Nevertheless, comparatively few people realize that the views we commonly think of as "Platonic" represent only one strand in Plato's thought. Could we (individually and socially) educate and cultivate them? Thus, Plato described the philosopher as "the one who beholds all Time and all Being." [more], The last line of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Tractatus famously reads: "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent." Do particular case histories offer good explanations of psychopathology? But we also question the value of these tools based on first person approaches by relating them to the third person studies of the mind. Those positions remain extreme, but the challenge that consciousness poses is dramatic. action, ethics and moral psychology. Most sessions will pair readings about key concepts with specific cases that raise complex ethical issues, including the concept of moral standing and, e.g., people who do not yet exist, non-human individuals, species, and complex living systems; the concept of moral responsibility and complicity in environmentally damaging practices; the legitimacy of cost-benefit analysis as an environmental policy tool; and the valuation of human lives. His thought influenced the thought of subsequent generations of philosophers. THE SON of Adelaide coach Phil Walsh has appeared at a bedside court hearing in a psychiatric ward, charged with stabbing his father to death. We then consider a range of Buddhist critiques of these views, focusing more particularly on the Madhyamaka, which radicalizes the critique of the self into a global anti-realist and skeptical stance. [more], If we think of Michel Foucault as engaged in writing histories, or genealogies, of his own present designed to undercut the sense of the obviousness of certain practices and ways of thinking, categorizing, and knowing, we can easily imagine that he might now be questioning different aspects of our contemporary "present" than the ones standardly associated with his name, namely, panopticons and surveillance, discipline, criminalization, the biopolitics of health, the normal and the abnormal, etc. How important are honor, money, love, work, friendship and our connections to others to our happiness? These affect not only our particular choices but also, more fundamentally, who we are and what we value. Among other things, these critics challenged Rawls' interpretation and defense of the social contract framework, the ideals of freedom and equality, the content of principles of justice, political neutrality about the good, the nature of the self, the division between public and private spheres, and the distinction between ideal and non-ideal theory. Updated July 4, 2015 1.41am first published July 3, 2015 3.55pm. Finally, there are those who do not think philosophy can contribute much at all to answering such questions and others who question its claims to universality given its associations with colonialism, racism, sexism, etc. Could the world be made up of sensory properties only? Required fields are marked *. How do logic and language relate? Much of the moral philosophy produced in Greece and Rome remains as relevant today as when it was written. Are we legitimately bound by a social contract? Epistemologists seek answers to the following kinds of questions: When is it rational to have a particular belief? Are we rationally justified in drawing causal inferences? We will read the Oresteia and Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, Sophocles' Theban Cycle, and the Hippolytus, Bacchae and Philoctetes by Euripides. Some of the questions which we will discuss are: What is a person? How does film generate meaning? Finally, we will consider how the concept of freedom is applied in contemporary social contexts, such as speech, religion, voting, and sexuality and gender. Are we ever justified in having more concern, and doing more, for our friends, family, community or nation? No one can have an adequate understanding of western intellectual history without some familiarity with the Greeks, and we might think that an understanding of our intellectual history can deepen our understanding of our own situation. What differentiates today from yesterday? In the second part of the course, we will read On Certainty, and selections from other of Wittgenstein's posthumously published works: Zettel, Philosophical Grammar, Remarks on the Philosophy of Psychology, Culture and Value, Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology and Religious Belief, and The Big Typescript. metaphysics, epistemology, moral and political philosophy, philosophy of mind. In the spirit of reconciliation the AFL acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. To what extent do these myriad force relations limit, enable, or deform our participation as political citizens, and our capacity to transform and improve them? Success in fulfilling desires? It is at the same time the most intimately known fact of our humanity and science's most elusive puzzle. Throughout we will aim to fuse a rigorous scientific perspective with more humanistic themes and philosophical inquiry. How do I know that I am one? Trigger Warning: all the works of art studied in this class will be chosen partly because they have offended a significant number of people. Some philosophers have wondered, however, whether the notion of an alternative logic is even coherent. The cause of death for Phil Williams Jr. was listed as "probably a . Whether this is hyperbole or wise prognostication, it cannot be denied that the rise of AI will be a tectonic shift for culture, technology, and our fundamental sense of ourselves. Unfortunately, the relevance of Hume's ideas and arguments for particular philosophical disciplines has too often led to a piece-meal reading of his work: the three books of Treatise ("Of the Understanding," "Of the Passions" and "Of Morals") are typically considered in isolation from one another. What distinguishes that kind of life from others? microscopes of reason and logic can carry us in traditional arguments about the existence and nature of God. What makes an individual's life go well? No domain of inquiry is immune to this destructive skepticism and confident relativism. This raises the question whether a more complete account of the emergence of subjects must address both psychic, historical and social dimensions of subjectivity, the ways in which they are intertwined, and their importance for not only psychological well-being, but also relatively well-regulated socio-political relations. Why do we seek to experience through film fear and anguish that we avoid in our daily lives? We will read Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau in seeking answers to these questions. The answer is not merely that they ask the question, "What gives meaning to a human life?" What are other models for understanding moral objectivity? Are there ethical considerations that should govern both film production and spectatorship? In addition to examining general accounts of causation, we will examine particular problems that come up in thinking about mental causation and causation in indeterministic contexts. [more], Modern philosophy centers on two debates: Empiricism vs. Rationalism and Realism vs. Idealism. We also introduce the practice of meditation as a way to observe the mind and raise questions concerning the place of its study in the mind-sciences. But is the best conclusion we can come to with respect to our intellectual endeavors that skepticism always carries the day and that nothing at all is true? What is it for a sentence or a proposition to be true? Phil Williams / WTVF-TV: Tennessee Congressman Andy Ogles didn't want you to see his college transcript! We will look at civil disobedience and theories of legal interpretation. In a logic class, we think about how to represent ordinary language and thinking within formal systems and how to prove various things within these systems. influences? [more], No thinker has done more to shape the Western intellectual tradition than Augustine (354-430 CE), and no book displays Augustine's dynamic vision of reality more compellingly than the Confessions. We can learn a lot about logic, language, epistemology and metaphysics by thinking through and attempting to resolve paradoxes. Phil, miss you and wish I had the chance to say goodbye. Right? The philosophical study of what we do in language, and how we understand one another, is called pragmatics; within the analytic tradition, the main philosophical contributions to the study of pragmatics in language came from Peirce, Wittgenstein, Austen, Grice and Searle. We will begin with questions about how to define death, as well as reflections on its meaning and function in human life. His depiction of the trial and death of Socrates is one of the classics of western literature, and his views on ethics and politics continue to occupy a central place in our discussions 2400 years after they were written. Police believe Cy argued with his father around 2am on Friday at their beachside suburban Adelaide home. Others maintain that these questions will only yield to methods that incorporate our broader insight into the nature of the world including, perhaps, feminist thought or science. Who should rule? He had also worked at the Eagles for 5 years and was close A lesson from the tragic death of Phil Walsh Read More Safety measures are in place, and campus community members and guests are additionally advised to take personal precautions. While he never wrote any philosophical works of his own, Socrates is one of the most influential thinkers in the western tradition. The remainder of the course will consider key concepts at the core of medical ethics and central issues for the field, such as privacy and confidentiality, the distinction between killing and "letting die," and therapy vs. research. legitimate? Do our society's laws limit our freedom in order to make us safe? Later Wittgenstein is a controversial, polarizing figure; but serious reading of his work is invariably intellectually enriching and fertile. We will look at civil disobedience and theories of legal interpretation. Do we have any control over our emotions? [more], This course will emphasize interdisciplinary approaches to the study of intelligent systems, both natural and artificial. These questions are typically asked within a framework where the overarching goal is attaining truth and avoiding falsity. The focus will be on model-theoretic semantics, the sub-field of linguistics that studies meanings. The course will, I hope, provide the students an opportunity and the tools to intellectually examine deeply emotional and contentious issues. We will prove soundness and completeness, compactness, the Lowenheim-Skolem theorems, undecidability and other important results about first-order logic. For example, we will examine the ethics of disease surveillance, treatment and vaccine research, resource allocation and rationing, compulsion and voluntariness in public health measures, and social determinants of health outcomes, among other topics. PHIL 119 - 01 (S) SEM Justice, Democracy and Freedom Division II Writing Skills. Pascal's wager is a different approach: it argues that even though proof of the existence of God is unavailable, you will maximize your expected utility be believing. We will begin examining these questions by studying the history of controversies in American higher education, concentrating especially on debates about the curriculum. We will move on to examine ethical issues of truth-telling with terminally ill patients and their families, decisions to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatments, the care of seriously ill newborns, physician-assisted suicide, euthanasia, and posthumous interests. We will also pay close attention to the way in which each of these thinkers takes the practice of philosophy to play a key role in our realization of the good human life. In particular, one must grasp that "three of them" picks out a subset of the group picked out by "every cookie", and that there's no such thing as a cookie that is both chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin. It is a paradox, because I started with seemingly true statements and used valid reasoning to arrive at contradictory conclusions. There will also be a midterm paper (roughly 10 pages) and a final paper (roughly 15 pages) which you will develop and revise in consultation with the instructor. Why should one obey the law (if one should)? What if they are biased, unbeknownst to us? A number of conceptual themes will emerge throughout the course of the term, including notions of exploitation and coercion, privacy and confidentiality, and the balance between public interests and individual rights. The reason for this is that there are two underlying structures that the original sentence can realize. We will read Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau in seeking answers to these questions. How do logic and language relate? In this tutorial, we will investigate the nature of skepticism and the varieties of relativism it encourages. Now I'm confused. See if you can figure out why this is sometimes called a paradox, and then ask yourself what this has to do with our opening questions. This tutorial aims to provide students with the skills necessary for careful, serious and thorough reading of Wittgenstein's later philosophy. We will examine a variety of philosophical and scientific theories of emotion, as well as some issues concerning normative aspects of emotions: the role of emotions in a good life, and the concept of emotional maturity. And, Existentialists express their thought in philosophical treatises as often as in literary works. Are happiness and pleasure the same thing? The issue of prediction was also raised by economist Donald McCloskey who, in 1988, asked his fellow economists, "If you're so smart, why ain't you rich?" This is unfortunate, but at least there isn't a heap of sand on my desk. In framing and answering these questions, we will discuss subjective experience (or phenomenology) of mental illness; holism vs. reductionism; functional, historical and structural explanations of psychopathology; theory formation, evidence, and the role of values in psychology and psychiatry; the diversity and disunity of psychotherapeutic approaches; relationship between knowers and the known; and relationship between theoretical knowledge in psychiatry and the practices of healing. How is political power generated and exercised? There will also be a midterm paper (roughly 10 pages) and a final paper (roughly 15 pages) which you will develop and revise in consultation with the instructor. Other philosophers and literary theorists have used some of their ideas recently to throw light on the nature of textual meaning and the interpretation of literary texts. What differentiates today from yesterday? In addition to examining general accounts of causation, we will examine particular problems that come up in thinking about mental causation and causation in indeterministic contexts. A person incapable of loyalty is often characterized as fickle, cold, self-serving and sometimes even pathological. According to the other, every class was well-populated, potentially by different groups. In addition to key concepts of death, dying, and terminal illness, we will develop and refine notions of medical futility, paternalism and autonomy, particularly within the context of advance directives and surrogate decision making. We will then turn to a variety of more recent attempts to give a clear characterization of causation. On the other hand, there is a heap of sand in my backyard. While social justice and distributive justice are deeply intertwined in the health care context and we will discuss both, we will focus primarily on the concept of distributive justice. 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