1. A priori knowledge: yes 71.1%; no 18.4%; other 10.5%.

4. Analytic-synthetic distinction: yes 64.9%; no 27.1%; other 8.1%.

5. Epistemic justification: externalism 42.7%; internalism 26.4%; other 30.8%.

6. External world: non-skeptical realism 81.6%; skepticism 4.8%; idealism 4.3%; other 9.2%.

7. Free will: compatibilism 59.1%; libertarianism 13.7%; no free will 12.2%; other 14.9%.

8. God: atheism 72.8%; theism 14.6%; other 12.6%.

[...]

28. Trolley problem: switch 68.2%; don’t switch 7.6%; other 24.2%.

29. Truth: correspondence 50.8%; deflationary 24.8%; epistemic 6.9%; other 17.5%.

30. Zombies: conceivable but not metaphysically possible 35.6%; metaphysically possible 23.3%; inconceivable 16.0%; other 25.1%

If you are interesting in exploring these questions, you are invited to apply to a  College of Humanities and Social Sciences reading group called “What is an Educated Person? – a CHASS Reading Group” which will meet every Tuesday (fall term 2013) from 3:00 to 4:30 in ANSC 314.

Expectations: Each week students will read selections from classic and contemporary seminal works on education and the meaning of life, post a brief reading reflection on a blog, and participate in the weekly discussion.  Discussions will be moderated by Dr. Harrison Kleiner and Dr. Susan Shapiro.  While the reading group does not count for USU credit, students may get Honors credit through an Honors Contract.

Thanks to the generous support of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the USU Honors Program, students will receive their program books for free.

Fall 2013 readings:
William Shakespeare, The Tempest
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (selections)
Plato, The Republic (selections)
John Henry Newman, The Idea of a University (selections)
Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind (selections)
Anthony Kronman, Educations End

Students of sufficient intellectual maturity who are eager to read, think, and discuss the purposes and meaning of higher education can apply.  We welcome applications from freshman to seniors and from every discipline and college.  Application information can be found at saintsocratessociety.com or email harrison.kleiner@usu.edu.

Application process:

Submit applications to harrison.kleiner@usu.edu.  Include as attachments to the email:
- A resume.  Your resume must include the following items: your contact information (phone, email, address); academic year; major; GPA; academic achievements; extra-curricular activities; the name and email address of a USU faculty member who can be contacted for a reference.
- Submit a list of at least 3 books that have helped to shape your self-understanding.

Candidates may be interviewed by a team composed of Drs. Kleiner and Shapiro.

Priority deadline for applications: Monday May 5, 5pm.  After that date, a rolling deadline for applications.

The founding story of ReD sounds more like the genesis of a doctoral dissertation than of a multimillion-dollar company. Madsbjerg says he became enamored first with post-structural theory, and then with the 20th-century German philosopher Martin Heidegger, who argued that the distinction between objects and their beholders needed to be effaced. When we consider a hammer, we might naturally think of its objective scientific properties: a certain weight and balance, a hardness, a handle with a rubber grip that has a particular coefficient of friction. What Heidegger posited is that these objective attributes are in fact secondary to the hammer’s subjective relationship with the person wielding it. The hammer has uses (a weapon, a tool), meanings (a symbol on the Soviet flag), and other characteristics that do not exist independently of the meeting of subject and object. A common mistake of philosophers, he claimed, is to think of the object as distinct from the subject. If all of this sounds opaque, I can assure you that in the original German it is much, much worse.But before long, Madsbjerg had a list of clients desperate for Heideggerian readings of their businesses. The service he provides sounds even more improbable to a scholar who knows his Heidegger than to a layperson who does not. Many philosophers spend their lives trying and failing to understand what Heidegger was talking about. To interest a typical ReD client—usually a corporate vice president who is, Madsbjerg says, “the least laid-back person you can imagine, with every minute of their day divided into 15-minute blocks”—in the philosopher’s turgid, impenetrable post-structural theory is as unlikely a pitch as could be imagined.

But before long, Madsbjerg had a list of clients desperate for Heideggerian readings of their businesses. The service he provides sounds even more improbable to a scholar who knows his Heidegger than to a layperson who does not. Many philosophers spend their lives trying and failing to understand what Heidegger was talking about. To interest a typical ReD client—usually a corporate vice president who is, Madsbjerg says, “the least laid-back person you can imagine, with every minute of their day divided into 15-minute blocks”—in the philosopher’s turgid, impenetrable post-structural theory is as unlikely a pitch as could be imagined.

But it’s the pitch Madsbjerg has been making. The fundamental blindness in the sorts of consulting that dominate the market, he says, is that they are Cartesian in their outlook: they view objects as the sum of their performance and physical properties. “If you are selling personal computers, you look at the machine and say it’s this many gigahertz, this many pixels,” he says. And you then determine whether a potential new market needs computers that perform faster than the ones currently on offer, and how big that market will be.

 

Friday, April 12th, 2 pm

Widtsoe 007

(sponsored by Classics Program and Phi Alpha Theta)

1. Philosophy on tap, 7 pm, The Factory Pizzeria – come philosophize!

2. Phi Sigma Tau is now accepting new membership applications – send a note to Huenemann if you’re interested!