Our reading assignment for the 2d week, June 12, will be the first three chapters of Identity: A Very Short Introduction.
Typically in class we'll have two quizzes over each week's assigned reading (or one quiz in two parts, if you prefer... notice how identity in this instance is largely a matter of framing), with corresponding discussion. We'll go over and discuss the first, then take a break before going over the second. If weather conditions permit and there's consensual interest in doing so, we can move our discussion(s) outside. I'm a peripatetic...
("Followers of the Greek Aristotle were known as peripatetics because they passed their days strolling and mind-wrestling through the groves of the Academe. The Romans’ equally high opinion of walking was summed up pithily in the Latin proverb: 'It is solved by walking.'” Gymnasiums of the Mind)but the summer heat, and the late hour of our class, can pose particular challenges to that style of philosophizing for some. So, fingers crossed for temperate evenings in M'boro this summer, and the shared energy to exploit and enjoy them. We should be able to finish by 8 pm or so, most nights, with an option to adjourn to a more fluid and nourishing venue (like the Boulevard) if anyone is so inclined.
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Syllabus-
Week 1, June 5. Introductions, overview, author sign-ups
" 2, June 12. Identity: A Very Short Introduction (Coulmas), Introduction, 1-3
" 3, June 19. Coulmas, 4-7
" 4, June 26. Coulmas, 8-conclusion
" 5, July 3. The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity (Appiah), 1-2
" 6, July 10. Appiah, 3-4
" 7, July 17. Appiah, 5-coda
" 8, July 24. The I in Team: Sports Fandom and the Reproduction of Identity (Tarver), tba. Begin final reports...
" 9, July 31. Tarver, tba.
" 10, Aug 7. On Bullshit (Frankfurt)-Is sincerity really BS? Conclude final reports. Exam, drawn from weekly quiz questions.
Final report consists of a presentation, accompanying blogpost, a couple of discussion questions and a quiz of at least four questions over the material you present. You may wish to select a specific text to anchor your report (see, for instance, the Further Reading section of Identity: A VSI for suggestions). The exam will be drawn from the weekly quizzes that we go over in class.
Scorecard. We'll track participation on baseball-style scorecards: come to class to get on 1st base. Post comments, questions (discussion questions and alternative quiz questions), and links (to relevant articles, websites, books, etc.) before class to move on to 2d, 3d, and home (one base for each). I'll show you how to do it, if you've never scored a game before.
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Week 2 Quiz (also post your alternate quiz questions, in "comments")
Intro, ch1
1. Name two things that can be said to have an identity, and two kinds of identity.
2. What is the constructivist view of identity?
3. The modern concept of identity is rooted in what?
4. How did Montaigne echo Socrates, with what implication for the question of identity?
5. What (briefly) did Locke, Leibniz, and Hegel say about identity?
6. Descartes said identity rests in what?
7. Mental essentialism and religious views of identity face what puzzle?
8. What's different about the postmodern self?
ch2-3
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
Week 2 Discussion Questions (also post your discussion questions...)
- You can answer this one before you do the assigned reading (and plan to revisit it, at semester's end): Who are you?
- Ditto: Why are you here? Why are we?
- In his book Fantasyland, Kurt Andersen says Americans are heir to a 500-year history of magical thinking, of claiming an inherent right to believe whatever we want to believe as a matter of our core national identity, and of generally taking a cavalier attitude towards truth and falsehood. In that light, he says the notorious pattern of inveterate lying by the current president should not surprise us. But, he concludes, we must not collude in this tradition. We must call out the liars and bullshitters (as we'll see with Harry Franfurt, there's a difference). What do you think?
- Pick one of the items in the 2d paragraph list on p.1, and discuss its identity: is it controversial, problematic, trivial,... ? (For example, the identity of twins is to me a fascinating case-study in the ways some siblings forge unique identities while others seem to conform and blend in. It raises interesting points about nature and nurture. It anticipates the kinds of ethical issues we may someday face if humans ever begin cloning themselves. Etc.)
- Whose views on identity most appeal to you: Montaigne, Socrates, Locke, Leibniz, Hegel, Descartes, or none of the above?
- How is our personal identity "molded by the people we interact with"? (10) How is theirs molded by ours? Why do some people have a greater impact in molding others? What should we teach our children about their peer interactions? (And what should we understanding about the limits of our teaching?)
- "'My body enjoys watching the gulls' is odd." Why?
- Does it trouble you, or threaten your sense of identity, that you can't control or remember your dreams?
- How central to your sense of yourself is the fact of human mortality?
- Does it trouble you to think of yourself as an evolving open system, rather than an organism/person with fixed essential properties?
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Good to see this course filling (by summer standards)...
Coming Summer '19: MALA 6030, Topics in Culture and Ideas: Identity and Truth. Philosophy's perennial questions surrounding issues of personal and communal identity (Who and what am I, who are we, how do we understand continuous identity through change, does the public interest transcend individual rights, what do we owe one another, to whom and to what should we direct our ultimate allegiance...) are joined in our time by pressing questions about our commitment to truth, facts, and reality as something independent of partisan or "tribal" membership in parties, sects, and states. This course explores such questions, in the context of the thesis that a more cosmopolitan ("citizen of the world") identity is crucial to reclaiming civility and honesty in our public discourse. Texts include Identity: A Very Short Introduction (Coulmas); The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity (Appiah); The I in Team: Sports Fandom and the Reproduction of Identity (Tarver); On Bullshit (Frankfurt)...==
 | Kwame Anthony Appiah (@KAnthonyAppiah) |
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Links to all the pieces over the last couple of weeks about the themes of my book-- bit.ly/TheLiesThatBind --magazine and newspaper articles, interviews and podcasts can be found on my website here
appiah.net/work/general-i… | |
Appiah on the Ethics of Identity... Identity and Violence by Amartya Sen... Yuval Noah Harari, "Why Fiction Trumps Truth"
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This guy's manner and presentation are a bit irritating, to me... but maybe you'll find his content helpful. (& his "Arguments Against PI")
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More Identity from TED...
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Daniel Dennett says any sense of identity predicated on the notion of a substantial and enduring self is a "user illusion"...
Carl Sagan articulated an expansive, truly cosmopolitan sense of collective identity that embraces but also transcends humanity: “Our loyalties are to the species and the planet. We speak for Earth. Our obligation to survive is owed not just to ourselves but also to that Cosmos, ancient and vast, from which we spring.” Cosmos... (Pale Blue Dot...)
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Alan Watts said there's a taboo against learning your true identity... (Did you see the film "Her"? Who was "he," at the end?)
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The late Derek Parfit... (at the Oxford Union)...
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Five Best Books on Identity and the Mind... Best Books on Lying...
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"One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it..."
Harry Frankfurt, "On Bullshit"
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"Know Thyself as a Sports Fan" - Erin Tarver
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Personal Identity in a recently published philosophy textThe late Derek Parfit... (at the Oxford Union)...
Five Best Books on Identity and the Mind... Best Books on Lying...
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"One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it..."
Harry Frankfurt, "On Bullshit"
"Know Thyself as a Sports Fan" - Erin Tarver
Identity and Discussion questions for Chapters 2 & 3 - Don Enss
ReplyDelete9. What is Leibniz’s Law?
10.Give one example of an expression that has a sense but no reference.
11. What is the general question revolving around ‘identity’?
12. A consequence for the notion of ‘individual’ acknowledged by many Buddhist philosophers is that?
13. When is ethnic identity acquired?
14. What three items are the most salient criteria of ethnic classification and identity?
15. What is the counterpart of stereotyping?
Discussion Questions.
1. How would you define personal identity? What are the strengths and weaknesses in the following attempt? Personal identity encompasses every physical and non-physical experience that an individual has from the moment they exist in their mother’s ovary to the moment they cease to exist.
2. You cannot draw an identical circle with a pencil because even if the shape is the same, the lead on the paper will be slightly different along the path, but can you draw identical mental circles?
Thanks, Don. We might want to include page references with these supplemental quiz questions, since we'll usually be coming to them late in the class period with time and stamina beginning to run short.
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