Join the Club!

Still subscribed to this old course blog? Nice.

So, I'm trying to start up a school club -- the "Owning Our Ignorance" club -- devoted to fun and logic, in that order. I've put up a blog for it over here.

Check it out. Please join if you're interested.

Links Worthy of a Swine

Here are some links that are very loosely related to the stuff on Utilitarianism that we are studying. Most of these deal with psychology. There's a lot of psychological research on happiness popping up lately. The first link is an overview of the psychology of happiness:

Some Dark Thoughts on Happiness

The second is a slightly optimistic take on our ability to change our baseline level of happiness. This is important to know for an ethical theory that values maximizing happiness:

The Hedonic Set Point Can Go Up

The next link deals with a famous moral thought experiment, the trolley problem. This gets brought up a lot when evaluating Utilitarianism:

Psychology of the Trolley Problem

The last link is an advanced overview of "consequentialist" ethical theories. Utilitarianism is a consequentialist theory:

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Entry: Consequentialism

Finally, here's a video of Steven Singer, a modern-day utilitarian, on The Colbert Report:

The Antidote for Humeanism

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

Or, you could watch a dog puppet insult people waiting in line to see Star Wars:

Triumph vs. Star Wars Geeks

Hmmm... is Triumph justified in concluding that all Stars Wars fans are nerds?

Hitchcock Also Started in Nu Metal

Huh. Fred Durst is directing a film.

I didn't see that coming.

So. Uh. There's your Limp Bizkit update.

Think, Tap-Dance, God

Descartes's a priori argument that God exists is a version of what's called the Ontological Argument. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has an entry on Ontological Arguments. They all have that weird structure:

The idea of God exists in my mind.
[fancy philosophical tap-dancing.]
Therefore, God must really exist.

Most seem to think the problem with the argument occurs somewhere around the tap-dancing.

Link to the Future

Over the next two weeks we'll be going over the debate between rationalists and empiricists. Here's an advanced survey article on the debate from my favorite free online philosophy encyclopedia:

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Rationalism vs. Empiricism

Yes, there are more than one free online philosophy encyclopedias.

Keanu-Approved Links

Here's a trio of links. The first one's that guide to reading philosophy we talked about in class on Friday.

Jim Pryor's Guide to Reading Philosophy

The next two relate to epistemology and skepticism, which are what we'll be talking about this week. Both are about the movie The Matrix. The first is pretty straightforward (Neo reads it and says 'whoa'), but the second is a little more advanced (Neo reads it and says 'huh?').

The Matrix: Dream Skepticism

The Matrix: Brain-in-a-Vat Skepticism

By the way, if you have any links you think I or others in class might find interesting, let me know.