1) International Academics Protest at Middlesex Philosophy Closure
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/may/07/philosophy-cuts-closures-middlesex-university
Zizek, Badiou, Buter, Chomsky and 56 others philosophers protest.
2) A Classical Education, Back to the Future
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/a-classical-education-back-to-the-future/
Stanley Fish on Crisis in humanities, lower education.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Science Media- Climate Change, Our Literal World at Stake
When The Day After Tomorrow Has Come:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/science/29scibks.html
If we choose to structure the episodes based on concrete disasters in our world, I think it will be important to have a basic understanding of them and what the experts in the field think of as actual responses, to which our responses/philosophers would be in contrast. The following book review explores one set of possible responses (innovative/technological) to environmental climate change and inhering risks in that response (which may have resonances for responses we would imagine).
Excerpt 1:
For Dr. Fleming, whose book is a scholarly look at the history of weather modification and similar efforts, geoengineering proposals are “untested, untestable and dangerous beyond belief.” He fits them neatly into what he calls “a long tradition of imaginative and speculative literature involving the ‘control’ of nature.” But, as he notes, the ideas have drawn favor especially among conservatives and libertarians who look for technological rather than regulatory solutions for climate change.
Excerpt 2:
In his discussion of geoengineering in “The Climate Fix,” Dr. Pielke argues that research into geoengineering techniques could advance scientists’ understanding of the action of Earth’s climate. But if the techniques are put into effect, “unintended consequences are certain,” he writes, adding “there is no practice planet earth on which such technologies can be implemented, evaluated, and improved.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/science/29scibks.html
If we choose to structure the episodes based on concrete disasters in our world, I think it will be important to have a basic understanding of them and what the experts in the field think of as actual responses, to which our responses/philosophers would be in contrast. The following book review explores one set of possible responses (innovative/technological) to environmental climate change and inhering risks in that response (which may have resonances for responses we would imagine).
Excerpt 1:
For Dr. Fleming, whose book is a scholarly look at the history of weather modification and similar efforts, geoengineering proposals are “untested, untestable and dangerous beyond belief.” He fits them neatly into what he calls “a long tradition of imaginative and speculative literature involving the ‘control’ of nature.” But, as he notes, the ideas have drawn favor especially among conservatives and libertarians who look for technological rather than regulatory solutions for climate change.
Excerpt 2:
In his discussion of geoengineering in “The Climate Fix,” Dr. Pielke argues that research into geoengineering techniques could advance scientists’ understanding of the action of Earth’s climate. But if the techniques are put into effect, “unintended consequences are certain,” he writes, adding “there is no practice planet earth on which such technologies can be implemented, evaluated, and improved.”
Monday, June 28, 2010
More Media Accounts: The crossroads between Pleasure and Ethics: Desire v. Ought?
The Psychology of Bliss: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/27/books/review/Henig-t.html
This article explores an evolutionary psychology understanding of the claim that the good life, pleasurably speaking, is often at odds with the ethical.
Excerpt:
"Our most puzzling sources of pleasure, according to this view, are side effects of our inborn “'essentialism,'” the idea that “'things have an underlying reality or true nature . . . and it is this hidden nature that really matters.'”
The Usefulness of Anger, by J.M. Bernstein:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/the-usefulness-of-anger-a-response/
Here Bernstein enjoins the ethical to a universal (moral anger), which is according to the Book Review, Psychology of Bliss, at the heart of our pleasure.
Excerpt 1:
"Moral anger creates, enjoins, makes possible moral community; again, moral anger is a form of “'fellow feeling which each individual has in behalf of the whole species.'”
Also, Bernstein using nihilistic as an adjective of Tea Party phenomenon:
Excerpt 2:
"Although none of the responses raised the issue directly, it might be argued that my chastisement of Tea Party advocates for lacking a workable political program, and hence in being nihilistic, assumed, since there is no exit from this political community, that the right response to our broken political present was grim forbearance."
This article explores an evolutionary psychology understanding of the claim that the good life, pleasurably speaking, is often at odds with the ethical.
Excerpt:
"Our most puzzling sources of pleasure, according to this view, are side effects of our inborn “'essentialism,'” the idea that “'things have an underlying reality or true nature . . . and it is this hidden nature that really matters.'”
The Usefulness of Anger, by J.M. Bernstein:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/the-usefulness-of-anger-a-response/
Here Bernstein enjoins the ethical to a universal (moral anger), which is according to the Book Review, Psychology of Bliss, at the heart of our pleasure.
Excerpt 1:
"Moral anger creates, enjoins, makes possible moral community; again, moral anger is a form of “'fellow feeling which each individual has in behalf of the whole species.'”
Also, Bernstein using nihilistic as an adjective of Tea Party phenomenon:
Excerpt 2:
"Although none of the responses raised the issue directly, it might be argued that my chastisement of Tea Party advocates for lacking a workable political program, and hence in being nihilistic, assumed, since there is no exit from this political community, that the right response to our broken political present was grim forbearance."
media accounts of related phenomena
crisis of sexual desire. Social/cultural vs. biochemical causes:
suicides of succesful artists:
Wong:
McQueen
Social/Cultural vs. Biochemical dimension of pleasure/desire
Book Review account of modern malaise.
"It may be that the hallmark of the modern moment is a certain demi-pleasurable drift "..."accompanied by a free-floating melancholy"
suicides of succesful artists:
Wong:
McQueen
Social/Cultural vs. Biochemical dimension of pleasure/desire
Book Review account of modern malaise.
"It may be that the hallmark of the modern moment is a certain demi-pleasurable drift "..."accompanied by a free-floating melancholy"
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