Ancient and Medieval Philosophy lecture 19 and 20

This evening we discussed Boethius, Anselmn - focus on the Ontological Argument, and other Medieval Philosophers up to John of Salisbury. Some of the time we watched videos that included https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7AhBEq4Gqs on Boethius and this video to introduce Ross who I quoted from his new book To Change the Church where he argues that Pope Frances is a follower of Arius - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMc4Jip2Smo Ross and Peter Berger there were two videos from the first half that I made and posted here and here. And one video I made from the second half posted here. We also watched / listened to a video of Hlidegaard von Bingen songs and the quiz question was do you like her songs? We watched the trailer to the movie Stealing Heaven which is about Abelard and Heloise. There is also a video about Boethius by A C Grayling that I found but did not watch yet... but I will.

Early Modern Philosophy and Introduction to Philosophy lecture 20

Today in Early Modern Philosophy we continued looking at Pragmatism - American philosophy. The lecture was broken up into two segments posted here and here. The quiz question was how is pragmatism an American trait? For Introduction to Philosophy the video is here and a second one here. The quiz question was how has Lady Gaga gotten so much media attention just by wearing strange outfits - like meat?

Early Modern Philosophy and Introduction to Philosophy lecture 19

Today in Early Modern Philosophy we began looking at Pragmatism - American philosophy. Last class was recorded as a pod cast by Emma and is posted here by the way. Thank you Emma! I forgot to record today again. Sorry about that. Must be Spring or something. But we mostly discussed the nature of pragmatism as Hegelianism. Neither Existentialism nor Marxism but Hegel's philosophy with both conflicting sides. The quiz question was who is your favorite American Composer? I played some Aaron Copland, some Samuel Barber, some John Philip Sousa. For Introduction to Philosophy the video is here. The quiz question was the same as above - who is your favorite American Composer? We discussed Epicurus putting him in context with other post Aristotelians such as the Cynics, Stoics, and Skeptics.

Ancient and Medieval Philosophy Friday

Friday's class was focused on Augustine. I made two videos during the class and they are posted here and here. We also watched some of the movie Saint Augustine. The first quiz question was what is Jesus' middle initial! This is a silly question but it amazes me the answer everyone gives. Even Mark Twain wrote about it. Curious why. The second quiz question was what is the alure of the monastic life?

Thursday continued

Regarding Heidegger and Sartre note that both philosophers have been recorded and you can find videos of them on the Internet so you can get a sense of what they were like. Notice both only spoke in those videos in their native language so Sartre in French and Heidegger in German but many of the videos have subtitles in English. Heidegger's main work was Being and Time, Sartre's main work was in response to that book and was titled Being and Nothingness. I ahve some notes on this whole chain of European thought I posted here. The quiz question for Early Modern Philosophy was do you think the continental European more poetic language is nonsense? In Introduction to Philosophy we discussed Hume and his version of philosophical skepticism. As the last logical sequence in British Empiricism he concluded the only thing anyone can know for sure is the phenomena they are experiencing at the moment. He called that phenomena impressions - ideas are also a type of impression, the difference is only a matter of degree. Ideas are less lively than impressions I am having of my surroundings at each moment. We talked a little here about contemporary brain science in this regard that seems to go along with Hume on this (even though he died in 1776 - which date we can all remember pretty easily!) I showed a bit of a TED talk with Antonio Damazio who is famous today for his work using brain scans. I also mentioned Hume's thesis that you cannot experience your own self as an object of experience since it is always the subject of experience. Damazio also talked about that in the same TED. Notice also Thomas Metzinger in his book Being No One refers to our selves as not something like an object but instead a set of ongoing processes. YOu might think of that as a computer program installed in our brain computer etc. The quiz question was do you have a self?

Thursday's classes

When I arrived at class I realized I did not bring the camera! So I will try to reconstruct some notes on what we discussed. In Early Modern Philosophy we were looking at Heidegger and Sartre - Existentialism. We also touched on Hannah Arendt - who was a graduate student and lover of Heidegger (and also Frau Blucher!) ANd Sartre's life partner was Simone de Beauvoir. To start I pointed out both had relationships with their teacher Husserl who taught what he called Phenomenology. Since Hegel introduced Phenomenology as the appropriate study of all that we experience (following Kant's limitation on the noumena, the self, things in themselves, instead considering all experience as phenomena Husserl sought to be an unbiased observer of what people experience. I mentioned as an example the book assigned to my philosophy of religion class in college - https://www.amazon.com/Religion-Essence-Manifestation-Princeton-Library/dp/0691610444 which catalogs reported experiences of people in all cultures as a sort of encyclopedia of phenomena associated with the sacred. Sartre studied in Germany with Husserl as did Heidegger. A noteworthy event was that when Heidegger was the Regent of the university under the Nazis he fired all Jewish academics including his mentor Husserl. Also note that his lover Arendt was Jewish. So there are difficult conflicts to resolve regarding Heidegger's personal relationships. I mentioned the recent publication of this book -- my internet just dropped out! It was the Love Letters between Hannah and Heidegger....

Early Modern Philosophy and Introduction to Philosophy lecture 17

Today in Early Modern Philosophy we discussed Existentialism - Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. The video of the class is posted here. The quiz question was do you feel more on the side of Apollo or Dionysus? In Introduction to Philosophy today we talked about Plato's Timaeus, and Aquinas' Cosmological arguments. The video is posted here. The quiz question was do you think this is the best time to live on the earth?

Ancient and Medieval Philosophy evening

This evening for Ancient and Medieval Philosophy we first discussed Christianity's beginnings and then Saint Augustine. Several videos are posted here and here. The quiz question was does covering this material make you anxious? The second quiz question was do you think the song You have to look on the bright side of life is essentially the Christian world view?

Early Modern Philosophy and Introduction to Philosophy lecture 16

Today in Early Modern Philosophy we continued our discussion on Mill and Utilitarianism, followed by Marx. The video was split in two here and here because we also watched some of the BBC special on Marx. The quiz question was how many children did Marx have with his wife Jenny? For Introduction to Philosophy today we discussed Mill and the video is posted here. The quiz question was would you rather be a disatisfied human or a happy pig? A disatisfied Socrates or a happy fool?

Early Modern Philosophy and Introduction to Philosophy lecture 15

Today in Early Modern Philosophy we discussed Mill and Utilitarianism and watched Sam Harris' TED talk where he argues that science should determine universal values. The video of our class is here and a second portion here. His video is on youtube. The quiz question was what would be the activity that would give you the greatest happiness? For Introduction to Philosophy today our discussion was on Locke and the nature of our government. The video is posted here and here. We also watched a portion of the video posted for the day on the syllabus. The quiz question was how does a person approach a person today to let them know they are attracted to them without breaking social rules? or here - sorry, I may have them mixed up....

Ancient and Medieval Philosophy Friday evening

This evening we discussed the post Aristotelians including Cynics, Epicurus, Stoics, Skeptics, and Neo Platonists. Several videos - five! - each rather short with on screen videos in between. They are available here in reverse order. The first quiz question was what do you think of vegans, or vegetarians? We were discussing the diet recommendations of Epicurus. The second quiz question was who do you think is a perfect 10? Male or female? We were talking about beauty with regard to Plotinus.

Early Modern Philosophy and Introduction to Philosophy lecture 14

In Early Modern Philosophy today we discussed Schopenhauer and Wagner. The video is posted here. The quiz question was can you be a fan of Wagner without being an anti-Semite? For Introduction to Philosophy today we discussed feminism. The video is posted here. The quiz question was who is a perfect 10 either male or female or both?