#if i was a deontologist i think id be forced to accept antinatalism

[ewingstan]

ask game. what philosophical experiment should i be really opinionated about due to alec vasil

PHIL 269: ALEC VASIL STUDIES. PROFESSOR LEO MAL.

OFFICE HOURS: APPOINTMENT ONLY

WEEK 1: The Bat case

Thomas Nagel, What is it Like to Be a Bat? (Seeking experiences impossible in one's own body, failing to be understand others without becoming them)

WEEK 2: Philosophical Zombies

Robert Kirk, Sentience and Behavior (Dollboy Chic, beings without internality, empirical problems in determining whether others have emotions at all). Further reading: Daniel Dennett, The Unimagined Preposterousness of Zombies; David Chalmers, Zombies and the Concievability Argument

WEEK 3: Mary's Room

Frank Jackson, What Mary Didn't Know (Effect of isolation on range of experiences, desire to understand something made impossible by inability to experience it). Further reading: The Stanford Encyclopedia's entry on Qualia: The Knowledge Argument section 4.1 Doubts About the Thought Experiment. Students should focus on discussion of Dennett's "Blue Banana Trick."

WEEK 4: Ring of Gyges

Plato, The Republic Book 2 sections 359a-360d (Propensity of people to act unjustly when not being observed or when they know they'll escape consequence)

WEEK 5: The Experience Machine

Robert Nozik, Anarchy, State and Utopia pages 42-45 (Flatness of a life constructed from simulated experiences, value of directly-performed actions vs the experiential quality of actions)

WEEK 6 Dropping-Gold-Bullion-from-a-Plane-and-Breaking-Someone's Arm case

Seana Valentine Shiffrin, Wrongful Life, Procreative Responsibility, and the Significance of Harm (Impermissibility of harming someone to benefit them without their consent [see: widespread harm in the Vasil house to induce triggering, Alec breaking promise to Taylor in order to benefit her via torturing Sophia])

FURTHER READINGS WILL BE DETERMINED AS THE SEMESTER PROGRESSES/ONCE LEO REMEMBERS MORE CASES DEALING WITH BODILY AUTONOMY. FINAL WILL DETERMINE 90% OF YOUR GRADE. IF YOU TALK TO ME OUTSIDE OF OFFICE HOURS I WILL CUT YOU.