Bubble gum

Pizza

Lost dogs

Riding a horse

Living out of a suitcase

Souvenir shops

Moving

The thing I’ve lost from my youth

Visiting well off relatives

All these sculptures on campus

Here are the prompts for tomorrows opening exercise: Download file

In Bly -- borrowed copies or copy on reserve in the library, read intro and pages 1- 47.

Make sure you are clear about these matters:

a. What does Bly think about he view that there are natural leaders and natural followers? What alternative idea does she offer?
b. What is the point of the story about the Airedale in the introduction to the book, and how does this story predict the overall attitude that Bly will take to serious social problems?
c. There are many different points one might get out of the essay “Death Games.� What is Bly’s main interest in this essay?
d. What does Bly mean by “partializing?� What good does this kind of conversation do for people?
e. What does Bly mean by “cultural abuse?� Why is the pastor’s comment, reported on page 33, an example of cultural abuse?
f. What does Bly mean by a “toady?�

Review my notes on the "How Shall We Live?" section. Download file

Read through the beatitudes and think a bit about its relation to the questions about the best human life -- the dialogue with Aristotle -- which were subject of the last class. Think about where Jesus is positioned in this debate.

The Plotinus is very rich and very fine, and we have to skip it if we are to have any decent time for epistemology.

Please read the Laches selection in the section on Knowledge and be able to reconstruct the twists and turns of Socrates' questioning, the flaws of the various definitions presented. Here are some notes: Download file
Think about the questions that Annas asks about this dialogue.

Here is the next response paper assignment: Download file

Here is Thursday's quiz, with the answers in bold: Download file

Begin your work with Kant by learning something about his life, at this link: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-development/

Here are notes on the Kant reading: Download file. Please print them out and follow them closely. They are intended to help you not hate Kant.
Take his stuff slow and easy, and don't get off the path.

There will be a quiz on Tuesday, addressing just those points emphasized in the notes.

For next week, please read pages 319 - 338 in Annas. Be ready for a quiz addressing these matters:

1. How does Aristotle organize the various kinds of advice about how to live? (sections 1,2)

2. What major opinions does Aristotle survey regarding the highest human good? (section 4) What arguments does he give against each candidate? (section 5)

3. What reasons does Aristotle give for taking happiness to be the human good? (section 7)

4. Why is it important to Aristotle to determine the human function? (7) What is his final view of the function of human beings, and how does he argue that that is the function of human beings?

5. How far does Aristotle go in agreeing with common views about the human good? How does he correct or modify those views? (8)

6. On what points do the Stoics disagree with Aristotle?

Here is the Jackson quiz: Download file

In the next part of the course, we will think about some practical initiatives that respond to some of the challenges presented by reading in the first half of the course. We will ask how these initiative help with the problems and the basic tasks that our authors have identified.

The topic for next week is “Philosophy for Children.� Over the next three days, please go to the library reserve secion) and read the first 66 pages of Gareth Matthews’ Philosophy and the Young Child. (Note: these are very small pages, with lots of examples. There are several copies on reserve. ) Also read the selection from Matthews in the Cahn text, pages 477-487. Finally, look at my piece on Margaret Wise Brown at: http://blog.lib.umn.edu/shea0017/philosophy/mwbfinal.htm.

Be ready for a quiz addressing these issues:

1. What does Matthews think a philosophic problem or question is like? How is it different from other kinds of questions? (Chapter 1)
2. In chapters 1, 2 and 3 of his book, Matthews shows respect for the comments of young children by explaining the philosophical strategies, concepts and problems that they raise. Be ready to identify the children’s version of these notions: the problem of induction (pages 3, 4); sense-datum view (5); the logic of relative terms (13); asteismus (14,15); purposive accounts of things (19); maximizing (29); empty names (31).
3. In chapters 4, Matthews criticizes Piaget’s view of the intellectual development of the child. What is that view, as Matthews summarizes it, and at what points does Matthews disagree? What reasons does he give for disagreeing?
4. In his article in the Cahn anthology, Matthews criticizes Kohlerg’s view of the moral development of the child. What is that view, as Matthews summarizes it, and at what points does Matthews disagree? What reasons does he give for disagreeing.
5. In Philosophy and the Young Child, chapter 5, Matthews illustrates how simple children’s books raise philosophic problems. Be able to identify some of the problems raised in these books: The Bear that Wasn’t, Many Moons, Winnie the Pooh, and Frog and Toad Together.
6. What two basic intentions does Margaret Wise Brown state as the guiding principles of her writing? What is my general thesis about the philosophic usefulness of her work? How do The Important Book, The Noisy Books, and The Dead Bird illustrate her basic approach to writing? How is her work related to the philosophy of the Bank Street School?

I handed out a revised calendar on Thursday; here's the new calendar: Download file

I did a lecture surveying some points from the "Nature and Convention" section of Annas. I hope to fill these out in writing soon. In the meantime, here is the outline: Download file

There's a revised course calendar: Download file

For Thursday, please read in the Mill anthology: the first two chapters of Utilitarianism, from 233-260. Please check the blog again on Monday. I hope to have some notes ready then to guide our discussion of this material. Also please read the sections on Mill's life, on utilitarianism and on Mill's social and political philosophy in the Mill article from the Stanford Encyclopedia. Here is the address: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mill/

I have revised the calendar. Here is the new version: Download file

At class on Thursday, each person was given a book or a movie to look at over the break. The assignment is to introduce this item to the class next Thursday by discussing its relevance to themes developed in this course so far and to the general topic: "School and Society." You will each have about five minutes; please do a couple of paragraphs as the basis of your discussion and hand those in at the end of class. Those who were not in class on Thursday will have a chance to select an item and report on the following Tuesday.

Some notes on this project:

1. Books and movies are often attempts to teach, and that is one way to understand how they relate to the course. One might think of Bird by Bird and The Important Book primarily in this connection, and consider the ways that they carry forward educational projects suggested or endorsed by Dewey or Freire or Horton.

2. Books and movies sometimes portray aspects of current educational practice and ideology in a critical way. One might connect such portrayals to criticisms we have encountered. The Child Buyer is an example of this kind of portrait.

3. Books and movies portray teaching or education in the broad sense we have come to understand after reading The Higher Power of Lucky. We see people trying to build attitudes and capacities in other human beings, to open up -- or close down -- possibilities for them. One might think particularly of A Thousand Clowns in this connection.

4. Some books make straightforward recommendations about teaching, related in interesting and complex ways to the suggestions we have encountered so far. Philosophy and the Young Child is an example of this kind of discussion.

5. Some works of art portray a social fact that is in need of educational attention: either ideals to be cultivated or human dead ends, warnings about the products of bad education. One might look at Remains of the Day with this idea in mind.

6. Some works of art say something about the point or task of human life. Any such work sets a challenge before the educator: to craft experiences that help people to accomplish the task that life presents them. This might be a helpful starting point for looking at Defending Your Life, for example.

The works you have selected are rich, and many of them can be approached from several different perspectives. Your introduction should help others in the class decide whether they want to check out your book or movie, out of general interest, or as a way to think about the material we have been discussing.