Join the Club!

Still subscribed to this course blog? Nice.

So, I'm trying to start up a school club -- the "Owning Our Ignorance" club -- devoted to fun and logic, in that order. I've put up a blog for it over here.

Check it out. Please join if you're interested.

Final Exam

Just a reminder that the final exam is on Friday, December 19th, in our normal classroom.

The exam is at our normal class period time: for the 9:00--9:50 a.m. class, it's at 9:00 a.m., and for the 10:00-10:50 a.m. class, it's at 10:00 a.m. The test will last 50 minutes.

Intellectual Honesty

Here's a little rant on a favorite topic of mine: intellectual honesty.

A simple goal of this class is to get us all to recognize what counts as good evidence and what counts as bad evidence for a claim. I think we're getting better at that. But it's not clear that we're caring about the difference once we figure it out.

Getting us to care is the real goal of this class. We should care about good evidence. We should care about it because it's what gets us closer to the truth. When we judge an argument to be overall good, THE POWER OF LOGIC COMPELS US to believe the conclusion. If we like an arg, but still go on stubbornly disagreeing with its conclusion, we are just being irrational.

This means we should be open-minded. We should be willing to let new evidence change our current beliefs. We should be open to the possibility that we might be wrong. This is how comedian Todd Glass puts it:


Admitting when we're wrong--or simply not guaranteed to be right, or not an expert--is a very important step in being intellectually honest. Here's an excerpt from a podcast I listen to called Jordan, Jesse GO! about owning our ignorance:


Here are the first two paragraphs of a great article I recently read on this:

Last week, I jokingly asked a health club acquaintance whether he would change his mind about his choice for president if presented with sufficient facts that contradicted his present beliefs. He responded with utter confidence. "Absolutely not," he said. "No new facts will change my mind because I know that these facts are correct."

I was floored. In his brief rebuttal, he blindly demonstrated overconfidence in his own ideas and the inability to consider how new facts might alter a presently cherished opinion. Worse, he seemed unaware of how irrational his response might appear to others. It's clear, I thought, that carefully constructed arguments and presentation of irrefutable evidence will not change this man's mind.

Ironically, having extreme confidence in oneself is often a sign of ignorance. In many cases, such stubborn certainty is unwarranted.

Moopheus

Here are some links on animal ethics:

• Vegetarians Still Love the Smell of Bacon
• David Foster Wallace: Consider the Lobster
• How to Cut Back on Meat Slowly
  
• Animal Research (Peter Singer's Sometimes OK with It!)
• Peter Singer on Michael Vick & Dog Fighting
  
• Audio Interview with Peter Singer
• Michael Pollan's "An Animal's Place"
• Is Worrying About the Ethics of Your Diet Elitist?
• Huge List of Resources on the Moral Status of Animals

The Meatrix

We Have to Give?!?

Here is some stuff on giving to charity.

• Free Charity! The Hunger Site. You can donate food FOR FREE there! You can also donate rice for free by playing a word game at FreeRice.
• Here are some cheaper charities designed for people who can't donate a lot of money: The $10 Club, Microcredit, Oxfam.
• If you buy the arguments for giving to charity, you might want to research which charities aren't squandering their donations. Here are lists of reputable charities, sorted by type of charity (such as hunger or international relief).
• Here's an updated argument by Peter Singer with some interesting specific proposals.
• Here's the James Shikwati interview we read for class. (Shikwati's organization is online here. A similar organization you can donate to is online here.)
  
• The NPR program Fresh Air recently aired a radio interview with someone who agrees with Shikwati.
• Here's an interesting article in which Nicholas Kristof discusses many of the concerns Shikwati raises about giving aid to African nations. I especially recommend reading the last section of the article.
• Here's an article on all the reasons why we might give away the money we earn. This article even references Thomas Nagel's anti-I'M-SPECIAL-ism.
  

Now for some videos. Here is Peter Singer's appearance on The Colbert Report. He's talking about our next topic: animal ethics.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Peter Singer

Ron Paul Interview
Bob Barr Interview

Green Screen
Bill O'Reilly Interview

And here's another short video of Peter Singer on giving to charity:

Youth In Asia

Ali G's Take on Euthanasia

Team Business Ethics

Here are some links on the ethics of Wal-Mart:

• Is Wal-Mart good for the working class? Here's a great debate between an economist who says yes and an activist who says no.
• How did Wal-Mart become the biggest retailer? Some point to Sam Walton's big idea that lowering prices would increase total sales and lead to higher profits. But another important development was how Wal-Mart streamlined its inventory process.
  
• Yes, Wal-Mart has low prices, and apparently the prices at other stores also go down in the long run when a Wal-Mart comes to town.
• Here are many of the common criticisms of Wal-Mart.
  
• Beware of false dilemmas! This isn't a zero-sum game: Wal-Mart doesn't have to raise its prices to raise its wages.
• Here's the full episode of South Park about a "Wall-Mart" coming to town. Below are some clips from the episode.
  

If you're looking for other topics in business ethics, check out the course blog for the business ethics course I teach at Rowan.

Midterm on Monday

This is just a reminder that the midterm is on Monday, November 3rd.

Also, CONGRATS TO THE WORLD CHAMPIONS OF BASEBALL!

Black + White = Gold

For those who don't know what a mashup is, you're in luck. You can start with one of the best ones out there:

(December 4th, from DJ Danger Mouse's Grey Album)

The internet has more to say about the Grey Album here.

Kant, You Ignorant Slut

I thought it might help us all if I opened up a post dedicated solely to complaining about how tough the Immanuel Kant reading was. Leave your best Kant insults insults in the comments of this post.

[can't get enough Kant?]
[want tips on reading these articles?]

Cole Hamels Is An Exception

Thanks to Josh, our anti-I'M-SPECIAL-ism pin made it to the Phillies game today. Not to go against the message of the pin or anything, but I'm taking credit for the win. Clearly the pin is lucky.

Defining Our Terms

1. Tool: Here's one Urban Dictionary definition of "tool," the one I had in mind when referring to Dane Cook:

someone who tries too hard. a poser. one of those chic's who holds the sign saying "Carson Daly is Hot." the asstard who goes to a rock show because they heard one of the songs on the radio or mtv. or someone who insists on wearing velour sweat suits. Avril Lavigne.

2. Fugly: uh, rather ugly. Moe Szyslak has been called a few variations of this term.

3. Emo Kid: "Emo" has a ton of meanings. The wikipedia article on "emo" has a nice history of the term. Plus, there's always stand-up comedian Emo Phillips:


Did I forget any terms? Let me know!