Faith & Reason: Strange Bedfellows?

For more on today's presentation:

• "The Ethics of Belief," William Clifford's classic argument for evidentialism
  
• "The Will to Believe," William James's nonevidentialist response to Clifford
  
• "Believing Without Evidence," a modern-day evidentialist's take on the Clifford-James debate

The Big Aristotle

Here is a trio of short audio interviews with philosophers talking about Aristotle's influence on philosophy (in particular, his virtue ethics). All three interviews come from the "Philosophy Bites" podcast.

• Aristotle's Ethics
  
  
• Aristotle on Happiness
  
  
• Virtues
  

And here's a funny clip related to Aristotle's idea that a good person has developed her character enough to do the right thing without thinking:

• Kyle Kinane: Everybody Thinks They're a Good Person
  
  

Nihilism, Like Life, Is Absurd

Here is one (mildly depressing) approach to the meaning of life that our group referenced:

• "The Myth of Sisyphus" by Albert Camus
  
• "The Absurd" by Thomas Nagel

My Identity is Personal

Two cartoons on personal identity:

1. Does physical or psychological continuity matter? Let's think about teletransportation...
   
   


2. Perhaps our identity is all in the way we're arranged:
   
   

Group Presentation Research

Here are some helpful starter links on your topics for your group presentations. I don't expect you to read them all, but you should at least browse them to see what you might be interested in specifically regarding your topic.

Team Personal Identity (1st on Wednesday, 12/8/10)
[intermediate] [advanced] [summary of "A Dialogue on Personal Identity & Immortality"] [identity in general] [Ship of Theseus] [personal identity & ethics]
Anthony, Eric, Karly, Matt C., Richard, Viviana

Team Meaning of Life (2nd on Wednesday, 12/8/10)
[intermediate] [religion links] [Camus's "Myth of Sisyphus"] [Nagel's "The Absurd"] ["Love and Death"] [42?]
Chloe, James, Kassandra, Kelsey, Sam, Sierra

Team Ethics (to be specified) (3rd on Wednesday, 12/8/10)
Alicia, Austin, William

Team Confucius (1st on Monday, 12/13/10)
[intermediate] [advanced] [The Analects (free online translation)] [What is De? (part 1) (part 2)] [Neo-Confucianism] [Chinese ethics] [Confucius from a Japanese perspective]
Brian, Delilah, Kevin, Matt E., Michael, Zach

Team Immortality (2nd on Monday, 12/13/10)
[death] [resurrection] [summary of "A Dialogue on Personal Identity & Immortality"]
Lisa, Melissa, Remy, Sung

Team Aristotle (1st on Wednesday, 12/15/10)
[read excerpts from Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics: pages 269-277 of the textbook] [intermediate] [advanced] [Aristotle's virtue ethics (intermediate) (advanced)] [virtue ethics] [Aristotle's ethics (audio)] [Aristotle on happiness (audio] [Aristotle on virtues (audio)]
Katherine, Lexis, Marissa, Olivia

Team Faith and Reason (2nd on Wednesday, 12/15/10)
[intermediate] [nonevidentialism] [evidentialism: intermediate, advanced] ["Believing Without Evidence"] ["The Ethics of Belief"] ["The Will to Believe"] [Flew, Hare (reply), & Mitchell (summary)] [lots of links]
Dana, Dawn, Josh, Nancy, Robin

Group Presentations

Here are the group assignments. If you're not in a group yet, let me know as soon as possible so we can get you in one.

Team Personal Identity (1st on Wednesday, 12/8/10)
Anthony, Eric, Karly, Matt C., Richard, Viviana

Team Meaning of Life (2nd on Wednesday, 12/8/10)
Chloe, James, Kassandra, Kelsey, Sam, Sierra

Team Ethics (to be specified) (3rd on Wednesday, 12/8/10)
Alicia, Austin, William

Team Confucius (1st on Monday, 12/13/10)
Brian, Delilah, Kevin, Matt E., Michael, Zach

Team Immortality (2nd on Monday, 12/13/10)
Lisa, Melissa, Remy, Sung

Team Aristotle (1st on Wednesday, 12/15/10)
Katherine, Lexis, Marissa, Olivia

Team Faith and Reason (2nd on Wednesday, 12/15/10)
Dana, Dawn, Josh, Nancy, Robin

Also, I mentioned this in class, but just in case...

Attendance is mandatory for the group presentations on Wednesday (12/8/10), Monday, (12/13/10), and Wednesday (12/15/10). It's the only time I'll be a stickler for it. Basically, I want you to show respect for the other groups presenting.

If you don't attend on either the days your group isn't presenting (and your absence isn't excused), your own personal presentation grade will drop. Each day you don't attend will lower your grade by a full letter grade.

One last thing: be sure to keep the presentations under 15 minutes. A 10-minute presentation is ideal, so we can have time for a short question-and-answer session afterwards.