Philosophy and Human Values Course Guidebook.pdf

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Philosophy and Human Values

Rick Roderick, Ph. D.

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The Teaching Company

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RICK RODERICK

Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Duke University

Rick Roderick was born in Abilene, Texas in 1949, and received his

bachelor's degree at University of Texas, Austin, Texas. He did

post-graduate work at Baylor University, and earned his Ph. D. at

University of Texas, Austin, Texas.

From 1977 to 1978, he was the editor of the Baylor Philosophy

Journal, and from 1977 to 1979 he was a member of the Phi Sigma Tau

National Honor Society of Philosophy. He was the recipient of the

Oldright Fellowship at the University of Texas and served as associate

editor to The Pawn Review, and Current Perspectives in Social Theory.

He is the undergraduate director of the Duke Marxism and Society

Program. He is the author of the book Habermas and the Foundation

of Critical Theory (1986), as well as numerous articles in professional

journals. He has presented over 24 papers, and published 13 reviews

and literary criticisms.

From 1977 to present, he has taught,Philosophy, first at Baylor, then

University of Texas and now at Duke. His areas of specialization are

Marx and Marxism, Social and Political philosophy, Critical Theory

(Habermas and the Frankfurt School), 19th Century Philosophy, and

Contemporary Continental Philosophy. He also teaches Ethics, Logic,

History of Modern Philosophy, Aesthetics and Existentialism.

O 1992. The Teaching Company, Limited Partnership

Lecture One: Socrates and the Life of Inquiry

I. The trial and death of Socrates inaugurated the Western

philosophical tradition.

A. Investigation turned from movement of stars and composition

of the earth toward human matters by separating scientific

from philosophic discourse.

B. Dialogic form posits dialogue as essential to knowledge.

C. It is essential to have knowledge of oneself.

II. Socrates had an argument against relativism.

A. Is the idea that truth is relative itself a relative truth -- or is it

an absolute one?

B. Human Meaning:

1. What are you doing -- now, and in life?

2. Do meanings transcend the here and now?

3. When a term or set of terms that are very important to a

III.Several themes are pursued throughout the lectures.

A. Ask and try to localize in history what it means to be a human

being.

B. Explore ways of living, including the socratic way of critical

inquiry.

C. The "fallibilist" philosophy is believing passionately in certain

things but realizing that the beliefs may be wrong.

D. This type of critical inquiry, if it can be carried out at all, can

be carried out when societies are troubled and the meanings of

words are debated and redefined.

1. The way we describe and understand our lives is

inextricably connected to the way we live them.

2. Under these conditions it may not be possible to expand

localized useful definitions.

^1992. The Teaching Company, Limited Partnership

society (e.g. "virtue 11 , "patriotism") are questioned, society

is in danger. This was true of Socrates' Athens and of our

condition.

Lecture Two: Epicureans, Stoics, Skeptics

I. Conflicting ideals of excellence in Roman Society.

A. Hedonism is doing what makes you happy.

1. Epicureans pursued higher pleasures in moderation.

2. It is associated with a rising empire and its values.

B. Stoicism involved fortitude and cultivating apathy to

difficulties of life.

1. Happiness was the best thing, but was unattainable.

2. It is associated with a falling empire and its values.

C. Christianity is a slow ascension, based on Stoic thought.

1. It is spread through the spoken word and fire of the

sword. i

2. There is a hierarchical society arranged with differential

relations to God.

3. It offers solace to the inevitability of human suffering in a

way that the Stoics did not.

II. A brief note on modern criticism of democracy:

A. Max Weber said quantitative relations are more important than

qualitative where rules and procedures are followed.

B. Franz Kafka was also a critic of democracy.

HI.Anselm's argument for the existence of God:

A. This is an argument between only two interlocutors. If you are

neither the fool who has said there is no God, or the believer,

this argument has no bearing on you.

B. God is defined as a being, greater than which cannot be

conceived.

1. It is greater to exist in the mind and reality than in the

mind alone. Therefore, God must exist in reality because

if he did not, we could conceive something greater.

2. This is perhaps one of the most eloquent arguments in

philosophy.

®1992. The Teaching Company, Limited Partnership

Lecture Three: Kant and the Path to Enlightenment

I. Modernity began after the French Revolution.

A. Max Weber's understanding of modernity includes notions of

bureaucracy, the state, and the rationalization of modern life.

B. Before modernity, humans were defined as collected atoms.

C. After the Revolution, authority was seen as that of the

autonomous individual. Autonomy became central to ethical

decisions.

II. In Kant's ethical theory, individuals judge their actions as right or

wrong.

A. Kant presupposes that there is a moral law.

B. He begins with a series of identifications to answer how the

moral law possibly gives a pure abstract form of a moral law

that will ask if it is really moral.

HI.Kant's categorical imperative gives a single moral rule general

enough to cover the ten commandments and the golden rule and

exclude all that won't fit those kinds of patterns.

A. Act so you can will the rule" of your action to be a universal

law.

B. It is an imperative because it is a command, and it is

categorical because it is not hypothetical.

IV. Kant drew principles from the categorical imperative.

A. Always treat others and yourself as though you were an end

and never a mere means.

B. Always act under the practical postulate that our will is free.

C. Always act so you can regard your own will as making

universal law and be willing for everyone else to act just as

you did.

D. Human capacity to be a moral agent gives each human dignity.

VI. Mill (utilitarianism) vs. Kant (Deontology):

A. Mill argued we should always act so as to bring the greatest

happiness to the greatest number.

B. Kant argues we should act as if our actions are universal.

C. Both of these theories ignore actual lives and complexities of

ethnic, gender and class relations.

®1992. The Teaching Company, Limited Partnership

V. The "kingdom of ends 1 1 is where all of us in our mutual relations

with one another treat each other as ends and not as mere means.

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