Notes about researching and teaching philosophy…
On Vanity
“RICHARD DAWKINS: They’re vulnerable. I also would like them to know the Bible for literary reasons.
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: Precisely. We both, I was pleased to see, have written pieces about the King James Bible. The AV [Authorised Version], as it was called in my boyhood. A huge amount of English literature would be opaque if people didn’t know it.
RD: Absolutely, yes. Have you read some of the modern translations? ‘Futile, said the preacher. Utterly futile.’
CH: He doesn’t!
RD: He does, honestly. ‘Futile, futile said the priest. It’s all futile.’
CH: That’s Lamentations.
RD: No, it’s Ecclesiastes. ‘Vanity, vanity.’
CH: ‘Vanity, vanity.’ Good God. That’s the least religious book in the Bible. That’s the one that Orwell wanted at his funeral.”
"'Never Be Afraid of Stridency': Richard Dawkins' Interview with Christopher Hitchens," - http://www.newstatesman.com/node/200931
On New Romanticism
“Just once I’d like to have a college student come up to me and say, ‘I really wanted to major in accounting, but my parents forced me to major in medieval art.’ That probably won’t happen... But you see a counterreaction setting in. You see, here and there, signs of a new romanticism... I’m not sure we’re about to be overrun with waves of Byronic romantics, but we have been living through an unromantic period and there’s bound to be a correction. People eventually want their souls stirred, especially if the stuff regarded as soft and squishy turns out in a relational economy to be hard and practical.”
David Brooks, "The New Romantics in the Computer Age" - http://nyti.ms/1hGhL4e
On Coddling and Critical Thinking
“There’s a saying common in education circles: Don’t teach students what to think; teach them how to think. The idea goes back at least as far as Socrates. Today, what we call the Socratic method is a way of teaching that fosters critical thinking, in part by encouraging students to question their own unexamined beliefs, as well as the received wisdom of those around them. Such questioning sometimes leads to discomfort, and even to anger, on the way to understanding.”
"The Coddling of the American Mind," - http://theatln.tc/1IXIRdd
Watson Goes to University
“Deakin University will be the first university in the world to utilise IBM Watson to enhance the quality of the student experience, developing with IBM a breakthrough system that will transform the way students get advice and answers to questions... Watson will answer questions about courses but will also be able to help guide students through the maze of decision-making about their future careers to enhance their employment opportunities. Over time every student who asks Watson a question can expect tailored information and personalised advice and information based on their individual profile.”
IBM's website suggests that this will be "a new partnership that aims to exceed students’ needs." It's at the early stages of development, but if successful, that may well be an understatement.
On Software
“Every aspect of the global industrial social order is being transformed by the impact of software. This has happened before of course: money and written language both transformed the world in similarly profound ways. Software, however, is more flexible and powerful than either.”
"A New Software Technology," - http://breakingsmart.com/season-1/a-new-soft-technology/
On Citation Metrics
“We started out our story with our professors in Science out-performing our professors in the Social Sciences and Humanities to a staggering extent, by having 17 times as many ISI citations. At the end of our story, we find that when using the most comprehensive data source and correcting for the number of co-authors and the length of the academic’s publishing career, academics in the Social Sciences and Humanities on average out-perform academics in the Sciences.”
Anne-Wil Harzing, "Citation Analysis across Disciplines: The Impact of Different Data Sources and Citation Metrics" - http://www.harzing.com/data_metrics_comparison.htm. An interesting white paper summary of different citation metrics, with some justification to rethink how humanities research is assessed.
When Algorithms Discriminate
“There is a widespread belief that software and algorithms that rely on data are objective. But software is not free of human influence. Algorithms are written and maintained by people, and machine learning algorithms adjust what they do based on people’s behavior. As a result, say researchers in computer science, ethics and law, algorithms can reinforce human prejudices. Google’s online advertising system, for instance, showed an ad for high-income jobs to men much more often than it showed the ad to women, a new study by Carnegie Mellon University researchers found.”
"When Algorithms Discriminate," - http://nyti.ms/1JX8Wwv.
On Learning to Think
“Knowing how to think demands a set of cognitive skills — quantitative ability, conceptual flexibility, analytical acumen, expressive clarity. But beyond those skills, learning how to think requires the development of a set of intellectual virtues that make good students, good professionals, and good citizens. I use the word ‘virtues,’ as opposed to ‘skills,’ deliberately. As Aristotle knew, all of the traits I will discuss have a fundamental moral dimension. I won’t provide an exhaustive list of intellectual virtues, but I will provide a list, just to get the conversation started... love of truth... honesty... fair-mindedness... humility... perseverance... good listening... perspective taking and empathy... wisdom.”
Barry Schwartz, "What 'Learning How to Think' Really Means," The Chronicle of Higher Education - http://bit.ly/1G8lfkk. Schwartz elaborates on each skill and maybe one of the more interesting is his summary of why love of truth is first on his list.
“Love of truth is an intellectual virtue because its absence has serious moral consequences. Relativism chips away at our fundamental respect for one another as human beings. When people have respect for the truth, they seek it out and speak it in dialogue. Once truth becomes suspect, debates become little more than efforts at manipulation. Instead of trying to enlighten or persuade people by giving them reasons to see things as we do, we can use any form of influence we think will work. This is what political ‘spin’ is all about.”
On Ex Machina
“Because if that [Turing] test is passed, you are dead center of the greatest scientific event in the history of man. ”
“If you’ve created a conscious machine, it’s not the history of man. That’s the history of gods.”
This is an exchange between two of the main characters in Ex Machina. A superb thriller, the film explores a range of ethical implications concerning the human ability to transcend itself through technological innovation. In this case, it focused upon the Turing Test, and the possibility of creating a conscious machine. Early on, the two characters cited above touch on what is in my mind a crucial ambiguity in the philosophy of technology. It goes back to Plato's Phaedrus, where Socrates cites writing's divine origins. Central to my recent work has been this question of the problematic way in which technique implies transcendence in philosophical discourse. With this problem in focus, I have aimed to provide an alternative approach to basic aspects of technique, such as writing in books. In any case, Ex Machina maintained a philosophical ambition worth noting alongside its coldly narrated suspense.
On Drones
“What does Francis Fukuyama do after the end of history? In his leisure hours, he puts together little drones in his garage and then proudly exhibits them on his blog. He is part of an rapidly developing subculture: that of the homemade drone. Following in the footsteps of the model enthusiasts of the 1960s, there today exists a whole little community of amateurs who buy or construct drones at the cost of a few hundred dollars. With their microcameras on board, these machines make it possible to produce unofficial little films, some of which are strikingly beautiful. I am thinking in particular of a flight over New York in which, once over the Brooklyn Bridge, the camera scans the facades of the skyline, ending up by gliding past the flame on the Statue of Liberty. Proof enough of the validity of Walter Benjamin’s thesis that technology, today used for death-dealing purposes, may eventually recover its emancipating potential and readopt the playful and aesthetic aspirations that secretly inspire it.”
Grégoire Chamayou "Theorizing the Drone," - http://wp.me/p4KhvY-4me
Longreads blog posted this interesting excerpt of four chapters from Chamayou's book A Theory of the Drone. The article contrasts the logic of the kamikaze and drone as follows: "The drone and the kamikaze stand in contrast as two opposed forms of moral sensibility, two forms of ethos that reflect each other but are each other’s antithesis and nightmare." And yes, Francis Fukuyama really is a drone hobbyist - http://on.ft.com/1EG4PyU. For another take on critical aesthetics of drone practices, the National Gallery Victoria in Melbourne, was displaying the "Untitled (Drone)" series by Trevor Paglen. The works can be seen on his website here, but really need to be seen in person to appreciate their scale.