Dear SEP Families,
What is time? Does only the present moment exist, or does all of time exist at once, like a big ball of actual timey-wimey stuff? Students tended to agree that presentism, the view that only the present moment exists, is a better expression of how we seem to experience time. But externalism, the view that all of time exists at once and we only experience a small slice of it at a time, might fit better with our knowledge of physics.
We also discussed how our knowledge of the world, and how we might present evidence for our belief that tables, chairs and other normal objects exist. But our experiences could easily be faked, like the Doctor, Rory and Amy in “Amy’s Choice,” where they were trapped in dreams. How do we know we aren’t dreaming right now? Students agreed that our experiences are better explained by the real existence of objects rather than dreams. What students were divided over the most was ethics. Many students found consequentialism, the view that good consequences are what matters in making a decision right, more intuitive, while others preferred to think more about people’s intentions and following rules.
Our discussions of ethics and the philosophy of time generated the most discussion, with students eagerly interested in having their opinions and theories heard. They easily grasped the different types of ethical theories, and how different thought experiments can change how you view reasons for moral action. As for time, they were quickly able to understand how the theory of relativity worked and how that theoretically could allow us to travel forward in time. They had a hard time grasping some hard distinctions, such as the difference between theories of time, and how morality could be objective rather than subjective. The students also tended to rely on epistemic authority rather than carefully thinking and being skeptical about their own beliefs. As the course progressed we worked on reflecting on their reasons for various beliefs, and how to think critically and to use simple logical tools to assess beliefs.
What is time? Does only the present moment exist, or does all of time exist at once, like a big ball of actual timey-wimey stuff? Students tended to agree that presentism, the view that only the present moment exists, is a better expression of how we seem to experience time. But externalism, the view that all of time exists at once and we only experience a small slice of it at a time, might fit better with our knowledge of physics.
We also discussed how our knowledge of the world, and how we might present evidence for our belief that tables, chairs and other normal objects exist. But our experiences could easily be faked, like the Doctor, Rory and Amy in “Amy’s Choice,” where they were trapped in dreams. How do we know we aren’t dreaming right now? Students agreed that our experiences are better explained by the real existence of objects rather than dreams. What students were divided over the most was ethics. Many students found consequentialism, the view that good consequences are what matters in making a decision right, more intuitive, while others preferred to think more about people’s intentions and following rules.
Our discussions of ethics and the philosophy of time generated the most discussion, with students eagerly interested in having their opinions and theories heard. They easily grasped the different types of ethical theories, and how different thought experiments can change how you view reasons for moral action. As for time, they were quickly able to understand how the theory of relativity worked and how that theoretically could allow us to travel forward in time. They had a hard time grasping some hard distinctions, such as the difference between theories of time, and how morality could be objective rather than subjective. The students also tended to rely on epistemic authority rather than carefully thinking and being skeptical about their own beliefs. As the course progressed we worked on reflecting on their reasons for various beliefs, and how to think critically and to use simple logical tools to assess beliefs.
Resources for Continued Learning
Books that your students may find interests:
Thank you for being a part of SEP Session 3.
- The Problems of Philosophy by Bertrand Russell (An old but great introduction to prominent issues in philosophy, very assessable. As it is an old book, it is available for free online at: http://www.ditext.com/russell/russell.html)
- Doctor Who and Philosophy: Bigger on the Inside edited by Courtland Lewis
- Science Fiction and Philosophy: From Time Travel to Superintelligence edited by Susan Schneider
- The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/
- Essentially the Wikipedia of philosophy with articles written by experts in each sub-discipline.
- Michael Sandel (Harvard) has an excellent introductory college course to moral and political philosophy (titled “Justice”) with the lectures and material available online. It can be found at http://www.justiceharvard.org/
Thank you for being a part of SEP Session 3.
