Things to do List: (Philosophy)
Finally able to get on weebly to post this:
Exam median - 75% - Range - 45-96
Final Mark median - 81% - Range - 65-97
Thanks for a great semester!
Exam median - 75% - Range - 45-96
Final Mark median - 81% - Range - 65-97
Thanks for a great semester!
What We Did Today:
Wed. June 20
- study for your A-D block exams or ask me anything - I'll add any discussion we have to the review for students focusing on other classes during this period
Tues. June 19
- review everything
Mon. June 18
- essay portion of the exam
Thurs. June 14 - Fri. June 15
- Swiss Army Man - about love, sex, and friendship! - play with the corpse here
Wed. June 13
- timed writing - read an article (it's a hardcopy - only available in class), summarize it (conclusion, then supports/premises), then establish your own argument for or against the claims --> Check out a summary and sample answers!
Mon. June 11 - Tues. June 12
- pornography - Jensen (35-36) and Snyder (27-29)
- On Robot Sex - what an annotated bibliography looks like
- sexual harassment - likely won't be time
- FYI - an old copy of a 2014 class debate on sexual ethics
Thurs. June 7 - Fri. June 8
- de Beauvoir and the double standard
Tues. June 5 - Wed. June 6
- non-possessive vs possessive relationships
HMWK - Read de Beauvoir - p. 42
Mon. June 4
- Conlon - Can friends be lovers?
- hierarchical model vs perspectivist model
HMWK - Read Stevens - 17-20
Thurs. May 31
- Gorer - Can we fall in love?
HMWK - Read Conlon (13-16) for MONDAY's class
- What's his argument, and what's yours (for or against and why)?
- This article further supports Conlon's argument.
Wed. May 30
- theories of attraction: Schopenhauer, Descartes, and Montaigne
HMWK - Read Gorer - p. 9-11
Tues. May 29
- read and discuss Solomon - sex is communication
HMWK - Read Descartes - p. 12 and Montaigne - p. 1
Mon. May 28
- conceptual analysis of love, sex, and friendship
HMWK - Read Solomon, pages 37 - 41 in the package (formerly the wrong pages!!)
Fri. May 25
- quiz on pop philosophy
Thurs. May 24
Zack - Sartre in American Beauty
Jacob - Seneca in Candide - explanation for working for Nero
Wed. May 23
Alex R. - Jesus in Surgill Simpson's A Sailor's Guide to Earth
- more conceptual analysis
Tues. May 22
Ben - Camus in Death: The High Cost of Living
Sophia - Jung in The Shining
Fri. May 18
Cody - Epictetus in Rocky
Gabe - Arendt in Ticket to Heaven
Thurs. May 17
"Chief Keef" - Aristotle in Berserk
Wed. May 16
Alex W. - Hegel in Frasier
Sava - Nietzsche in The Dark Knight
Tues. May 15
- quiz on politics
- time to work on presentations
Mon. May 14
Political philosophy timed writing:- QUICKLY rank these philosophers from best to worst, and BRIEFLY explain the ranking: Plato, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, Mill, Anarchy
- THEN write - with STRONG argumentation - about how YOU think we should organize our society politically, and WHY. Support your arguments with references to at least four political philosophers (either in support or opposition to your argument - but make sure to refute the opposition).
Fri. May 11
- libertarian vs communitarian
- BONUS link - political compare and contrast!
- if you're interested, two 30 min videos about political philosophy to help you sleep: What Justifies the State?, and What is Justice?
(and, just FYI, a long version of some of my views on Peterson, who is widely criticized by philosophy profs)
Thurs. May 10
- historical trajectory of political philosophy from control for the benefit of the community to freedom of the individual - with some readings in that doc
Wed. May 9
- work period
Wed. April 25 - Tues. May 8 (present May 1-8)
- choose political philosophies to study - work on Politics Group Seminars
Read from the package AND see more readings here (scroll down under each name)
- Hobbes (7) - Gabe & Ben - handout
- Locke (9) - Cody & Alex R. - handout
- Rousseau (13) - Sophia & Alex W.
- Mill (15) - Yousif & Sam - handout
- Marx (19) - Jacob & Sava - handout
- Anarchy/Goldman (25) - Zack - handout
- On the Manitoba basic income experiment and the more recent Finland one
- On sex redistribution to solve the incel problem
Tues. April 24
- Plato's political philosophy
Mon. April 23
- political compass test
- some basic ideas around politics to get us all on the same page
- a cartoon on far left and right political thinkers
Fri. April 20
- discuss the midterm questions
Thurs. April 19
- example of pop philosophy seminar, Hedwig's Symposium
(scroll down here to see the bare bones PPT)
Wed. April 18
- midterm! Links to help with the first half of the course:
1. deon/teleos comparison,
2. ethics debates,
3. more compare and contrast (note: ignore Freud, Jung, or Confucius), and
4. What's on the midterm? - an editable doc where everyone can share their notes!
Jeopardy Game 1,
Jeopardy Game 2
ANSWERS to some discussion questions
Thurs. April 12 - Tues. April 17 (because Mon. is a snow day)
- jeopardy to review for the MIDTERM! (see the links above)
- FYI - Russell is sort of on the fence with rationalism and empiricism
- From here: "the whole bent of Russell’s mind in philosophy was an attempt to eliminate the a priori and to accentuate the empirical" but then here and here he wrote about the role rationalism also plays in our understanding of the world.
Wed. April 11
- quiz on the virtuous life and ethics
Mon. April 9
- go over all virtuous life and ethics philosophies
Wed. April 4 - Fri. April 6
- debating issues
Wed. March 28 - Tues. April 3
- start working on prepping for the debates - your philosopher determines your group
You'll have two days in class to...
* make a poster that clearly yet briefly gives a sense of the ethical theory
* make sure you're solid on the theory
* try to incorporate a couple very short quotations in your explanation
* make sure you can apply the theory to EACH of these issues: abortion, euthanasia, prostitution, capital punishment, animal welfare, censorship, drug use, exploitation of workers/prisoners, population control...
* If you have a group, you'll be graded as a group, but not everybody has to debate.
Tues. March 27
- timed writing
Mon. March 26
- overview and posters for each theory of the virtuous life - Which is best?
Fri. March 23
- existentialism
- Robert Solomon on existentialism
- existentialism in Rick and Morty (also see season 3 episodes 3 and 4)
Thurs. March. 22
- Taoism
- deontological vs teleological ethics
Wed. March 21
- Taoism
Tues. March 20
- Stoicism (Epictetus, mainly) - Here are more fun quotes!
- on Justice: Justice is subdivided into piety, honesty, equity, and fair dealing.
Mon. March 19
- Jesus
Fri. March 9
- random conversations about what will happen if cops try to stop St. Patrick's Day parties, a former student advocating for safe injection sites, the rise of addictions, suicide, and mental illness, and a new book, Lost Connections, which some took to task for its controversial anti-meds stance on depression
Thurs. March 8
- Jesus
- paradoxical commandments found on Mother Theresa's wall, Tolstoy's "The Godson" in full, and Peace Pilgrim
Wed. March 7
- Diogenes and the Cynics
- Aristippus and the Hedonists
- Epicurus (some of my thoughts on Epicurus are here)
Tues. March 6
- Socrates
- Plato
- check out this article on the Hamilton anarchist protest
Mon. March 5
- residual discussion on the ETHICS SURVEY
- how we do ethics in general - brainstorming
Thurs. March 1 - Fri. March 2
- ethics survey results --> The point of going over these is to practise argumentation skills so you're better prepared for Part C of the essay.
Wed. Feb. 28
- QUIZ
- then start ETHICS
Tues. Feb. 27
- Timed Writing: In a brief essay, tell me your epistemological position. What are your views on skepticism, rationalism, and empiricism; on universalism and relativism; and on free will (hard determinism, indeterminism and soft-determinism).
Mon. Feb. 26
- free will and determinism - three theories
Fri. Feb. 23
- discussion of the questions from the Ontario-wide contest (see above) and an off-topic discussion of philosophers who support slavery
- more universal/relativism
Thurs. Feb. 22
- Hume's arguments against rationalism
- universalism vs relativism/pragmatism
Wed. Feb. 21
- Descartes and Rationalism
- empiricism (finished the chart)
Tues. Feb. 20
- agreeing / arguing with Plato's allegory of the cave
Fri. Feb. 16
- more skepticism
- rationalism - Plato's "Allegory of the Cave"
- a cartoon about Socrates being wisest in all the land, and about Plato's cave
Thurs. Feb. 15
- choose philosophers for the ethics essay
- start Epistemology: skepticism
Wed. Feb. 14
- quiz on logic
- Plato's "Last Days of Socrates"
Tues. Feb. 13
- discuss found/created arguments
- take up find the fallacies handout
- look at a real argument for fallacies
- make posters on fallacies to help us with the quiz
Mon. Feb. 12
- introduce the first essay
- find fallacies in Lorna's argument
Fri. Feb. 9
- look at fallacious arguments
- find the fallacies (handout)
Thurs. Feb. 8
- finding premises and conclusions in 'real' arguments (Lorna's argument)
Wed. Feb. 7
- formal logic (answers)
- exercises just for fun: here, and here, and this gets into 'all' and 'some'
Tues. Feb. 6
- seating plan - on happiness discussion
- start logic - note and handout
Mon. Feb. 5
- find out about the course (handout)
- look at critical thinking (handout)
- HMWK: answer the questions above
- study for your A-D block exams or ask me anything - I'll add any discussion we have to the review for students focusing on other classes during this period
Tues. June 19
- review everything
Mon. June 18
- essay portion of the exam
Thurs. June 14 - Fri. June 15
- Swiss Army Man - about love, sex, and friendship! - play with the corpse here
Wed. June 13
- timed writing - read an article (it's a hardcopy - only available in class), summarize it (conclusion, then supports/premises), then establish your own argument for or against the claims --> Check out a summary and sample answers!
Mon. June 11 - Tues. June 12
- pornography - Jensen (35-36) and Snyder (27-29)
- On Robot Sex - what an annotated bibliography looks like
- sexual harassment - likely won't be time
- FYI - an old copy of a 2014 class debate on sexual ethics
Thurs. June 7 - Fri. June 8
- de Beauvoir and the double standard
Tues. June 5 - Wed. June 6
- non-possessive vs possessive relationships
HMWK - Read de Beauvoir - p. 42
Mon. June 4
- Conlon - Can friends be lovers?
- hierarchical model vs perspectivist model
HMWK - Read Stevens - 17-20
Thurs. May 31
- Gorer - Can we fall in love?
HMWK - Read Conlon (13-16) for MONDAY's class
- What's his argument, and what's yours (for or against and why)?
- This article further supports Conlon's argument.
Wed. May 30
- theories of attraction: Schopenhauer, Descartes, and Montaigne
HMWK - Read Gorer - p. 9-11
Tues. May 29
- read and discuss Solomon - sex is communication
HMWK - Read Descartes - p. 12 and Montaigne - p. 1
Mon. May 28
- conceptual analysis of love, sex, and friendship
HMWK - Read Solomon, pages 37 - 41 in the package (formerly the wrong pages!!)
Fri. May 25
- quiz on pop philosophy
Thurs. May 24
Zack - Sartre in American Beauty
Jacob - Seneca in Candide - explanation for working for Nero
Wed. May 23
Alex R. - Jesus in Surgill Simpson's A Sailor's Guide to Earth
- more conceptual analysis
Tues. May 22
Ben - Camus in Death: The High Cost of Living
Sophia - Jung in The Shining
Fri. May 18
Cody - Epictetus in Rocky
Gabe - Arendt in Ticket to Heaven
Thurs. May 17
"Chief Keef" - Aristotle in Berserk
Wed. May 16
Alex W. - Hegel in Frasier
Sava - Nietzsche in The Dark Knight
Tues. May 15
- quiz on politics
- time to work on presentations
Mon. May 14
Political philosophy timed writing:- QUICKLY rank these philosophers from best to worst, and BRIEFLY explain the ranking: Plato, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, Mill, Anarchy
- THEN write - with STRONG argumentation - about how YOU think we should organize our society politically, and WHY. Support your arguments with references to at least four political philosophers (either in support or opposition to your argument - but make sure to refute the opposition).
Fri. May 11
- libertarian vs communitarian
- BONUS link - political compare and contrast!
- if you're interested, two 30 min videos about political philosophy to help you sleep: What Justifies the State?, and What is Justice?
(and, just FYI, a long version of some of my views on Peterson, who is widely criticized by philosophy profs)
Thurs. May 10
- historical trajectory of political philosophy from control for the benefit of the community to freedom of the individual - with some readings in that doc
Wed. May 9
- work period
Wed. April 25 - Tues. May 8 (present May 1-8)
- choose political philosophies to study - work on Politics Group Seminars
Read from the package AND see more readings here (scroll down under each name)
- Hobbes (7) - Gabe & Ben - handout
- Locke (9) - Cody & Alex R. - handout
- Rousseau (13) - Sophia & Alex W.
- Mill (15) - Yousif & Sam - handout
- Marx (19) - Jacob & Sava - handout
- Anarchy/Goldman (25) - Zack - handout
- On the Manitoba basic income experiment and the more recent Finland one
- On sex redistribution to solve the incel problem
Tues. April 24
- Plato's political philosophy
Mon. April 23
- political compass test
- some basic ideas around politics to get us all on the same page
- a cartoon on far left and right political thinkers
Fri. April 20
- discuss the midterm questions
Thurs. April 19
- example of pop philosophy seminar, Hedwig's Symposium
(scroll down here to see the bare bones PPT)
Wed. April 18
- midterm! Links to help with the first half of the course:
1. deon/teleos comparison,
2. ethics debates,
3. more compare and contrast (note: ignore Freud, Jung, or Confucius), and
4. What's on the midterm? - an editable doc where everyone can share their notes!
Jeopardy Game 1,
Jeopardy Game 2
ANSWERS to some discussion questions
Thurs. April 12 - Tues. April 17 (because Mon. is a snow day)
- jeopardy to review for the MIDTERM! (see the links above)
- FYI - Russell is sort of on the fence with rationalism and empiricism
- From here: "the whole bent of Russell’s mind in philosophy was an attempt to eliminate the a priori and to accentuate the empirical" but then here and here he wrote about the role rationalism also plays in our understanding of the world.
Wed. April 11
- quiz on the virtuous life and ethics
Mon. April 9
- go over all virtuous life and ethics philosophies
Wed. April 4 - Fri. April 6
- debating issues
Wed. March 28 - Tues. April 3
- start working on prepping for the debates - your philosopher determines your group
You'll have two days in class to...
* make a poster that clearly yet briefly gives a sense of the ethical theory
* make sure you're solid on the theory
* try to incorporate a couple very short quotations in your explanation
* make sure you can apply the theory to EACH of these issues: abortion, euthanasia, prostitution, capital punishment, animal welfare, censorship, drug use, exploitation of workers/prisoners, population control...
* If you have a group, you'll be graded as a group, but not everybody has to debate.
Tues. March 27
- timed writing
Mon. March 26
- overview and posters for each theory of the virtuous life - Which is best?
Fri. March 23
- existentialism
- Robert Solomon on existentialism
- existentialism in Rick and Morty (also see season 3 episodes 3 and 4)
Thurs. March. 22
- Taoism
- deontological vs teleological ethics
Wed. March 21
- Taoism
Tues. March 20
- Stoicism (Epictetus, mainly) - Here are more fun quotes!
- on Justice: Justice is subdivided into piety, honesty, equity, and fair dealing.
Mon. March 19
- Jesus
Fri. March 9
- random conversations about what will happen if cops try to stop St. Patrick's Day parties, a former student advocating for safe injection sites, the rise of addictions, suicide, and mental illness, and a new book, Lost Connections, which some took to task for its controversial anti-meds stance on depression
Thurs. March 8
- Jesus
- paradoxical commandments found on Mother Theresa's wall, Tolstoy's "The Godson" in full, and Peace Pilgrim
Wed. March 7
- Diogenes and the Cynics
- Aristippus and the Hedonists
- Epicurus (some of my thoughts on Epicurus are here)
Tues. March 6
- Socrates
- Plato
- check out this article on the Hamilton anarchist protest
Mon. March 5
- residual discussion on the ETHICS SURVEY
- how we do ethics in general - brainstorming
Thurs. March 1 - Fri. March 2
- ethics survey results --> The point of going over these is to practise argumentation skills so you're better prepared for Part C of the essay.
Wed. Feb. 28
- QUIZ
- then start ETHICS
Tues. Feb. 27
- Timed Writing: In a brief essay, tell me your epistemological position. What are your views on skepticism, rationalism, and empiricism; on universalism and relativism; and on free will (hard determinism, indeterminism and soft-determinism).
Mon. Feb. 26
- free will and determinism - three theories
Fri. Feb. 23
- discussion of the questions from the Ontario-wide contest (see above) and an off-topic discussion of philosophers who support slavery
- more universal/relativism
Thurs. Feb. 22
- Hume's arguments against rationalism
- universalism vs relativism/pragmatism
Wed. Feb. 21
- Descartes and Rationalism
- empiricism (finished the chart)
Tues. Feb. 20
- agreeing / arguing with Plato's allegory of the cave
Fri. Feb. 16
- more skepticism
- rationalism - Plato's "Allegory of the Cave"
- a cartoon about Socrates being wisest in all the land, and about Plato's cave
Thurs. Feb. 15
- choose philosophers for the ethics essay
- start Epistemology: skepticism
Wed. Feb. 14
- quiz on logic
- Plato's "Last Days of Socrates"
Tues. Feb. 13
- discuss found/created arguments
- take up find the fallacies handout
- look at a real argument for fallacies
- make posters on fallacies to help us with the quiz
Mon. Feb. 12
- introduce the first essay
- find fallacies in Lorna's argument
Fri. Feb. 9
- look at fallacious arguments
- find the fallacies (handout)
Thurs. Feb. 8
- finding premises and conclusions in 'real' arguments (Lorna's argument)
Wed. Feb. 7
- formal logic (answers)
- exercises just for fun: here, and here, and this gets into 'all' and 'some'
Tues. Feb. 6
- seating plan - on happiness discussion
- start logic - note and handout
Mon. Feb. 5
- find out about the course (handout)
- look at critical thinking (handout)
- HMWK: answer the questions above