Past Futures Are the New Past Pasts

Do you find yourself obsessed with Hume's question of what could justify inductive reasoning? Boy, do I have a link for you:

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: The Problem of Induction
If you're tired of that one, there's also a new problem of induction. Or, you could watch this video of Lewis Black describing his failure to reason inductively every year around Halloween:


In class, we talked about how attempts to justify induction beg the question. Here's a dinosaur comic on question-begging. (Click on the comic to enlarge it)


And here's the video for Mims's logically delicious song "This is Why I'm Hot":


Finally, here's a stick figure comic about scientists' efforts to confirm that the future will be like the past.

Innate Ideas? I've Had a Few

Here are a couple articles by Steven Pinker that offer some psychological insights on the innate ideas debate we've been discussing in class:

The Brain’s Versatile Toolbox (1997)

Grammar Puss (1994)

But hey, why read when you can watch a video? With that in mind, here's Pinker's appearance on The Colbert Report:


Pinker has a few books on this stuff, and a lot of other interesting articles, too. Not everyone agrees with Pinker, though. Here's an article about a South American tribe that might be a counterexample to the claim that there are innate aspects of language development.

The Interpreter
(The linguist researching the tribe explains his case more here. Steven Pinker and others respond to him here.)

One more link. Here's an advanced survey article on the rationalism/empiricism debate from my favorite free online philosophy encyclopedia:

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Rationalism vs. Empiricism

Yes, there is more than one free online philosophy encyclopedia.

Reading Response #2

Reading Response #2 is due at the beginning of class on Tuesday, October 14th for the Pemberton class, and Friday, October 17th for the Willingboro class. Here is the assignment:

Explain and evaluate your thoughts about God.

• First, explain what it is you believe about the existence of God. Do you believe there is a God? If so, what kind of God or Gods? Do you believe that there is no God? Do you not have a belief one way or the other?
  
• Next, explain why you believe whatever it is you believe about God. What reasons do you have for believing what you believe? Figure out your argument in support of your belief (even if you're belief is "I don't know," explain why you don't know!).
  
• Finally, evaluate your argument for what you believe. Do you think these are good reasons, or bad reasons? Why?
  

The response isn't based on any specific reading from the textbook. Instead, it's more of a chance for you to think about your own opinion before we discuss God stuff in class over the next several weeks. You won't be graded on your opinion. You'll be graded on how well you EXPLAIN and EVALUATE your reasons for your opinion.

Quiz Me Once, Shame on You

The quiz will be held at the beginning of class on Thursday, October 2nd for the Pemberton class, and Friday, October 3rd for the Willingboro class. You will have about 25 minutes to take it. There will be a section on evaluating deductive arguments, and 4 or 5 short answer questions on the topics we discussed in class so far:

• philosophy in general
• doing philosophy
• arguments: inductive, deductive, abductive (inferences to the best explanation)
• what is knowledge?
• skepticism
• Descartes battling skepticism

The quiz is worth 15% of your overall grade.Feel free to insult me in the comments for putting you through the terrible ordeal of taking a quiz.

Still Trust Your Senses?

Julian Beever creates sidewalk art that looks three-dimensional when viewed from a certain angle. Here's one of his creations:

More pictures of his stuff are available here and here. It's pretty hard to tell that these are two-dimensional drawings. Oh, senses! Why won't you stop deceiving me?!?

Link-Tested, Keanu-Approved

Here's a trio of links. The first one is a guide to reading philosophy that might help you if you're having trouble understanding the assigned readings.

Jim Pryor's Guide to Reading Philosophy

The next two relate to knowledge and skepticism. The first is about the philosophical implications of the movie The Matrix. If Neo read it, he'd say "whoa."

The Matrix: Dream Skepticism

The last link is an interesting take on skeptical scenarios (or what our textbook fancily calls universal belief falsifiers). Most of us think it's pretty unlikely that we're in a computer simulation like the Matrix. After all, these skeptical scenarios seem so weird. But Nick Bostrom provides some compelling reasons to think that these scenarios may be highly probable, after all.

What's the Probability that We're Living in the Matrix?

(A more advanced version of Bostrom's argument is available here, and a dinosaur comic on this issue is available here.) By the way, if you have any links you think I or others in class might find interesting, let me know. And feel free to comment on any of these posts.

Revised Schedule: 4th Edition

This is a revised schedule with the correct page numbers for the 4th edition of the textbook. Changes from the original schedule are in bold. Click here for the readings for the 3rd edition for the Pemberton class. Click here for the readings for the 3rd edition for the Willingboro class.


Week of September 1--5
-Some Logic | Deductive Arguments (pages 37—45)
-Some Logic | Inductive & Abductive Arguments (pages 4—11)

Week of September 8--12
-Knowledge | Descartes vs. Skepticism (pages 50-53; 58-71)
-Knowledge | Descartes vs. Skepticism (pages 50-53; 58-71)

Week of September 15--19
-Knowledge | Rationalism: Plato (pages 71—82)
-Knowledge | Empiricism: Locke (pages 88—96)
(Reading Response #1 due)

Week of September 21--26
-Knowledge | Empiricism: Hume (pages 104—113)
-QUIZ; Knowledge | Hume Wrap-up

Week of September 29--October 3
-Does God Exist? | Aquinas & The Cosmological Arg (pages 321—332)
-Does God Exist? | Taylor & The Cosmological Argument (pages 333—338)

Week of October 6--10
-Does God Exist? | Ontological Argument (pages 347—352)
-Does God Exist? | Paley & The Design Argument (pages 338—341)
(Reading Response #2 due)

Week of October 13--17
-Does God Exist? | Hume & The Design Argument (pages 342—347)
-Does God Exist? | Problem of Evil Intro & Review for Midterm (pages 366—370)

Week of October 20--24
-MIDTERM
-Does God Exist? | Hick & The Problem of Evil (pages 370—382)

Week of October 27--31
-Faith & Reason | Pascal (pages 352—357)
-Intro to Ethics | Plato (pages 396—409)
(Reading Response #3 due)
Week of November 3--7
-Ethical Relativism | Herodotus & Benedict (pages 411—423)
-Utilitarianism | Intro (pages 450—454) & Mill (pages 457—462)

Week of November 10--14
-Utilitarianism | Norcross (pages 462—468)
-Deontological Ethics | Kant (pages 468-482)
(Reading Response #4 due)

Week of November 17--21
-Virtue Ethics | Intro (pages 486—494) & Aristotle (pages 495—500)
-Virtue Ethics Wrap-up

Weeks After November 21
-No readings!

Reading Response #1

Reading Response #1 is due at the beginning of class on Tuesday, September for 23rd for the Pemberton Class, and Friday, September 26th for the Willingboro class. In a 250- to 500-word essay response, answer the following question:

What does Descartes say he cannot be certain of? What does Descartes say he can be certain of? What are his arguments for these? Evaluate his arguments: do you agree with Descartes? Why or why not?

The response is based on the Descartes reading from pages 65-71 of the textbook.

Understanding Args

Here are the answers to the handout on understanding arguments.

1. (P1) Fairdale has the best team.
(C) Fairdale will win the championship

2. (P1) The housing market is depressed.
(P2) Interest rates are low.
(C) It's a good time to buy a home.

3. (P1) China is guilty of extreme human rights abuses.
(P2) China refuses to implement democratic reforms.
(C) The U.S. should refuse to deal with the present Chinese government.

4. (P1) The results of the Persian Gulf War were obviously successful for the U.S. military.
(C) The U. S. military is both capable and competent.

5. (P1) Scientific discoveries are continually debunking religious myths.
(P2) Science provides the only hope for solving the many problems faced by humankind.
(C) Science provides a more accurate view of human life than does religion.

6. (P1) Freedom of speech and expressions are essential to a democratic form of government.
(P2) As soon as we allow some censorship, it won't be long before censorship will be used to silence the opinions critical of the government.
(P3) Once we allow some censorship, we will have no more freedom than the Germans did under Hitler.
(C) We must resist all effort to allow the government to censor entertainment.

7. (P1) I'm very good at my job.
(C) I deserve a raise.

8. (P1) Jesse is one year old.
(P2) Most one-year-olds can walk.
(C) Jesse can walk.

9 (P1) The revocation of the 55 mph speed limit has resulted in an increased number of auto fatalities.
(C) we must alleviate this problem with stricter speed limit enforcement.

10. (P1) The last person we hired from Bayview Tech turned out to be a bad employee.
(C) I'm not willing to hire anybody else from that school again.

11. (P1) Maebe didn't show up for work today.
(P2) Maebe has never missed work unless she was sick.
(C) Maebe is probably sick today.

11. (P1) The United States, as the most powerful nation in the world, has a moral obligation to give assistance to people who are subjected to inhumane treatment.
(P2) The ethnic Albanians were being persecuted in Kosovo.
(C) It was proper for the U.S. to become involved in the air campaign against Kosovo.

----------------
Hat tip: I took some of the examples (with some revisions) from Beth Rosdatter's website, and some (with some revisions) from Jon Young's website.

Deductive Args

Here are the answers to the handout on deductive arguments that we went over in class.

1) All bats are mammals.
All mammals live on earth.
All bats live on earth.

Valid, Sound

2) All students in here are mammals.
All humans are mammals.
All students in here are humans.

Invalid (what if a dog were a student in our class?),
Unsound (because it's invalid)

3) (from Stephen Colbert)
Bush is either a great prez or the greatest prez.
Bush isn’t a great prez.
Bush is the greatest prez.

Valid, Unsound (questionable premises)

4) All BCC students are humans.
Most humans are shorter than 7 feet tall.
Most BCC students are shorter than 7 feet tall.

Invalid (there could be a lot of tall BCC students even if most humans aren't tall), Unsound (because it's invalid)

5) Some people are funny.
Sean is a person.
Sean is funny.

Invalid (only some are funny, so I don't have to be funny), Unsound (because it's invalid)

6) If Sean sings, then students cringe.
Sean is singing right now.
Students are cringing right now.

Valid, Unsound (false second premise: I'm not singing right now)

7) All email forwards are annoying.
Some email forwards are false.
Some annoying things are false.

Valid, Unsound (questionable first premise)

8) If Sean sings, then students cringe.
Sean isn't singing right now.
Students aren't cringing right now.

Invalid (students could cringe for a different reason), Unsound (it's invalid)

9) All bats are mammals.
All bats have wings.
All mammals have wings.

Invalid (bad structure), Unsound (because it's invalid)

10) If Sean sings, then students cringe.
Students aren't cringing right now.
Sean isn't singing right now.

Valid, Unound (first premise is questionable)

11) All dads have beards.
All bearded people are mean.
All dads are mean.

Valid, Unsound (premise 1 is false and premise 2 is questionable)

12) If Sean sings, then students cringe.
Students are cringing right now.
Sean is singing right now.

Invalid (I don't have to sing for students to cringe), Unsound (it's invalid, and false second premise)

13) Mexico borders oceans on the east and west.
USA borders oceans on the east and west.
Guatemala borders oceans on the east and west.
Australia borders oceans on the east and west.
Most countries border oceans on the east and west.

Invalid (the premises don't guarantee the conclusion), Unsound (it's invalid)

(More on Sisyphus)