Doing RRs
- If you did RR2 you got a "complete" but I gave you comments saying whether you actually met all the requirements. Also other feedback.
- Set up your notifications in Canvas so you receive your comments by email!
- Please don't include questions in your submission!
AI policy
- "You may not use AI to bypass the readings or generate any work you turn in."
- Honor code and AI policies at Canvas
- You do not need AI to do well on the RRs!
- Stick with what's literally in the reading; otherwise I'm going to wonder "is this AI?"
Attendance policy
- you will not normally submit excuses -- just use your 5-absence allowance (wisely)
- if you must miss an exam or presentation (etc) you do need to submit an acceptable excuse to reschedule the exam
Pop quizzes
- 7-8 over the semester (randomly scheduled)
- there will be a sample quiz that doesn't count before there are any that do count
- lowest quiz score will be dropped
- if you miss a quiz you can have the grade waived if you submit an acceptable excuse
Reading philosophy
- guide at top of blog
- important: don't get bogged down. you won't understand every line.
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Three questions raised by the Icelanders dual relationship with puffins
- What is the basic relationship between humans and animals?
- equals, unequals?
- obligations to them, no obligations to them?
- Can we eat animals and use them in other ways?
- If we eat and use them, does it make sense to also care about them?
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Module 1-- classic views on these questions -- all still influential
- Ancient world -- Aristotle, bible passages
- 1600s -- Descartes
- 1800s -- Kant, Bentham
- 1970s -- Singer, Regan
- beyond the west -- Hinduism
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Animals in western thought (reading)
Who was Aristotle?
- 4th century BC Athens (4 centuries after Homer wrote the Odyssey)
- student of Plato, teacher of Alexander the Great
- From the Politics, Book I chap. 5 & 8
Aristotle, Book I chap. 5 (we will read passages)
- ruler-subject built into the "constitution of the universe"
- soul-body, reason-passion, men-women, humans-animals, masters-slaves
- rule of ruler over subject is better for the ruler AND the subject
- implications: using animals for labor
But what about eating them? Book I chap. 8 (we will read passages)
- Nature provides food for newborns (oviparous, vermiparous, viviparous)
- Likewise it must provide food for all living things
- So it must be that plants are food for animals; animals are food for humans
Should we care about animals?
- they do have feelings on Aristotle's view (see Aristotle's De Anima)
- our rule should be "better for both"
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Bible passages...who wrote them, when, how exactly to interpret, what kind of authority does the bible have? (not this class!)
For each, compare to Aristotle...
- Gen 1, creation
- Gen 1, 2, dominion
- Gen 1 and then 9 on eating animals
- Gen 9 on covenant
- Isaiah prophesy
