Ruth Barcan Marcus: Philosopher

Ruth Barcan Marcus was a highly respected Yale logician and philosopher who died this past year at the age of 90.

Marcus scaled the heights of a field utterly dominated by men, at a time when sexism was rife in academia and the “old boys’ network” was still in its prime. She would tell of having to fend off the unwelcome advances of a male professor (thankfully not a philosopher!) with a coat hanger, of being barred from all undergraduate classrooms at Yale while studying there for her Ph.D., and of being forced to publish her landmark papers under her married name — just a few of the indignities she would endure. In her 2010 Dewey Lecture to the American Philosophical Association, Marcus recalled, “Yale had a philosophy club open to undergraduate and graduate students. I was elected president but then received a letter from the chair of the department suggesting that I decline. The reasons given were that Yale was predominantly and historically a male institution and that my election may have been a courtesy. Also, the club’s executive committee met at Mory’s, which was closed to women. I did not respond to the letter and did not decline. It was, to me, obviously unreasonable.”

Ruth Barcan Marcus: Philosopher - NYTimes.com

Shift Happens

David Weinberger writes about Thomas Kuhn's famous work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

Kuhn wanted to free us from the illusion that knowledge is independent of history and of the sociality that marks us as humans, but he did not think that all beliefs that our history and sociality put before us are equally worthy. Indeed, he quickly moved away from the "shift happens" conception of paradigms as bundles of beliefs, emphasizing instead that they're examples of good scientific practice that researchers apply in their daily work.

Read more

Pat Churchland on Brains as Causal Machines

Pat Churchland is interviewed at 3:AM Magazine. She talks about philosophy, morality, brains and much more.

I discovered that Quine understood the problem with the claims about a priori truths and necessary truths more generally. Analyzing a concept can (perhaps) tell you what the concept means (at least means to some philosophers), but it does not tell you anything about whether the concept is true of anything in the world. But many philosophers in the second half of the 20th century really seemed to think that they were laying the foundations for science by laying down the conceptual (necessary) truths. I asked one: show me one example where 20th century conceptual analysis laid a foundational plank for any empirical science — any empirical science. No answer.

Read more of the interview "Causal Machines"

What is Philosophy?

A few examples:

Most simply put it’s about making sense of all this… We find ourselves in a world that we haven’t chosen. There are all sorts of possible ways of interpreting it and finding meaning in the world and in the lives that we live. So philosophy is about making sense of that situation that we find ourselves in.” ~Clare Carlisle

I think it’s thinking fundamentally clearly and well about the nature of reality and our place in it, so as to understand better what goes on around us, and what our contribution is to that reality, and its effect on us.” ~ Barry Smith

[Philosophy is] a process of reflection on the deepest concepts, that is structures of thought, that make up the way in which we think about the world. So it’s concepts like reason, causation, matter, space, time, mind, consciousness, free will, all those big abstract words and they make up topics, and people have been thinking about them for two and a half thousand years and I expect they’ll think about them for another two and a half thousand years if there are any of us left.” ~ Simon Blackburn

 What is Philosophy? An Omnibus of Definitions from Prominent Philosophers

Business Majors and Philosophy

A business major isn't enough. Companies want well rounded students: "...a 22-year-old who can think creatively and has good problem solving skills and can write." Not everyone in business programs is getting this education. A philosophy major would have an advantage.

Read more at WSJ: Wealth or Waste? Rethinking the Value of a Business Major

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism explained

NKU Soc, Ant, Phi Student Awards Reception

Attention NKU Philosophy Majors:

You are invited to the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Philosophy Student Awards Reception. Wednesday, April 25 from 5:00-7:00 in SU 104. Send RSVP to Jessica at whytej@nku.edu. Food. Awards. Friends.

Is Free Will an Illusion?

There is an interesting series of articles on free will in the Chronicle of Higher Education.  The contributors, both scientists and philosophers, include Jerry Coyne, Alfred Mele, Michael Gazzaniga, Hilary Bok, Owen Jones and Paul Bloom.

For centuries, the idea that we are the authors of our own actions, beliefs, and desires has remained central to our sense of self. We choose whom to love, what thoughts to think, which impulses to resist. Or do we? 

Neuroscience suggests something else. We are biochemical puppets, swayed by forces beyond our conscious control. So says Sam Harris, author of the new book, Free Will (Simon & Schuster), a broadside against the notion that we are in control of our own thoughts and actions. Harris's polemic arrives on the heels of Michael S. Gazzaniga's Who's In Charge? Free Will and the Science of the Brain (HarperCollins), and David Eagleman's Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain (Pantheon), both provocative forays into a debate that has in recent months spilled out onto op-ed and magazine pages, and countless blogs. 

What's at stake? Just about everything: morality, law, religion, our understanding of accountability and personal accomplishment, even what it means to be human. Harris predicts that a declaration by the scientific community that free will is an illusion would set off "a culture war far more belligerent than the one that has been waged on the subject of evolution."

Is Free Will an Illusion? - The Chronicle Review - The Chronicle of Higher Education

The Prestige

Is it magic or science? Can a person be copied? Do we prefer mystery over understanding? Join us as we watch and discuss Christopher Nolan's amazing film The Prestige. Friday, April 13, from 3:00 to 6:00 in the GH Digitorium.

I think that The Prestige is the Nolans' reflection on film as an illusion: filmmaking is art because it has a certain structure that the filmmaker uses in order to guide the audience through an illusion. In the same way as the magician, the filmmaker sacrifices himself in order to create a cathartic world that the audience will believe in for the time of the film’s projection. The theme of magic and its various aspects (the nature and life of the magician, the performance of tricks, the meaning of magic for the audience) is thus a metaphor for the real subject-matter of the film: filmmaking as a form of art. (Ophelie Wolf)

The key to the film is the discussion of the role of magic and illusion. The film cannot help making one reflect on how awe and wonder work when humans think about the fact that reality does not always conform to the way we think it should work. The question you have to ask yourself: Is it part of the human condition to want to be fooled? Once we know the secret, it looses its power; maybe it is better to remain a mystery. Avoid the shallow, and listen closely for the deeper truth. (Greg Veltman)

The Problem of Evil

The Philosophers' Cafe will discussion the Problem of Evil on Friday, March 30, from 3:00 to 4:00 in SU 105 at NKU. Please come out and join the discussion.

Bertrand Russell

A very short but interesting biography of philosopher Bertrand Russell.

As an undergraduate Russell had become increasingly disenchanted with the way in which his lecturers and tutors had presented mathematics. Their lack of logical rigour seemed to reduce it to no more than a bag of tricks designed for the puzzle-solving requirements of the Mathematical Tripos [exams]. His interests shifted to the need to put mathematics on a secure logical basis, and so from maths to philosophy. But the need for a foundation for mathematics was more than a philosophical challenge. Russell craved an absolute certainty which he felt he could only find in this way. For over a decade he laboured mightily with Whitehead on the monumental undertaking to provide mathematics with a secure logical basis. Their work transformed mathematical logic, but it foundered on what has become known as ‘Russell’s Set Paradox’.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) | Philosophy Now:

Blade Runner

Join us on Friday, March 16 in the Digitorium (GH) for the next movie discussion in our Film and Philosophy series.  We'll screen Blade Runner starting at 3:00, followed with discussion.

Here are some links to interesting discussion of the movie

• Blade Runner: What is means to be human in the cybernetic state (John W. Whitehead)
• Philosophy Meets Hollywood: Descartes among the androids (Stephen T. Asma)
• What Defines Human? (Jens Brandt)

PHI/REL Fall 2012 Schedule

The PHI & REL Fall 2012 Schedule posters are out!

Leibniz or Newton?

Free John Searle Classes Online

Berkeley has posted three of John Searle's philosophy classes online for free.

You can’t dabble in the world of philosophy very long without encountering John Searle. One of America’s most respected philosophers, Searle did important work on “speech act” theory during the 1960s, then later turned to consciousness and artificial intelligence, out of which came his famous “Chinese room” thought experiment. Searle has taught philosophy at UC-Berkeley since 1959, and, until recently, his courses were only available to matriculated students. But this fall semester, the good folks at Berkeley recorded three courses taught by Searle, and made them available online.

Free John Searle classes (Open Culture)

Philosophers' Cafe - Cosmopolitanism

Join us at the Philosophers' Cafe as we discuss Cosmopolitanism. Are we all citizens of the world? Do we bear special responsibilities to others around the world? How should we balance our obligations to our countries and to citizens of other countries around the world?

Friday, February 24 from 3:00-4:00 in SU 105.

Spinoza's vision of freedom, and ours

Spinoza's vision of freedom...

Well before John Stuart Mill, Spinoza had the acuity to recognize that the unfettered freedom of expression is in the state’s own best interest. In this post-9/11 world, there is a temptation to believe that “homeland security” is better secured by the suppression of certain liberties than their free exercise. This includes a tendency by justices to interpret existing laws in restrictive ways and efforts by lawmakers to create new limitations, as well as a willingness among the populace, “for the sake of peace and security,” to acquiesce in this. We seem ready not only to engage in a higher degree of self-censorship, but also to accept a loosening of legal protections against prior restraint (whether in print publications or the dissemination of information via the Internet), unwarranted surveillance, unreasonable search and seizure, and other intrusive measures. Spinoza, long ago, recognized the danger in such thinking, both for individuals and for the polity at large. He saw that there was no need to make a trade-off between political and social well-being and the freedom of expression; on the contrary, the former depends on the latter.

A Homepage for Philosophy

If you haven't done so yet, you should checkout the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. It's a wonderful resource for philosophers, with a large number of various entries written by credible authors. With each entry you'll also find a solid reference list and links to online resources.

The SEP’s approach seems to have worked. The resource’s credibility and accuracy are unquestioned..., and it attracts an abundant audience, with between 600,000 and 700,000 accesses per week during the academic year.

A Home page for Philosophy 

Eternal Sunshine...

We screen the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind on Friday at 3:00 in Budig Theater. For those not familiar with the movie, here is a summary from the film's web site:

From acclaimed writer Charlie Kaufman and visionary director Michel Gondry comes Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. An all-star ensemble cast shines in this comical and poignant look at breakups, breakdowns and breakthroughs. Joel (Jim Carrey) is stunned to discover that his girlfriend, Clementine (Kate Winslet), has had their tumultuous relationship erased from her mind. Out of desperation, he contacts the inventor of the process, Dr. Howard Mierzwiak (Tom Wilkinson), to get the same treatment. But as his memories of Clementine begin to fade, Joel suddenly realizes how much he still loves her. Kirsten Dunst, Mark Ruffalo and Elijah Wood co-star in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind - a memorable film that The Wall Street Journal calls "a romantic comedy unlike any other!"

You can read a nice paper by Christopher Grau on the "Morality of Memory" at http://bit.ly/yajDfb. As Grau points out, the film introduces the inverse of Nozick's Experience Machine and has us asking questions about the erasure of accurate memories. Grau explores the moral dimensions of this. There is also a nice reference in the movie to Nietzsche's idea of eternal reoccurrence.

Philosophy and the Science of Happiness

Students are encouraged to submit papers to a conference entitled, “Philosophy and the Science of Happiness.” It will be held Saturday, April 14th, 2012, at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Dr. Erik Angner is the main speaker and will be speaking on the conference theme. College students may present on any topic relating to philosophy, including economics topics; students must submit essays for approval by March 1st, 2012 in order to present at the conference. Included as part of the conference is an essay contest for undergraduate students. Students may use papers that they have already written for class.

Registration is FREE and is now open.

The specifications for the essays along with other details of the conference may be found at: philosophy.gmu.edu/events/2169 . One can e-mail gmuphilosophyconference@gmail.com for more information. Check out the Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/329212190439166/.