As a professor of philosophy I have taught personal identity several times; almost always in introductory classes; mostly via John Locke, David Hume, and the Buddha, and by relying on standard examples in the literature (the Ship of Theseus for instance). Invariably, I begin my class discussions of personal identity by saying something along the linesContinue reading “Babies and Personal Identity”
Category Archives: Pedagogy
Please, Can We Make Programming Cool?
Is any science as desperate as computer science to be really, really liked? I ask because not for the first time, and certainly not the last, I am confronted with yet another report of an effort to make computer science ‘cool’, trying in fact, to make its central component–programming–cool. The presence of technology in theContinue reading “Please, Can We Make Programming Cool?”
Semester’s End: A Teaching Self-Evaluation
As this semester winds down to its inevitable, slow, painful end, it’s time to reflect just a little on what went right and what went wrong with my teaching. I taught three classes: Philosophical Issues in Literature, Core Philosophy (Honors), and Political Philosophy. These three constituted three ‘new’ preparations for me: I last taught CoreContinue reading “Semester’s End: A Teaching Self-Evaluation”
Arendt, the Problem of ‘The Absolute’ and Revolutionary Fascination by Antiquity
There are many, many remarkable passages in Hannah Arendt‘s On Revolution, which forms part of my reading list for this fall semester’s Political Philosophy seminar. In particular, there is a profusion of them in Chapter 5, ‘Novus Ordo Saeclorum’. Here Arendt offers an analysis of the problem of legitimacy of post-revolutionary government i.e., the problemContinue reading “Arendt, the Problem of ‘The Absolute’ and Revolutionary Fascination by Antiquity”
Corporal Punishment and the Arrested Development of the ‘Adult’
In the past couple of weeks, I have quoted at length from Erik Erikson‘s Young Man Luther. First, to draw an analogy between the development stages of humans and nations via the notion of an identity crisis, and then, to point to perhaps a similarly analogical relationship between indoctrination and addiction recovery. Today, I wantContinue reading “Corporal Punishment and the Arrested Development of the ‘Adult’”
Copyright Protection for Academic Works: A Bad Idea, But Who’ll Bell The Cat?
Richard Posner has written yet another interesting critique of patent and copyright law; it includes a remark of particular interest to me: At the other extreme is academic books and articles (apart from textbooks), which are produced as a byproduct of academic research that the author must conduct in order to preserve his professional reputation and that wouldContinue reading “Copyright Protection for Academic Works: A Bad Idea, But Who’ll Bell The Cat?”
The CTU Strike: Facile Reliance on Evaluation Won’t Work
Reading responses to the CTU strike has dismayed me: that there is so much hostility directed at teachers and their unions in a country where the path to middle-class success used to be understood as a good public education, but which is now directly under attack from a shrieking horde of carpetbaggers and rent-seekers. (Thankfully,Continue reading “The CTU Strike: Facile Reliance on Evaluation Won’t Work”
The New York Times Joins the CTU-Bashing Party
This morning, I posted the following on my Facebook status: I wouldn’t use today’s NYT Editorial on the CTU strike as a window-cleaning schmatta. Unfortunately, editorials in influential newspapers cannot be dismissed so easily. So let’s take a closer look. The editorial begins unpromisingly: Teachers’ strikes, because they hurt children and their families, are neverContinue reading “The New York Times Joins the CTU-Bashing Party”
Blaming Unions: The Easiest Game in Town
And so, here we go. A teacher’s union is on strike–more specifically the Chicago Teacher’s Union–and the bewailing begins: the strike is hurting students; the teachers should put their selfish interests last; get back to work, don’t you know you are hurting the students? As I pointed out a few days ago, if there isContinue reading “Blaming Unions: The Easiest Game in Town”
Are We Inventions or Discoveries?
Is my identity determined by my choices and my actions? Or does my identity determine the choices I make and the actions I take? Do we make up ourselves as we go along, each choice and action working like a brush of paint, a chip of the sculptor’s chisel, a sentence of the writer, bringingContinue reading “Are We Inventions or Discoveries?”
Samir Chopra 