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May 18, 2008
New UMD philosophy blog
Professor Eve Browning has started a UMD Philosophy Blog. Check it out!
May 16, 2008
Phil & World Religions grades
Final grades are now posted on eGradebook and have been submitted to the registrar.
May 15, 2008
Logic grades
Course grades are posted on eGradebook and have been submitted to the registrar.
Logic - Final exam grades
Final exam grades are now posted on eGradebook. Course grades will be posted soon.
May 14, 2008
Phil & World Religions - final exam grades
Final exam grades are now posted on eGradebook.
Attention: "Prove it Or Lose It" contestants
Dear logic students,
I'm afraid I didn't get a complete list of the contestants and winners of "Prove It or Lose It!" on Friday. Please remind me by email (mcgin017@d.umn.edu) if you competed (automatic B minimum for third participation increment), and also if you won (automatic A for third participation increment).
Thanks, and have a nice summer.
-"Zip"
19th and 20th - final grades
Final grades for this class have been submitted and can be viewed on eGradebook.
Note: if your final grade is listed as, e.g. "B+ => A-", this means that I manually raised your grade from B- to A+ to accommodate natural breaks in the final scores. (I only raise grades to accommodate such breaks; I never lower them.)
May 13, 2008
Logic - Monday May 12
The final exam was given. Final grades will be submitted and posted to eGradebook within a week.
Have a great summer!
19th and 20th - Mon May 12
The final exam was given.
Raw scores are posted on eGradebook. These will be converted to letter grades shortly. I have also finished grading your papers and will post final grades soon.
Have a great summer!
May 09, 2008
Logic - Friday May 9
We played "Prove It Or Lose It!" (with your host, Zip Martin). All contestants won Dum-Dums and participation credit.
While doing proofs we listened to some killer tunes, including: "You Gotta Fight for Your Right to Party", "Rock the Casbah," "Eye of the Tiger", "Never Gonna Give You Up", "Superstitious", and "We Built this City on Rock and Roll"!
Here is the cheesy video to the Survivor song:
And here is the awesome video of Stevie Wonder on Sesame Street:
19th and 20th - Fri May 9
We had class outside today!!! It was nice.
I collected papers and participation logs.
We finished up our discussion of Quine. Then I had y'all come up with some more questions for the final:
ORDINARY LANGUAGE PHILOSOPHERS
What is Strawson’s contention with Russell?
What did Austin mean by “performative utterances”?
What is the difference between Grice’s logical implications and conversational implicatures?
How do the views of Austin and the later Wittgenstein differ?
What is a Locutionary act?
What is an illocutionary act?
What are Grice’s four maxims?
What is the significance of “cancellability”?
What would be the illocutionary act performed by saying “You are stupid” (presuming I meant it)?
By bringing up an irrelevant topic in a conversation, what maxim are you violating?
According to Strawson, what sorts of things bear meanings? What sorts of things bear truth values? (Sentences, assertions/uses of sentences)
QUINE
What is Quine’s critique of the analytic/synthetic distinction?
What does Quine mean when he says that everything exists?
What are qualia?
How/why does Quine write off qualia?
Give an example of an extensional inference. (X is P. X = Y. So, Y is P.)
Did Quine doubt that there are mental or spiritual entities?
Does Quine agree with Russell on the relevance of ethics in philosophy?
What are Quine’s criticisms of (traditional) empiricism? (I.e. what are his “Two Dogmas”)
What abstract objects does Quine believe in?
What does it mean for two terms to be co-extensional?
Phil & World Religions - Fri May 9
Last day!!!
I collected participation logs and we reviewed for the final (which of course is Tuesday, May 13, 12-1:55pm, ABAH 225).
May 08, 2008
It's a bird... It's a plane... It's...
Philosophical Superheroes! (and Villains)
Collect 'em all!
May 07, 2008
Logic - Wed May 7
We discussed some important properties of relations and worked through a bunch more symbolizations in relational predicate logic with identity.
I'm pretty sure my symbolization of "In China some couples have more than two children" was the longest logical formula I have ever written in my life (about 25 feet, across two blackboards!).
Reminder: participation logs due Friday
On Friday: Prove it or Lose It! (with Zip Martin)
19th and 20th - Wed May 7
We continued our discussion of Quine and watched this exciting video:
There was a quiz at the end of class.
No new reading was assigned.
Reminder: papers and participation logs due Friday!
Phil & World Religions - Wed May 7
We finished our discussion of religious and mystical experience and started going over the study guide for the final.
No new reading was assigned.
On Friday we will simply finish reviewing for the final and then (assuming there is time) watch the last 20 minutes of The Rapture (as some of you requested).
Philosophy Colloquium
Thursday, May 8, 4-6 pm, AB Anderson 345
All are welcome to attend.
Emily Esch
College of St. Benedict and St. John's University
Know-How: What's It Good For? [Absolutely Nothin' --CM]
The publication of Jason Stanley and Timothy Williamson's 2001 paper,
“Knowing How,” resurrected an old debate about the nature of know-how.
The history of this debate, at least in its contemporary form, begins
with Gilbert Ryle's argument that not only is know-how distinct from
propositional knowledge, but its distinctness is necessary to stop a
potentially infinite regress. A few decades later, David Lewis relies
crucially on the claim that know-how is distinct from propositional
knowledge in his influential response to Frank Jackson's knowledge
argument. More recently, it has been argued that know-how has a central
role to play in the cognitive sciences, for example in Alva Noë and
Kevin O’Regan’s enactive approach to perception. In an effort to get
past the linguistic and semantic arguments that characterize much of the
debate over know-how’s relationship to its more esteemed sibling, I
explore some of the different purposes know-how has served. I'm
interested in two questions: first, do these different uses of know-how
underwrite a genuine distinction between know-how and propositional
knowledge? And second, do these different uses share the same basic
conception of know-how?
May 06, 2008
Logic - Tues May 6
We worked through lots of symbolization problems.
Reminder: participation logs due Friday
Click here to download the study guide for the final (PDF).
19th and 20th - Tues May 6
We finished our summary of ordinary-language philosophy and got started on Quine.
I extended the deadline on the paper to Friday. Participation logs are also due Friday.
For Wed.: finish Chapter 13.
May 05, 2008
Logic - Monday May 5
We worked through some problems from the current homework and the quiz that was given on Friday. (I "downgraded" the quiz to an "in-class exercise".)
No new reading was assigned.
Reminder: participation logs due Friday.
In class I was temporarily stumped by two questions about possible ways of symbolizing "Every dog likes some cat". The best symbolization (using what I hope is obvious notation) is
(1) (x)(Dx => (Ey)(Cy . Lxy))
This is the symbolization I used in class. Joe B. asked if it could be symbolized as
(2) (x)(Ey)(Dx => (Cy . Lxy))
It turns out that (2) is logically equivalent to (1). It is an inferior translation, however. (Note that any given sentence has infinitely many logical equivalents.)
Proving that (1) and (2) are equivalent is quite difficult. (Try it if you don't believe me!)
Matt M. asked if the sentence could be symbolized as
(3) (x)(Ey)((Dx . Cy) => Lxy)
The answer is "no." Consider an interpretation with exactly one object in its domain -- something that is a dog and not a cat. This interpretation makes (3) true but (1) and (2) false.
19th and 20th - Monday May 5
We finished discussing Grice and began summarizing our coverage of ordinary-language philosophy.
Reminder: papers due Wed., participation logs Friday.
For Tues: read pp. 498-502.
Phil & World Religions - Monday May 5
We finished our discussion of miracles and started talking about religious and mystical experience.
I handed out a study guide for the final.
Reminder: participation logs due on Friday
For Wed.: read Chapter 5.
May 04, 2008
Logic - Friday May 2
We talked about how to symbolize sentences involving definite descriptions and discussed some important properties of relations.
There was a quiz at the end of class.
19th and 20th - Fri May 2
We discussed the views of J. L. Austin and Paul Grice.
There was a quiz at the end of class.
For Mon.: read pp. 488-498
Phil & World Religions - Fri May 2
We began talking about miracles and the modern world view.
There was a quiz at the end of class.
For Mon.: Finish Rowe, Chapter 8
May 01, 2008
Logic - Wed Apr 30
We worked on symbolizing sentences involving identity.
For Fri.: read pp. 291-294
Socratic Society tonight
UMD Philosophy alumnus Luke Donahue will present on the Monty Hall
Problem. Socratic Society meets at 7:30, Thursday, in Kirby 355.
[As I (Cole) understand it, the "Monty Hall Problem", strangely
enough, stems from a daytime tv game show. The contestant has to
choose between three doors, one of which has the grand prize behind
it. After the choice, host Monty Hall reveals what is behind one of
the other doors, it is never the grand prize. MH then allows the
contestant to switch his/her choice between the two remaining closed
doors. Should the contestant switch his/her choice? There is an
alleged proof that one should.
Luke Donahue (no doubt now standing behind door number 2 to K355) will
prove otherwise! He describes the drama as follows:]
Critique of the Monty Hall Problem
presented by Luke Donahue
First, I will be giving a history of the Monty Hall problem and giving
examples of use of the problem in popular culture. Then, I will
present the problem and the classical answer. Following this, I will
provide two objections to the problem and assess those objections.