Plagiarism & how to fight it (read carefully)

In order to finish your assignment quickly, you may feel tempted to just copy and paste info. It's so obvious; just underline the paragraph, copy and paste it. DON'T!

I will detect the copy and edited text and send it back immediately along with a warning. Save yourself the embarrassment.

How do I know it's not yours? It's a matter of style. Your writing (as good or bad as it may be) has a specific flavor. Writing reflects the way you think and talk, which is a well-known aspect of how syntax relates to semantics.  When one inserts notes and paragraphs here and there, even a not-so-clever writer is able to detect the disparateness within the whole thing. There is a new field of semiotics in plagiarism. 😂 

What is plagiarism? Using ideas, words, or a product without crediting the original source.
Passing off someone else's ideas, words, or product as your own.
Presenting as a new idea or product created by someone else.

More bluntly? Plagiarism is conceptual theft and goes against the US Copyright law and the USFSP Code of Conduct.

How can you avoid plagiarism? Just cite where you got your information.

As you research, keep track of the books, articles, and other resources you consult WHILE you do your research. This will save you time from having to track down where you originally found your information for your Reference List. For each source, keep a list of the following information:

For a Book
Author, Book Title, Place of Publication, Publisher, and Date of Publication 

For an Article
Author, Article Title, Journal Title, Volume Number, Issue Number, Page Numbers, Year of Publication, and the date of when you viewed the article

For a Webpage
Author, Web Page Title, the URL (website address), and the Date (when you viewed the webpage).

mathematics and evolution working together

click this link for more information.

topics for midterm exam (Summer A)

Click here for the topics to the midterm exam.

Click here for a link to your textbook's tests and notes. 

Remember to bring your own scantrons (and a pencil) to our test.  

To all my Student Assistants for Tuesday and Thursday classes: Is there a possibility to coordinate a review for our Midterm coming up next Tuesday?

Triff Office Hours (room 3604-28)

M,W,F, 7:50am-10:20am
T,R, 7:50-9:40am

homework, chapter 3 (summer A)

Homework 1

1. what is ethics?
2. are there moral values? where do moral values come from? click here for triff's lecture on moral judgments, 
3. what's overridingness?
4. what do moral theories explain?

5. what is the difference between moral absolutism and moral objectivism?
6. what is moral relativism?
7. explain the difference between subjective relativism and cultural relativism.

Homework 2

1. explain the difference between act and rule utilitarianism (target your answer in following the example of the terminally ill woman on p. 156).
2. jeremy bentham and john stuart mill have different views on the nature of happiness. explain.
3. read the death penalty example on page 160 (between retentionists and abolitionists). the discussion pivots on utilitarianism.
4. answer questions 1-5 from section 3.3 p. 169

Homework 3

1. Define pertect and imperfect duties.
2. What is Kant's Categorical Imperative?
3. Explain Kant's Second Formulation

Homework 4,
1. What is virtue according to Aristotle?

Topics for Exam #1 (SUMMER A)

Find the topics here.

Also here's a link to your Doing Philosophy textbook.  
Click the different chapters, then on the left hand side click the corresponding sections. There are True/False and Multiple Choice Questions. Test yourself.

You should bring your own scantrons: #888-P or #882-E

what to do with EROS?

click here for a triffean perspective,

Review for Final Exam (open to all classes)

You already know hoe important it is to get a help from a SA. Well, Rohama Bruk (T,R 11:15am class) will be at the Learning Spot, next Tuesday May 1st, from 2-5pm reviewing paper assignments. 

In addition she is conducting a final review on Wednesday, May 2nd, from 11-12:30pm, at the same place. Don't miss it. 

Thank you Rohanna!

W D Ross pluralistic formalism

click here for more information,

Triff's Hollandaise

from philosophy to cuisine: here's my Hollandaise.

draft's second revision

click here for more information,

my notes to utilitarianism

click here for more information,

final exam schedule (all classes)

honors 10am, may 2
honors 11am, may 4
honors, interamerican, may 2
t,r 8:25am, may 3
t,r 11:15am, may 3
t 5:40pm, may 1

happiness is a warm gun (with a help from math)

click here for my mathematical definition of happiness,

how to talk about the philosophy of mathematics

this is a foundational book on the philosophy of mathematics.

my notes to 5.1 and 5.2

click here to find my counter to cultural relativism, (with a little help from abstract algebra)

click here to find some notes to section 5.2,

here are my ten cents of why #31 in our last test is not obscure

click here for more information,

is there moral knowledge? (for emily, anthony, evan and abraham)

click here for more information,

men's infidelity

we're talking about this in class. click here for more information.

sartre's lemma and the constitution of the self

click here for more information.

I'm the best! (and you too)

I'm a self-centered pluralist. It means I'm the best.

I'm also an ethnocentric pluralist. It means my people (Lebanese, and more particularly Maronite Lebanese) are the best.  

Now, very important: My being the best does not exclude many other bests.

Here's the definition for "best" from the dictionary: One that surpasses all others.

Ok, now "surpasses all others" needs to be qualified. 

In what respect I surpass all others? 

I surpass all others precisely in my being this particular individual that I am. All the notes that make me myself.

Say, temporal notes (about the time I've lived so far), character notes (character is the set of all consensual behaviors of witnesses about me), psychological notes (memories, desires, hopes, etc),
physical notes (gender, sex, race, endurance, etc), behavioral notes (what I do in the world), skill notes (what I'm good at), etc. You get the idea. 

The same with you, with similar results.

Suppose you retort: well, you're not a better cook than Daniel Boulud, are you? So how could you be best? I'm not saying being best chef, nor the best French chef, which means being best in all possible French-chef notes. Boulud (whom I admire) is the best French chef I know, but not the best Chinese chef, nor the best Mexican Chef, and so on.

Best is not an unqualified universal category. 

"Best" is more a regional category, otherwise there's no way to even know what's best. As when I say: 

"John (my mechanic) this is the best SAAB mechanic in Coral Gables." I don't doubt there are better mechanics than John in Miami.   

"Best" is function of all the notes that make a respective particular.

f(ni) = p

Why is this good? Because without a balanced sense of SELF & community one is more prone to be dispossessed.

topics for review for chapter 4 (MINITERM)

find the topics for review for Exam #3 (Chapter 4) here. 
here is the link to your textbook.

section 4.3 identity, character and moral responsibility

click here for more information,

section 4.3 identity, narrative and moral persons

click here for more information.

Elon Musk believes we live inside a simulation algorithm (so you don't think i'm the only cuckoo here)

it's known as the simulation hypothesis. 

here you have professor frenkel's version for the NYTimes (the mathematician i introduced you to, here) 

two well-known cases of DID

Kim Noble, with 100 personalities,

Karen Overhill and her 17 personalities, 

(psychological duplication) DID and how to treat it

DID and how to treat it, from Psychology Today. 

A good movie dealing with duplication: Identity, 2003. Click here for the trailer.

my lemma 4 u

this is my lemma 4 u. don't forget it.

race bias and social mobility in america

my ten cents to professor Ralph Richard Banks's valuable article in the New York Times.

professor ed frenkel discusses professor langland's contributions to mathematics

i know that some of the stuff we do in class is "out-there" and sometimes you resist it. well, here is a great russian mathematician, ed frenkel, from UC Berkley talking about professor langland's contributions to mathematics. check 7:30, when frenken presents the question: if there are aliens, would they use the same mathematics we use? or 10:48, where he hypothesizes how numbers are tied to our practical human tasks (supposing aliens had tasks). this is a great lecture for all of you, not only math enthusiasts! here is professor frenkel's personal website.