Transcendentalism is a very formal word that describes a very simple idea. People, men and women equally, have knowledge about themselves and the world around them that "transcends" or goes beyond what they can see, hear, taste, touch or feel.
Democracy. Philosophy. Sculpture. Dramatic tragedies. The Olympic Games. Many of the fundamental elements of Western culture first arose more than 2000 years ago in ancient Greece.
2,500 years ago, most humans were concerned with providing food and protection for their families and little else. Most of them were ruled by kings or pharaohs who had supreme decision-making power. The Athenian democracy encouraged countless innovative thoughts among its citizens.
The 6th century B.C.E. was an amazing time of philosophical growth for ancient China. It was during that time that the two most influential spiritual leaders native to China, Confucius and Lao-tzu, are thought to have lived and taught. The philosophies that they practiced, Taoism and Confucianism, existed simultaneously in dynastic China, attracting countless numbers of followers over the past 2,500 years. The fascination of both the Eastern and Western worlds with these two legendary figures and the philosophies that they created remains strong.
This course will present advanced topics in Artificial Intelligence (AI), including inquiries into logic, artificial neural network and machine learning, and the Turing machine. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: define the term 'intelligent agent,' list major problems in AI, and identify the major approaches to AI; translate problems into graphs and encode the procedures that search the solutions with the graph data structures; explain the differences between various types of logic and basic statistical tools used in AI; list the different types of learning algorithms and explain why they are different; list the most common methods of statistical learning and classification and explain the basic differences between them; describe the components of Turing machine; name the most important propositions in the philosophy of AI; list the major issues pertaining to the creation of machine consciousness; design a reasonable software agent with java code. (Computer Science 408)
This book provides an overview of the current debates about the nature and extent of our moral obligations to animals. Which, if any, uses of animals are morally wrong, which are morally permissible (i.e., not wrong) and why? What, if any, moral obligations do we, individually and as a society (and a global community), have towards animals and why? How should animals be treated? Why?
We will explore the most influential and most developed answers to these questions – given by philosophers, scientists, and animal advocates and their critics – to try to determine which positions are supported by the best moral reasons.
Using the Animal Ethics Dilemma website, this flipped classroom exercise can be used to stimulate discussion about situation ethics in animal welfare
This site provides a field guide for the identification and critical evaluation of all kinds of arguments and commonly recurring types of problems or questions.
Augustine argues that everything that exists is good. His argument is criticized, showing how arguments of the same form could show that completely blackened pans cannot exist and that God is an impossible object. So, the paper shows how to paradoy an argument by giving parallel reasoning that yields absurd conclusions.
This resource aims to generate ideas and possibilities about how to advance student understanding of logic in writing beyond the notion that logic is always a collection of data points or a reference to facts. Instead of reducing logic to numbers and statements, this source hopes to introduce students and teachers to the existential questions that are always involved in the logical appeals of a text: how do we know what we know and why does it matter?
This resource aims to generate ideas and possibilities about how to advance student understanding of logic in writing beyond the notion that logic is always a collection of data points or a reference to facts. Instead of reducing logic to numbers and statements, this source hopes to introduce students and teachers to the existential questions that are always involved in the logical appeals of a text: how do we know what we know and why does it matter?
With recent advances in physics (and philosophy), we are finally able to make some headway into some of the most pressing questions of the universe. We will explore such topics as the big bang theory, time travel, relativity, extraterrestrial life, and string theory. We will attempt to answer some big questions such as: Was there a beginning of time? Will there be an end? Is time travel possible?
An introductory series by Marianne Talbot exploring bioethical theories and their philosophical foundations. These podcasts will explain key moral theories, common moral arguments, and some background logic.
Questioning is one of the most important critical thinking skills in education. This worksheet introduces a bronze-silver-gold question classification scheme. Bronze questions are factual, basic comprehension questions; silver questions require some inference and a bit more insight; gold questions are discussion questions that do not have one answer. The classification system is designed for the students to generate their own questions, rather than analyze ready-made questions.
Con la clonación, la energía nuclear y la investigación con células madre, la ciencia sigue progresando rápidamente. Pero en este contexto, el debate sobre la ética en la ciencia ha vuelto a ponerse de actualidad en el siglo XXI.
By reading and rereading the passage closely and focusing their reading through a series of questions and discussion about the text, students will be equipped to unpack Dillard's essay. When combined with writing about the passage, students will learn to appreciate how Dillard's writing contains a deeper message and derive satisfaction from the struggle to master complex text. This close reading exemplar is intended to model how teachers can support their students as they undergo the kind of careful reading the Common Core State Standards require. Teachers are encouraged to take these exemplars and modify them to suit the needs of their students. Additional teacher background material: http://teachers.sduhsd.k12.ca.us/lcaston/documents/WeaselsEssayAnal.pdf
In Rene Descartes’ Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy Descartes outlines ideas about truth, how people perceive and observe it, and how it can be altered. He questions if God is deceiving him about the truth, and questions God’s character. Descartes even takes the questioning of truth so far as to question his own existence and the significance of thought.
Making Evidence-Based Claims ELA/Literacy Units empower students with a critical reading and writing skill at the heart of the Common Core: making evidence-based claims about complex texts. These units are part of the Developing Core Proficiencies Program. This unit develops students' abilities to make evidence-based claims through activities based on a close reading of an excerpted text from Plato's Apology.
A Concise Introduction to Logic is an introduction to formal logic suitable for undergraduates taking a general education course in logic or critical thinking, and is accessible and useful to any interested in gaining a basic understanding of logic. This text takes the unique approach of teaching logic through intellectual history; the author uses examples from important and celebrated arguments in philosophy to illustrate logical principles. The text also includes a basic introduction to findings of advanced logic. As indicators of where the student could go next with logic, the book closes with an overview of advanced topics, such as the axiomatic method, set theory, Peano arithmetic, and modal logic. Throughout, the text uses brief, concise chapters that readers will find easy to read and to review.
Confessions is the name of an autobiographical work, consisting of 13 books, by St. Augustine of Hippo, written in Latin between AD 397 and 400. Modern English translations of it are sometimes published under the title The Confessions of St. Augustine in order to distinguish the book from other books with similar titles. Its original title was Confessions in Thirteen Books, and it was composed to be read out loud with each book being a complete unit. It is generally considered one of Augustine's most important texts.