phi 2010 honors, 11am

this is the piece of news from tne NYTimes I discussed this morning,

Two women recently told The New York Times that Mr. Close had asked them to model naked for him, requests that made them feel exploited and uncomfortable. And on Tuesday, HuffPost published similar accounts from women, including one who described stripping in front of Mr. Close. HuffPost reported he then moved toward her in his wheelchair “so that his head was inches away from her vagina,” and said it “looks delicious.”

this is Close's side of the story:

“I’m inviting them to my studio to audition. I don’t have a camera there, so I have to see their bodies —it’s a very expensive process. I’ve never had a complaint in 50 years, not one.” “Last time I looked, discomfort was not a major offense (...) I never reduced anyone to tears, no one ever ran out of the place.

my response to this development is here. 
_________________________

also, found this interesting piece of news. 

what is it like to be a bee? (now that we're talking about animal knowledge)

what a handsome face!

we put all the pieces together and yet, it's quite difficult,

Triff's office hours (My office# is 3604-28)

M,W,F, 8-9:50am, F 12-1pm
T,R 7:50-8:10am
T 3:30-5:30pm

your education impasse (for all my classes)

dear student: you want to be educated. i know that. now, what's the your best education?

clearly not what you consider it to be right now. the reason is you're young & don't necessarily know what you may need in the future. & since this is your time to be educated take advantage of it!

i say your best education is the whole basic education you deserve for your future. & what's that? a minimum knowledge of the world, which includes theoretical and practical knowledge.

yes, there is theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge. i know many of you go for service-related professions (keep in mind that some of these professions may not be as well-paid as more technical ones, and they are less prestigious), but that's OK.

you want to be a mechanic? that's practical knowledge, god bless u! but don't neglect math or physics or chem or BIO, you actually need them for your mechanics! OR you want to be a lawyer and you are told lawyers don't need physics, or BIO, or chemistry? it turns you're not only a lawyer, you'll be a father, telling your daughter about physics or BIO chemistry or an brother, stimulating your young sister to go for BioChem.

imagine the following pathetic exchange:

"dad, what is physics?" "don't know bb. daddy is a lawyer. he doesn't need physics for his profession."

LQQD

Phi 2010 Syllabus (T, 5:40pm class MINITERM)

Click here for the syllabus.

why do you need physics? look what you are missing!! (for my T,R classes)

plus this one,

chapter 6 homework (mondays 5:40pm class)

what is...?


1. idealism, 2. skepticism, 3. rationalism, a) a priori knowledge , b) a posteriori knowledge,
4. what are plato's forms? 5. rationalism, 6. empiricism, 7. subjective idealism.


briefly explain:

8. Descartes' rationalist method.
9. Hume's skepticism.
10. Locke's empiricism. 
11. Berkeley's empiricism.
12. Kant's subjective idealism.

a little example of axiology in action (for my interamerican honors class)

let's examine 4 possibilities:

A study and fail the test. Duty-bounded, we learn what's needed to pass the test) 1- because it's good to pass it (definitely better than failing) 2- because it proves something about oneself, i.e., resilience (a character trait).

B not study and pass the test. This is chancy, but the problem is that the world being neutral, hold unknown chances for and against you (more against oneself than for oneself, since we all die)

C not study and fail the test. Duty-bounded, we learn the importance of studying for passing a test (more expected than not in the world of probabilities), if not failing at least getting a low grade, otherwise 3.7gpa would be a breeze. 

D study and pass the test. Duty-fulfilled, one reaffirms a deontological lemma, i.e., "I must pass the test"). One learns from A2 that it's better to study and fail than to not study and fail. On learns a valuable lesson:

duty is independent of gain or loss.

a cool presentation of modal logic (for you logicians)

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~tom7/talks/modal-logic6.swf

without previous knowledge it's kind of difficult, but it can excite your mind.

to my 11am Honors class

"This is the best of all possible worlds" Das ist die beste aller möglichen Welten,

Are you good with words? Are you an extrovert who never stops arguing? Do you wish to become a lawyer? Are you an activist waiting to happen? Well, if you are any of these things and/or more, send me an email, and we'll take it from there.

MDC Wolfson Philosophy Club is an organization for students to meet and discuss the most important topics of our time. This is a student-driven effort. I'm only here in the capacity of a facilitator. 

God and ghosts...

to my 8:25 am class, to discuss we need to define the terms we discuss.
this is the def. of ghost: the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that can appear to the living.
this is the def. of God: ... as described by theologians, God commonly includes the attributes of omniscience (all-knowing), omnipotence (unlimited power), omnipresence (present everywhere), divine simplicity, and as having an eternal and necessary existence.

all I was saying is that these are very different things. 

as per our discussion (Honors)

the french response to #metoo? #Balancetonporc

the french original here,

the english translation here,

remember this is a controversy from two subsets of the women club. us guys, we wait and see

Topics for Exam #1

Necessary and sufficient conditions

X is nec. for Y, when if Y cannot exist w/o X, or if X is not present, Y will not occur.

X is suff. for Y, when if X guarantees Y, or if every time X is present Y happens.

Deductive arguments: valid (if the conclusion necessarily follows from the premises); sound (a valid argument with true premises). REMEMBER: There are valid arguments which are unsound.

Inductive arguments: strong (an argument that would establish its conclusion with a high degree of probability if the premises were true).

click here for my lecture on values,

click here for a lecture on deductive and inductive arguments,

click here for my lecture on cause and effect,

click here for the list of fallacies you need to know,

Chapter 6 / Epistemology

a priori: Independent from experience. Ex: "All triangles have 3 sides," "A=A," "it either rains or it doesn't rain."

a posteriori: dependent from experience. Ex: "mammals are vertebrate animals," "water boils at
100 ⁰c," "men are mortal."

click here for epistemology's main characters,

click here for additional epistemic concepts,

click here for a brief history of epistemology,