Why would you discuss politics here?

[Fake Boris]

Originally posted by Asher

I will not contest the claim that Ontario is a ****hole.

The problem is, Quebec is also a ****hole -- but with a nightlife.

Overall crime rate per 100,000

Alberta 9,523
Quebec 5,909

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/07/18/crime-stats.html

[Jon Miller]

Asher, you took the music courses for the general populace. If you had taken the music cources for music majors, it probably would have been different.

On the other hand, my understanding is that english and psychology and history majors are pretty easy the whole way. Same with philosophy and religion. I had a freind who was thinking of pulling out one of those majors in the last year of college because he had all but one of the physics classes he wanted and so could take whatever he wanted as the rest.

JM

[Naked Gents Rut]

I don't know as I have never tried.

Not even on yourself? Dude, don't bull**** us.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Oncle Boris


Overall crime rate per 100,000

Alberta 9,523
Quebec 5,909

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/...ime-stats.html

There are a thread on this back when the report was released. There are different standards as to what constitutes a crime in each province (eg, traffic infractions). It's a bunk statistic.

[Naked Gents Rut]

The problem is, Quebec is also a ****hole -- but with a nightlife.

The non-French parts of Quebec aren't bad.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by Supr49er
If you are employed at a State University, the economy is king. Budgets fluctuate wildly, and layoffs abound.

You have to have a pretty terribly run system to have to shed staff in the middle of the semester.

As far as instructors/lecturers go, those people have day jobs to fall back on-the lecturing is to pay for their vacation and what-not. They are on either semester or yearly contracts, so they aren't going anywhere probably until may, which is par for the course for the life of that level of prof/instructor anyway.

Unless its a situation like katrina-tulane/uno, untenured profs aren't going to get the boot after their year contract is up. What you'll see is reduced hiring/replacing of retirees. Of course, I'm speaking for r1s not the directional schools, they aren't going to care as much about their academic rep. The hit from canceling searches this year for a few schools (I think UGA in my wife's field) is bad enough. Marginal tenure cases are going to scrutinized more, but that isn't a negative.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
I personally think that music and philosophy should be taught in college. It should be noted, however, that in particular philosophy isn't actually doing much to advance our philosophy... and so shouldn't get all that much support (of course, it doesn't).

That's not really true. The 20th century saw more progress in philosophy than the previous 30 combined. It's just that it looks different now. People think of philosophers as people like Plato or Kant, who have all encompassing systems of metaphysics and ethics. Philosophers don't really do that any more (at least not in the English speaking world). Of course, the old stuff gets taught in introductory classes, but you never do that again unless you specialize in the history of philosophy, which is pretty much what I do.

Contemporary analytical philosophy is heavily based on formal logic and deals with issues like the scientific respectability of the concept of meaning or identity or reference and other such abstruse things.

If you don't think that philosophical ideas make a difference, then I wish you could travel back 300 years and try to talk to people. You would find it illuminating. People assume that the way they now think is the way that people have always thought and always will think. This isn't really true. We live in a society more or less based on or in reaction to Enlightenment values. People take those values for granted, and don't realize that someone had to invent them. The people who did that were philosophers.

Hell, the whole way that modern people think about ethics is completely new and would have made no sense to ancient people (I still think it happens to make no sense, but that's just me).

In fact, in a democratic society philosophy is of infinitely more use to citizens than physics or calculus. That's because everyone needs to be able to reason to make informed choices about self governance. People need to be trained in practical logic in the same way they are trained in practical basic mathematics. Similarly, people need to be familiar with the basic ideas that inform our conception of society and how these are criticized and disputed and how to do it yourself. Moreover, a strong practical ability to form moral arguments and defend them is necessary for every citizen if we are to resolve our differences on social policy in an efficient manner. Teaching people how to do this, is just teaching them the rudiments of philosophy.

How many citizens need to use calculus? Almost none. That is specialized knowledge and has no place on practical grounds in general education. Or Physics? No ordinary person needs this knowledge for practical purposes.

(in fact, I think that physics and calculus should also be compulsory, because I don't believe that education has only social utility, but you get the point. We teach science not because people need it, but because it is something they should know. The same goes for music, history, philosophy and other traditional subjects).

[Jon Miller]

The philosophy of 300 years ago I agree was great.

Even the philosophy of 150 years ago. Even 100 years ago.

I question what great ideas have come about in the last 40 years?

JM

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Jon Miller
The philosophy of 300 years ago I agree was great.

Even the philosophy of 150 years ago. Even 100 years ago.

I question what great ideas have come about in the last 40 years?

JM

Robert Brandom's inferentialism is pretty cool. Kripke's work on Naming and Necessity revived metaphysics. Those things are still being worked out. And of course you can't forget John Rawls, the leading political philosopher of our age. Those things I have some (perhaps hostile) interest in, but there's a lot of stuff in the Philosophy of Mind that other people like more than I do. Rorty's Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature is also very interesting and influential. The entire field of Bioethics.

Go back about 50 years and there's a ton of things that I personally like more. The later Wittgenstein. Quine's holism. Stuff like that.

I remember reading Richard Feynman complaining about a philosophy lecture he attended at Harvard. What was funny was that he was attending one of Whitehead's weird lectures (on process and reality or some weird stuff like that), when if he had attended Quine's lectures, he would have found a philosopher who more or less agreed with him.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by asleepathewheel
You have to have a pretty terribly run system to have to shed staff in the middle of the semester.

It's called the federal system. States can't raise money in a recession.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by SpencerH


Scoring to the economic right of Agathon doesnt make you a capitalist.

I answered some questions (agree/disagree) instead of (strongly disagree/strongly agree). I knew at the time that it would give me a lower score than agathon but I couldn't resist.

[PLATO]

Economic Left/Right: -1.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.67

[Patroklos]

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -0.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.69

Pretty much as in the middle as anyone here, despite the accusations of some of you

[Kidlicious]

Maybe you used eeny-meeny-miney-moe method?

[Patroklos]

Or maybe your own extreme perception makes you incapable of impartial judgement.