DKJ's Daily Phlog

Note to all Student Bloggers

2012-01-21T12:36:00.000-05:00

Once I've received your URL, please verify that your link from my margin works and that I've listed your name properly. Let me know on FC of any problems.

(PL) Another word for nonmetaphorical or literal emotion

2012-01-19T11:05:00.001-05:00

The simple phrase I couldn't recall yesterday, describing a category of emotions many theorists find mostly absent in our experience of music (and the arts generally) is "everyday, garden-variety emotions." There, I feel better now.

Welcome Back

2012-01-08T20:54:00.007-05:00

Classes begin in just over a week. For returning and prospective students, here's the latest iteration of my all-important "Handout CL" (I've included a link to this document and all course handouts -- several of which are new or in progress -- in the margin of this blog):

Handout CL: Classroom Policies and Expectations

Good students attend all classes, participate regularly, thoughtfully, and respectfully; consistently strive to produce high quality work and meet all deadlines; consult with the professor during office hours when necessary; and, most generally, openly, deliberately, and with enthusiasm embrace this and other formal opportunities for intellectual, scholarly growth. My class policies and expectations, consonant with this understanding of what it means to be a (good) student, are as follows:

Attendance
Missing class is not an excuse for missing a deadline or an assignment. Attendance is absolutely required fully to benefit from/contribute to the seminar. Even so, I will not take or grade attendance (except on those occasions when it is required for institutional record-keeping). Physically attending class is such an obvious and nominal requirement of any adult learner in a non-compulsory, post-secondary educational setting that it would be errantly paternalistic and ineffective (I assume, as the cliché suggests, external reward often undermines internal motivation) to take note of, let alone award some kind of “credit” for, mere attendance. (Here's another take on attendance that I support.) In short: please don't take my seminars if you plan not to attend.

Participation
Likewise, aside from the basic respect due all persons, I will not award any kind of special credit to those who, in fulfilling an equally basic and obvious duty as a member of a community of learners/scholars, regularly and effectively participate in classroom discussions and other activities. Class participation schemes, like attendance policies, often are little more than paternalistic incentives designed to trick or force (adult) students into acting like adults. In short: please don't take my seminars if you plan not to contribute.

Grading
Despite the heavy financial and opportunity costs associated with attending college, no one, independently of his or her scholarly performance, has a right to a good or even passing grade. Rather, good grades must be earned. In an effort to resist the triadic wave of grade inflation, social promotion, and consumerism currently plaguing our educational institutions, I strictly adhere to a traditional understanding of the grades A-F (outstanding-abysmal) as articulated by the Foundation for Critical Thinking:

http://ctlt.jhsph.edu/resources/views/content/files/38/Assessing%20Critical%20Thinking.doc

Furthermore, I fallibly grade students on their individual performance, not on some kind of collectivist “curve.” Our role as teachers is to grade student work, not the students themselves. That is, I do not -- and do not think it fair or right for anyone to -- grade student effort, potential, intelligence, character, goals, needs, or any other feature of a student’s life aside from his or her scholarly products. In short: please don't expect to receive a better grade than you earn.

Unexcused Absences/Make-ups/Extra Credit/Incompletes and other Nonsensical terms
Aside from officially sanctioned reasons for absence or lateness as outlined in the official MCLA Student Handbook, I will – on principle and in fairness to those who do their work in a timely fashion – strictly enforce all course deadlines. Therefore, I will not offer (undocumented) "incompletes," “makeup exams," “partial credit” for late work, or “extra credit” for those hoping to improve existing grades. In short: please do all your work on time.

Civility/behavior
I believe that nothing is more corrosive to our educational success than incivility (inappropriately childish behavior -- like incessant joking, chatting, or expressing anger during class -- is a close second). While honest disagreement and debate is a natural and welcome consequence of our enquiries, there is never a call for disrespectful, abusive, or intimidating words or actions of any sort in our dealings with each other in a classroom setting (virtual or otherwise). In short: please be considerate of others.

Special Accommodations
I will happily honor any officially documented requirements for special accommodations as outlined in the MCLA Student Handbook.

A Note on Blogging

2011-12-23T10:50:00.011-05:00

I have for several years now offered students in my advanced philosophy and Honors courses the option of blogging in lieu of authoring more traditional research essays. When properly utilized, blogging can extend and enrich class discussions, facilitate conversations about course-related topics not previously or fully addressed in class, encourage students to exercise autonomy and creativity in sharing their own resources and critical analyses, and, most importantly from my vantage point as an educator, provide a regular, out-of-classroom, easily accessible mechanism for students to apply, internalize, and deepen their understanding of course material.

Sadly, I’ve witnessed over this past semester a dramatic upsurge in the number of students who choose the blogging option and then, for whatever reason, opt out of fulfilling the minimum, clearly articulated, expectations for successful blogging.

Faced with this kind of blogging devolution, a lesser epistemologist might be inclined to retreat to more traditional, directive, and teacher-centered methods. But my two-decade foray into all-things-epistemic has confirmed my intuition that successful pedagogy has little to do with the passive transfer of information from one mind to the next (and, like music instruction, certainly will not succeed to any significant degree during the lessons/classes themselves), but of necessity involves the daily, active, individual construction of each new element of knowledge. And, as a bonus, the activities blogging entails and engenders are precisely those I most value in classroom settings.

So, I have my first New Year’s resolution: blogging as a student-based, writing-intensive, discussion-oriented, autonomy-inducing method par excellence, will form an even greater part of the total course requirements for all students in my advanced seminars this coming spring.

Happy Holidays

2011-12-20T21:56:00.002-05:00

(PM) Susan Langer Materials

2011-12-04T21:54:00.002-05:00

http://www.anthonyflood.com/langer.htm

(AP) SEP on the Aesthetics of Nature

2011-11-29T14:16:00.002-05:00

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/environmental-aesthetics/

See, especially, sections 3.2 (noncognitivist alternatives to Carlson's scientific cognitivism) and 4.2 (aesthetics of nature and environmentalism).

(AP-Honors; Phil Music) Reminder: Book Reviews

2011-11-20T15:58:00.000-05:00

Reminder: All students in AP-honors and Philosophy of Music must choose, have me approve, then review according to the published guidelines a book-length treatment of some issue/issues related to the seminar. Students will orally present the findings of their reviews during the scheduled final exam period.

If you haven't done so already, either ask me in person or send titles for approval on FC.

Additional Spring, 2012 Seminar in Philosophy

2011-11-17T16:12:00.001-05:00

I have added an additional upper-division elective to the spring, 2012 schedule:

Instructor: DKJ
Course: Contemporary Moral Issues (PHIL 350:01; CRN: 20676)
Day/Time: Tuesday evenings, 6:30-9:15

Prerequisite: At least one prior course in philosophy

Students must register for this course at the Registrar's office.

(AP) My Current Definition of Art

2011-11-17T14:42:00.001-05:00

Art = The suitably intentional, skillful, and creative embodiment of a thought or emotion in any publicly accessible medium primarily for the purpose of engaging us aesthetically.

The definition is intensional and classically "closed" (with respect to its conditions of applicability) yet wide "open" to all new types and tokens of art (contra Morris Weitz); that is, although I do specify a small number of necessary and jointly sufficient conditions for art, the definition remains both inclusive and expansive (pace Weitz). Admittedly, several words and phrases (creative, suitably skillful, aesthetically engaging) require much further elaboration.

In its current state, therefore, the definition is mostly silent on qualitative/evaluative issues (good/bad art), and simply distinguishes art from non-art -- though I suspect that parsing the vague terms ("suitably," especially) will introduce levels of merit or kinds of art (fine v. primitive v. decorative, etc.).

There are five necessary and jointly sufficient conditions:

1. The activity is intentional
2. The activity is suitably skillful
3. The activity is suitably creative
4. The product exists in a publicly accessible medium
5. The product primarily embodies aesthetically engaging thought or emotion (or some combination of the two)

(AP) The Nature of Art and Classical Definability

2011-11-08T11:02:00.002-05:00

Morris Weitz famously claims that art is an indefinable-because-open concept. As a corollary to Dickie's assertion (via M. Mandelbaum) that Weitz neglects the "unexibited" common properties of art objects, I want to suggest that Weitz conflates indefinability and openness, overlooking in the process the possibility of a definable-yet-open conception of art. (I find Dickie's two-part definition unsatisfactory because too inclusivist. There will be more than two necessary conditions.)

Furthermore, Weitz's global dismissal of definitions assumes that any satisfactory definition of art must be an "intensional" one (a specification of the necessary and jointly sufficient conditions required of each member of the set under consideration). But Weitz's preferred extensional (in this case, ostensive) definition of art is still, obviously enough, a definition.

Even so, I remain hopeful that we might construct a satisfactory -- however inclusive and broad -- intensional definition of art. I will offer my own (closed, intensional, classical) definition of art in a later post.

(PM) Rhythm and Metre

2011-11-06T11:04:00.003-05:00

In this video, jazz pianist Christian Jacob performs his (absolutely beautiful) composition "State of Mind," first displaying the kind of flexibility of pulse and rhythm characteristic of rubato playing and then, at 2:10, introducing (while still maintaining a recognizable degree of metrical flexibility) ever greater elements of syncopation along with the underlying pulse or groudbeat of the composition (in 3/4 time).

(PM) Musique Concrete (Pierre Schaeffer, "Apostrophe")

2011-11-03T10:03:00.001-04:00

(AP-H) Danto on Weitz on Art

2011-11-03T08:30:00.000-04:00

A couple of years ago, Tom Wartenberg suggested to me that Danto’s consideration of Warhol’s Brillo Box offers a solution to Morris Weitz’s skepticism about the very idea of defining art. I remain skeptical.

Weitz’s claim is that, given its expansive, creative, or “open” nature (like games for Wittgenstein), no traditional definition of art (in terms of necessary and jointly sufficient conditions) is possible. Danto invokes Warhol’s Brillo Box and its near-identical supermarket counterparts to argue that those persons who have achieved a sufficient understanding of the history and theory of (some domain of) art are thereby entitled to employ the “is of artistic identification,” an act that imposes a conceptual distinction on two perceptually indistinguishable objects. In other words, art is simply in the eye of the informed observer.

Nowhere in this analysis does Danto offer a definition of art capable of countering Weitz’s skepticism.

The Art of Dewey's Pedagogy

2011-10-27T13:42:00.002-04:00

My pedagogical assumptions owe much to the pragmatic philosophy of John Dewey. In the aesthetic/artistic arena, Dewey parses "an experience" as a consequence of wresting from the relatively inchoate and undifferentiated flow of experience a finite temporal span (one with a clear beginning and ending) imbued with a certain degree of significance or meaning (so that the cessation -- the ending -- has the character of a consummation). In like fashion, a successful learning experience is one born of those deliberate efforts to cull an educational experience from conscious life generally.

Consider this summary from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy:

The roots of aesthetic experience lie, Dewey argues, in commonplace experience, in the consummatory experiences that are ubiquitous in the course of human life. There is no legitimacy to the conceit cherished by some art enthusiasts that aesthetic enjoyment is the privileged endowment of the few. Whenever there is a coalescence into an immediately enjoyed qualitative unity of meanings and values drawn from previous experience and present circumstances, life then takes on an aesthetic quality--what Dewey called having "an experience." Nor is the creative work of the artist, in its broad parameters, unique. The process of intelligent use of materials and the imaginative development of possible solutions to problems issuing in a reconstruction of experience that affords immediate satisfaction, the process found in the creative work of artists, is also to be found in all intelligent and creative human activity. What distinguishes artistic creation is the relative stress laid upon the immediate enjoyment of unified qualitative complexity as the rationalizing aim of the activity itself, and the ability of the artist to achieve this aim by marshaling and refining the massive resources of human life, meanings, and values.

It seems to follow as well that "intelligent and creative human activity" in educational settings can and should include Dewey's aesthetic emphasis on immediate satisfaction. That is, along with its obvious utilitarian value, learning can and should be enjoyed for its own sake.

[On a related note, Matt Silliman and I will be reading from our new book, Bridges to Autonomy, tonight, beginning at 7 pm, at Water Street Books in Williamstown.]

MP Plays C-Jam Blues

2011-10-16T21:46:00.000-04:00

Artists Defining Art

2011-10-13T16:31:00.000-04:00

Recent Huffington Post slide show on "What is Art?"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/12/15-artists-define-what-ar_n_1004359.html

(PM) Kantian Disinterestedness

2011-10-11T14:30:00.001-04:00

Hamilton claims to embrace Kant's notion of aesthetic disinterest. This is from Nick Zangwill's contribution to SEP's entry on aesthetics:

2.5 Disinterestedness

An idea that plays large role in Kant's discussion of the subjective universality of the judgement of taste is that of disinterestedness, and so some words about this idea are in order. Kant claims that (a) pleasure in the beautiful is ‘disinterested’, and (b) only pleasure in the beautiful is ‘disinterested’. (Kant 1790, pp. 42–50.) And this plays a large role in Kant's project, for Kant connects disinterestedness with the claim to universal validity of the judgment of taste. However, before we go any further is crucial to recognize that the German word “interesse” has a special meaning in 18th Century German, and should not be confused with similar sounding English words or even contemporary German words. For Kant an interesse means a kind of pleasure that is not connected with desire: it is neither grounded in desire, nor does it produce it.

We should distinguish Kant's ambitious thesis that only pleasure in the beautiful is disinterested from his less ambitious claim simply that pleasure in the beautiful is disinterested — for it seems that there could be other disinterested pleasures. The less ambitious claim, however, is certainly controversial enough. The more uncontroversial component of that less ambitious claim is that pleasure in the beautiful is not grounded in the satisfaction of desire. It is plausible, surely, that when we take pleasure in something we find beautiful, we are not pleased that we have got something that we desire. Moreover, Kant wants pleasure in the beautiful to be open to all (so there should be no ‘aesthetic luck’), and if desire varied from to person, it seems that we could not require that pleasure from everyone, as the idea of universal validity requires. Hence the claim to universal validity would be lost if pleasure in beauty were not disinterested in the sense of not being based on desire.

However, it is not so clear that pleasure in the beautiful cannot produce desire, which Kant requires for disinterestedness. The issue here is whether it can produce desire from itself. Kant admits that we have certain general concerns with beauty that mean that desire may follow from a judgment of beauty; but, according to Kant, such desires do not have their source solely in the pleasure in the beautiful (Kant 1790, pp. 154–162, on ‘empirical interest’ and ‘intellectual interest’). So the less ambitious thesis is controversial because of the second component.

Moreover, whether only pleasure in beauty is disinterested, because no other kind of pleasures are disinterested — the ambitious thesis — is even more controversial. These are live issues.

(AP) Tolstoy on Art

2011-10-08T21:28:00.000-04:00

Here's a page of art quotations from Tolstoy. One example:

To say that a work of art is good, but incomprehensible to the majority of men, is the same as saying of some kind of food that it is very good but that most people can't eat it.

(PM) "Praxis" and Thesis XI

2011-10-06T10:02:00.000-04:00

Here's a link to K. Marx's 11 "Theses on Feuerbach." Note especially II, VII, and XI.

Click here for a concise discussion of praxis (and its Aristotelian roots).

(PM) Marx, Relative Autonomy, and Art

2011-10-03T20:30:00.001-04:00

Excellent blog post on Marx's conception of the relative autonomy of the superstructural elements of society (with an emphasis on art):

http://marxist-theory-of-art.blogspot.com/2009/02/is-marxism-determinist.html

(AP) Hume and Vicious Circularity

2011-10-02T15:11:00.002-04:00

So, in the end, what should we make of Hume's proposed solution to the antinomous depiction of art as open to "critical" (that is, objective) judgments that are irreducibly subjective in origin (and as such appear to be uncriticizable)? Hoping ultimately to reconcile a multiplicity of human "sentiments," he invokes (what he supposes are) instances of universal agreement from which to generate principles of artistic excellence. But on what basis does Hume assume that mere inter-subjective agreement is sufficient to generate an objective (that is, trans-subjective) standard of excellence? Is he simply claiming that "the best art" always conforms to standards implicit in our best artistic products and processes? If so, Hume is open to the charge of vicious -- or at least ineffectual -- circularity.

T. Gracyk agrees:

Whatever the standard, Hume's essay poses the problem of an apparent circularity in argumentation. A limited number of works are used to identify the best critics (leading, in turn, to the list of the qualities of such critics), but those works attain the status of masterpieces only through the judgment of such critics. So Hume either defines good critics in terms of good art, or good art in terms of good critics. (Is Homer's greatness demonstrated by the fact that true critics say so, or is their status as good critics to be demonstrated by the fact that they agree on Homer's merits?)

(PM) Adorno, from the SEP

2011-10-02T15:05:00.002-04:00

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/adorno/

(PM) Music, Emotion, Meaning II

2011-09-29T12:31:00.002-04:00

Another essay, this time defending the resemblance or associationist theory of musical expressiveness:

http://as.nyu.edu/docs/IO/1153/explainingmusical.pdf

(PM) Music, Emotion, Meaning

2011-09-27T21:19:00.000-04:00

One online summary of our current controversy that is more sympathetic to music's purported capacity to arouse emotion:
http://www.people.carleton.edu/~jlondon/musical_expression_and_mus.htm

(PM) Thesis Topics Due

2011-09-23T13:24:00.001-04:00

Thesis topics, Philosophy of Music, due to me on FC email by close of day.

(AP) Plato Against Relativizing Beauty or Morality

2011-09-21T22:39:00.002-04:00

http://www.uqtr.ca/AE/Vol_7/Aes&justice/2-Byrne.html

Imitating Nature

2011-09-19T08:38:00.000-04:00

John Cage on "Silence"

2011-09-19T08:34:00.000-04:00

Research Essay Deadlines

2011-09-18T18:04:00.000-04:00

All deadlines for multi-stage research essays are now listed on handout RE:

http://dkjsmclahandouts.blogspot.com/2009/01/handout-b-multi-stage-persuasive.html

(PM) Bird Brains

2011-09-14T21:19:00.003-04:00

One neurobiologist blogging about avian intelligence (with special emphasis on crows):
http://scienceblogs.com/neurophilosophy/2007/08/avian_intelligence.php

(AP & PM) The Art of Jean Sibelius

2011-09-13T12:00:00.001-04:00

A recent article on the music of Sibelius invoking the disputes be expressivists, communication theorists, and representationalists:

http://chronicle.com/article/The-Transformative-Paradoxes/128563

An excerpt:

Most of Sibelius's music was designed to be part of a public art, aimed at large audiences. But unlike Mahler, Sibelius confronted the Wagnerian interplay between language and music by shifting the emphasis away from the literary and emancipating music from language. His work is strikingly architectural, rather than paralleling in music the syntax, semantics, and grammar of language. It is concerned primarily with large forms and spaces, rather than melodic and harmonic variation and dialogue, much less outright literary inspiration.

By circumventing the musical connection to language, the literary, and the dramatic, Sibelius found a way to musically alter our perception of time. There is a magical slowness and simplicity in Sibelius out of which emerges a distinct sound and stark, alluring beauty. Music is allied with nature. For Sibelius, aggregate sounds—as much as melodies and themes—become constituent elements of composition. Orchestration becomes a basic element, not something one completes after a work is written. The music is more atmospheric than discursive. It evokes a response and plays on sensibility rather than suggesting logic and arguing a point.

New First Deadline for Research Essay Writers in Philosophy of Music

2011-09-12T15:20:00.000-04:00

Since we're slowly introducing the core issues and controversies of the philosophy of music, let's move the deadline for submitting thesis statements up one week to September 23.

First Q&A's

2011-09-09T15:11:00.000-04:00

I have now posted in their respective blogs Q&A assignments for all classes.

Toolkit now Online

2011-09-08T17:51:00.000-04:00

The "Philosophy Toolkit" is now online (under DKJ's Handouts).

Syllabi

2011-09-04T18:26:00.000-04:00

My fall, 2011 syllabi are now available in the left-hand margin of this blog (under "DKJ's Blogs").

Philosophy of Music

2011-09-01T11:28:00.002-04:00

Depending on the precise number of add/drops in process, there appear to be 3-5 open slots in my upcoming seminar in the philosophy of music (HONR 301:03 & PHIL 385:01)

This (upper-division philosophy/honors elective) will address essentially philosophical (rather than psychological, historical, pedagogical, musicological, etc.) questions about the metaphysical, epistemological, and axiological status of music, such as:

What is music?
How ought we to distinguish musical works from their performances?
How ought we to understand the relations between improvisation and composition?
Is music essentially an abstract or humanistic/bodily/performance art?
How is music related to the emotions?
Is music a kind of language?
Does music represent or refer to some part of the world?

Christian Jacob's State of Mind (I'm emulatively envious)

2011-08-27T20:50:00.001-04:00

Commentary on Andy Hamilton's Aesthetics and Music (required text for philosophy of music, fall, 2011)

2011-08-17T10:37:00.001-04:00

'A gifted philosopher, music critic and jazz performer, Andy Hamilton has produced a book which leaves neither the philosophy nor the music out. He guides us deftly through the aesthetics of Kant and Adorno without neglecting the reality of music as sound and rhythm, improvisation and composition, showing in an unusually open-minded, lively way - and in philosophical depth - how aesthetic experience is universal and human.' Professor John Skorupski, St Andrews University, UK

'An innovative, cross-disciplinary contribution to the philosophy of music, weaving Adorno's Critical Theory with Analytic aesthetics.'
Professor Max Paddison, Durham University, UK

'With a fine eye for argument, for teasing out and testing key assumptions within the philosophy of music, Andy Hamilton’s Aesthetics And Music charts a knife-edge course between scholarship, clear and penetrating thinking, and above all sound intuitions.'
Stephen Robinson, The Wire, December 2007

'Aesthetics and Music is a rich and interesting study. Hamilton's approach is innovative ... [the book] should be recommended to anyone interested in the philosophy of music.'
Stephen Davies, University of Auckland, Analysis

'A deeply informed author thinking hard about the musical matters which he considers - with justification - to be the most important... a lively and stimulating contribution to a number of debates.'
M.W. Rowe, British Journal of Aesthetics

'Hamilton has read widely, listened hard and had his own practical engagement with music as a jazz pianist, and there is much to be learned from his argument … The range of Hamilton’s interests, and his familiarity with modern, postmodern, and post-postmodern culture, help to support an argument that is far more interesting in its detail than can be conveyed in a short review. There is a freshness in his approach, and a pleasing disregard for pedantic controversies, that will surely attract new readers to a subject that has not always been as well served by its practitioners as it is served by Hamilton.'
Roger Scruton, MIND

"The value of Aesthetics and Music lies in its producing the groundwork needed to present modern jazz as music worthy of Analytic philosophical treatment."
Reviewed by Andrew McGettigan in Radical Philosophy, July 2008

“Andy Hamilton’s Aesthetics and Music is an unusual concoction: one part history of the aesthetics of music, one part review of recent work in the Analytic philosophy of music, and one part original contribution to musical aesthetics…Hamilton’s respect for and sincere interest in improvised music, experimentalism, and sound-art is model for future writers on the philosophy of music.” - Brian Kane, Current Musicology, Spring 2008
Reviewed in Dagens Nyheter, Sweden - Jan 2008

'Hamilton's is a distinctive philosophical voice, and Aesthetics and Music is a lively and stimulating contribution to a number of important debates.' - British Journal of Aesthetics

Bridges to Volleyball (next book?)

2011-06-20T11:57:00.000-04:00

Michel Camilo: From Within

2011-05-23T23:08:00.000-04:00

Ronald McDonald, Fitness Coach

2011-05-20T12:14:00.000-04:00

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/05/18/health-experts-attack-mcdonalds-but-can-they-bite-into-its-bot/

Thanks

2011-05-18T22:31:00.000-04:00

1. Now that the semester's officially over, I want to thank all of those dedicated and talented students who, by the simple yet hopefully rewarding act of meeting (or approximating) my "pedagogical expectations," helped to make the spring semester a particularly rewarding one for me.

2. I again invite former student-bloggers who intend to blog over the summer or independently of upcoming courses to send me links for the list "Other Bloggers I Like." It's a nice way to continue conversations deeper than those sustained by other mediums, such as FB.

3. Call for Papers: I am collecting essays (1-2 thoughful, refined pages) for an upcoming special fall issue of T-12 primarily devoted to the issue of ethics and animals. Send me your best work.

4. I will be blogging only intermittently over the summer -- unless, of course, someone picks a (friendly) philosophical fight over my posts.

5. Matt and I will soon have a draft of Bridges to Autonomy. Those who have graciously offered to review/comment on the manuscipt will hear from us shortly.

6. See you in upcoming classes or around campus, dinners in town over the summer, and, of course, on the volleyball court this September. Have a nice summer.

Reminder to Honors Students

2011-05-09T14:42:00.000-04:00

1. Blogging officially ends this Sunday @ midnight (and some of you have slipped behind of late). 2/week all semester long to earn a minimum of C for that component of the course. I will accept a slightly augmented output these last few days.

2. Essay-writers should have their final essays to me by Monday @noon. (In my office box is fine, or in person beforehand).

dkj

(NHN) Torture Makes a Comeback

2011-05-04T22:27:00.001-04:00

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/05/04-7

frustrating the Obama Administration:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/04/administration-bin-laden-waterboarding_n_857529.html

but missing much of the point, of course:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/05/04-11

but what surprises/depresses me the most is the total absence of any mainstream discussion of the problematic nature of this mindlessly utilitarian justification of the means (purportedly effective enhanced interrogation, i.e., torture) by reference to the ends (OBL's death)!

(PTL) Critical Pedagogy and Mathematics Education

2011-05-02T15:03:00.002-04:00

http://www.jceps.com/index.php?pageID=article&articleID=94

(PTL) Bertell Ollman

2011-05-01T17:00:00.000-04:00

Excerpts from B. Ollman's "How to take an exam... and change the world."

http://clogic.eserver.org/4-1/ollman.html

Call for Essays: Thesis XII -- Special Issue on Ethics and Animals

2011-04-29T16:31:00.000-04:00

I will be producing over the summer (for release on the first days of the fall semester) the next issue of T-12. I already have accepted 2-3 short essays on a variety of philosophical topics. I hope to supplement these with several essays on the issue of animals and ethics (I especially encourage former students to send me updated versions of their short, final Q&As from last semester's seminar on the topic). To have your essay considered, please forward to me on First Class your finest short work in this area (no more than a couple of double-spaced pages).

Deadline: July 1

Philosophy/Honors Seminar Offerings, Spring 2012

2011-04-28T17:19:00.000-04:00

I am in the process of deciding the focus of my 2 upper-division seminars for spring, 2012. I am open to all recommendations.

Reminder: Book Reviews Coming Soon

2011-04-28T17:15:00.001-04:00

Reminder: all students in my three honors classes this semester are required to write (and present on the final day of class) a book review. See guidelines.

(NHN) MD's, Torture, and Gitmo

2011-04-27T21:57:00.002-04:00

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/04/27-3

Pope Probes the Nature of Simple Identity

2011-04-23T22:28:00.001-04:00

Pope's speech during Easter vigil:

"If man were merely a random product of evolution in some place on the margins of the universe, then his life...might even be a chance of nature."

Assuming, as I think we must, that "chance of nature" means "random product of evolution" (and what's with this hopelessly outdated term "man"? Wake up, man, this is 2011!), the Pope's claim amounts to the trivially true assertion that if human life is a random product of evolution, then human life is a random product of evolution. That is, if A then A. Well, if he's right, he's right! Uttering tautologies is one way to avoid error, I guess.

(NHN) Torture Since Bush

2011-04-22T15:17:00.001-04:00

Bush:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/07/us-bush-torture-idUSTRE7164IJ20110207

Obama:
http://www.tni.org/article/guantanamo-torture-and-perversion-justice-obama%E2%80%99s-new-executive-order

Clowns on Parade

2011-04-19T22:36:00.003-04:00

http://www.commondreams.org/further/2011/04/19-0

Patriotic Millionaires

2011-04-19T09:02:00.002-04:00

http://www.patrioticmillionaires.org/

PTL Not Meeting This Week

2011-04-18T18:50:00.000-04:00

I'll be getting follow-up x-rays on my hand this Wednesday afternoon. So, no PTL until next Monday. I will hold all morning classes and office hours.

Paper Drafts Due

2011-04-16T12:03:00.000-04:00

Reminder to all multi-stage, persuasive essay writers (not sure why I do this):

Drafts of research papers due yesterday.

dkj

Critique of Pure Tolerance

2011-04-16T12:00:00.002-04:00

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/04/16-4

Corporate Tax Rates: 1916-2010

2011-04-15T15:43:00.004-04:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/15/top-marginal-tax-rates-chart_n_849596.html

And corporate tax dodgers:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/04/15

(AP) Uncontacted Tribe in Brazil

2011-04-15T15:36:00.002-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lWVVFHzuLE&feature=related

The Real (annual) Price of Militarism

2011-04-14T10:47:00.002-04:00

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175361/tomgram%3A_chris_hellman,_$1.2_trillion_for_national_security/

New Deathburger from Deadcow King

2011-04-14T09:49:00.001-04:00

http://www.slashfood.com/2011/04/13/japanese-burger-king-launches-meat-monster-a-1-160-calorie-burg/

(NHN) Jealous Envy/Envious Jealousy

2011-04-13T21:02:00.003-04:00

Here are some of my thoughts prompted by Sean's example:

1. Envy = Agent envies rival’s good.

2. (“Romantic”) Jealousy = Agent is jealous of beloved’s affections for rival.

3. Jealous Envy = Agent envies rival’s good, which is beloved’s affection and of which agent is jealous.

Or, equivalently, 4. Envious Jealousy = Agent is jealous of beloved’s affection for rival whom the agent envies for possessing that good.

5. Therefore, it seems that all instances of romantic jealousy can be understood as a form of envy.
And from Wikipedia (sounds reasonable to me):

Perhaps the overlapping use of jealousy and envy occurs because people can experience both at the same time. A person may envy the characteristics or possessions of someone who also happens to be a romantic rival. In fact, one may even interpret romantic jealousy as a form of envy. A jealous person may envy the affection that his or her partner gives to a rival — affection the jealous person feels entitled to himself or herself. People often use the word jealousy as a broad label that applies to both experiences of jealousy and experiences of envy.

(A&P) US and Geneva Conventions

2011-04-13T20:54:00.000-04:00

I think the following infomation is accurate. Note: there have been several "Geneva" conventions. The US is a signatory, though with some exceptions as noted below.

dkj

The Geneva Conventions significantly predate the United Nations, which is why you often hear "the Geneva Convention" referred to in movies depicting World War II. The Red Cross (http://www.redcross.org/museum/pre1900a.html) tells the story of the original Treaty of Geneva (1864):After witnessing the suffering of the wounded following the Battle of Solferino, Henry Dunant (1828-1910), a Swiss businessman, initiated relief efforts that led to the founding of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.
Treaty of Geneva (1864)

Inspired by Henry Dunant's pamphlet A Memory of Solferino, and the resulting international feeling against the negligence that prevailed in the care of the war wounded, the First Geneva Convention convened in 1864 with 24 delegates representing 16 governments. The resulting Treaty of Geneva was signed by all but four delegates. Representatives of Great Britain, Saxony, Sweden, and the United States did not sign the treaty at that time.The United States signed the original Treaty of Geneva in 1882. You can find a more detailed history here (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/EUgeneva.htm).
The Treaty of Geneva has undergone three subsequent incarnations:The first convention was initiated by J.-H. Dunant; it established that medical facilities were not to be war targets, that hospitals should treat all wounded impartially, that civilians aiding the wounded should be protected, and that the Red Cross symbol should serve to identify those covered by the agreement. The second convention [1906] amended and extended the first. The third [1929] stated that prisoners of war should be treated humanely and that prison camps should be open to inspection by neutral countries. The 1949 conventions made further provisions for civilians falling into a belligerent's hands. Two 1977 amendments extended protection to guerrilla combatants; the U.S. did not sign them. Public opinion and disapprobation are the only sanctions that can be applied to violators.From The Britannica Concise (http://education.yahoo.com/search/be?lb=t&p=url%3Ag/geneva_conventions).

The Geneva Conventions in their modern form consist of not one but four conventions, adopted in 1949, plus the two protocols adopted in 1977: Convention (I) for the Amelioration of the Condition of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces in the Field. Geneva, 12 August 1949.

Convention (II) for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea. Geneva, 12 August 1949.

Convention (III) relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949.

Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949.

Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), 8 June 1977.

Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II), 8 June 1977.AFAIK, the United Nations did not play a formal institutional role in the Diplomatic Conference that proposed the 1949 conventions, and the United Nations does not play a formal institutional role in administering or enforcing them (other than the UN Secretariat registering the conventions and receiving information about ratifications, accessions, and denunciations--a general function for which the UN Charter (http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/) (art. 102) provides). The formal administration of the conventions occurs through the Depositary of the Geneva Conventions and Protocols at the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs. But the impetus for the 1949 conventions came from the same internationalist sentiment that followed World War II and resulted in the United Nations being established, almost every United Nations member has ratified the conventions, and many sources--such as the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/teachers/citizenship_11_14/subject_areas/united_nations/newsid_1773000/1773723.stm) and even the United Nations (http://www.hrweb.org/legal/undocs.html) itself--refer to the conventions as United Nations agreements. The "UN's ambivalent relation to the Geneva Conventions" is discussed by Roy Gutman in his article "United Nations and the Geneva Conventions" (http://www.crimesofwar.org/thebook/un-geneva.html).
Probably the best primary source for information about the conventions is the International Committee of the Red Cross (http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/iwpList74/77EA1BDEE20B4CCDC1256B6600595596).

Obama: Ignoring his Professors

2011-04-12T16:07:00.000-04:00

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/04/11

DMG Nails it Again

2011-04-11T22:52:00.002-04:00

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/04/11-3

(PTL) Destroying Education

2011-04-11T21:48:00.000-04:00

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/04/11

(NHN) Uncollected Taxes

2011-04-11T21:07:00.001-04:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/11/irs-funding-cuts-congress_n_847741.html

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/04/12-1

(NHN) Banksters in our Midst

2011-04-08T22:23:00.001-04:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/08/jamie-dimon-jpmorgan-pay_n_846515.html

(NHN) US Kleptocracy and Deadbeat Corporations

2011-04-07T19:33:00.004-04:00

http://www.commondreams.org/video/2011/04/07-0

http://www.alternet.org/economy/150550/we_don%27t_need_to_shut_down_the_government%3A_tax_the_wealthy_and_deadbeat_corporations_to_close_budget_gaps/

Ravel's Piano Concerto for LH

2011-04-07T10:37:00.000-04:00

Left-handed Jazz (watch @ 5:48)

2011-04-07T10:29:00.000-04:00

(AP) Wartenberg on Danto on Weitz

2011-04-07T09:16:00.002-04:00

A couple of years ago, Tom Wartenberg suggested to me that Danto’s consideration of Warhol’s Brillo Box offers a solution to Morris Weitz’s skepticism about the very idea of defining art. I remain skeptical.

Weitz’s claim is that, given its expansive, creative, or “open” nature (like games for Wittgenstein), no traditional definition of art (in terms of necessary and jointly sufficient conditions) is possible. Danto invokes Warhol’s Brillo Box and its near-identical supermarket counterparts to argue that those persons who have achieved a sufficient understanding of the history and theory of (some domain of) art are thereby entitled to employ the “is of artistic identification,” an act that imposes a conceptual distinction on two perceptually indistinguishable objects. In other words, art is simply in the eye of the informed observer.

Nowhere in this analysis does Danto offer a definition of art capable of countering Weitz’s skepticism.

The Economic Base of Society and its Superstructure

2011-04-06T22:39:00.001-04:00

(NHN) CEO Compensation v. Worker Pay

2011-04-04T16:59:00.002-04:00

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/04/08/business/pay.graphic.jpg

(NHN) Extraterrestrial Commentary on Income Inequality

2011-04-04T14:29:00.006-04:00

"I say, Glorp, these earth-creatures and their leaders seem curiously driven to defend an obscenely inequitable distribution of earth-goods.”

“Quite right, Zplork.”“Is it true that a mere 1% of the population possesses more than 50% of all the wealth on the planet?"

”That is indeed the case, Glorp. 30 Earth-years ago, when I was but a gleam in Zplork Sr.’s compound eye, the gap between the richest 20% of the population and the rest stood at 30-to-1; now it's 74-to-1. And over the same period, while the (real) income of the bottom 90% of the U.S.A. nation-state fell by 7%, the income of the top 1/100 of 1% of the people of that country rose by nearly 600%."

"Well, that must surely infuriate the average denizen of the U.S.A. nation-state!"

"Oddly enough, these particular earthlings are happier than most to defend radical inequalities in wealth, power, and income. While they suffer from the highest rate of inequality among similarly developed nation-states, they do comparatively little about it; and a recent terrestrial survey suggests that its citizens are mostly unconcerned about the plight of those least advantaged by the current inequalities.”

“That is a disturbing bit of news, Glorp. But I suppose we shouldn't expect too much from a creature sporting such a tiny brain and backwards-bending limbs.”

”Let’s not confuse aesthetics with science, Zplork. While no doubt physically repulsive, animal ethologists back on Mars have concluded that humans are sufficiently sentient for us to expect that they can, at least in principle, consistently adopt the moral point of view."

"Well, perhaps some of them can. Let’s not forget that this one nation-state spends nearly as much as all of the others combined preparing for war.”

“That is indeed a sign of a serious cognitive and moral deficiency, my translucent green friend…"

(PTL) Wrong Q&A Reading Alert

2011-04-02T19:05:00.001-04:00

Yesterday's reading assignment link in Q&A #8 was wrong. It is now correct. Sorry!

(PTL) "What the.....?!"

2011-04-02T10:49:00.000-04:00

http://ronberk.blogspot.com/2010/04/whats-wrong-with-profanity-in-classroom.html

(PTL) Making a "God-Damn Difference"

2011-04-01T08:44:00.001-04:00

Piano Hero II

2011-03-31T22:29:00.002-04:00

(NHN) US Prisons

2011-03-30T22:54:00.002-04:00

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/30-9

Piano Hero I

2011-03-29T14:11:00.000-04:00

KLJ

Hiromi

2011-03-28T23:41:00.002-04:00

(NHN) Additional Reading

2011-03-28T14:19:00.000-04:00

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/patriotism/

(AP) Distinguishing Abstract Art from Scribbles

2011-03-28T14:17:00.002-04:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/28/study-examines-difference_n_841268.html

My Fall, 2011 Course Offerings

2011-03-27T14:15:00.004-04:00

As we approach pre-registration for the fall, here's some important information for any potential students.

I will be teaching one upper-division philosophy/honors elective entitled Philosophy of Music. Enrollment will be restricted to 20 students. As the title suggests, we will approach music -- its nature, value, function -- from a theoretical/philosophical perspective (in sharp contrast to, say, music appreciation, education, performance, theory, or history). That is, will we consider a variety of epistemological, metaphysical, and axiological questions about music as a special type of thing, human practice, and source of cognitive/aesthetic value. The primary text will be Andy Hamilton's Aesthetics and Music (Continuum Publishing, 2007).

I will also teach one Honors section of Art and Philosophy along with one regular, non-honors section. The syllabi for my current sections of Art and Philosophy are listed in the margin of this blog (though I will most likely be using a new text).

All courses will demand a constant flood of student participation, irrepressible enthusiasm, perfect senses of civility, humility, and interpersonal charity, and, of course, lots of careful reading, engaging writing, and critical thinking. (That is, my course expectations will be in full force.)

DKJ

Chick and Frank

2011-03-26T12:58:00.004-04:00

(NHN) Hodgepodge of Sloppy Thinking about Atheism and Theism

2011-03-26T12:20:00.002-04:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-jonathan-weyer/alone-at-the-creation-mus_b_840540.html

Pianistic Perfection VI

2011-03-24T18:07:00.002-04:00

(PTL) Teachers, Good & ~ Good

2011-03-24T17:08:00.001-04:00

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/24-9

(NHN) SEP on Agnosticism and Atheism

2011-03-22T08:54:00.004-04:00

More info on our current topic:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atheism-agnosticism/

http://atheism.about.com/od/aboutagnosticism/a/atheism.htm

(PTL) Alfie Kohn on Grading

2011-03-22T08:49:00.002-04:00

http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/grading.htm

State of the World: Madmen and Fools at the Helm

2011-03-22T08:47:00.001-04:00

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/03/21-6

Bust a Union; Buy a Bomb

2011-03-21T21:50:00.012-04:00

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/03/22-11

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-greenwald/not-worth-it-first-day-of_b_838659.html

Titled at Last

2011-03-17T22:47:00.003-04:00

We have settled on a title for the sequel to Bridges to the World (except for the one preposition):

Bridges to Autonomy

Paradoxes of (in?) Teaching and Learning

(AP) My Latest Attempt to Define Art

2011-03-15T11:01:00.005-04:00

ART (dkj) = The suitably technical, creative, and intentional embodiment of aesthetically engaging thought or emotion in any publicly accessible medium.

The definition is intensional and classically "closed" (with respect to its conditions of applicability) yet "wide open" to all new types and tokens of art (contra Weitz); that is, although I do specify a small number of necessary and jointly sufficient conditions for art, the definition remains both inclusive and expansive (pace Weitz). Admittedly, several words and phrases (creative, suitably, aesthetically engaging) require further elaboration. That's something I hope to do soon.

In its current state, therefore, the definition is mostly silent on qualitative/evaluative issues (good/bad art), and simply distinguishes art from non-art -- though I suspect that parsing the vague terms ("suitably," especially) will introduce levels of merit or kinds of art (fine v. primitive v. decorative, etc.).

There are five necessary and jointly sufficient conditions:

1. The activity is intentional
2. The activity is suitably technically demanding
3. The activity is suitably creative
4. The product exists in a publicly accessible medium
5. The product primarily embodies aesthetically engaging thought or emotion (or some combination of the two)

Comments welcome.

(PTL) Pedagogical Improvisations

2011-03-15T10:36:00.002-04:00

Here's a draft of a new chapter for our upcoming sequel to Bridges to the World (Matt Silliman, co-author). PTL students will recognize some of these exchanges from our recent class/blog discussions. Comments welcome.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sB0pR7kPbHOnDb1pwQMlxf1JaWxFTtaLrvxvDAuwGAM/edit?hl=en&authkey=CKvP4uYH

Pianistic Perfection V

2011-03-14T16:08:00.002-04:00

Fowl Empathy

2011-03-11T13:02:00.000-05:00

http://www.vegsource.com/news/2011/03/chickens-are-capable-of-feeling-empathy-scientists-believe.html

Pianistic Perfection IV

2011-03-10T22:45:00.000-05:00