Philosophy Club: Update

Daniella, president,
Leo vice-president,
Yaney and Florencia, secretaries.

Congratulations!

Now, you should meet one another. Make some flyers and planning for your first meeting.

The mind or the body?

What do you value more, the mind or the body?

Well, my question is loaded. And Descartes is to blame. Why not seeking a balance between the two?  Here is a nice advice from philosopher/boxer Gordon Marino, professor of Philosophy at St. Olaff College, in a recent piece in the New York Times:

Western philosophy, even before Descartes’ influential case for a mind-body dualism, has been dismissive of the body. Plato — even though he competed as a wrestler — and most of the sages who followed him, taught us to think of our arms and legs as nothing but a poor carriage for the mind. In “Phaedo,” Plato presents his teacher Socrates on his deathbed as a sort of Mr. Spock yearning to be free from the shackles of the flesh so he can really begin thinking seriously. In this account, the body gives rise to desires that will not listen to reason and that becloud our ability to think clearly.

In defense of his hobby, he explains:

And let’s be clear, life is filled with blows. It requires toughness and resiliency. There are few better places than the squared circle to receive concentrated lessons in the dire need to be able to absorb punishment and carry on, “to get off the canvas” and “roll with the punches.” It is little wonder that boxing, more than any other sport, has functioned as a metaphor for life. Aside from the possibilities for self-fulfillment, boxing can also contribute to our moral lives.

(This post is not for comment).

Did you know that the meat you eat contains antibiotics?

From the NYTimes:

Dispensing antibiotics to healthy animals is routine on the large, concentrated farms that now dominate American agriculture. But the practice is increasingly condemned by medical experts who say it contributes to a growing scourge of modern medicine: the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including dangerous E. coli strains that account for millions of bladder infections each year, as well as resistant types of salmonella and other microbes.

Why?

As drug-resistant strains of microbes evolve on the farms, they are passed along in meat sold in grocery stores. They can infect people as they handle the uncooked product or when eating, if cooking is not thorough. The dangerous strains can also enter the environment via manure or the clothes of farm workers.

We have a philosophy club going!

 Click here and learn the details.

T 5:40pm

T,R 11:15am

M,W,F 11am

M,W,F 10am

M,W,F 9am

M,W,F 8am

Animals and extintion

I don't think it makes sense to talk about moral values to apply exclusively to humans when the planet is in danger! Here is a list of UN endangered species. How about the tuna?

Here a Times gallery on 10 species near extintion.

I'll close these posts next Wednesday, 10pm.

PHI 2010 T 5:40-8:10pm

PHI 2010 T,R 11:15-12:30pm

PHI 2010 M,W,F, 11-11:50am

PHI 2010 M,W,F, 10-10:50am

PHI 2010 M,W,F, 9-9:50am

PHI 2010 M,W,F, 8-8:50am

Women's untold suffering

Evil has a face: gang-rape in Congo

From the NYTimes: "A mob of Rwandan rebels gang-raped at least 179 women last month during a weekend raid on a community of villages in eastern Congo, the United Nations said Monday." The news has been confirmed here and here.*

Evil has a face: man-against-woman brutality, a new weapon of fear. Gang rape is meant to inflict physical and emotional pain and trauma. After a woman is raped numerous times she is tortured. Many are shot in the vagina or penetrated with a machete, sticks, bees, etc (listen to the testimonies in the video).

Women who are raped suffer physical ailments such as bleeding, infection, nausea, sleep and eating disorders, and sexual dysfunction; posttraumatic stress disorder, including nightmares, depression, and paranoia; feelings of fear, anger, helplessness, vulnerability, guilt, self-blame, anxiety, low self esteem, and a deep suspicion of men and sex, which only feeds the sexual myths about women cited above.

In Congo's 10 year civil war, raping has become a prize because it delivers a strategic victory: Safe and soft. Safe, because the raping of women can hardly be compared with face-to-face combat. "Soft" in that there is a perverse pleasure involved; the body of a woman reduced to loot.

Is this appalling violence just about war? How can the identity of a woman become so objectified?

Because rape is considered to bring dishonor to a woman's family and community, there is a culture of silence which aggravates the problem. Humiliation and intimidation of victims by the police, as well as the "embarrassment" of public acknowledgment is common. The culture of silence reinforces the stigma already attached to the victim rather than to the perpetrator, as the dominant perception is that women have generally provoked the abuser to attack. Consequently, many victims are often unwilling to testify about their experiences.** So we get a bizarre combination of a society that stigmatizes rape while harboring rapists.

Can we talk about man's "violence" as a form of cultural perversion? 

We know that the enforcement of violent masculinities come in many forms, their lowest common denominator equates "manliness" with the sanctioned use of aggression, force and violence. This  "manliness" often needs to be renegotiated through the violent subjugation of others, particularly women. So, the question is whether this stereotype of "manliness" actually serves an exploitative

Now, what are your thoughts?

________
*Congo is not alone. Gang-rape has spread to other war-conflict zones in Africa. In Nigeria, rape has become alarming. Rape is used by the police as intimidation. Yet, the authorities pay no attention to these crimes, even when photos of the assaults are shown in a national newspaper, and victims' interviews are broadcast on national television (Akande et al 2005; Amnesty International 2006). In Darfur, Sudan the United Nations has since accused the Janjaweed-Arab militiamen -of abducting and gang-raping thousands of women and girls (Mariner 2004). It is estimated that a third of all women and girls in Sierra Leone were subjected to sexual violence in the Sierra Leone conflict of 1991 and 2002. **The raped woman ends up paying the violence inflicted on her by the abuser, who walks away unharmed. In the end, we get this perverse unending cycle: It's precisely because of rape is such a cultural stigma for a woman that it's used so effectively. Peace woman promotes

Salmonella, eggs and philosophy

Something as simple as eggs reveals a whole socio-economic -and political- structure. From the New York Times:

A half billion eggs have been recalled for possible salmonella infection, but the cause of the problem, at two giant farms in Iowa, has not yet been pinpointed, said Margaret Hamburg, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. Many poultry experts suspect that rodents infected with salmonella got into the chicken feed because the infection seems to be inside the eggs.

Isn't the salmonella just a sign of a way of doing business in America?  This is not only about food safety, it is about the sheer size of these Iowa egg-farms. See that only a couple of Iowa producers are involved in the recall of more than 500 million eggs!
(This is not a post for comment).

Become a google friend!

Become a friend of PHI 2010! All you have to do is get an gmail account and add our site.

Hasta pronto...

It was a pleasure to have you in my class. Good luck!

Summer B (M,W,F, 10:25am) Topics for Review, Final Exam

For Topics for Review, Final Exam (Summer B), M,W,F, 10:25am, please, click here. I'll leave the post open for comments, suggestions, questions, etc.

Frankfurt "on bullshit"

PHI 2010 M,W,F, 10:25am class (summer B)

PHI 2010 T,R 9:50am class

Topics for second exam M,W,F, 10:25am

Chapter 2 (Philosophy of Mind)

2.2
Descartes's Dualism: Mind = a non-physical thinking substance.

Logical Behaviorism: MS ---> (where BhS are behavioral  dispositions; BhS are, the ability to act in certain ways to certain stimuli ). C/E "Perfect pretender", "Super Spartans." Qualitative content (qualia = the unique feeling of our mental states).Identity Theory: MS ---> BrS, where BrS is the passing of electro/chemical signals from cell to cell. C/E "Nagel's Bat." (You must be able to tell the counterexamples and derive conclusions).

2.3
Functionalism: MS ---> FS. According to functionalism, to have a mind is to have the ability to perform certain functions. C/E "Putnam's inverted spectrum."Turing Test for Intelligence: C/E Searle's Chinese Room.Intentionality
 
2.5 
Property Dualism, Primitive Property (intentionality as a primitive property).Emergent Property and Downward Causation.

Chapter 3
 
3.1
Causal Determinism: (every effect has a cause that makes it happen) and Hard determinism (there is no free will): An argument to problematize HD is the idea of "Human responsibility, " i.e., if we are not free, we cannot be responsible for our actions, (one is responsible if and only if one can make the choice). 

3.2
Traditional Compatibilism: The view that we will actions from the inside, provided that we are not externally constrained. C/E "Taylor's Ingenious Physiologist. A good example of the ingenious physiologist is TV. Problem: How about being "internally" constrained? What Taylor example shows is that one can will from the inside and still have internal constraints. Ex: gambling.
"Hierarchical Compatibilism: First and Second Order Desires; Second Order Volitions. Remember: A first order desire is directed to an object or state of affairs, a second order desire is a desire about a desire, a second order volition is a second order desire one decisely acts upon. Harry Frankfurt's three drug addicts: 
(Let's call a first order desire: FOD, a second order desire: SOD, a second order volition: SOV) 
Wanton addict: FOD, not SOD, not SOV, not free. 
Happy Addict: FOD, SOD, SOV, free.
Unwilling Addict: FOD, SOD (only this desire is against his taking the drug, not SOV, not free).

3.3
Libertarianism
Event and Agent Causation. E-C: An event causes an event. A-C: An agent causes an event. Libertarianism holds that one is responsible for one's action only if one does it (caveat: one has to act on one's own desire). If the desire is not yours, you're not responsible, ex. one's desire to surrender one's money at gunpoint.

Radical Libertarianism (Existentialism): Jean-Paul Sartre's kind of libertarianism (known as Existentialism) holds that the self is essentially free. What we do, how we act in our life is what determines what and who we are. In order not to deal with the weight of our own FREEDOM, we create fictitious excuses or "bad faith". We're always responsible for our actions, because even when we think we don't choose, we choose. The only possible constraint is our facticity (the stuff we don't choose, like being born and having a certain name and parents).

Stoning women in Iran?

Yes, the practice continues in Iran. The reason? Sakineh had an "illicit relationship," even though she was a widow at the time of the alleged affair. Ashtiani has already endured 99 lashes and -obviously- a confession(?). What place has a government of Iran stoning women for "supposed" adultery? The reason for the punishment is feeble, the punishment itself is barbaric.

Let's sign the petition to free Sakineh! 

In Iran, male victims of execution by stoning are first buried up to their waists, then pelted with stones by a crowd of executioners. Women are normally buried up to their necks. The stones used are large enough to cause serious injury but not kill the person, and the victim often dies slowly and painfully (At least 126 executions have been carried out in Iran this year, according to Amnesty International).

A Yoga (Socio-Political) Manifesto

aTrifF 

Nature should have priority.¹ It's here first and sustains everything.

The guiding principle is ahimsa. Non-violence translated into deep & skeptic ecology, i.e, the interdependence of human and non-human life in a world out of joint. We cannot understand ourselves if we estrange ourselves from nature, but we're already estranged!   

Socio-political starts bottom-up not top-down.² We don't need to wait for the top to change. As real actors, close to the local/regional nodes of action, we can acquire the know-how to build connections and mobilize public opinion to challenge institutional and social alienation.

* From the bottom ---> up: The initial transformation is individual but it doesn't stop there. We are ONE: There is no true path without dharma/activism.³

* The aporia of human anthropocentric emancipation: We need to see non-human life under a different optic. The Greeks of ancient times didn't realize that non-Greeks were persons. American plantation owners in the late-18th Century didn't realize that blacks were not inferior brutes. The majority of Americans don't realize that non-human animals are more than just foodstuff. We have an obligation to treat animals with dignity⁴ (animal farming in America needs to be transformed from intensive farming ----> extensive farming).

* The aporia of pollution vs. development: Blaming corporations in order to feel safely excluded from the pollution cycle while feeding the very thing we try to prevent. We are the world's worst polluters! ⁵

* Though it may be a little late, the move towards eco-conservation is a social imperative. Let's fight to stop deforestation, to protect sea life from extinction (due to overfishing), ensuring ecological diversity for future generations. Yes, it seems daunting, but it begins by understanding, doing & telling others.

* The aporia of technology vs. emancipation: What makes us human is a result of our cultural evolution: language, rituals, arts and technology. Yet, our anthropocentric-based culture is leading us to a dead end. Let's move from an anthropocentric to a bio-centric culture!⁶

We must learn to curb and manage our waste: Reuse, donate, recycle! The present corporate-driven/production-intensive food paradigm needs to be turned upside down, from fast food ----> slow food. ⁷ Let's switch our eating habits and bring back food sacralization. Let's turn environmental degradation and human exploitation into eco-erotics!⁸

* The aporia of development vs. under-development⁹: Our post-Capitalist global society is craft-deprived. Globalization has outsourced our manufacturing and trade/skills base. Let's get back to cooking, arts and crafts, organic horticulture,¹⁰ etc. We should balance our individualism with communitarianism!

Let's change our cities by fighting urban decay with environmental sustainability, changing ugliness into beauty.

Let's become eco-Romantics!¹¹ engaging in heritage conservation, infrastructure efficiency,  mass transit, regional integration, human scale, and institutional integrity.

Let's transform our neighborhoods by building sustainable structures, limiting urban sprawl, reducing car dependence, promoting pedestrian friendly urbanism.¹²

What to do? 

 anti-advertising, 

protest, 

social graffiti,
urban farming,

disvestment, 

Zenarchy, 

nonviolence, 

anarcho-syndicalism, 

building consensus,

civil disobedience,

E-democracy,

potlatch

ACT NOW!

____________

¹ Aristotle's naturalism can be seen as a forerunner of eco-thics, as expressed by his dictum that Nature "does nothing in vain." John Clearly, Aristotle and the Many Senses of Priority, (Southern Illinois University Press, 1988) p. 60. ² We don't have to choose between markets (Welfare Capitalism) or governments, as instruments of emancipation (Communism, planned-economy Socialism). Nor is there need to eliminate markets, trade, private ownership, the welfare state, or the institution of the corporation. What we need to do is bring about new practices for each of these institutions appropriate to a balance between prosperity and conservation. This task belongs neither to corporations nor to states: They are incapable of questioning the legitimacy on which their present institutional form is based. Citizens, not big-money interests, have to set the terms of the economic and political agenda. This is the force of emergence: Millions of people joining voluntary movements, discovering that the good life is more fulfilling than the endless cycle of accumulation and consumption. Professor Steven Buechler makes a similar (hopeful) point: "Movements can be crucial switching stations in the direction of history (...)  vital free spaces that promote democratization and restore a meaningful public sphere." See Steven M. Buechler, Social Movements in Advanced Capitalism: The Political Economy and Cultural Construction of Social Activism (Oxford University Press: 2000) p. 214.  Enacting Niyama at the social level can bring about a life of material sufficiency with cultural, intellectual, and spiritual abundance in balance with the environment. By osmosis, the social level can bring about needed changes in the political sphere. ³ One's embeddedness in a particular context: job, household/family, or community can lead one to recognize a problem, learn about community needs, and find a way to make life better through new -or reconfigured- social linkages.  ⁴According to philosopher Tom Regan, animals have "inherent value" as subjects-of-a-life, and cannot be regarded as a means to an end. See, Tom Regan, The Case for Animal Rights, (University of California Berkeley, 2005) p. 245. ⁵The United States has 4.2% of the world's population and produces 24% of the world's C0₂ emissions. ⁶One must be careful not to write off culture, as if humans have fallen from paradise straight into some artificial exile of civilization. This is where the ancient Greeks can help. They understood that us humans are not completely "natural" but rather the site of a collision of nature and culture, which uniquely defines us. See Bruce Thornton, Plagues of the Mind: The New Epidemic of False Knowledge (ISI Books, 1999) p. 96.  ⁷ "Slow food" goes against the received notion that cheap food = good food. Carlo Petrini, the man behind this movement defends the "unpolitical" idea that cheap food is really expensive, bad food, when compared with good, clean, carefully harvested food. He is right. In his book, Petrini advocates the idea of "gusto" (taste) and diversity. There is a correlation between slow food and health, which makes slow food more enjoyable. The locus for this revolucion is la osteria, a place where one can find "traditional cuisine run as a family business with simple service, welcoming atmosphere, good wine and moderate prices." See Carlo Petrini, Slow Food, the Case for Taste (Columbia University Press, 2003) p. 51-58. "Cheap food" is a Capitalist ploy to misrepresent real capital allocation and profit in the name of "abundance," hiding government subsidies for monoculture and intensive production which end up as profit for Big Business in food and energy. Take for instance American corn policies: We subsidize corn while (protect Monsanto's right to sell it to farmers as genetically modified seed). Coincidentally, corn is the foodstuff staple for raising cattle in the US (funded by whom?) and an energy commodity. Wonder why such a labor-intensive commodity such as meat is so cheap? Corn is heavily fertilized — both with chemicals like nitrogen and with subsidies from Washington. Over the past decade, the Federal Government has poured more than $50 billion into the corn industry, keeping prices for the crop — at least until corn ethanol skewed the market — artificially low. That's your Big Mac @ McDonald's, a $5 meal bargain, with 1,400 calories (more than half the daily recommended requirement for adults). ⁸ I thank my friend Gene Ray from Scurvy Tunes, for his suggestion. I'd like to spin his idea of eco/erotics as an embodied striving for well-being that connects us with the animal and non-animal other (life). The opposite of eco/erotics is eros gone astray, a perversion of Nishkam Karma. A desire in the form of a will-to-control that aims to secure itself by mastering all around it. Ridden with anxiety, this eros reduces other to self. In fact, there are examples of such versions in modern times: Certain "peak" historic moments, when factors motivating nations and individuals, such as the desires for profit, security, and hegemony got transformed militaristic erotics. ⁹ It turns out that the mantra of "emancipated" Communist development in Eastern Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean throughout the 1960's-1980's consisted in mimicking the Capitalist "anthropocentric development" model: 1- constant growth, 2- domination of nature, 3- industrialization and technologization of production and society at the expense of environmental degradation, abandonment of agriculture (land reform in this case meant very little, since arbitrary and exploitative prices were set by the bureaucrats, not by the farmers), massive migration to the cities, urban unemployment and loss of crafts skills. The deterioration of nature brought by these mistaken policies, was invoked by the communist  bureaucracies as a step in the right direction for the attainment of development. ¹⁰ Who would think of pursuing horticultural studies in Miami, now, when the expected move of disenfranchised farmers is from the rural areas to the city? Precisely! This overall migration has to do with the switch from farmer-produced to corporate-produced agriculture. How can one reverse it? By encouraging simple living. Diversifying instead of homogenizing food consumption; by making good, simple food (not gourmet food) a desired commodity, so that corporations are forced to alter their mode of production. Surely, one must be watchful of corporation's good intentions! It's all about awareness: As we become more educated in our food habits, there is gradual a move from agriculture into crafted horticulture. Are people ready for it? After the subprime mortgage crisis, the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster, and BP's gulf disaster, the answer is yes. ¹¹ The new eco-Romantic is committed to ecological flourishing, but she is neither anti-technology, nor naive in her political expectations about Messianic utopias. The traditional Romantic lived in a paradox he was blind to. (H)e deprecated technology from his studio in the industrial-brought comfort of the pre-Modern city. We must see the good and bad in technology. The Industrial Revolution cannot be simply undone (the remedy would be worst than the disease). It needs to be transformed. Technology can serve us in using the ecosystem resources more efficiently. On the other hand, there is a strong historical relationship between growth in economic output and growing human demands on the earth's finite ecosystem. We've pushed since 1950's the human burden on the planet's regenerative systems, its soils, air, water, fisheries, and forestry systems beyond what the planet can sustain. Anthropocentric "development" is not the answer. Pushing for economic growth beyond the planet's sustainable limits accelerates the rate of breakdown of the whole. It also intensifies the competition between rich and poor for the earth's remaining output of life-sustaining resources. ¹² See my  "Miami's Urban Mess."