Classes Cancelled

In 2021 this class is being cancelled to provide a Wellness Day.

The Crux of Debate

A philosophical dialogue aims to deepen the reader’s understanding of an issue by subjecting both sides of the debate to critique. To ensure you address those aspects, this homework asks you to read back through your research of the opposition’s arguments.

Point of clarification: Some of you may be planning a dialogue between a moderate and a radical on the same side of an issue. In this case, you will need to adapt the following HW assignment to fit your situation. Your opponent is the group you will debate in the dialogue and NOT necessarily the other side of the political divide. For example, if you’re arguing a “moderate gun control” position against a radical one, your old research of the opposition from Class 6.1 (G1|G2|G3) likely presents the anti-gun-control position and is no longer relevant for your dialogue. You’ll need to identify which articles from Class 5.2 (G1|G2|G3) represent the radical gun-control position and use them as your new collection of opposition articles.

Assignment: Read back through your research of the opposition’s arguments from Class 6.1 (G1|G2|G3). To make sure you haven’t missed anything vital, Google up two additional articles to add to your collection. Then from among this collection of articles:

• What are the two strongest arguments made by the opposition? Ideally, try to identify two categorically different arguments: an appeal to emotion and a statistical appeal to reason, for example. Summarize each one in a separate ¶.
• Can you find any moments where the opposition references and counters arguments from your side? Summarize the point they’re making, and the rhetorical appeal they’re employ—pathos, logos, pathos, or something else? Give this one ¶.
• Statistics: give a ¶ to contrast how your side and the other side use statistics. In listening to several anti-gun-control arguments last week, I was struck that the NRA and its supporters make claims using statistics that would seem to run precisely counter to the claims made by gun-control advocates using statistics. How is this possible? I’d like to think that close analysis of the statistics and claims of both sides would reveal a deeper truth—and that would be an amazing move to make in a dialogue.

Upload all 4 ¶s as a pdf, choosing ONE of the four to paste in your comment—choose the one on which you’d like feedback.

The Essay and the Age of Discovery

In 1492, Columbus transformed Europeans’ understanding of the world. Not by proving that the world was round—most people believed that already. But rather by discovering lands and peoples that had not been known to the ancients. In an era that gave great weight to Greek and Roman learning, Columbus stumbled on something wholly new—what Harari calls “The Discovery of Ignorance.”

For class, please read the first two sections of Harari Ch 14 (stop reading when you get to the heading “The Scientific Dogma”) as well as an essay by Michael Hall titled “The Emergence of the Essay and the Idea of Discovery,” posted among the readings on our Blackboard site.

For homework, respond to one of the following prompts, posting under the appropriate heading below:

• Hall argues that the essay owes something fundamental to the ethos of the Age of Discovery, while Harari suggests that the Age of Discovery was fundamental to the invention of modern science. If so, should we conclude that there is something “scientific” about essay writing? Explain why or why not in a brief ¶.
• How does Hall’s understanding of the essay differ from Wampole’s earlier in the term? If you need a refresher, her speech can be viewed here.

A Setting for Debate

Your homework tonight asks you to think of the upcoming dialogue assignment as a scene from a movie. For example, check out the opening scene from The Social Network. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin introduces us to Mark Zuckerberg in the midst of a date. The ensuing conversation ranges widely, from the number of genius-IQs in China to the challenge of getting into a Final Club at Harvard. But though the subject changes, the focus remains consistently on one thing

Who are the characters? How do they know each other? What are they doing when the dialogue starts, and what gets them talking about the issue you’re planning to cover?

Political Context One possibility is that breaking news prompts the conversation. Political issues are often brought to the fore by the course of events.

Personal Context You should also consider what emotional situation serves as backdrop for this political debate. Some possibilities:

• old friends reunited
• strangers stuck on an elevator
• construction workers talking on a job
• barbershop conversation
  

Extra points for personal situations that in some way echo the issue(s) at stake in the personal debate—so long as it feels artful and not “fake.”

Physical Context Lastly, consider the location where your debate takes place: a creative choice of setting will make the dialogue feel more real to the reader. You may also be able to set up a key metaphor—as for example a fish market sets up references to rotten smells, poisonous cuts of sushi, or tossing a wide net. And the right location might make your issue a pressing practical concern rather than just a theoretical discussion.

In THREE 1-sentence bullet-points, list a plan for your dialogue (be creative!):

• political context
• personal context
• physical context

Paste as a comment, below. We’ll discuss in class.

Presentations 3 of 3

Chicago Style Footnotes

We’re shifting from MLA to Chicago Style footnotes for the remainder of the semester. To get you up to speed, I’ve posted some basic instructions here (along with links to quizzes on Blackboard). Please do the quizzes in time for class, and post any questions or confusions in the comments below.

If you DON’T have a question, then instead please post a sentence from essay 1 where you cited a source, along with the relevant Works Cited entry. We’ll use those to practice creating footnotes.

Socrates and the Problem of Justice

Read the first page of the chapter commentary and all of Plato’s dialogue, Euthyphro, pp 41-58. Look for this file among the readings posted on the Lecture class’s Blackboard site.

In thinking about what’s at stake in Plato’s takedown of Euthyphro, consider the following:

• Since Euthyphro is identified as a seer or mantis, read a short excerpt from Michael Flower’s book on that profession in Ancient Greece.
• Since this is the second consecutive “takedown” by Plato, read a short excerpt from Michael Gagarin’s book on the Sophists of Ancient Greece—the profession to which Gorgias belonged.

If you’re curious to read more of either book, both are available online through the BU Library portal.

For homework, write a response to ONE of the following questions:

1. What’s your opinion about the moral predicament faced by Euthyphro? What should he do?
2. Given the difficulty of Euthyphro’s predicament, why does Plato/Socrates think that he’s a fool? What does Plato/Socrates think Euthyphro should do?
3. What similarities (or differences) do you see between Plato/Socrates’ treatment of Gorgias and their treatment of Euthyphro? What conclusion might you reach as to Plato/Socrates’ political/philosophical objective?
4. Based on these two dialogues, what relationship do you see between Plato and Socrates? Can/should they be meaningfully merged together, or do they stand at some remove from one another?

Presentations 2 of 3

Presentations 1 of 3

News vs. Opinion

I promised on Tuesday to create a Google Form clear up the difference between news and opinion sources. The finished form has 11 examples; don’t get too bogged down in reading these. Read the headline and skim the article to figure out whether you’re looking at an opinion piece or a news analysis piece.

Socrates vs. Gorgias: Grudgematch

Read Gorgias, the philosophical dialogue where Plato puts his mentor Socrates in conversation with the famous sophist and rhetorician Gorgias. Look for this file among the readings posted on the Lecture class’s Blackboard site.

As you read, take note of how Socrates uses questions to challenge his interlocutor Gorgias. Does Socrates’ method fit the pattern described by Abram? (In preparation for this assignment, you may want to review David Abram’s account of the Socratic method, pp 109-113 in the file posted on the course’s Blackboard site.) Depending on your answer, do one of the following:

• If “Yes,” write a 2¶ sequence where the first ¶ presents a passage from Plato and the second ¶ dramatically introduces Abram to deepen our understanding of the Socratic method.
• If “No,” write a 2¶ sequence where the first ¶ presents Abram’s claim about the Socratic method and the second ¶ introduces an example from Plato’s Gorgias to challenge, refute or complicate our understanding of how Plato employs the Socratic method.

Paste your HW as a response under the appropriate header, below.

Talk It Out

In a recent New Yorker article, historian Jill Lepore argued that the current crisis of faith in democracy isn’t the first the world has faced. If you have trouble getting access, I’ve added the essay to the readings posted on the Lecture class’s Blackboard site.

Lepore’s article details parallels between the present day and the 1920s and 30s, an era of economic collapse that saw the rise of both Communist and Fascist regimes. But Lepore finds reason for hope in the vigorous public debates about democracy’s future that arose in the 1930s in the US: “It’s a paradox of democracy that the best way to defend it is to attack it, to ask more of it, by way of criticism, protest, and dissent.”

Homework: post a brief, 1¶ response to one of the following prompts.

• Lepore doesn’t insist too strongly on the historical parallel between the early 20th century and the present day. How close a parallel do you see between the worldwide threats to democracy in the 1920s and 30s and anxieties today? In answering, focus on a particular instance.
• Lepore suggests that questioning democracy is the best way to save it, pointing to the impact of public forums that spread across the US starting in Des Moines, Iowa. How might we apply the lessons of 1930s civic debate to our present difficulties? In answering, make a specific proposal.
• After reading Lepore’s account of 1930s civic debates, held in lecture halls and broadcast over the radio, some might question whether new media have rendered that lesson obsolete. Is a 1930s solution still viable in the era of social networking? In answering, focus narrowly, noting a particular aspect of modern-day interaction on Facebook, Twitter, etc.