanderbilt. I'm originally from Missouri, near St. Louis. I was indoctrinated as a Cardinals fan in early childhood, so I understand something about religious zeal. My undergrad degree is from the University of Missouri ("Mizzou") in Columbia MO. (I wish my schools weren't in the SEC-I don't approve of the inordinate emphasis on major collegiate sports culture orfootball brain injuries, as I'm sure to tell you again.)

My philosophical expertise, such as it is, centers on the American philosophical tradition of William James and John Dewey. A former student once asked me to respond to a questionnaire, if you're curious you can learn more about me there.

What you most need to know about me, though, is that I'm a peripatetic and will encourage you all to join me in that philosophical lifestyle as often as possible during discussion time. (If you're not sure what peripatetic means, scan the right sidebar or read the syllabus or ask me. Or look it up.)

I post my thoughts regularly to my blogs Up@dawn and Delight Springs, among others, and to Twitter (@osopher), and am continuing to experiment with podcasting as a classroom tool this semester. Follow me if you want to.

But of course, as Brian Cohen said, you don't have to follow anyone. (Extra credit if you get that reference... and real extra credit if you realize that my "extra credit" is usually rhetorical.) However, if a blog or podcast link turns up with the daily quiz (which will always be posted on this site no later than the night before class), you might find it helpful to read or listen.

Enough about me. Who are you? (Where are you from, where have you been, what do you like, who do you want to become,...?) Why are you here? (On Earth, in Tennessee, at MTSU, in philosophy class)? Hit "comments" below and post your introduction, then read your classmates'... and bear in mind that this is an open site. The world can read it. (The world's probably busy with other stuff, of course - Drumpf and Kardashians and cooking shows and other examples of what passes for "reality" these days.)

Please include your section number in your reply, and in all future posts on this site:

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From a distance, philosophy seems weird, irrelevant, boring...

  

and yet also – just a little – intriguing.

  

But what are philosophers really for?

  

The answer is, handily, already contained in the word philosophy itself.

  

In Ancient Greek, philo means love and sophia means wisdom.

  

Philosophers are people devoted to wisdom.

  

Being wise means attempting to live and die well.

  

In their pursuit of wisdom, philosophers have developed a very

  

specific skill-set. They have, over the centuries, become experts in

  

many of the things that make people not very wise. Five stand out:

  

There are lots of big questions around: What is the meaning of life?

  

What's a job for? How should society be arranged?

  

Most of us entertain them every now and then, but we despair of trying

  

to answer them. They have the status of jokes. We call them

  

'pretentious'. But they matter deeply because only with sound answers

  

to them can we direct our energies meaningfully.

  

Philosophers are people unafraid of asking questions. They have, over

  

the centuries, asked the very largest. They realise that these

  

questions can always be broken down into more manageable chunks and

  

that the only really pretentious thing is to think one is above

  

raising big naive-sounding enquiries.

  

Public opinion – or what gets called ‘common sense’ – is sensible and

  

reasonable in countless areas. It’s what you hear about from friends

  

and neighbours, the stuff you take in without even thinking about it.

  

But common sense is also often full of daftness and error.

  

Philosophy gets us to submit all aspects of common sense to reason.

  

It wants us to think for ourselves. Is it really true what people say

  

about love, money, children, travel, work? Philosophers are interested

  

in asking whether an idea is logical – rather than simply assuming it

  

must be right because it is popular and long-established.

  

We’re not very good at knowing what goes on in our own minds.

  

Someone we meet is very annoying, but we can’t pin down what the issue is.

  

Or we lose our temper, but can’t readily tell what we’re so cross about.

  

We lack insight into our own satisfactions and dislikes.

  

That’s why we need to examine our own minds. Philosophy is committed

  

to self-knowledge – and its central precept – articulated by the

  

earliest, greatest philosopher, Socrates – is just two words long:

  

Know yourself. 

We’re not very good at making ourselves happy. We overrate the power

  

of some things to improve our lives – and underrate others.

  

We make the wrong choices because, guided by advertising and false glamour,

  

we keep on imagining that a particular kind of holiday, or car, or computer

  

will make a bigger difference than it can.

  

At the same time, we underestimate the contribution of other things –

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 like going for a walk - which may have little prestige but can

contribute deeply to the character of existence.

   

Philosophers seek to be wise by getting more precise about the

   

activities and attitudes that really can help our lives to go better.

  

Philosophers are good at keeping a sense of what really matters and what doesn't.

  

On hearing the news that he’d lost all his possessions in a shipwreck,

  

the Stoic philosopher Zeno simply said:

  

‘Fortune commands me to be a less encumbered philosopher.’

  

It’s responses like these that have made the very term ‘philosophical’

  

a byword for calm, long-term thinking and strength-of-mind,

  

in short, for perspective.

  

The wisdom of philosophy is – in modern times – mostly delivered in

  

the form of books. But in the past, philosophers sat in market squares

  

and discussed their ideas with shopkeepers or went into government

  

offices and palaces to give advice. It wasn’t abnormal to have a

  

philosopher on the payroll. Philosophy was thought of as a normal,

  

basic activity – rather than as an unusual, esoteric, optional extra.

  

Nowadays, it’s not so much that we overtly deny this thought but we

  

just don’t have the right institutions set up to promulgate wisdom

  

coherently in the world. In the future, though, when the value of

  

philosophy* is a little clearer, we can expect to meet more

  

philosophers in daily life. They won’t be locked up, living mainly in

  

university departments, because the points at which our unwisdom bites

  

– and messes up our lives – are multiple and urgently need attention -

  

right now.

*Bertrand Russell, "The Value of Philosophy"