OK, so the philosophy comic book is available online for only 99c an issue. Since we're now discussing ethics, how about we download it legally. (Not qua mere legality but qua virtue, because it is the best thing to do.)
Scroll to the bottom where it says "Digital Comics" and you can download them.
Recommended: Issue #1 (includes Plato), Issue #5 (includes Descartes), Issue #7 (includes Aristotle and the pre-Socratics)
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Monday, October 13, 2008
Class #8 Review and Reminders
Excellent questions today. We will use that format more in the future, I think.
IMPORTANT REVISION TO PAPER PROMPT:
In talking with you each individually, I've decided that I really don't see the point of section 3 of the prompt as currently phrased. So we will approach it somewhat differently. We will call section 3 "rhetoric" rather than "organization." Your concern in section 1 is where E is coming from, your concern in section 2 is what E says, in section 4 you can draw any number of comparisons between what he says and what one of the other speakers says, but your concern in section 3 is how he says what he says. Organization is one such how, but there could be others. Does he, for instance, make jokes like Aristophanes and Alcibiades? Does he hop up and down on one foot? Does he favor particular types of arguments over others. Etc.
REMINDERS:
-bring an unmarked copy of your essay to class
-read Guide 29-35 and do Descartes exercise, Ghandi exercise, and Turtle exercise
-Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics for Friday (Book I, Chapters 4, 5, 7, 8, and 13; Book II, Chapters 1, 5, 6, and 7; Book III, Chapters 6, 7, 8)
IMPORTANT REVISION TO PAPER PROMPT:
In talking with you each individually, I've decided that I really don't see the point of section 3 of the prompt as currently phrased. So we will approach it somewhat differently. We will call section 3 "rhetoric" rather than "organization." Your concern in section 1 is where E is coming from, your concern in section 2 is what E says, in section 4 you can draw any number of comparisons between what he says and what one of the other speakers says, but your concern in section 3 is how he says what he says. Organization is one such how, but there could be others. Does he, for instance, make jokes like Aristophanes and Alcibiades? Does he hop up and down on one foot? Does he favor particular types of arguments over others. Etc.
REMINDERS:
-bring an unmarked copy of your essay to class
-read Guide 29-35 and do Descartes exercise, Ghandi exercise, and Turtle exercise
-Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics for Friday (Book I, Chapters 4, 5, 7, 8, and 13; Book II, Chapters 1, 5, 6, and 7; Book III, Chapters 6, 7, 8)
Friday, October 10, 2008
Woof
This is today's quiz, in its ideal Platonic form. I rearranged/excerpted some of your answers.
Stupidocles:
"A 4-legged animal that barks." (Jie)
"A pet that barks and wags his tail." (Jessica)
"A dog is an animal that helps me hunt." (Monique)
"Everyone should own a dog." (Ivan)
Dogistotle:
"An animal created when a male and female dog mate." (Jeffrey)
"The result of breeding different types of wolves until we are eventually left with a trainable and obedient hybrid." (Stephanie)
Gorgias:
"A something." (Kate)
"A dog is your best friend! It scares cats and rats away from your house! You should get one!" (Wes)
"Would a child be happier with a dog? The answer is yes!" (Shae)
Xenocrates:
"A dog is not real, it comes from dogness" (Kiyomi)
"A dog is merely a copy of an ideal dog."
"Part of the idea of dogness." (Hannah)
Democritus:
"Fur, muscle, blood, etc."
"Something that is made of atomic matter." (Florence)
"Made up of matter like everything else in the world." (Leah)
Aristotle:
"An animal with four legs, two eyes, a nose, a mouth, and has fur. Can jump, run, eat, etc.
"A potentiality actualized by a soul." (Ariana)
"A living thing, which has a soul yet has no intellect or reason." (Jessica)
"Their noses have the cold and wet attribute." (Ivan)
"The soul of a dog cannot live without its body." (Rosemary)
Stupidocles:
"A 4-legged animal that barks." (Jie)
"A pet that barks and wags his tail." (Jessica)
"A dog is an animal that helps me hunt." (Monique)
"Everyone should own a dog." (Ivan)
Dogistotle:
"An animal created when a male and female dog mate." (Jeffrey)
"The result of breeding different types of wolves until we are eventually left with a trainable and obedient hybrid." (Stephanie)
Gorgias:
"A something." (Kate)
"A dog is your best friend! It scares cats and rats away from your house! You should get one!" (Wes)
"Would a child be happier with a dog? The answer is yes!" (Shae)
Xenocrates:
"A dog is not real, it comes from dogness" (Kiyomi)
"A dog is merely a copy of an ideal dog."
"Part of the idea of dogness." (Hannah)
Democritus:
"Fur, muscle, blood, etc."
"Something that is made of atomic matter." (Florence)
"Made up of matter like everything else in the world." (Leah)
Aristotle:
"An animal with four legs, two eyes, a nose, a mouth, and has fur. Can jump, run, eat, etc.
"A potentiality actualized by a soul." (Ariana)
"A living thing, which has a soul yet has no intellect or reason." (Jessica)
"Their noses have the cold and wet attribute." (Ivan)
"The soul of a dog cannot live without its body." (Rosemary)
More Aristotle
During the peripatetic phase of office hours, one of you (I think it was Kiyomi) was asking about how the soul/anima/psyche (English/Latin/Greek) was passed from an organism to its reproductive offspring. Aristotle thinks that a "seed," broadly conceived, contains the entire telos of an organism. An apple is potentially an entire apple tree, a sperm is potentially an entire human being, etc. This is consistent with the idea of soul/anima/psyche being a motivating purpose. The only difficulty comes when Aristotle speaks of the psyche being indivisible; how could it divide some small part of itself to actualize the seed and still itself be a whole? And how could the small part that provides the actuality of the seed then itself become a whole? Aristotle, being a good scientist, acknowledges that it does, and that reproduction is part of what psyches do. (You can see the seed of this idea, actually, in the Symposium... compare the bottom paragraph of pg. 171 of our Aristotle book.) A very simple version of the "reproduction" problem occurs with something like a cactus shoot, which is actually a part of an ensouled thing (a plant) that you cut off from the whole, but the whole goes on functioning and the part then becomes a whole (a plant). Again, this requires some elaboration on Aristotle's part. Read this passage from Parva Naturalia (Minor Essays on Nature) and see if you think he's being too tricky. I think what we should keep in mind is that the psyche isn't like a little speck that's somewhere inside an organism. It is the form and telos, the animating principle of all of its material. Using our biology, we might say that it's in every cell. So it makes sense that it would be somehow transferable if we can get around this part/whole problem. Indeed in De Anima II.5 (pg. 174) Aristotle even concludes that the ability to reproduce is what makes something psychic in the first place... if an apple tree's purpose is to be an apple tree, its purpose is to continue being an apple tree, and reproduction through seeds is part of its telos.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Qua
The best literal definition I've seen is "in the capacity of." It would also translate to "as." And I was wrong when I said it derives from "what" in Latin. It actually derives from "who." Here are some examples of its usage I found on the internets:
"It was qua poet that Byron resurrected the exploded and discarded immortal Christian soul by bodying it forth through the notion of soul conceived as poetic imagination."
"The President qua head of the party mediated the dispute."
"Their old standing friends, qua individuals and groups, have to unite and wage a worldwide campaign that should equal the protests that are being made against G8, WTO, IMF, and the World Bank."
"The self-perpetuating tendencies of educational institutions, qua institutions, should never go unchallenged when they perpetuate socially disputable functions."
"It was qua poet that Byron resurrected the exploded and discarded immortal Christian soul by bodying it forth through the notion of soul conceived as poetic imagination."
"The President qua head of the party mediated the dispute."
"Their old standing friends, qua individuals and groups, have to unite and wage a worldwide campaign that should equal the protests that are being made against G8, WTO, IMF, and the World Bank."
"The self-perpetuating tendencies of educational institutions, qua institutions, should never go unchallenged when they perpetuate socially disputable functions."
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Class #6 Review & Reminders
My wife is really sick, so I don't have much time to devote to the blog this afternoon. I hope between our class and Schwab's lecture you're a bit less intimidated by Aristotle. (Don't forget the forum Friday at 11:00 if you want to ask him a question.)
But... I encourage the groups who didn't have their question answered during class today to post it here, and I will reply later tonight or tomorrow morning.
And I definitely owe you guys a post about "qua."
REMINDERS
---------
-Read Course Guide 26-27
-Read On the Soul from start to finish
-Bring your Ideas Draft to class on Friday... we will be doing more writing exercises
But... I encourage the groups who didn't have their question answered during class today to post it here, and I will reply later tonight or tomorrow morning.
And I definitely owe you guys a post about "qua."
REMINDERS
---------
-Read Course Guide 26-27
-Read On the Soul from start to finish
-Bring your Ideas Draft to class on Friday... we will be doing more writing exercises
Monday, October 6, 2008
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