No class Thursday due to memorial service

Hi All,  In light of President Starr's request, that we suspend business as usual activities  tomorrow afternoon,  I'm  cancelling class so that those of you who wish to participate in the memorial service tomorrow may do so. We'll talk about friendship and the contemplative life  on Tuesday and have our small group #4 a week from Thursday.  and then the final is a week after that.  It is actually pretty early during exam time. however, if you need to make other arrangements, please discuss that with David.  The exam will cover Aristotle's Ethics. By the Our final exam is  TR 2:00 p.m. Thursday, May 9, 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.

Aristotle book I mentioned

Hi All,

Here's that link to a new book on Aristotle that I mentioned in class.

http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2013/2013-04-29.html

Looking forward to dicussing justice and the law

Hi All,  looking forward to  our discussion of  justice and the law  and  the intellectual virtues today in class. 

Here's a lovely quote I got from philosophy works   today,


"The ideals which have lighted me on my way and
time after time given me new courage to face life cheerfully,
have been Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. . . . "


Albert Einstein
(1879 - 1955)
Theoretical physicist

An Interview with me

Here's an interview I did with Chris Long, on his  Digital Dialogue series. 

http://www.personal.psu.edu/cpl2/blogs/digitaldialogue/2013/04/digital-dialogue-60-socratic-narrative.html

Aristotle

Hi All,

I'm away this week  at a workshop for philosophy and yoga.  Believe it or not, it actually relates to  Aristotle.

Anyway, you are in David's  capable hands.  I'll keep up with you through your blogs and post some thoughts about Aristotle and yoga for you.

I will miss you.

AMS

Small Group Assignment #3

Small  Group  #3  Assignment

1. Describe Socrates’ relationship with his friend at the opening of the Protagoras.

 What do you think Socrates is  trying to teach the friend by telling him  this story about himself and Hippocrates  going to visit  the sophists at Callias’ house?

2.  Describe the relationship between Hippocrates and  Socrates in the  Protagoras.   What does Hippocrates think he will learn from  Protagoras?  What is  Socrates trying to teach Hippocrates about the learning process? 

3.  Describe the relationship between Apollodorus and the friends that he tells the story of Agathon’s party to.  Do you see any similarities between the opening of the Symposium and the opening of the Protagoras?   Is Apollodorus trying to teach them anything?

4.  In your view  what is  Socrates trying to teach  the symposiasts by telling them about his  encounters with Diotima?  What  is he trying to get them to see about love that they do not currently  see?

5.  Within that story,  how would you describe the  relationship between Socrates and Diotima?  What is she trying to teach him about the nature of  love?  (I think there are three main parts to this  lesson)

6.   Do you think Alcibiades understood what  Socrates was trying to teach him about love and the nature of  philosophy?  If  so,  why do you think Alcibiades turns away from philosophy toward politics?  If not,  what  limitations in  Socrates as a teacher or  Alcibiades as a student (or them both as people more generally) might have hindered  Alcibiades’ ability to learn? 

Info about Class Tuesday

Hi All,

Hope you are having a happy end of  break.

You can access Plato's Protagoras for free on line   at  http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1591

it is the primary text we'll be working with on  Tuesday.

Tuesday we  will review   Anaxagoras and the Atomists with an eye toward how they establish / clear the  metaphysical ground for the Sophists.

We'll talk a bit about the sophists  generally

then we'll look at Plato's Protagoras  for a vivid description of the sophists in action.

This will also involve  a discussion of  Plato's  overall dialogic aims  and the problems with using him for a source for understanding other figures.

What  fun. 

Dr. Schultz in Philosophy Club Thursday

Hi All,  just wanted to let you know that  I'm  speaking in philosophy club on Thursday.   I'll be talking about What  Socrates is Seeing during his trances in the Symposium: Philosophy as Spiritual  Practice. 

4:00 Pm   upstairs in morrsion  philosophy lobby.   And there is food!

Under graduate Philosophy Conference Opporutnity

The University of Central Oklahoma

Symposium of Philosophy

Presents

The 17^th Annual Southwestern Conference for Undergraduate Philosophers

Call for Papers

The seventeenth annual Southwestern Conference for Undergraduate Philosophers will be held on Saturday, March 9^th, 2013. Papers by undergrad philosophy students on any philosophical topic are welcome. Papers should be a maximum of 3,000 words, making for a twenty-five minute presentation. To ensure an unbiased reviewing process, the author’s name, address, telephone number and e-mail address should be on a separate page. All papers will be read and considered.

Keynote address: "Fact, Fiction, and Fraud"

by Dr. Sarah Worth

Philosophy Department, Furman University

Submission Deadline: Feb. 2, 2013

Those accepted will be notified early in the New Year.

Send E-mail submissions in .rtf format to:

edadlez@uco.edu

For further information, contact Dr. Eva Dadlez

Department of Humanities and Philosophy

University of Central Oklahoma

100 North University Drive

Edmond, OK 73034-5209

Phone: (405) 348-2629

Class Plan for today

Class  Plan  for  Today in Classical.

1.  Anaximenes

2. Individual work  on Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes.

Pick your favorite aphorism about them 

Write  there things that are important about the passage.

3. Share with group.

4. If  time permits,

We will divide into two groups.  1. Nietzsche on Thales   2.  Nietzsche on Anaximander.

Each group will create a list of ten things  Nietzsche says about the assigned thinker. 

Find aphorisms that  support Nietzsche’s view  and aphorisms that might disprove it.

Link to Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks

If you don't have a copy of  Nietzsche's  Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks (PTAG),

here is a link to it.

http://archive.org/details/PhilosophyInTheTragicAgeOfTheGreeks

Great Job in Class this week

Good job with Week  Two  Everyone.

Be sure  you know what the  arche  is for each of the thinkers we have studied.  You should also be able to recognize aphorisms in  Curd and be able to associate them with the relevant  philosophers. 

We'll work with Anaximenes on Tuesday and go over all the thinkers we have studied thus far on  Tuesday.

Have a Great weekend.

General Overview of Class Tuesday

Hi Everyone,   I thought I'd provide you with a general outline of what we accomplished on Tuesday.

1. We began with a discussion of  MLK's Letter from Birmingham  Jail.  We discussed his four part method  of  non violent protest.  1.  Examine the situation to see what injustice exists (We discussed that this requires a belief in justice and that we have the capacity to determine it).  2. Negotiate.  3  Self-purify  4.  direct action. 

2. We then discussed how I applied these principles to address the gender inequities that exist in the discipline of  philosophy and ended up with the decision to teach Sappho.

3. We discussed strengths of Sappho and  what qualities she had in come with Homer and Hesiod.

4. We ended class with a discussion of  what  Homer and Hesiod and Sappho  lack that keeps them from being "fully philosophical"  in our minds.

Here's the link to MLK's Letter from Birmingham Jail.

Some thoughts on Women in Philosophy

Women in Philosophy.

Two quotes from Plato.

We went in then and found Socrates just released from his fetters and Xanthippe—you know her—with his little son in her arms, sitting beside him. Now when Xanthippe saw us, she cried out and said the kind of thing that women always do say: “Oh Socrates, this is the last time now that your friends will speak to you or you to them.” And Socrates glanced at Crito and said, “Crito, let somebody take her home.”And some of Crito's people took her away wailing and beating her breast” (Phaedo  60a).

“if  women are expected to do the same work as men, we must teach them the same things.”  (Republic 452a)

Some Sobering Statistics

·  1) 21% of employed philosophers are women (Kathryn Norlock)

·  2) 18.5% of philosophy faculty at top 54 programs (Leiter Report) are women (Julie van Camp)

·  3) 2004 US Department of Education estimates 41% of those employed in the humanities are women.

·  4) National Digest of Educational Statistics (NCES) reports 39% female at postsecondary degree granting institutions.

·  5) Philosophy PhDs awarded: 27% (and stuck there for the last ten years or so, with a spike to 33.3% in 2004, 25.1% in 2005).

·  6) Survey of Degrees Awarded (SED) 2005 figures. History 41%, Astronomy and physics 26%, Economics: 30%, Political Science 39%.

http://www.uh.edu/~cfreelan/SWIP/stats.html

However,  things are actually worse than that.  According to Kate Norlock’s report to the APA, among full-time instructional faculty, women are 16.6% of the 13,000 total full-time philosophy faculty (that is, 2,158),and 26% of the 10,

000 part-time instructors (that is, 2,600). In other words, women are 4,758 of the 23,000 or so: 20.69%.

http://www.csulb.edu/~jvancamp/doctoral_2004.html

Lists a ranking of the top fifty graduate programs. University of Georgia has 50% females.  Baylor is tied for second to last  with   1 in  14  (7.1%)  though in the report it is listed as  0 in 13.   None of the full professors in the department are female (at least not yet).  None of the distinguished or university professors in the department are female. Ta Baylor’s Philosophy graduate student population  is slightly better. The website   lists 31 current students   6  are  female.    (19.5 %) though recently one  female left the program. 

Nation wide   29 % of  undergraduate philosophy degrees are earned by females.   I didn’t have Baylor’s own undergrad statistics.

Questions for  Discussion:

How does this situation strike you?

What might be the reasons for the disparity in male and female enrollment in philosophy courses, in graduate study, in securing employment and promotion? 

Does the lack of women in philosophy influence how philosophy is taught?

Is philosophy itself sexist? 

Is academic philosophy? 

What can we do about it? 

Should we do anything about it? 

In  what  way does  turning to  Sappho  help us sort out this problem and  possible causes and possible  solutions to it? 

More details of what on sappho to read.

Hi  All,

This is  a really long document.  Please read the  Foreward, Background, and Censorship and Sappho  sections of the  Introduction   then  read  the section  poem  1.   We'll  go through that  poem  in class in addition to talking about  "why sappho in classical philosophy."   Enjoy.

AMS

Happy Weekend.

Hi Everyone,

Just a note to say what a great job you've done in class this week. Thanks for all the participation and insight. I'm even more excited about the semester now.  Enjoy Sappho!

AMS

Power Points on Blackboard

Hi All,

There are a couple of power points on blackboard that I'll talk a bit from  tomorrow.

The  general plan for  tomorrow

Homer  and Greek religion

Hesiod and stretching the limits of discourse


Philosophy and the mytho-poetic tradition. 

Post Class Reflections

 Hi Everyone,  I really enjoyed our class discussion yesterday.   It was lovely getting to know each of you a bit and I appreciate all the class discussion.   It is nice to be back in the philosophy classroom. One of the drawbacks of my life as  BIC director is that I only get to teach one philosophy class a year  and an undergrad class like this one only every other year.  I always think of the philosophy classroom as the  place where I really fell in love with the life of the mind  that I'd been living for some time.  I learned there was a name for what I'd been thinking all those years.  

Class Plan for Today

Hi Everyone,

I'm excited for class to start.  Here's the plan for today.

Introductions

Syllabus and  questions about it (Please take a look at the syllabus before  class).

What is philosophy?

What's the value of studying the  history of  philosophy?

Why start the history of  philosophy with Homer?

What do you know about Homer? 

Welcome to the Course Blog for Classical Philosophy

Hello Blog world,

Here is the class blog for my classical philosophy course this semester.  I'll post assignments for class, links to course material,  observations about class, and maintain the course blog roll here.  Follow us on our journey through the ancient world.


Anne-Marie Schultz