Posted on Tuesday, February 7, 2017

008: Ep4 – Shared Values in the Abortion Debate

Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show & podcast

This fourth episode of the Philosophy Bakes Bread radio show and podcast features an interview with Dr. Bertha Alvarez Manninen of Arizona State University on the topic of shared values in the abortion debate.

Listen for our “You Tell Me!” questions and for some jokes in one of our concluding segments, called “Philosophunnies.” Reach out to us on Facebook @PhilosophyBakesBread and on Twitter @PhilosophyBB; email us at philosophybakesbread@gmail.com; or call and record a voicemail that we play on the show, at 859.257.1849. Philosophy Bakes Bread is a production of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA). Check us out online at PhilosophyBakesBread.com and check out SOPHIA at PhilosophersInAmerica.com.

(1 hr 6 mins)

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Notes

Albert Camus, The Stranger (New York: Vintage Press, 1989).
Plato, Five Dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing, 2002).

You Tell Me!

For our future “You Tell Me!” segments, Dr. Manninen proposed the following questions in this episode, for which we invite your feedback: “Would people really want to live in a world where we don’t study the humanities anymore? There seems to be a lot of push to getting rid of ‘useless majors’: ‘We don’t need literature’; ‘We don’t need philosophy’; ‘We don’t need to talk about poetry anymore’; ‘We should just do practical things.’ Do you really want to live in a world where Plato is dead, where Shakespeare is dead, where we don’t think about what it means to be a human being anymore? Why or why not?” What do you think?

Let us know! Twitter, Facebook, Email, or by commenting here below!

Transcript

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Posted on Monday, October 31, 2016

‘What Ifs’ and No Regrets

Civil American, Volume 1, Article 1 (October 31, 2016), https://goo.gl/IEMKOJ.

Shane Courtland

Dr. Courtland is SOPHIA’s Communications Officer and is the Managing Director of the Center for Free Enterprise at West Virginia University. Previously, he was an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, where he was also the Director of the Center for Ethics and Public Policy. He is the author of Hobbesian Applied Ethics and Public Policy (Routledge Press, forthcoming), as well as of a number of articles. His work has been recognized with the Ehlers Prize for the best philosophy paper of the year and the 2016 Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Public Service at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Dr. Courtland has been a exemplary public philosopher, with engagements including on hospital ethics committees and in public interviews and lectures, such as on KUMD and KBJR.

| By Shane Courtland |

One often hears the expression “You should live your life without regrets” in the same situations that one hears expressions such as “carpe diem” and “YOLO.” The basic idea is that you should live your life to the fullest. One day, if you are lucky to be living, you will be able to look back on your life. When you do so, you do not want to feel that it was wasted merely because you were too timid and afraid to embrace it. Have courage, these slogans implore – reach the fullest potential of a happy and fulfilling life.

In what follows, I want to articulate a different way to understand this expression.This understanding is inspired, in part, by a passage in Epictetus’s The Enchiridion. In passage #25, he writes:

“Is anyone preferred before you at an entertainment, or in a compliment, or in being admitted to a consultation? If these things are good, you ought to be glad that he has gotten them; and if they are evil, don’t be grieved that you have not gotten them. And remember that you cannot, without using the same means [which others do] to acquire things not in our own control, expect to be thought worthy of an equal share of them. For how can he who does not frequent the door of any [great] man, does not attend him, does not praise him, have an equal share with him who does? You are unjust, then, and insatiable, if you are unwilling to pay the price for which these things are sold, and would have them for nothing. For how much is lettuce sold? Fifty cents, for instance. If another, then, paying fifty cents, takes the lettuce, and you, not paying it, go without them, don’t imagine that he has gained any advantage over you. For as he has the lettuce, so you have the fifty cents which you did not give. So, in the present case, you have not been invited to such a person’s entertainment, because you have not paid him the price for which a supper is sold. It is sold for praise; it is sold for attendance. Give him then the value, if it is for your advantage. But if you would, at the same time, not pay the one and yet receive the other, you are insatiable, and a blockhead. Have you nothing, then, instead of the supper? Yes, indeed, you have: the not praising him, whom you don’t like to praise; the not bearing with his behavior at coming in.”

The basic idea, as far as I can tell, is that Epictetus is reminding us that everything in life has opportunity costs. In order to get something of value, one always forgoes something. The man who gets to go to the party paid for it by having to sell his praise. Epictetus then tells the reader, “But if you would, at the same time, not pay the one and yet receive the other, you are insatiable, and a blockhead.”

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Posted on Monday, October 31, 2016

Introducing Civil American

A digital, peer-reviewed journal run by The Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA).

The Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA) announces the opening of Civil American, our latest venue for public philosophical engagement, released as a peer-reviewed digital journal on our Web site. Each piece will be released individually and will then be archived in a yearly volume. Civil American is a place for scholars in philosophy or other fields, students, and SOPHIA members to submit short essays, between 700 and 3,000 words (shorter and longer pieces will be considered), on topics of importance for living and policy-making, as individuals and communities.

Given our 2015 strategic planning initiative, the mission of the Society of Philosophers in America (SOPHIA) is “to use the tools of philosophical inquiry to improve people’s lives and enrich the profession of philosophy through conversation and community building.” In pursuit of that mission, two of our four strategic goals are “to use technology effectively” and to “to engage with the profession on public philosophy and digital humanities.”

To these ends, we open up SOPHIA’s online space as a forum for publicly engaged philosophy, to talk about issues and problems that matter to people both in and beyond the academy. Our emphasis is on accessibility of style and importance of subject matter. Following trends of digital publishing, we will consider the pieces released here to be in a volume gathered by year.

SOPHIA Trustees Dr. John Shook and Dr. Eric Thomas Weber first envisioned Civil American as a journal targeting general-audiences, a philosophical equivalent to the great publication, Scientific American. The United States have an immensely rich intellectual tradition, yet much discourse in the public sphere tends to be sensationalist, rather than civil and philosophical.

We welcome proposals for panels of submissions from groups interested in writing on topics in common. Gathered pieces may also be invited to join together in further advancement of their projects for growth in The Public Philosophy Journal‘s developmental and open peer-review process. Shorter projects can begin here and, if desired, be lengthened and deepened through such collaborations.

More information about Civil American is forthcoming now that we have selected the new editor for the journal, Dr. Shane Courtland. If you have any questions or proposals for submission to Civil American, you can email the Editor here.

Archive

Volume 2: 2017

Humanizing Monsters
October 31, 2017
| By Casey Dorman | I was listening to NPR recently and an interviewer was talking to Thomas Hegghammer, a Norwegian professor of political science, who had just published an edited collection of essays/research studies called Jihadi Culture: The Art and Social Practices of Militant Islamists. One of the interviewer’s questions was “Aren’t you afraid that ...
John Stuart Mill and Charlottesville
October 20, 2017
| By Dale E. Miller | I consider myself a Millian—that is, a follower of the Victorian philosopher of morals, social life, and politics (and much else besides) John Stuart Mill (1806–73). Usually I’m a fairly confident Millian; some might even say smug. Mill’s work has, like the work of all important philosophers, been subjected to ...
Clutter
September 16, 2017
| By John Lachs | When our ancestors lived in caves, every tool was a prized possession. Furs for comfort and drawings to decorate the cave were difficult to come by. They were passed down from generation to generation. Later, when human productivity made the goods of the world readily available, our grandparents became collectors. Growing control ...
State-Sponsored Hacktivism and “Soft War”
May 25, 2017
| By George R. Lucas | A Moral and Legal Challenge in the Cyber Domain | Skeptics (e.g., Thomas Rid, 2013) have cast doubt on the notion of authentic cyber warfare. Cyber conflict consists, the skeptics argue, solely of activities which fall well short of full scale warfare: e.g., crime, vandalism, “hacktivism” (political activism by individuals and ...
The Illusion of Purely Rational Discussion: A Reply to Courtland’s Reply
January 3, 2017
| By Sergia Hay | I’d like to thank Shane Courtland for his reply to my response to his original posting, “Faith and Betrayal of the Philosophical Method.” I’m eager to continue this conversation about an important and timely subject: free speech in the classroom, and perhaps more broadly within public discourse. As such, it is also ...

Volume 1: 2016

Faith Without Dead Dogma: A Reply to Hay
December 21, 2016
| By Shane Courtland | After reading a thoughtful response from Dr. Hay regarding my previous blog post, I thought it would be helpful to discuss my philosophical pedagogy. Even if you have never taken a philosophy class before, the core elements of my teaching method are still applicable outside of the classroom. Moreover, describing how ...
What Philosophy Is For: A Reply to Courtland
December 13, 2016
| By Sergia Hay | I wholeheartedly agree with Shane Courtland when he writes in Civil American that being a philosopher means “giving pride of place to open discussion, encouraging intellectual diversity, and allowing a difference of opinion regarding even dangerous ideas.” I also believe it means, among other things, laying bare assumptions, defining terms, distinguishing between seemingly ...
Faith and Betrayal of the Philosophical Method
December 4, 2016
| By Shane Courtland | Please note: The following essay is autobiographical. I thought it might be helpful to share my experience. As with all personal events, those who have experienced this on the other side have very different feelings about the situation. The way I have always viewed philosophy, regarding its practice and how it ...
Breaking Out of the Bubble: Fixing American Politics
November 11, 2016
| By Shane Courtland | For approximately 5 years, I was the director of the Center for Ethics and Public Policy (CEPP) at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. As the director, I was charged with producing and executing various campus wide events. My specialty, was the panel discussion. This would bring multiple experts to the table ...
‘What Ifs’ and No Regrets
October 31, 2016
| By Shane Courtland | One often hears the expression “You should live your life without regrets” in the same situations that one hears expressions such as “carpe diem” and “YOLO.” The basic idea is that you should live your life to the fullest. One day, if you are lucky to be living, you will be ...

2016 SOPHIA Panel Caught the Attention of Oxford U Press

December 5, 2015

SOPHIA is excited to have the interest of The Public Philosophy Journal to consider publishing our 2016 panel members’ papers from our event held at the Eastern Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association. In reviewing some details about the panel, we found this link to the OUP blog, which was great to see. As the process progresses for submitting the papers to the PPJ, we will keep you posted.

The panel was titled: “The Obligations of Philosophers.”

Also, if you haven’t checked out The Public Philosophy Journal, what are you waiting for? Seriously, they’ve got an awesome logo & they are experimenting with tools and processes that may revolutionize the way scholars review work, publish, and engage the wider public.

SOPHIA will be hosting a panel at the 2017 Eastern Division meeting of the American Philosophical Association on Thursday, January 5th from 5:15-7:15 p.m. There have been some changes to our original plan. The presenters listed below reflect the updated plan:

Group Session

Topic: “The Value of and Impediments to Studying Philosophy for First Generation College Students”

Chair: George R. Lucas (U.S. Naval War College & Notre Dame University)

Speakers and titles:

Daniel Brunson (Morgan State University)

“Traditions are Precious Treasures? Pragmatic Reflections on Inculcating a Tradition You Only Recently Joined”

Bertha Manninen (Arizona State University)

“Why First Generation Students Stay Away From the Humanities – And How We Can Bring Them Back In.”

Seth Vannatta (Morgan State University)

“Challenges for First-generation Students Studying Philosophy”

Date:	January 5, 2017
Time:	05:15-07:15 p.m.
Event:	SOPHIA Panel at the 2017 Eastern Division Meeting of the APA
Topic:	"The Value of and Impediments to Studying Philosophy for First Generation College Students"
Sponsor:	The American Philosophical Association 302.831.1112
Venue:	Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel 410.547.1200
Location:	202 East Pratt Street Baltimore, MD 21202 USA
Public:	Public
More Info:	Click here for more information.

If you haven't already, register for membership and JOIN SOPHIA!