Comments on: Introducing Philosophical Lectures: What is philosophy?

By: The Uncredible Hallq » How philosophy classes work

The Uncredible Hallq » How philosophy classes work — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:07:59 +0000

[...] going to be given a bad grade just for believing in God. This is a good opportunity to expand on my introductory philosophy lecture, which, since I was trying to actually imagine myself teaching a class, included my thoughts on how [...]

By: Kevin Schutte

Kevin Schutte — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 03:47:29 +0000

There are lots and lots of them. Panpsychism, Cartesian skepticism, radical subjectivism, Berkeleyan idealism, dialetheism…the list could go on for a very long time.

By: The Uncredible Hallq

The Uncredible Hallq — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 06:37:58 +0000

Hmmm… now I’m curious. The idea of “unpopular ideas” is something I was just thinking about recently, anything in particular you have in mind?

By: Kevin Schutte

Kevin Schutte — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 02:19:48 +0000

I suppose I’d say what attracted me to philosophy was its willingness (if not eagerness) to honestly consider radical and unpopular points of view, even if it ultimately dismisses them.

Were I to give a first lecture to an Introduction to Philosophy class, I would try to say only things with which a great majority of philosophers (alive today) would find agreement, while at the same time being tactful with respect to the views of the rest of the academy (in order to not put off any students on their very first encounter with the discipline). This would be an extremely difficult but worthwhile task.

By: The Uncredible Hallq

The Uncredible Hallq — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:56:27 +0000

What *did* get you to major in philosophy? What would you prefer I say?

By: Kevin Schutte

Kevin Schutte — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:27:19 +0000

This all sounds to my ear to be very pretentious and arrogant. I might’ve opted not to be a philosophy major if I’d had your class.

By: Alex Leibowitz

Alex Leibowitz — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:18:40 +0000

Of course it wouldn’t be an introduction to *philosophy* without an attack on the sophists…

By: Jim Lippard

Jim Lippard — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 23:34:23 +0000

I like philosophy of language. I think it has important overlap with epistemology and metaphysics (in particular regarding truth, reference, and causation).

A lot of epistemology is done from a Cartesian individual perspective, but if you think for a moment about what you actually think you know, you’ll realize that most of it is dependent upon the testimony of others, including personal facts like your date of birth and who your parents are. Much of scientific practice is highly dependent upon knowledge transmitted via testimony in the form of published scientific papers. Philosophy of language is relevant to the reliable transmission of knowledge from person to person and social epistemology.

I’m a big fan of Devitt and Sterelny’s _Language and Reality_ as an introduction to philosophy of language. It’s a fun read.

By: The Uncredible Hallq » Blog Archive » Science Suday: why the retina is cool

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 06:25:24 +0000

[...] already announced the launch of one weekly post series as part of the relaunch of this blog. Now I’m announcing another one: Science Sunday, which [...]