Causal Judgments

I'm looking for some intuitions (just your immediate reaction) concerning the following cases (some of you have seen something like them already):

Case 1
Some person is riding through a European city in the Pope-mobile with the Pope's version of the Secret Service standing near. The Pope-mobile, as we all know, is a vehicle secured with bulletproof glass intended to protect the Pope from being shot. As the vehicle is slowly wading through a sea of devotees a gunshot rings out. One of the nearby servicemen jumps in front of the bullet and catches it in his chest before it gets to the glass. Now, being part of the Pope's security detail, the servicemen always know who is inside the vehicle. And in this case the servicemen know that the person in the Pope-mobile is an impostor Pope. Did the serviceman prevent the impostor Pope from getting shot?

Case 2
Some person is riding through a European city in the Pope-mobile with the Pope's version of the Secret Service standing near. The Pope-mobile, as we all know, is a vehicle secured with bulletproof glass intended to protect the Pope from being shot. As the vehicle is slowly wading through a sea of devotees a gunshot rings out. One of the nearby servicemen jumps in front of the bullet and catches it in his chest before it gets to the glass. Now, being part of the Pope's security detail, the servicemen always know who is inside the vehicle. And in this case the servicemen know that the person in the Pope-mobile is the Pope. Did the serviceman prevent the Pope from getting shot?

Your intuitions?

Character Identity

I don't know when you guys will get sick of stuff relating to fiction, but here is a paper I wrote last semester. I spent more time on this and put more thought into it, and, accordingly, it is far more complicated and (probably) convoluted. Anyway, I'd love some comments on it, especially if your intuitions differ significantly. (No matter what, my intuitions are right, but I'll enjoy hearing yours!) This paper is Can Sherlock Holmes Fight Crime with James Kirk? or Conditions for Character Identity. It is an attempt to discover, surprisingly enough, the necessary and sufficient conditions for character identity.

At the very least, I hope it contains no typos. At the very most, I hope it makes sense.

The New Kiekegaard

Cow and Boy is a relatively new strip and has quickly risen to one my favorites. It's got a Calvin & Hobbes feel, but instead of a stuffed tiger, it's a talking cow.

Thoughts on Moral Responsibility

Hi all, I've been working on an idea regarding the structure of moral responsibility and have been thinking about some cases that I'm not sure how to characterize.

My idea is that moral responsibility comes down to the notions of blame and praise. When we blame someone this is a form of rational criticism. We are criticizing the agent for not acting on what they had most reason to act on. When we praise someone we are lauding them for acting according to what they had most reason to do. So judgments about moral responsibility come down to judgments about the reasons for which an agent acted.

My worries involve two types of cases that appear to be structurally identical but that yield differing intuitions.

Example 1: We have one mother who loves and cares for her children because she wants to, she does it freely and willingly. There is also a second mother who cares for her children but not because she loves them but because she feels it is her duty. She has a strong desire to do other things but overcomes these desires and takes care of her children. It seems that we would be inclined to praise the first mother more than the second.

Example 2: Consider two former drug addicts. The first stopped using drugs because he judged that it was the wrong thing to do, he had most reason to stop using drugs and was able to quit cold turkey. The second drug addict struggles much more. He too judges that he has most reason to stop using the drug. But he has a strong desire to continue using the drug. He overcomes these desires and stops using the drug. It seems here that the second drug addict is more praiseworthy than the first.

So the cases are supposed to be structurally similar. The weird thing is that I have opposite intuitions despite this. In example 1 I am inclined to praise the mother who truly loves her kids and cares for them willingly and without struggle. In example 2 I am more inclined to praise the second addict because he has overcome the struggles of his addiction in a way that the first addict has not.

What do you guys think? Do you share these intuitions? If so, how should we account for this?

Discussion Question: Origins

I am often amazed at the different ways that individuals have come to philosophy. Some from a novel or movie, others through religion, many through a philosophy course, and even a few from coming across and reading actual contemporary philosophy on their own.

So I am curious: What inspired your desire to learn more about and study philosophy? Was it a book(s)? What book(s) and why? Did you arrive here from some other path?

Daily Dinosaur Comics

For those of you not already in the know, you really should check out Daily Dinosaur Comics. It's a hilarious comic that is not really related to philosophy (it is, instead, related to dinosaurs). However, the guy who writes it clearly knows his stuff and brings up philosophic issues quite regularly.

Piled Higher & Deeper

I am a big fan of comic strips and so when I came across this one, I was thrilled. Piled Higher & Deeper is a comic strip that follows the lives of several graduate students at a university. It finds humor in all aspects of graduate student life, and so I think you'll enjoy it:
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php

There is a particular funny story line that is a take off on The Matrix:
http://www.phdcomics.com/comics/archive.php?comicid=138

The Ontology of Stephen Colbert

I thought I'd share something short I wrote a few months ago just on a whim. I never could come to a successful conclusion about the problem I raise, and it still bugs me. I think it is a rather important problem for the metaphysics of fiction even if it just seems like a little quirky joke. I'd certainly love any comments or suggestions you may have. Anyway, the paper is "Talking to Stephen Colbert."

Imagination

I'm trying to research the nature of the imagination. Anyone know of any good articles about it? I got _Imagination, Philosophy and the Arts_ (ed. Matthew Kieran and Dominic McIver Lopes) from the library, but I could certainly use suggestions of where else to look.

Ideas for use

I thought I'd rattle off some ideas for blog postings:

1. Your papers (a la Cecilea's first post).
2. Pose a discussion question; might be related to a seminar or just a question that you are looking for feedback and input on.
3. Raise an interesting problem or counter-example for discussion.
4. Provide a summary and/or quick take on an article/book (philosophically related) you just read (either for class, research, or for fun)
5. Links to interesting philosophical discussions/sites elsewhere.
6. Announcements about conferences or events: philosophy or grad student related.
7. Philosophy/grad student related humor.
8. Philosophy/grad student related news.
9. Announcement about your own philosophical achievements: did you get a paper accepted at a conference or journal?

Any other ideas?

For idea #1, we need to use an off-site file hoster. You can use your own personal website if you have one or use http://www.fileden.com. It's a free file hoster and appears to be legitimate and reputable. After hosting the file elsewhere, you can link to it from your post.

Contributor list

I shrunk down the contributor list to only people who have responded to the invite to join, rather than everyone who has been invited. Hopefully folks will respond soon. I will add each individual to the contributor list once he/she accepts the invite.

Just Wondering How This Works...

Okay, I'm trying to figure out how this stuff works. I have never blogged prior to this. So, I'm going to try to post a paper I wrote in the Spring of 2006. If all goes well, the paper title should link to the paper as a PDF file. The paper is titled, "Aristotle, Possible, Two Concepts of Time and Two Epistemic Assumptions", if anyone is interested.

Greetings

Welcome to the ASU Philosophy Graduate Students group blog. This is place for graduate students to post ideas, papers, presentation drafts, etc. for discussion and comments by our fellow graduate students. It is open to the public to read, but only members of the blog can post and comment. If you are a member of the ASU Philosophy department and would like to participate please let me know: shawn (dot) klein (at) asu (dot) edu.

Each post should have a label appropriate to post topic. For example, let's say I have a paper on Philippa Foot's arguments against moral subjectivism and non-cognitivism. Well, some appropriate labels would be: Philippa Foot, non-cognitivism, meta-ethics. Let's keep Ockham's razor in mind and not multiply labels beyond necessity. Try to use labels already in use.