Did We Do Anything In The Classes I Missed?

Frequently students who miss a bunch of class assure me they've "kept up with the readings" and wonder "if they've missed anything." Since my classes are humanities classes, they're discussion and inquiry-based. So, I finally wrote a longer reply explaining what it means to miss philosophy classes. Here it is:

Dear Student-who-has-missed-many-classes:

Regarding the work you need to make up, I don’t suppose there's much I need you to do. The class is really about the activity of philosophy. It's about the conversation and critical thinking, together. Our readings are typically short and the exams are pretty straightforward. Most of what happens in a class of mine happens in class.

Imagine for a moment that you joined the tennis team, and then you missed a bunch of practices. The question “Did I miss anything?” is, in a way, absurd because what you missed is the experience of playing tennis and getting better at tennis. You've missed interaction with others and the growth that comes from that. You've not been playing tennis; thus, you've missed everything.

In short, what you have missed in our class has been the experience of discussing philosophy and getting better at thinking philosophically. It's not a question of information or “content”. It's a question of what the class is really meant to do for your education. 

So the simple answer to your question is “no”-- there is no work to make up, and I simply need documentation to make sure the attendance part of your grade doesn't suffer.  The longer answer your question is that you’ve basically been missing the most important part of the class, though it's not one which, for this class, will have a significant impact on your grade. 

I guess it all comes down to what is ultimately important to you beyond the grade.

DH 

Four Months of Solar and Still Happy

It's been about 4 months since we installed a 5.59 kwh leased solar system from Solar City on our roof. The whole process was amazing and we've generated over 1600 kwh since then. We expect this system to cut our electric by about 72% a year (which is contractually guaranteed by the company) and perhaps more. No hassles, start to finish, and great customer service for every step.

Some photos from the initial installation.

Austin, TX: The Next "Placeless Place"?

I went to UT from 1990-97 and lived in Austin until 1999. I just visited and drove around town. I am probably a curmudgeon, but here are a couple things which unsettled me. Perhaps they're symbolic to you, perhaps not. They are to me.

(1) There's a Ferrari dealership in downtown, right near the luxury apartment skyscrapers.

(2) There's a Starbucks where Les Amis used to be.

(3) There's a Patagonia on Congress Avenue. [Michael Lind once named trends like this " Brazilization of the economy." Brazilization, Lind defines as "a high-tech feudal anarchy, featuring an archipelago of privileged whites in an ocean of white, black and brown poverty."]

Much, in fact, of the development I saw was of the expensive, upper middle class kind. Serving needs but in an anodyne and corporate way. Austin seems ineluctably moving from "weird" to "placeless."

The photo below is from....Cleveland. But it could just as easily have been Austin, in many places.

God, A.B.D.

God: A.B.D.

Sitcom. Premise: God's created the world and everything in it. In 6 days. But he cannot complete his dissertation. Tune in each week as God procrastinates, makes excuses, cultivates distracting hobbies, etc. all to avoid writing his dissertation.

Grading is like profiling: one must suppress their own ideas and instincts enough to inhabit someone else's (frequently twisted and errant) perspective, all the while not losing themselves in the process. I drape myself with incomplete sentences, half-baked vagaries, and listless quotations so I can discover--aha!--this person has neither understood nor, alas, tried to understand. And if I do this earnestly, it is called "engagement" by the people we've paid to stop teaching so they can exhort teachers to "teach better."

SAAP at Advancing Public Philosophy Conference in Washington DC

D. Hildebrand (SAAP Communications Director),  J. Kegley (SAAP President), K. Stikkers (SAAP President-elect)

SAAP was well-represented at a recent conference on “Advancing Publicly Engaged Philosophy” held in Washington, D.C. October 6-8, 2011. This conference, the first for the Public Philosophy Network, was a mix of formal and informal sessions on various issues in practical philosophy, including concrete projects and political problems as well as discussions of larger philosophical questions about how to engage in philosophical activity outside the academy. The conference was co-chaired by two people very active in American philosophy: Noelle McAfee, of Emory University and Andrew Light, a SAAP member from George Mason University and the Center for American Progress.

A SAAP sponsored panel was presented on “Pragmatism as a Publicly Engaged Philosophy.”  For this panel, President Elect Ken Stikkers (Southern Illinois University” talked about “John Dewey and the Public Responsibility of Philosophers,” focusing on Dewey’s  discussion of establishing a “public” and defining the meaning of “publics.”  David Hidebrand (University of Colorado, Denver) talked about “Journalism’s Destructive Addiction to Fake Objectivity” stressing a useful notion of “pragmatic objectivity as a better criteria for journalistic endeavors.  President Jackie Kegley (California State University, Bakersfield), discussed “Royce as a Public Philosopher,” focusing on his recommendations for building community through interpretation and she used the work of the Kegley Institute of Ethics as a concrete exemplification of this philosophy.

In addition, Paul Thompson from Michigan State University was on the Conference Committee and also chaired a workshop on “Philosophers Working in Collaborative Research Teams.”  Richard Hart, Bloomfield College, and John Shook (George Mason University) also chaired workshops- Richard on “Public Philosophy in Other Genres,” and John on “Philosophical Debate with Religion.  Judith Green, Fordham University, chaired a session on “Speech and Knowledge in Public Life.” Eric Weber (University of Mississippi who gave a paper on "Philosophical Influence on Culture," and Jonathan Moreno who led a workshop on Bioethics and Biopolitics.  SAAP members David Woods and Kathleen Wallace were also present at the meeting as discussants in workshop sessions.

The meeting ended with strong encouragement to spread the word about the network and to remain creatively engaged with the project of advancing philosophy into public arenas and problems.  Information for anyone interested can be found at http://Publicphilosophynetwork.com

Jacquelyn Kegley, President, SAAP

Philip Kitcher on John Dewey: Most important philosopher of 20th century

"Reconstruction in Philosophy is the title of a book by John Dewey whom I take to be the most important philosopher of the twentieth century."
[Philip Kitcher, "Philosophy Inside Out," Metaphilosophy, Vol. 42, No. 3, April 2011]