tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29419824440679573862024-03-08T06:40:02.350-08:00Sam CSam Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705125505111284597noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2941982444067957386.post-34836685475464561362007-12-06T08:15:00.000-08:002007-12-06T08:16:28.654-08:00Ethics lecture 9 - Mill 3<embed src="http://www.archive.org/download/EthicsLecture9-Mill3/EthicsLecture9-Mill3.wma" autostart=false loop=false height=62 width=144 controls="console"></embed>Sam Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705125505111284597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2941982444067957386.post-72512822803941451912007-11-29T09:47:00.000-08:002007-11-29T09:52:40.813-08:00Ethics lecture 8 - Mill 2<embed src="http://www.archive.org/download/EthicsLecture8-Mill2/EthicsLecture8-Mill2.wma" autostart=false loop=false height=62 width=144 controls="console"></embed>Sam Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705125505111284597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2941982444067957386.post-4436451290825069532007-11-29T06:13:00.000-08:002007-11-29T06:17:37.263-08:00Ethics lecture 7 - Mill 1<embed src="http://www.archive.org/download/EthicsLecture7-Mill1/Mill1.wma" autostart=false loop=false height=62 width=144 controls="console"></embed><br /><br />Here's the handout:<br /><br />Three Accounts of the Good Life<br /><br />1. Objective list<br />--a. external list, e.g. God’s commands.<br />--b. flourishing: objective needs, interests, potential; successful cultivation of human and individual nature.<br /><br />2. Desire-satisfaction<br />--a. actual desires<br />--b. improved desires: reflectively-endorsed desires; or desires I would have if I had full information and rationality; or desires I would have if I were fully developed.<br /><br />3. Happiness<br />--a.simple hedonism: happiness = pleasure (and the absence of pain); pleasure = single, simple mental state; good-makers = intensity, duration.<br />--b. complex hedonism: happiness = various, complex mental state; good-makers = intensity, duration, felt character, causal properties, authenticity… i.e. anything a competent judge would appeal to in discriminating between goods.Sam Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705125505111284597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2941982444067957386.post-30206742000216086562007-11-29T06:07:00.000-08:002007-11-29T06:12:56.790-08:00Ethics lecture 6 - Kant 2<embed src="http://www.archive.org/download/EthicsLecture6-Kant2/Kant2.wma" autostart=false loop=false height=62 width=144 controls="console"></embed><br /><br />This recording cuts out just before the end (my dictaphone's battery went). All that's missing is me reading out the last couple of sentences of <i>Groundwork</i>:<br /><br /><blockquote>And thus, while we do not comprehend the practical unconditional necessity of the moral imperative, we do comprehend its <i>incomprehensibility</i>. This is all that can fairly be demanded of a philosophy that presses forward in its principles to the very frontier of human reason.</blockquote>Sam Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705125505111284597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2941982444067957386.post-62602576220794478772007-11-08T10:06:00.000-08:002007-11-08T10:10:07.807-08:00Ethics lecture 5 - Kant 1<embed src="http://www.archive.org/download/EthicsLecture5-Kant1/EthicsLecture5-Kant1.wma" autostart=false loop=false height=62 width=144 controls="console"></embed><br /><br />Here's the mini-handout I refer to in the lecture:<br /><br />Kant on sources of action:<br /><br />1. Inclination (desire, aversion)<br />2. Imperatives (principles or maxims)<br />-a. Hypothetical imperatives (X is good for achieving Y)<br />--i. Problematic hypothetical imperatives (if you want Y, you should do X)<br />--ii. Assertoric hypothetical imperatives (because you want Y, you should do X)<br />-b. Categorical imperatives (X is unconditionally good, or is right/ obligatory/ morally required)Sam Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705125505111284597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2941982444067957386.post-83657667827696718202007-11-01T09:53:00.000-07:002007-11-01T10:04:17.410-07:00Ethics lecture 4 - Hobbes 3<embed src="http://www.archive.org/download/EthicsLecture3-Hobbes2/EthicsLecture3-Hobbes2.wma" autostart=false loop=false height=62 width=144 controls="console"></embed>Sam Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705125505111284597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2941982444067957386.post-10752065357598294212007-10-25T08:31:00.000-07:002007-10-25T08:33:04.424-07:00Ethics lecture 3 - Hobbes 2<embed src="http://www.archive.org/download/EthicsLecture3-Hobbes2/EthicsLecture3-Hobbes2.wma" autostart=false loop=false height=62 width=144 controls="console"></embed>Sam Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705125505111284597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2941982444067957386.post-24905823734824469932007-10-18T08:17:00.000-07:002007-10-18T08:20:28.265-07:00Ethics lecture 2 - Hobbes 1First lecture on Hobbes (Thursday 18 October)<br /><br /><embed src="http://www.archive.org/download/EthicsLecture2-Hobbes1/EthicsLecture2-Hobbes1.wma" autostart=false loop=false height=62 width=144 controls="console"></embed>Sam Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705125505111284597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2941982444067957386.post-19339874393106914352007-10-15T03:45:00.000-07:002007-10-15T03:46:20.794-07:00What kind of reader are you?<table style="width: 320px; border: 1px solid gray; font: normal 12px arial, verdana, sans-serif; background-color: white;"><tr><td colspan="2" style="background: white; color: black; padding: 5px;"><b style="font: bold 20px 'Times New Roman', serif; display: block; margin-bottom: 8px;">What Kind of Reader Are You?</b> <div style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 4px;">Your Result: <b>Obsessive-Compulsive Bookworm</b></div><div style="width: 200px; background: white; border: 1px solid black;"><div style="width: 91%; background: red; font-size: 8px; line-height: 8px;"> </div></div><p style="margin: 10px; border: none; background: white; color: black;">You're probably in the final stages of a Ph.D. or otherwise finding a way to make your living out of reading. You are one of the literati. Other people's grammatical mistakes make you insane.</p></td></tr><tr><td style="color: black; background: white; padding: 3px;">Dedicated Reader</td><td style="background: white; padding: 3px;"><div style="width: 100px; background: white; border: 1px solid black; margin-top: 4px;"><div style="width: 81%; background: red; font-size: 8px; line-height: 8px;"> </div></div></td></tr><tr><td style="color: black; background: white; padding: 3px;">Literate Good Citizen</td><td style="background: white; padding: 3px;"><div style="width: 100px; background: white; border: 1px solid black; margin-top: 4px;"><div style="width: 62%; background: red; font-size: 8px; line-height: 8px;"> </div></div></td></tr><tr><td style="color: black; background: white; padding: 3px;">Book Snob</td><td style="background: white; padding: 3px;"><div style="width: 100px; background: white; border: 1px solid black; margin-top: 4px;"><div style="width: 61%; background: red; font-size: 8px; line-height: 8px;"> </div></div></td></tr><tr><td style="color: black; background: white; padding: 3px;">Non-Reader</td><td style="background: white; padding: 3px;"><div style="width: 100px; background: white; border: 1px solid black; margin-top: 4px;"><div style="width: 0%; background: red; font-size: 8px; line-height: 8px;"> </div></div></td></tr><tr><td style="color: black; background: white; padding: 3px;">Fad Reader</td><td style="background: white; padding: 3px;"><div style="width: 100px; background: white; border: 1px solid black; margin-top: 4px;"><div style="width: 0%; background: red; font-size: 8px; line-height: 8px;"> </div></div></td></tr><tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align: center; padding: 8px;"><a href="http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_kind_of_reader_are_you"><b>What Kind of Reader Are You?</b></a><br><a href="http://www.gotoquiz.com/">Create Your Own Quiz</a></td></tr></table>Sam Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705125505111284597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2941982444067957386.post-36350600620158391252007-10-11T08:55:00.000-07:002007-10-11T08:59:00.143-07:00Ethics lecture 1 - IntroHere's my first ethics lecture (given Thursday 11 October 2007).<br /><br /><embed src="http://www.archive.org/download/EthicsLecture1-Intro/EthicsLecture1-Intro.wma" width="144" height="62" type="audio/x-ms-wma" autostart="false" loop="false" controls="console"></embed>Sam Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705125505111284597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2941982444067957386.post-72285642744095344072007-10-11T02:49:00.000-07:002007-10-11T03:17:24.610-07:00OutlineAn introduction to and outline of my ethics course this term.<br /><br /><blockquote>We can only learn to philosophize, that is, to exercise the talent of reason, in accordance with its universal principles, on certain actually existing attempts at philosophy, always, however, reserving the right of reason to investigate, to confirm, or to reject these principles in their very sources. – Immanuel Kant<br /><br />One pretty good definition of college is that it’s a place where people are made to read difficult books. – Jonathan Franzen</blockquote>OVERVIEW<br />We will use close readings of three classic texts to investigate some central issues in moral philosophy, including whether it’s rational to be moral, the nature and source of morality, disputes between consequentialists and deontologists, and what it is for someone’s life to go well. Our project is to engage with the attempts of three very different geniuses to answer an obvious, pressing, difficult question: <em>how should one live</em>?<br /><br />BOOKS<br />Our texts are:<br /><br />Thomas Hobbes, <em>Leviathan</em> (1651)<br />Immanuel Kant, <em>Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals</em> (1785)<br />John Stuart Mill, <em>Utilitarianism</em> (1861)<br /><br />LECTURE PLAN<br /><br />1 - Introduction<br /><br />2 - Overview of <em>Leviathan</em>; Human nature & human action (<em>Leviathan </em>introduction & chapters i-xi)<br />3 - The state of nature (<em>Leviathan </em>chapters xii-xiii)<br />4 - Artificial morality (<em>Leviathan </em>chapters xiv-xxi)<br /><br />5 - Kant vs Hobbes; Overview of <em>Groundwork</em>; The categorical imperative (<em>Groundwork </em>preface & chapter 1)<br />6 - The laws of freedom (<em>Groundwork </em>chapters 2 & 3)<br /><br />7 - Mill vs Kant; Mill vs Hobbes; Overview of <em>Utilitarianism</em>; Welfare (<em>Utilitarianism </em>chapters 1 & 2)<br />8 - Rational action & self-development (<em>Utilitarianism </em>chapters 3 & 4)<br />9 - Kinds of utilitarianism; Justice, integrity, & rights (<em>Utilitarianism </em>chapter 5)Sam Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705125505111284597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2941982444067957386.post-36695853196999734752007-10-10T04:04:00.000-07:002007-10-10T04:14:00.586-07:00First postI plan to use this blog to make some of the work I do as an academic philosopher - giving lectures, writing about books, etc. - more widely available. Partly out of vanity, but also out of the belief that since I'm employed as a public servant to do this work, the public should be able to access it. Hi, public.<br /><br />Initially, I'll be posting notes on this term's teaching on ethics (aka moral philosophy); when I work out how, I'll add audio files of the lectures. Questions, objections, suggestions for improvements are all welcome in comments.Sam Clarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09705125505111284597noreply@blogger.com0