my notes to kantian ethics

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FINAL EXAMS SCHEDULE

MWF 10 am class: DEC 19
MWF 11 am class: DEC 21
TR 9:50am class:  DEC 18
TR 11:15am class: DEC 20
T 5:40pm class:     DEC 18

act and rule utilitarianism

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ethical egoism (pros and cons)

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SECOND DRAFT IN CLASS PEER REVIEW

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boyfriend and grilfriend discuss moral norms

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section 5.1 objectivism, subjectivism and relativism

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phi 2604 fall 2019 (final paper samples)

sample #1

sample #2

sample #3

shamanism & religion

why is the shaman so important?

the shaman brings three fundamental things to the group: healing, meaning & divination.

1. shamanism originated prior to the great human diaspora some 80,000 years ago and has been preserved since. shamanistic practices keep coming back countless times in premodern human cultures.

2. early homo sapiens does not differentiate between the material and mental. early homo sapiens was ANIMISTIC in its interpretation of reality. that is, to say, all objects, places and creatures possess a distinct spiritual essence. everything IS CONNECTED! 

3. the shaman is the interface between the spiritual and the material world.

shamanism works both mentally and physically as a source of meaning for the tribe. shamans are the early prophets, providing cohesion through spiritual awareness. 

shamans are the early doctors, early botanists, gathering medicinal knowledge and healing practices by natural selection. the shaman is the group's shrink! they knew the soil medicinal properties (what today is known as fangotherapy, i.e., clay, peat and mud), which are known to help neurological, rheumatological, cardiovascular, gynecological, inflammatory and menstrual cycle disorders.

WE NEED MEANING AND WE GIVE MEANING, but anthropologically speaking, OUR MEANINGS TEND TO CONVERGE!

WHY? one hypothesis proposed by Karl Jung is that culture's archetypes are innate, universal prototypes for concepts to interpret observations of the world.

MEANING is part epistemic, part psychological, part magic (magic in the sense of preternatural). WE INVEST the world with meaning as a way of creating and reshaping our milieu. 

4. shamans's job is to offer redemption. it means forgiveness and hope. why? we need to channel our destructive energy and the shaman and the elders are the right conduit.

5. one last point: the shaman is always in tension with the elders. the two have different interests: elders are conservative, they seek stability. the shaman is a healer/seer.

final paper (monday 5:40pm class) fall 2019

dear class: this paper takes the form of how phi 2604 has changed me

1. pick a chapter or topic you really like. it could be from anything we've discussed in class.
2. this is a personal exercise in the sense that this is you and philosophy.
3. bring your own personal history here: what this topic means for you, how has it made you think and changed your thinking, or even how much you disagreed only to agree with it later.
4. once you have gathered all this information, write a two moment description with you as the protagonist.

click here for samples of phi 2604 drafts,

this paper is due the date of the final exam, we'll talk next week about the format of it as well as refine ideas. Ok?     

Math haters, rewire your brains!

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what is character?

according to Aristotle, character is what you do. 

on the other hand, character is a process which emerges from the different notes of your personality. the sum of these behavioral notes are evaluated by witnesses in response to a diversity of relevant note-eliciting conditions.

1. it's clear that character happens in time. thus,

2.  you (the subject) cannot fully grasp your character, only behavioral notes apprehended by witness' testimonies of your character.

3. the person grasping these notes is a witness. you (the subject) and your witness belong in a context.

4. since contexts always change, different witnesses obtain different character notes.

Remember:

A person's character consists of traits (notes) in response to external stimuli. These notes are:

1- public, objective,
2- negotiable, based on stimulus response.
3- your character is different to different witnesses because of the specific contexts causing the different notes.
4- character may change, but since it reflects behavioral attitudes it changes very slowly.

SEEK TRANQUILITY

Z generation people are super angsty these days:

fear of uncertainty,
of war,
of climate change,
of economic crisis,
of being being stereotyped,
of your girlfriend (boyfriend) cheating,
of taking risks,

chances are you're a victim of CONFIRMATION BIAS. it happens this way: 1. you already presume there's pending doom. then, 2. you watch the news or talk to other millennials and 3. BINGO! your worst fears are confirmed!

heed the skeptic's advice: ATARAXIA. practice it and your preoccupations will vanish.

why is INNER PEACE so important? because you have more time and energy to focus on things that really matter TO YOU.

iF YOU'VE ALREADY HAD A MAKEUP IN MY OFFICE, DO NOT MISS THIS TEST

be advised that if you have had a makeup in my office and you happen to miss your test this week YOU WON'T BE GIVEN A CHANCE FOR A MAKEUP AND AUTOMATICALLY FAIL THE CLASS. this point is irrevocable!!

Aristotle's virtue morality

The main attraction of Aristotle’s ethics is the way it encourages human flourishing. 

Aristotle’s ethics is largely concerned with what promotes human flourishing and leads to a fuller and happier human life. 

The Greek word for happiness is eudaimonia, which can be translated as ‘‘flourishing’’ or ‘‘well-being.’’

Virtues are excellences of character that promote human flourishing. 
Vices are those weaknesses of character that impede flourishing.

Aristotle tells us that virtue is a disposition or habit. We are not born with virtues. They are not natural or inborn. Virtues are acquired through practice. 

A virtue is an admirable human quality, marked by a disposition to behave in certain ways in certain circumstances. 

Acting, feeling: Virtue is an admirable human quality. Yet, virtue is not simply a matter of acting in a particular way; it is also a question of feeling in certain ways. Virtue includes emotion as well as action. The compassionate person not only acts in certain ways that help alleviate the suffering of others but also has certain kinds of feelings toward their suffering. 

Intellectual and moral virtues: Intellectual virtues are dispositions, such as wisdom and understanding, which help discover truth. Moral virtues are dispositions such as courage, temperance, friendliness, justice, etc.

Intellectual virtues can be thought, moral virtues ARE NOT TAUGHT, they need to be practiced. They help us avoid moral problems but more importantly, they help our moral balance (since generally a poor action is a manifestation of defect or excess).

The highest good, the highest aim of all human practical thinking, is eudaimonia. This is what makes a virtuous character possible. Aristotle describes a sequence of necessary steps: 

1- Righteous actions (under the influence of teachers) allow the development of the right habits. see that a habit is the repetition of an action. 
2- Right habits allow the development of a good character in which the habits are automatic, and this in turn gives a chance of achieving eudaimonia. 

once again: one cannot have good character without good habits. to have good habits one has to repeat individual actions until they become automatic. ONLY THEN ONE CAN FEEL THE HABIT.


Theory of the GOLDEN MEAN (between excess and defect)

                                         defect          golden mean        excess 
fear and confidence     cowardice           courage            rashness
engagement                  apathy                gentleness        short temper
handling wealth            stinginess           generosity         extravagance
social conduct               grouchiness        friendly            flattery
conversation                 boorish                witty                 buffoonery
honesty                       self deprecation   truthfulness         boastful
self-expression              insensibility     self-control         debauchery

click here for my notes on character.

different types of causation (plus correlation not leading to causation)

Let's start with different possibilities of causation:

*A causes B (direct causation). 

The pool stick striking the billiard ball causing it to jump. 

*B causes A (reverse causation). 

The correlation between recreational drug use and psychiatric disorders. Perhaps the drugs cause the disorders, or else, people use drugs to self medicate for preexisting conditions, which brings causes the disorder. 

Children that watch a lot of TV are the most violent. Clearly, TV makes children more violent. 

This could easily be the other way round; that is, violent children like watching more TV than less violent ones!       

*A and B are consequences of a common cause, but do not cause each other. 

Example (from psychology): The relationship between anxiety and shyness shows a statistical value (strength of correlation) of +.59. Therefore, it may be concluded that shyness, causally speaking, influences anxiety.

Yet, there is a catch, the so-called "self-consciousness score", with a sharper correlation (+.73) where  shyness brings up a possible "third variable" known as "self-consciousness". So now we have shyness, anxiety and self-consciousness together. When three such closely related measures are found, it suggests that each may be a cluster of correlated values each influencing one another to some extent. 

So, the first conclusion above (in gray) is false.

*A and B both cause C, 

In the case of COVID 19, a person with a preexisting condition. John gets Covid, but he's 76 years old, and has a heart condition. 

Is COVID a direct cause of death? 

Before we answer let's keep in mind these 4 conditions: 

1. COVID must precede John's death (IT DOES), 

2. It's nearly impossible for COVID being there and John not dying (FALSE, John could survive the COVID and his existing heart failure and not die). At this point the answer is already NO, because we need the four conditions together, but revise the last two:

3. the cause must make a difference (IT DOES to some extent). 

4. there is no common cause (AND HERE THERE IS: the heart condition!). 

So, this shows clearly that COVID IS CANNOT BE THE DIRECT CAUSE OF DEATH.

 

*A causes B and B causes A (bidirectional or cyclic causation). 

In predator-prey relationship, predator numbers affect prey numbers, but prey numbers (i.e. food supply of predators) also affect predator numbers.

*A causes C which causes B (indirect causation); 

Ishmael hits Ahab with his car. Ahab is rushed to the hospital and is sent into surgery. During the course of the operation, the surgeon is careless and causes Ahab more injuries. 

*There is no connection between A and B (the correlation is a coincidence). 

See the two curves in the chart above (consumption of margarine and the divorce rate in Maine over 10-year period). As if Americans' fondness for margarine correlated with the divorce rate in Maine. This is an instance of two unrelated data sets showing a coincidental pattern.

* Confounding (in statistics:  A situation where one or more unrecognized variables (conditions or events) were responsible for some effect. This could give the faulty impression that the effect was due to something else. Confounding often occurs when researchers did not “control” for the possibility that other variables were or could be at work. 

Example:  The estimated risk ratio for CVD (cardiovascular diseases) in obese as compared to non-obese persons is RR = 0.153/0.86 = 1.79, suggesting that obese persons are 1.79 times as likely to develop CVD compared to non-obese persons. 

However, it is well known that the risk of CVD also increases with age. Could any (or all) of the apparent association between obesity and incident CVD be attributable to age? If the obese group in our sample is older than the non-obese group, then all or part of the increased CVD risk in obese persons could possibly due to the increase in age rather than their obesity. If age is another risk factor for CVD, and if obese and non-obese persons differ in age, then our estimate of the association between obesity and CVD will be overestimated, because of the additional burden of being older. Thus, age meets the definition of a confounder (i.e., it is associated with the primary risk factor(obesity) and the outcome (CVD). In fact, in this data set, subjects who were 50+ were more likely to be obese (200/400 = 0.500) as compared to subjects younger than (100/600=0.167), as demonstrated by the table below.   

Correlation: A mutual relationship or connection between two variables. When there is a positive correlation, an increase in one variable is associated with an increase in the other. (For instance, scientists might correlate an increase in time spent watching TV with an increase in risk of obesity.) Where there is an inverse correlation, an increase in one value is associated with a decrease in the other. (Scientists might correlate an increase in TV watching with a decrease in time spent exercising each week.) A correlation between two variables does not necessarily mean one is causing the other. is not sufficient for causation.

The identity of history

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Personal identity, Sartre's lemma, narrative and moral responsibility (Section 4.3)

What really is personal identity? Sartre's lemma.

Narrative and personal identity.

Character, personal identity and moral responsibility.

Section 4.1 and Section 4.2 (with diagrams)

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homo economicus from political economy to anthropology to game theory

Political economy is concerned with man solely as a being who desires to possess wealth, and who is capable of judging the comparative efficacy of means for obtaining that end.-- John Stuart Mill. The Investigation of Political Economy.

Bartering:

Bartering is a form of exchange. Exchange is to technology as sex is to evolution. It stimulates novelty.

Bartering begins in the late paleolithic, about 50,000 years ago. It happens by necessity out of the division of labor, already in the neolithic, when individuals begin to specialize in specific crafts and hence depend on others for subsistence goods. Specialization depends on trade, but it becomes hindered by the double coincidence of wants (each participant must want what the other has). To supersede this tension, money (as exchange value) appears.  

Money, as a universal standard of exchange, allows each half of the transaction to be separated.

Game theory:

Homo economicus is a rational maximizer of utility (as consumer and as producer). The idea is to think of social interactions as an open field of outcomes, from which they choose that course of action which will result in the best possible result.

Very quickly Homo economicus learns that they cannot succeed unless they MAXIMIZE THE FIELD WITH INVESTMENTS TOWARD FUTURE PROFIT. This is beautifully presented in old saying:

YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW.

1. Homo economicus realizes that exchange keeps society together, founded on a basic disposition called HUMAN INTEREST. Humans want to have, to prosper, to enjoy, TO BE HAPPY.
2. Thus, my utility is linked to the perceived utility of others in this order: 1. my wife, my children, my friends, my people.

So, homo economicus is compatible with homo reciprocans (which emphasizes human cooperation).
there is no HOMO RECIPROCANS WITHOUT HOMO ECONOMICUS.
 
Value/Exchange:

There is no homo economicus without exchange, & that exchange is called MONEY.

MONEY IS A FORM OF COMMUNICATION. As such it has stood the test of millennia transcending borders and barriers. MONEY is the very foundation of society because this is what makes societies run.

When we cooperate, we are doing work, i.e., producing value and in all our contributions and interactions, we have exchanges of this value.

As societies increases in complexity, value continues to abstract in order to lower the "friction of exchange." VALUE IS INTER SUBJECTIVE and come in many forms, but MONEY is an objective tool that gives us an opportunity to represent/quantify it.

From spices, cattle, sugar, salt, etc, we move to initial abstractions like shells, to better abstractions, like metals, such as bronze, then silver then gold. About 3000–5000 yrs ago, we enter a period of stage 2, abstractions, where TRUST is introduced (homo economicus had incrementally learned and internalized to keep their promises) to help facilitate better transactions and exchange.

Now coins are created with the stamp of approval of the sovereign. This model developed very slowly over millennia: multiple barter, gold, hyper inflationary coinage, until the next major abstraction; i.e, paper or promissory notes. It was developed by the Florentine banking families during the Renaissance (it was easier to carry a note that promised the redemption of an amount of gold, than having to carry the gold around).

Anthropology:

Without trade, innovation just does not happen. Exchange is to technology as sex is to evolution. It stimulates novelty. The remarkable thing about the moderns of west Asia is not so much the diversity of artifacts as the continual innovation. There is more invention between 80,000 and 20,000 years ago than there had been in the previous million. By today’s standards, it was very slow, but by the standards of Homo erectus it was lightning-fast. And the next ten millennia would see still more innovations: fish hooks, all sorts of implements, domesticated wolves, wheat, figs, sheep, money.

are elephants persons?

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why anomaly detection/suspension?

a graph or a Wiener process in 3D

In epistemology:

* Suspension of judgment is used in civil law to indicate a court's decision to nullify a civil judgment.

* Suspension of judgment is a cornerstone of standard research methodology. Much of the scientific method is designed to encourage the suspension of judgments until observations can be made, tested, and verified through peer review.

* Cartesian Suspension of judgment is used in philosophy in order to gain a solid foundation when building one's system of knowledge.

* Suspension in Positivism: It's the suspensions of "final answers" in scientific research. The idea that all human knowledge keeps approaching a limit without ever reaching it.

Formula for stochastic processes:

philosophy paper, second assignment

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chapter 3, ethics lecures

Ethics is the study of moral norms.

Moral norms are based on human actions (or behaviors) of fundamental consequence for human welfare. And here we make a distinction between morality and etiquette. Etiquette is quasi-moral. Ex: An old lady standing in a full bus is given a seat by a young man (or a young woman). In the elevator, a mature man holds the door for the women and children and younger men.

In Ethics we make moral judgments, for example: "slavery is wrong". These judgments come from moral norms and facts. So, 

moral judgments ~ moral norms + "moral facts"

Cultural relativism: The doctrine that what makes an action right is that it's approved by that culture. Counterarguments: 1- The impossibility for moral disagreements and 2- Cultures are not that different at a deeper level. One can point to differences between "deep" values (moral values, i.e., human behavior of fundamental consequence for human welfare) and "superficial" values (domestic habits, etiquette, fashion, etc) other cultural values to the effect that most cultures seem to share the same deep moral values.

Logical Structure of Moral Arguments: mj ≈ mn + "facts" (this is not a formula, just an approximation). 

Moral facts are "soft."  It means a belief held by factual evidence (for example, child abuse is wrong because of the facts we know about psychology, human rights, child development, etc).

Are there universal moral principles? YES. 

We could point to at least two: 1- Principle of mercy (Unnecessary suffering is wrong) 2- Principle of justice (Treat equals equally).


1. Difference between Consequentialist theories and Formalist theories.

Consequentialism is the theory that judges the rightness or wrongness of an action in terms of its consequences. 

Formalism is the theory that judges the rightness or wrongness of an action in terms of the action's form (i.e., "killing is wrong": the formalist believes that moral actions are objective).

 2. Intrinsic value (value for its own sake; personhood is an essential value: a-reason, b-autonomy, c-sentience, d-freedom).

Instrumental values (value for the sake of something else), for example, being a clean person.

3. Hedonism: What makes an action right is that it maximizes pleasure and minimizes pain. 

Click here for my lecture on hedonism. 

4. Ethical egoism: What makes an action right is that it promotes one's best interest. This is equivalent to a calculus of prudence. 

Click here for my notes on Ethical Egoism.

Psychological Egoism: We are all egoists. 

No matter how we try to present rebuttals to egoism, the truth is that we are always deep down motivated by what we perceive to be in our own self-interest. 

Psychological egoism is attributed to Thomas Hobbes (1651) and Jeremy Bentham (1781). Psychological egoism can be seen as a background assumption of several other disciplines, such as psychology and economics. Recently, some biologists have suggested that the thesis can be supported or rejected directly based on evolutionary theory or work in sociobiology.

Example: Suppose, that Pam saves Jim from a burning office building. What ultimately motivated her to do this?  The altruist claims that Pam's risking her life in the process, shows she did it for Jim's sake. But the psychological egoist holds that Pam’s apparently altruistic act is ultimately motivated by the goal to benefit herself, whether she is aware of this or not. Pam might have wanted to gain a good feeling from being a hero, or to avoid the backlash that would follow had she not helped Jim. 

 4. Act Utilitarianism (or Traditional utilitarianism): 

What makes an action right is that it maximizes happiness everyone considered (remember this is only a particular milieu: family, class, Miami, Florida, the USA). 

C/A (a) McCloskey’s informant (problems with rights) (b) Brandt’s Heir (problems with duties), (c) Goodwin's Fire Rescue (problems with duties), (e) Ross Unhappy promise (problems with duties) (6) Ewing's Utilitarian torture (problems with justice).

Click here for my notes on utilitarianism

Moral Traditionalism: an act is right if it's supported by my traditions.

 

Click here for my notes on moral traditionalism.

 

5. KANT'S FORMALISM

Formalism is the theory that an action is right because of the action's form. For example, "killing is wrong." 

"Why wrong?" You may ask. Well, because of the form of the action. What form? 

What makes the action wrong is the action itself. 

KANT'S CATEGORICAL IMPERATIVE

What makes an action right is that everyone can act on it (which yields universalizability), and you'd have everyone acting on it. 

This means: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

What are duties? Obligations one has by one's embeddedness in society. There are two kinds: 

Perfect duty: A duty that must always be performed no matter what. 

Imperfect duty: They are left to our choice. For example: Personal hygiene. 

Click here for my notes on Kantian ethics.

KANT'S SECOND FORMULATION 

TREAT PEOPLE AS ENDS, NEVER MERELY AS MEANS TO AN END. 

Counterargument: The problem with Kantian theory is the problem of exceptions to the rule. Should I keep a promise even if it puts someone's life in danger? Then, sometimes, we have to treat people as means to ends.

Click here for my notes on Kant's second formulation.

6. Aristotle's virtue morality, the study of character.

Click here for my notes on Aristotle's virtue morality.

new review sessions for exam #2!

Thomas Jauregui and Sebastian Garcia from (MWF 11am class) are offering a review session this Wednesday (the 24th) at 12 noon and Thursday (the 25th) at 1:30 @ the Wolfson Library. More details to follow. All classes are invited!

UPDATE: Shannon Larson and Brian Gracia (from T,R 11:15am) are joining forces tomorrow Wednesday (the 24th), at 12pm, at the Wolfson Library.  

it's time for the philosophy paper's first draft!

You already constructed four paragraphs. ALL YOU NEED TO DO NOW IS TO ADD 3 MORE + A CONCLUSION.  
___________________

Here is a paper sample. These two thesis and counter paragraphs are the most important. Please, follow this sample. See how her draft has a short clear thesis divided into three points,  yours is only two points: first point, explanation, second point, explanation, 

Next, comes the counter paragraph. Do the same thing. The paragraph starts with "prohibitionists disagree," so the reader clearly understand "who is talking." Same strategy. 1st point, explanation. second point, explanation and so on... 

see the body of both paragraphs above, she discusses and includes sources (with in-text citations).

Don't forget to include your bibliography (we're following MLA protocol).

Here you have 3 different conclusion samples, taken from recent philosophy papers. 

epistemology's main characters

Here's an interesting video.

belief: a mental state of acceptance. 

suspension of belief: You neither accept nor reject a belief (the skeptic's position)

justification: the reasons for believing (not all reasons for believing are necessarily reasonable; we'll talk about that).

explanation: Explaining means describing what IS. 

truth: truth is a fact. a fact IS (you don't need to prove it). 

Examples: "1+1=2," a mathematical fact; "H20 is water," a chemical fact; "slavery is wrong," a moral fact, 

What do we do if we don't have the facts? We look for alternative definitions. 

pragmatic definition of truth: Truth is what best does the job at hand. meaning if it works, it's likely true. 

coherence definition of truth: Truth is what coheres with the rest of our knowledge.

Why is H304 a good class? 

Justification: H304's room is inviting, the professor is animated, and the class is well-behaved.

Explanation: H304 is a good glass because the room has six windows providing good lighting, and the furniture is comfortable and spaciously ordered.   

lessons in emergence (section 2.5)

wolves changing rivers...

this is a cute one! (stupid things become smart together)

sorry, we don't do much, entropy does it for us, (learn this lesson for politics)

how stars are born,

emergentism in the philosophy of mind (obliged reading)

read p. 150 of chapter 2, to get an idea of emergence. then, you can understand the statement: the mind is an emergent property of the brain.

List of student assistants (SAs) for all Phi 2010 classes: THANKS!

MWF 10am
Christelle Cyprian
Nikita Mikhaylov
Pabel Torres

MWF 11am
Sebastian Garcia
Thomas Jauregui
Kristen Venuto

TR 9:50am
Alexanda Kremer
Shirley Kedo
Fernando Bravo
Nneka Ekwensi

TR 11:l5am

Shannon Larson
Andres Gracia

T 5:40 pm
Ilan Bitoun