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Here are some links related to our discussion of Adam Smith and capitalism.

• An advanced overview of the writings of Adam Smith, from my second favorite free online philosophy encyclopedia.
• (My favorite free online philosophy encyclopedia? I thought you'd never ask.)
• (Speaking of, here's their entry on philosophy of economics.)
  
• (Not to be outdone, economists have their own free online encyclopedia.)
• Two 20th-century economists have become popular for advocating an unfettered market: Milton Friedman (we're reading some of his stuff this semester) and F. A. Hayek. Here's Hayek's classic argument for decentralization.
  
• George Will gives an explanation of the invisible hand's emergent control of a free market.
• Wait, what's emergence?
• Does Adam Smith still matter? Apparently.
  
• What did famous philosopher Karl Popper think about the free market? You could listen to this, or check out this comic.
  
• As we discussed in class, America's economy isn't exactly capitalist. So what should we call it?
  

Relative to You, But Not to Me

Here are some links on our first topic: are moral claims merely opinions or are they factually based?

• T-Rex says, "Beware of the relativist fallacy!"
  
• Cannibalism!
• INTERMEDIATE: a clarification of what moral relativism is and is not.
  
• ADVANCED: a detailed overview of various versions of moral relativism from my favorite free online philosophy encyclopedia.
  
• (Yes, there is more than one free online philosophy encyclopedia.)
• A cool interview with moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt who supports a version of moral relativism.
• A criticism of Haidt's defense of relativism.
  
• An argument against the DIVERSITY THESIS: in one sense, cultures morally agree more than they disagree.
• Who's to say what's right or wrong? How about philosophers?
  

Lonely Quiz

The first quiz will be held at the beginning of class on Monday, September 28th. You will have about 25 minutes to take it. The quiz is worth 10% of your overall grade.

There will be two sections: the first section is on evaluating arguments, and will look just like the group work on evaluating arguments from last week. There will also be a section of 4 or 5 short answer questions on the topic of moral relativism and realism (Are moral claims merely opinions or are they factually based?) These questions will be based on our class discussions of the handout and pages 1-6 of the textbook.

Evaluating Args

Here are the answers to the handout on evaluating arguments that was offered as extra credit. Perhaps I should have titled the handout "So Many Bad Args!"

1) All humpback whales are whales.
All whales are mammals.
All humpback whales are mammals.

P1- true
P2- true
structure- good
overall - good

2) (from Stephen Colbert)
Bush was either a great prez or the greatest prez.
Bush wasn’t the greatest prez.
Bush was a great prez.

P1- questionable ("great" is subjective)
P2- questionable ("great" is subjective)
structure- good (it's either A or B; it's not A; so it's B)
overall- bad (bad premises)

3) Some cats can speak German.
Sean has a cat.
Sean's cat can speak German.

P1- false
P2- true! (I have two; there they are! ------------>)
structure- bad (the 1st premise only says some can speak German; Sean's cat could be one of the ones that doesn't)
overall- bad (bad structure)

4) All knock-knock jokes are annoying.
Some knock-knock jokes are funny.
Some annoying things are funny.

P1- questionable ("annoying" is subjective)
P2- questionable ("funny" is subjective)
structure- good (the premises establish that some knock-knock jokes are both annoying and funny; so some annoying things [those jokes] are funny)
overall - bad (bad premises)

5) All whales are mammals.
All whales live in the ocean.
All mammals live in the ocean.

P1- true
P2- true (if interpreted to mean "Whales are the sorts of creatures whose natural habitat is the ocean.") or false (if interpreted to mean "Each and every living whale lives in the ocean," since some whales, like Shamu, live in SeaWorld or other zoos)
structure- bad (we don't know much about the relationship between mammals and creatures that living in the ocean just from the fact that whales belong to each of those groups)
overall- bad (bad structure)

6) Some dads have beards.
All bearded people are mean.
Some dads are mean.

P1- true
P2- questionable ("mean" is subjective)
structure- good (if all the people with beards were mean, then the dads with beards would be mean, so some dads would be mean)
overall- bad (bad 2nd premise)

7) This class is boring.
All boring things are taught by Sean
This class is taught by Sean.

P1-questionable ("boring" is subjective)
P2- false (nearly everyone would agree that there are some boring things not associated with your teacher Sean)
structure- good
overall- bad (bad premises)

8) All students in this room are mammals.
All humans are mammals.
All students in this room are humans.

P1- true
P2- true
structure- bad (it's the same structure as argument #10 below; the premises only tell us that students and humans both belong to the mammals group; we don't know enough about the relationship between students and humans from this; for instance, what if a dog were a student in our class?)
overall- bad (bad structure)

9) All hornets are wasps.
All wasps are insects.
All insects are scary.
All hornets are scary.

P1- true!
P2- true
P3- questionable ("scary" is subjective)
structure- good (same structure as in argument #1, just with an extra premise)
overall- bad (bad 3rd premise)

10) All women are mammals.
All men are mammals.
All men are women.

P1- true
P2- true
structure- bad (just because men and women belong to the same group doesn't mean that men are women; same bad structure as in arg #8)
overall- bad (bad structure)

11) If Sean sings, then students cringe.
Sean is singing right now.
Students are cringing right now.

P1- questionable (since you haven't heard me sing, you don't know whether it's true or false)
P2- false (I'm not singing now!)
structure- good
overall- bad (bad premises)

12) If Sean sings, then students cringe.
Sean isn't singing right now.
Students aren't cringing right now.

P1- questionable (again, you don't know)
P2- true
structure- bad (from premise 1, we only know what happens when Sean is singing, not when he isn't singing; students could cringe for a different reason)
overall- bad (bad 1st premise and structure)

13) If Sean sings, then students cringe.
Students aren't cringing right now.
Sean isn't singing right now.

P1- questionable (again, you don't know)
P2- true
structure- good
overall- bad (bad 1st premise)

14) If Sean sings, then students cringe.
Students are cringing right now.
Sean is singing right now.

P1- questionable (again, you don't know)
P2- false
structure- bad (from premise 1, we only know that Sean singing is one way to guarantee that students cringe; just because they're cringing doesn't mean Sean's the one who caused it; again, students could cringe for a different reason)
overall- bad (bad premises and structure)

The 3-Year-Old Method

Here's comedian Louis CK's take on the broad, fundamental questions kids ask.

Louis CK - Why?

Club Meeting

So, I run a club called "Owning Our Ignorance" that's devoted to fun and reasoning, but more funning than reasoning. Shut up, "funning" is too a word.

We're having our first meeting of the school year Sunday night at the Barnes & Noble in Deptford. More info on the meeting and the club are available here.

If you're interested, come on out!

Email Subscription

So why does this course have a blog? Well, why is anything anything?

A blog (short for “web log”) is a website that works like a journal – users write posts that are sorted by date based on when they were written. You can find important course information (like assignments, due dates, reading schedules, etc.) on the blog. I’ll also be updating the blog throughout the semester, posting interesting items related to the stuff we’re currently discussing in class. You don't have to visit the blog if you don't want to. It's just a helpful resource. I've used a blog for this course a lot, and it's seemed helpful. Hopefully it can benefit our course, too.

Since I’ll be updating the blog a lot throughout the semester, you should check it frequently. There are, however, some convenient ways to do this without simply going to the blog each day. The best way to do this is by getting an email subscription, so any new blog post I write automatically gets emailed to you. (You can also subscribe to the rss feed, if you know what that means.) To get an email subscription:

1. Go to http://rowanbizethics09.blogspot.com.

2. At the main page, enter your email address at the top of the right column (under “EMAIL SUBSCRIPTION: Enter your Email”) and click the "Subscribe me!" button.

3. This will take you to a new page. Follow the directions under #2, where it says “To help stop spam, please type the text here that you see in the image below. Visually impaired or blind users should contact support by email.” Once you type the text, click the "Subscribe me!" button again.

4. You'll then get an email regarding the blog subscription. (Check your spam folder if you haven’t received an email after a day.) You have to confirm your registration. Do so by clicking on the "Click here to activate your account" link in the email you receive.

5. This will bring you to a page that says "Your subscription is confirmed!" Now you're subscribed.

If you are unsure whether you've subscribed, ask me (609-980-8367; landis@rowan.edu). I can check who's subscribed and who hasn't.