Human Person Schedule
Philosophy 151
Sections 04, 05, and 22
Autumn 2011
Week One:
August 29 - September 2:
Overview of course, texts, and requirements.
Introduction to the search for meaning.
Reading: Terry Eagleton, The Meaning of Life, Chapter 1 "Questions and Answers" (pages 1-32).
In this chapter Eagleton explores whether "What is the meaning of life?" is a proper sort of question at all and whether it might be unanswerable, along with several popular or attractive ways of addressing it, including the notion that we might be the creators of our own meaning.
Reading reflection: What does Eagleton mean when he asks whether the question of life's meaning is a properly formed question at all? Does he think it is a meaningful question? Why or why not? Given that it is meaningful, is it answerable? Say something also about Eagleton's discussion of either tragedy, our awareness of our own finitude, the variety of answers on offer, or the possibility we create our own meaning.
Week Two:
September 5:
No Class - Labor Day holiday
September 6-9:
Meaning Reflection: We'll go through an example together in class on "What Is a Meaning of Food?" and then individually write reflections on "What Is a Meaning of Sleep?"
Reading: Terry Eagleton, The Meaning of Life, Chapter 2 "The Problem of Meaning" (pages 33-55).
In Chapter 2, Eagleton explores the meaning "meaning" and the possibility that life is meaningless or, even if it is meaningful, that pursuing life's meaning might be self-destructive.
Week Three:
September 12-16:
Reading: Terry Eagleton, The Meaning of Life, Chapter 3 "The Eclipse of Meaning" (pages 56-77).
In Chapter 3, Eagleton asks whether the contrast between "meaningful" and "meaningless" already assumes too much and then goes on to try to work through the seeming distinction between "inherent" meanings and meanings that are "ascribed" or "constructed."
Reading reflection: In Chapter 2, what does Eagleton say about the meaning of "meaning" when we talk about life having meaning? What are some of the various possibilities he explores? What is the distinction that Eagleton makes between "inherent" meaning and "constructed" (or "ascribed") meaning? We are some of the limitations upon what kind of meaning we can construct that Eagleton suggests at the end of Chapter 3?
Meaning Reflection: In class written reflection on "What Is a Meaning of Time?"
Reading: Terry Eagleton, The Meaning of Life, Chapter 4 "Is Life What You Make of It?" (pages 78-101).
In this final chapter, Eagleton gives his attention to one of main contenders for claiming to be the meaning of life: happiness, understood as human self-fulfillment. But Eagleton also considers some other contenders: power, love, freedom, desire, death, self-sacrifice, worldly success, intellectual contemplation, and so forth.
Week Four:
September 19-23:
Reading: David Foster Wallace, "Kenyon College Commencement Address" [Downloadable Word document].
Reading reflection: According to Eagleton's discussion in Chapter 4 what are some of the possibilities for what we mean by "happiness"? What are some possible meanings of life that Eagleton dismisses as unlikely or too instrumental? How does love relate to happiness? What is the point of the analogy of a jazz band at the end of Chapter 4?
Film Nights: Several times this week and next week I will schedule times for us to get together to watch the film Ghost World. This film is about a cynical, social misfit teenager, Enid (Thora Birch), who is searching for some sort of meaning in her life, but who ends up hurting everyone she might connect with, including her best friend Rebecca (Scarlett Johansson) and a middle-age, lonely record collector Seymour (Steve Buscemi).
Times and locations for Ghost World:
- Monday, 19 September - 3pm-5pm - Holroyd 390
- Tuesday, 20 September - 12:30pm-2:30pm - Olney 100 (please note change of location)
Questions for reflection and analysis will be distributed at the film showing.
This week, we will transition into Plato's Phaedo, beginning with some history and background for Western philosophy in general and for the ancient Greeks in particular.
Week Five:
September 26-30:
Reading: Plato, Phaedo 57a-107a (pages 5-58).
Plato writes this dialogue in the form of a flashback, narrated by Phaedo of Elis, a disciple of Socrates who was present at the time of his teacher's death. In it Phaedo recounts the hours leading up Socrates death sentence (self-administered through the drinking of hemlock) and his conversation with those at his bedside, particularly Simmias and Cebes. During his last day, Socrates discussed and reviewed four main arguments concering the afterlife and the immortality of the soul.
As you read Phaedo, think about how Socrates' four arguments come together to provide a comprehensive perspective on the nature of reality, knowledge, absolute goodness and beauty, the role of philosophy, and the condition of the soul.
Also, note how the dialogue opens with a discussion of Socrates' putting Aesop's fables to music and ends with Socrates' telling a fable of his own, which he suggests we should sing to ourselves. Furthermore, in the middle of the dialogue Socrates' refers to the songs of swans before they die, as an expression of their prophetic vision of the life to come. What do you make of all that?
Reading: Plato, Phaedo 107a-118 (pages 58-67)
Reading reflection: According to Plato, what are the inter-connections between the goodness (justice, purity, courage, etc.) of the wise soul, the absolute and eternal Forms (beauty, goodness, etc.), and the soul's immortality? How do these connections function as an argument for the immortality of the soul, particularly as expressed in the "affinity" and "form of life" arguments? How do these relate to Socrates' myth at the end of Phaedo? Due date: October 3/4.
Week Six:
October 3-7:
Reading: CS Lewis, "Transposition" [Downloadable Word document].
Lewis tries to think through how we talk and think about the relationship between spiritual (transcendent, supernatural) reality in relations to our everyday experience of our "natural lives." He proposes the category of "Transposition" as one way of thinking about this. The idea is that "higher" reality takes up and makes use of "lower" reality to express itself in a way that we can understand and relate to, but that imposes certain limitations, given the nature of lower reality. Ultimately, we shouldn't think of the limitations in terms of the spiritual being less real than the material, but rather it is the material, natural world that is the shadowy, imperfect copy of the spiritual.
Meaning Reflection: In class written reflection on "What Is a Meaning of Music?"
Film Nights: The next film I'll be showing is Babette's Feast, a Danish film about a pietistic Lutheran religious community. It is led by two spinster sisters, Philippa (Bodil Kjer) and Martine (Birgitte Federspiel), and has grown cold and rigid in the many years after the death of the sisters' father, the community's founder and pastor. It's vibrance, love, and conviviality is only reignited with the arrival of a strange Catholic refugee (Stéphane Audran) from France.
Times and locations for Babette's Feast:
- Thursday, 6 October - 12:30pm-2:30pm - Holroyd 361
- Thursday, 6 October - 5pm-7pm - Wister 204
Questions for reflection and analysis will be distributed at the film showing.
Short Essay 1: Write 2-3 pages (double-spaced, typed) on one of the following topics. The essay should demonstrate careful reading and a clear understanding of the texts involved, as well as a careful and accurate use of their concepts. You will need to synthesize ideas and arguments from across at least two texts, demonstrating critical abilities and philosophical insight. You will have to express your own viewpoint creatively, giving reasons for specific claims you make. Due date: October 10/11.
[1] In the end, Terry Eagleton argues that the meaning of life may consist in a living a certain sort of life. Such a life would likely include goods such as happiness and love. How does Eagleton understand "happiness" and "love" and how the two work together? In David Foster Wallace's "Kenyon Commencement Address" he suggests that overcoming self-centeredness and learning what to "worship" is a large part of how we "construct meaning from experience." How do Wallace's remarks intersect with, support, or conflict with what Eagleton says? What do you think? How do Eagleton and Wallace's perspectives connect with your own experiences and beliefs?
[2] In Phaedo Plato argues that the meaning of life lies in our connection to a transcendent Reality that lies beyond this present life. How does Plato's understanding of absolute reality function in his argument for the immortality of the soul? How do his beliefs shape his attitude toward our present, material experiences and desires? In what way does Lewis's argument in "Transposition" help explain and support Plato's perspective? How might Lewis's approach re-orient or re-calibrate Plato's attitude toward our present life? What do you think about their perspectives? Are Plato and/or Lewis persuasive in their positions and arguments? Why or why not?
[3] In Phaedo Plato suggests that happiness is a matter of priorities - valuing things that last and are grounded in absolute realities over things that change and pass away. How does this intersect with Eagleton's rejection of some life goals as "too instrumental" or as "too trivial"? How do Plato's views connect with Wallace's discussion of what is worthy of our "worship" and his argument that worshiping some things will inevitably leave us dissatisfied? What do you think about these issues of what we value and how we prioritize our wants and desires? What are some practical implications of these views for everyday life?
[4] In David Foster Wallace's "Kenyon Commencement Address" he argues that human beings are naturally drawn toward what is most immediate in our experience, which naturally centers on ourselves and what is physically obvious to us. Be he suggests that "learning how to think" means being freed up to decide to view reality in a different way. What does he suggest this choice involves? What is the other perspective he outlines? How might Wallace's argument connect up with Lewis's suggesting that failure to see "transposition" in our experience, as he describes it, involves a "deliberate refusal to understand things from above"? What do you think? Are you able to choose to see things as Wallace and Lewis suggest? Why or why not?
Week Seven:
October 10-14:
Reading: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book I (pages 1-18).
Aristotle begins his ethics with a discussion of the "highest good" or ultimate purpose of human life, a topic that connects back to Eagleton. Like Eagleton, Aristotle suggests that happiness is in fact what we want out of life, but he sees happiness as grounded in and shaped by our specific nature as human. Thus, happiness is not just whatever we want it to be and, indeed, we can be mistaken about what will make us happy. While the human activity that is happiness is an open-ended, creative, and constructive pursuit on our part, Aristotle nonetheless thinks we must engage this pursuit along the lines of the human excellence he calls "virtue."
Reading Reflection: Due to the specificity of this week's assignment, I will distribute it in class on Friday. Due date: October 12/13.
Week Eight:
October 17-18:
No Class - Mid-Semester Holidays
October 19-21:
Reading: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book II (pages 18-30) and Book III.1-3 (pages 30-36).
In the reading from Aristotle for this week in Book II, he fills out his account of human virtues of character. He sees such virtues as the cultivation of habits of excellence that guide our actions, along with the feelings and desires that shape them, in accordance with what he calls a "mean." What constitutes this mean is always, to a degree, relative to our particular situations and temperaments. We discover and achieve this mean through the use of practical wisdom, which is itself an intellectual virtue, acquired through time, experience, and training.
In the sections assigned from Book III, Aristotle constructs an account of the human will as directed toward ends and when we may judge actions to be voluntary or involuntary in light of various circumstances such as coercion, ignorance, duress, regret, and so on. Building on this account of voluntary action, he then moves on to discuss the uniquely human capacity for deliberative action, which requires a degree of self-reflectivity and moral imagination that goes beyond that of animals or even small children.
Week Nine:
October 24-28:
Reading: Augustine, On Free Choice of the Will Book I.1-10 (pages 1- 17).
In Augustine's treatise he is dealing with the over-arching question of human free will to choose, whether choosing good or choosing evil. This question is generated for him by the mystery of why there is a evil in a world created by a good, loving, and all-powerful God. As he discusses human choices, he develops a notion of human freedom that sees freedom as instrinsically tied to goodness, so that turning away from good ends actually diminishes our true freedom.
As Augustine discusses human freedom, he explains evildoing as disordered (or "inordinate") desire. That is to say, all human action expresses desires and, on one level, these desires are aimed at good ends. Evildoing is not the result of desiring evil in itself, but desiring good in a disordered way, so that greater goods are sacrificed for the sake of lesser goods. This, for Augustine, is the essence of evil-doing.
In discussing inordinate desire, Augustine also brings up a variety of other topics, such as the inherent goods of true learning and knowledge or the distinction between eternal, universal law and temporal, human laws.
Week Ten:
October 31 - November 4:
Reading: Augustine, On Free Choice of the Will Book I.11-16 (pages 17-28) and Book II.1, 18-20 (pages 29-30 and 64-59). Skim over Book II.2-17 (pages 33-64).
In Book II, Augustine begins with a brief discussion of faith and reason, followed by an extensive argument for the existence of God.
Augustine follows his argument for God's existence with an argument that free will is itself a good gift, even if it can be abused or used wrongly to pursue evil. Still, even in doing evil, the will directs itself towards goods, even if in a defective way.
Film Nights: Several times this week I will be showing the film Gattaca. The film concerns a future world shaped by the purported ability to determine one's future and potential through genetic testing. The main character, Vincent (Ethan Hawke), was naturally conceived rather that genetically engineered. He must use the identity of another person, an injured athelete named Eugene (Jude Law), in order to gain access to work with the Gattaca corporation, where he meets and falls in love with Irene (Uma Thurman).
Questions for reflection and analysis will be distributed at the film showing.
Week Eleven:
November 7-11:
Readings: Augustine, On Free Choice of the Will Book III.1, 5, and 13-18 (pages 70-73, 78-83, and 96-107) and William T. Cavanaugh, "The Unfreedom of the Free Market" [Downloadable PDF]
In these final sections, Augustine gets into the question how a good and perfect will could turn away from the goodness toward which it was originally directed. The ability to turn away from goodness and from God, Augustine argues, is itself praiseworthy since it is simply the flip side of the will's ability to freely move toward goodness and toward God.
In some respects, for Augustine, there cannot be a full explanation for the human choice to do evil since evil, in itself, is "nothing" but is a privation or absence of the good. Thus it is not something in itself to serve as an object of choice, which always remains directed toward good. Empty choice, without content, merely for choice's sake is the essence of wrongdoing and sin. It is the path to enslavement to disordered desired and the opposite of true freedom.
In his essay, "The Unfreedom of the Free Market," Cavanaugh uses Augustine theory of human free will as a way of talking about the freedom of markets and of economic choices. If empty choice, the merely ability to choose anything or nothing, irrespective of particular ends, is of the essence of wrongdoing and destroys freedom, then a "free market" unconstrained by a positive conception of "the good" is not truly free, but rather is a form of self-destruction and enslavement to disordered desire.
Week Twelve:
November 14-18:
Short Essay 2: Write 2-3 pages (double-spaced, typed) on one of the following topics. The essay should demonstrate careful reading and a clear understanding of the texts involved, as well as a careful and accurate use of their concepts. You will need to synthesize ideas and arguments from across at least two texts, demonstrating critical abilities and philosophical insight. You will have to express your own viewpoint creatively, giving reasons for specific claims you make. Due date: November 17/18.
[1] In Augustine's On Free Choice of the Will, he argues for claims that intersect with claims Aristotle makes. Both philosophers see happiness as the goal of human action. Both believe that happiness is achieved through the cultivation of virtues that direct, prioritize, and constrain our desires. Both believe that we are to be praised and blamed for the choices we make (for this in Aristotle, see Nicomachean Ethics Book III.1-3). Both believe that immediate gratification through material pleasure can lead us down destructive paths. Trace out some of these similarities, but also look for differences, both obvious ones (e.g., Augustine's focus on God) and less obvious ones (e.g., how they interrelate pleasure and happiness).
[2] In William Cavanaugh's article ("The Unfreedom of the Free Market") he describes Augustine's view of human free will, drawing upon a variety of sources from Augustine's writings. How does Cavanaugh's description of Augustine's viewpoint connect to what we read in On Free Choice of Will? Think especially about what Augustine says there about the nature of genuine freedom, the and nature and cause of wrongdoing, and the effects of inordinate desire upon those who give into it. How does Cavanaugh fill out Augustine's account further, particularly in terms of the social construction of desire and the notion of the libido dominandi. In what ways does Cavanaugh's discussion of genuine freedom intersect with economic decisions you make or the sorts of wants and desires you find yourself having?
[3] Connect Augustine's discussion of free will, inordinate desire, a well-ordered soul, and happiness in his On Free Choice of the Will back to David Foster Wallace's "Kenyon College Commencement Address." What parallels do you see between Augustine's account and Wallace's remarks, particularly where Wallace talks about living a fulfilling life, how "worship" functions in our lives, and our choice to perceive reality from different perspectives. How do the examples that Wallace provides help fill out and illustrate the points that Augustine is making? What are some ways in which Augustine and Wallace's observations might shed light on your own experiences, desires, goals, and choices?
[4] In Book II of On Free Choice of the Will Augustine gives an extended argument for the existence of God that culiminates in a discussion of how God, as Wisdom, shines through the numerical nature of all of reality. How does Augustine's view of God's presence and self-disclosure in the natural world - and how we too often miss it or ignore it - intersect with Lewis's arguments in "Transposition"? Consider, in particular, how Lewis sees the divine and spiritual as "transposed" into the material and natural. Consider also Lewis's discussion of how we may deliberately ignore the deeper meaning of the facts that confront us.
Reading: René Descartes, "Meditations I-II" in Meditations on First Philosophy (pages).
As an early modern philosopher, standing at the beginning of the European Enlightenment, Descartes differs from our earlier readings both in content (the focus on epistemology) and style (first person perspective meditations), though you've already heard a bit about Descartes from Eagleton and Wood.
In these first two Meditations Descartes explains his basic project: to rebuild the structure of human knowing on a foundation of certainty and indubitability. In the process of rebuiling knowledge, he concludes that the human mind is better known than any material thing, including one's own body, and indeed, in knowing anything, we first of all know ourselves.
Week Thirteen:
November 21-22:
Reading: René Descartes, "Meditations III-VI" in Meditations on First Philosophy (pages).
In these subsequent Meditations Descartes develops two further aspects of his epistemological project: demonstrating the existence of God and demonstrating the existence of the human soul (mind) as a substance entirely distinct from the material body.
His argument for the existence of God serves his goal of founding knowledge on a basis of certainty, since the existence for a perfect God can serve to guarantee the reliability of memory and belief-formation.
His argument of the distinction between soul (mind) and body is a tranposition of his sharp distinction between the subject and object of knowledge into the question of personal ontology.
November 21/22: Abstract and Outline due.
Your final paper in this class will be about 6-7 pages in length. The focus should explore some theme in relation to the texts we've be reading, developing your own ideas about that theme, and relating the theme to our lives and your experiences. You will need to develop some specific thesis that makes a claim in relation to this theme for which you will provide particular arguments and support.
Topics might include:
- the nature of genuine happiness
- how human beings are unique
- the existence of the soul
- the possibility of life after death
- how meaning, value, and freedom are affected by modernity
- postmodernism, meaning, and purpose
- enlightenment, intellectual virtue, and true knowledge
- the social production of desire
- God, faith, meaning, and happiness
- virtue and vice, goodness and evil
- power, freedom, and human identity
Your abstract should articulate a specific, focused thesis with regard to one of these topics, followed by several sentences of explanation, summarizing where you intend to go with the thesis.
Your paper outline should set out how you plan to structure your paper, making reference to your thesis, which authors and texts you expect to incorporate, how you will use them, how they will fit into your overall argument, and what connections you will draw with our lives and experiences.
November 23-25:
No Class - Thanksgiving Holidays
Week Fourteen:
November 28 - December 2:
Readings: Immanuel Kant, "An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?" (1784) and Michel Foucault, "What Is Enlightenment?" (from Paul Rabinow, ed., The Foucault Reader, New York: Pantheon Books 1984:32-50). [Downloadable Word documents]
If Descartes stands at the beginning of the Enlightenment person, Kant stands at the end of the Enlightment, looking back over it and summing up his understanding of its historical and philosophical significance.
According to Kant, the hallmark of the Enlightenment is intellectual maturity, the willingness to question received traditions and authorities, acting as an autonomous intelectual agent. He sums this up in the slogan, "Dare to know!" (Sapere aude!).
Michel Foucault is a recent postmodern philosopher who looks back at Kant's text from the standpoint of where the European Enlightenment has led our thinking in the years after Kant, to the point where the critical stance of the Enlightenment has been turned against the ideology of the Enlightenment itself. Thus, "enlightenment" involves, among other qualities, a recognition of our own cultural embeddedness and limitations.
December 1/2: Rough Draft due.
Week Fifteen:
December 5-9:
Readings: Michel Foucault, "The Body of the Condemned" and "Panopticism" from Discipline and Punish [Downloadable Word documents] and Jacques Ellul, "The Power of Technique and the Ethics of Non-Power." [Downloadable PDF]
In these final readings, Foucault applies his understanding of our epistemological situation to a specific historical question: how is it that modernity developed imprisonment as the primary form of criminal penalty and what does this development tell us about the character of modern society as a carceral society established through disciplinary technologies?
In the Ellul reading, he explores the notion of modern technology, living in a technological society, and the implications of this for meaningful, ethical living.
Week Sixteen:
December 12:
We'll wrap up any loose ends, you'll turn in your final paper, and I'll have you fill out evaluations.
