Good first class! See you Wednesday. Remember to open your Author invitation. (FYI: Tarver's book The I in Team is now on reserve in the library, available for 3-day checkout.)
Intro, ch1Post your own quiz and discussion questions as well, we'll go over them in class. Questions, comments, and links posted before class each earn you a base. Comment on classmates' posts, and anything else you find relevant and interesting. Bear in mind that this is a public site.
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. What did Leibniz say about identity and atomism?
10. What important consequence followed from Frege's logical distinction between reference and sense?
11. What did Russell say about "vagueness," and what do contemporary biology and physics say?
12. How do Buddhists and western philosophers both agree and differ with respect to inquiry and our attempts to discover truths about the world?
13. What did Inua Ellams say about his identity, and what did he mean?
14. Why do ethnic and cultural identities persist?
15. What was the main source of division between Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians in their war in the 90s?
16. In what different directions have Singapore and China gone, with respect to ethnic integration and division?
17. How did the U.S. census bureau classify race, up until the mid-20th century?
18. Who is Sadiq Khan, and what demographic trend does he personify?
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 (see below*), 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?
- Leibniz rejected materialistic atomism but proposed a theory of metaphysical atoms or "monads" that effectively isolates each of us in a world of our own. Does this seem like an improvement, if one of our goals in philosophy is to unify people?
- Is vagueness a feature of the world, our language, our minds, some/all/none of the above, or...?
- Is "fuzzy logic" an improvement on Aristotelian logic?
- Our text implies that Buddhists are skeptical of science, but the Dalai Lama famously said that if any tenets of Buddhism conflict with the best science of the day, Buddhism would have to change. Do you think he was speaking for himself or for Buddhists generally? Do you agree that religion must conform to science? How do you see the religion-science relationship?
- Can you relate to Inua Ellams' statement? Have you ever felt yourself marginalized in a new environment by simple virtue of possessing an identity you'd taken for granted on your native grounds?
Final report text/source/topic suggestions (share yours too, and stake your claim to the topic of your choice in the comments section here). Final reports involve a blog post of at least 500 words, plus relevant bloggish content (links, graphics, videos...) and a 20-minute + presentation.
- Andersen, Fantasyland
- Appiah, Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers
- Appiah, The Ethics of Identity
- Baggini, A Short History of Truth: Consolations for a Post-Truth World
- Boyhood, a film by Richard Linklater*
- Frankfurt, On Truth (sequel to On Bullshit)
- Fukuyama, Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment
- Kaag, American Philosophy: A Love Story (the author, a young philosophy professor, works his way through an identity crisis, discovering the power of connecting with others while re-connecting with his passion for philosophy)
- Lilla, The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics
- Music, poetry, literature... explore the topic of personal, social, species, and cosmopolitan identity by comparing and reflecting on selections of music that you find suggestive and insightful
- John Locke vs. Thomas Reid on personal identity
- Parfit, Reasons and Persons
- Josiah Royce's philosophy (contrasted with the individualism of his pal William James... see. for instance, David Brooks's column "Your Loyalties Are Your Life," extolling Royce as "the philosopher we need today"...)
- Rue, Everybody's Story: Wising Up to the Epic of Evolution
- Carl Sagan, Cosmos/Varieties of Scientific Experience
- Watts, The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
Misc.
- Carlin on "stuff"... Marie Kondo...
- David Brooks-"Your Loyalties Are Your Life" (why Josiah Royce is "the philosopher we need today")... "The Coming G.O.P. Apocalypse"-stumbling blind into the age of diversity... "When Trolls and Crybullies Rule the Earth"-How technology reshapes consciousness.
- "Identity" @goodreads
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 | The New Yorker (@NewYorker) |
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A new book traces the ways in which American politics and culture were influenced by Ayn Rand, whose work legitimizes the worst effects of capitalism. nyer.cm/fXulbvC
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Did I Need to Know What Gender My Nonbinary Interviewees Were Assigned at Birth? Maybe Not
To write about the debate over adding an “X” option to state IDs, I was trying to better understand how the issue plays out in everyday life.I knew certain things about Charley Fogel, the person I was interviewing a few weeks ago at a Starbucks in Bethesda, Md.
Their pronouns were they/them. They had adopted their gender-neutral name a few years ago, when they began to consciously identify as nonbinary — that is, neither male nor female. They were in their late 20s, working as an event planner, applying to graduate school. They favored adding an “X” gender option to the “M” and “F” on state IDs, the debates about which I had been reporting on for a recent front-page article... (continues)
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What is it that makes us most distinctively ourselves? Our bodies, our memories, our values...? Take a tour through the philosophy of personal identity. TheBookofLife.org: https://goo.gl/FGMqVi
A good life is one in which we can dare to show our True Self and do not mind too much occasionally having to wear the mask of a False Self. But for this to be possible, we need a certain sort of childhood - as the masterful British psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott helped to explain in his theory of the true and the false self, outlined here...
One of the hardest things in the universe to understand is the interior of our own minds: we can have spent decades on the earth before we've grasped even very basic things about who we are and how we function. It's not for nothing that the Ancient Greeks felt philosophy had only one command: Know yourself! But however arduous, the journey can be facilitated by a few well-aimed bits of advice…More SoL
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The humanities exist to help students “ask, and answer, serious questions about life’s ultimate purpose,” not surrender to a shrunken vision of higher ed as mere vocational training https://t.co/VHgNnS5CDy— Phil Oliver (@OSOPHER) June 9, 2019
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The New Yorker (@NewYorker)
New discoveries about the human mind show the limitations of reason. nyer.cm/QJEBOf6
Maria Popova (@brainpicker)
"I believe that the universe is one being, all its parts are different expressions of the same energy, and they are all in communication with each other, influencing each other, therefore parts of one organic whole. (This is physics, I believe, as well as religion.)"
Discussion Question for June 12
ReplyDeleteIn addition to opinions on personal identity, John Locke, as a political philosopher,exerted a profound influence on the creators of the American experiment. In particular, the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths...” indicates a rationalist belief in unchangeable principles. How well are the founding principles holding up to post modern fluidity? Is the “American” identity changing like Coulmas’ corroding microchip analogy illuminating flaws in Locke’s central notion of memory in identity.
"We" are those who SAY we hold these truths... but if we don't act consistently as though we do, who are we really? Locke might say our identity as Americans is dependent on our historical memory, as well as personal. Another good reason to form the habit of always glancing at the past, before moving forward (as I like to do at the outset of each class). I'm a fan of the great negro league star Satchel Paige, and his rules for a long life... but I don't agree with the last one: "Don't look back..."
Delete1. Avoid fried meats, which angry up the blood. 2. If your stomach disputes you, lie down and pacify it with cool thoughts. 3. Keep the juices flowing by jangling around gently as you move. 4. Go very light on vices such as carrying on in society. The social ramble ain't restful. 5. Avoid running at all times. 6. Don't look back, something may be gaining on you.
Delete#5 of course, for a peripatetic! (Pedaling is ok, though.)
DeleteAddendum to identity statement in first class,
ReplyDeleteBTW can’t seem to make new post so adding as comment at bottom of the current post.
In our introductions the other day, all of you gave some great insights into how you perceived yourselves and your influences, including how you may have changed over time. On a peripatetic run around the perimeter of Brown University in Providence RI I realized that my introduction included a lot about my professional life and little else. This prompted the question, particularly relevant to modern Americans, how much of your identity is tied to your livelihood? Does your profession, job, calling make you or is it a natural extension of your inherent self? Also little was included about my family which in fact takes up the majority of my time in one way or another. Is not mentioning them a way of asserting an identity independent of my immediate family?
Afterwards, I felt like my intro was lacking too but I had concentrated on things relevant to my being in the class, I guess. Since work constitutes most of waking hours, it's only natural that we equate it with our identity but it is worth contemplating; is that all I am?
DeleteNot sure why you can't post, let's troubleshoot in class.
ReplyDeleteIt's understandable that most of us consider our identities wrapped up in our work, but it's also a good exercise to wonder who you'd be if you didn't know what you did for a living? (Kinda parallels another Satchel-ism: "How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?") Pragmatists like to say you can't separate being from doing... but we all do other things besides work for a paycheck, I hope.