tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-314398252024-03-06T20:40:22.730-08:00Engage: Conversations in PhilosophyJoseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.comBlogger204125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31439825.post-35853447322468672282009-09-10T09:56:00.000-07:002009-09-10T10:09:37.268-07:00Hypatia: The MovieLater this year comes a major motion picture depicting the life and death of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypatia_of_Alexandria">Hypatia of Alexandria</a>. It's called <span style="font-style:italic;">Agora</span> and you can watch a teaser trailer below (the film looks quite stunning in its recreation of the ancient world!)<br /><br />Hypatia preserved the legacy of Plato and Aristotle until she was attacked and murdered by Christians that mobbed Alexandria in 415 CE.<br /><br />Lest you think that the Christians were mindless thugs bent on destroying philosophy, everyone should be reminded that the patron saint of philosophy is also a woman: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_of_Alexandria">St. Catherine</a> (also from Alexandria, though she preceded Hypatia by more than 60 years).<br /><br />Alexandria must have been quite the interesting city to unite both pagans and Christians around women philosophers.<br /><br /><object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/JtLUPpnvv7g&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/JtLUPpnvv7g&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>Joseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31439825.post-25534568476472721842009-09-01T10:30:00.000-07:002009-09-01T10:37:48.728-07:00Best Philosophy on the Internet: Vote Now<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkAJCAmpKNh3QuPFcalWhff5mZkjty9A3KgmDpkoNdo-GN56fQmflTaWKfbzNKQ-QiSE_QDQFF5SZqgt-7H9Sg9P88wFam4iYNam9HRGmYVwVT-BrEr8arI6PpI6DduQug2CsXBg/s1600-h/uncle_sam_vote.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 270px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkAJCAmpKNh3QuPFcalWhff5mZkjty9A3KgmDpkoNdo-GN56fQmflTaWKfbzNKQ-QiSE_QDQFF5SZqgt-7H9Sg9P88wFam4iYNam9HRGmYVwVT-BrEr8arI6PpI6DduQug2CsXBg/s400/uncle_sam_vote.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5376553233843662194" /></a><br /><br />The folks over at 3quarksdaily are having a <a href="http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/the-nominees-for-the-2009-3qd-prize-in-philosophy-are.html">contest for the best philosophy blog posts of the past year</a>. Our recent ruminations on the Sotomayor nomination are among the choices. So go over and check out some of the philosophy available on the internet and let them know what you think (and voting for Engage is good for your karma).Joseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31439825.post-45597935898459500652009-09-01T00:10:00.001-07:002009-09-01T00:43:29.518-07:00Should College Graduates Swear an Oath to Social Responsibility?Peter Singer writes favorably about a new trend at Harvard Business School. <a href="http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/psinger49/English">New MBAs are taking an oath to use their skills and credentials to promote corporate social responsibility</a> rather than just the bottom line. For years, mainstream capitalist theorists, such as Milton Friedman, have argued that the only responsibility corporate managers have is to make as much profit as they can for their stockholders (as long as they obey the law). Now, with the meltdown of the housing and credit markets, some MBAs are thinking they need to have a wider ethical perspective.<br /><br />Singer admits that over 80% of Harvard MBAs have not signed on board to be more ethically minded, but he has hope.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ZnENYyAZGOu8USD4PbtpIVY8b-1oYe0rZFZNiQ6h8fmKnYfO80v6p9bCZAbhm39D3_j_UY5BZeJrhBEvx3I-0pYDPszsKreXAki15D5WvFqooZaCSGjCCtUZ8O8_z_SPs5sSWA/s1600-h/don_quijote_and_sancho_panza.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 232px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6ZnENYyAZGOu8USD4PbtpIVY8b-1oYe0rZFZNiQ6h8fmKnYfO80v6p9bCZAbhm39D3_j_UY5BZeJrhBEvx3I-0pYDPszsKreXAki15D5WvFqooZaCSGjCCtUZ8O8_z_SPs5sSWA/s320/don_quijote_and_sancho_panza.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5376399680977729026" /></a><br />This made me wonder whether college graduates shouldn't be encouraged to think about their social responsibility. As Singer points out, the idea of professionals swearing to "do no harm" is not a new idea. We should remember that the idea of a bachelor's degree comes from the medieval notion of having succeeded at being a <span style="font-style:italic;">baccalaureus</span>--literally a squire to a knight. That is, one has mastered a set of special skills supposedly to be used for the benefit of society (saving widows and orphans and such).<br /><br />There is a <a href="http://www.graduationpledge.org/new/">Graduation Pledge Alliance</a> that champions the idea of college graduates taking such an oath. The oath goes something like this: <span style="font-weight:bold;">“I pledge to explore and take into account the social and environmental consequences of any job I consider and will try to improve these aspects of any organizations for which I work.”</span> The idea has not really taken off beyond a few liberal arts and religious schools.<br /><br />Is the idea of college graduate social responsibility an idea whose time has come or naive wishful thinking?Joseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31439825.post-4157458671239902062009-08-16T17:39:00.000-07:002009-08-16T18:13:43.102-07:00The Right to Deliberate: How the Health Care Debate Might Get with the Times<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilvGaTc72muT-rrEQv2VzlDq8c6On1WPvqm22Kgin_jmEkrIsPpmIVxtlkx8dIz2kU_adtXkiDrfPHUXzCUnkfMpYoPCJYgCgRrZaUVzhdp5Xx8AyH6Ah-UpibEPaGnAyZ-LKuXA/s1600-h/10231137A.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 257px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilvGaTc72muT-rrEQv2VzlDq8c6On1WPvqm22Kgin_jmEkrIsPpmIVxtlkx8dIz2kU_adtXkiDrfPHUXzCUnkfMpYoPCJYgCgRrZaUVzhdp5Xx8AyH6Ah-UpibEPaGnAyZ-LKuXA/s320/10231137A.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5370734590070483122" /></a><br />News reports from the past week suggest that Obama has fallen prey to the romanticism of the colonial New England; he has a nostalgia for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Town_hall_meeting">town hall meeting</a>. These get togethers allowed village members to gather together to voice their views on matters of common concern in front of town officials and one another. They were sort of the nice version of the Salem witch trials.<br /><br />Obama, and other Democrats, have been using this forum to raise awareness of the his health care reform proposal. But it seems that in many of these events, well-organized protesters have been able to take the focus off the specifics of legistlation and onto the expression of their anxiety, fear, and willingness to shout down anyone who disagrees with them.<br /><br />James Fiskin <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/opinion/16fishkin.html?ref=opinion">suggests that maybe we should get over this nostalgia</a> and update our political interactions in favor of deliberative poll forums.<br /><br />Instead of a forum that gives a self-selected assortment of activists an opportunity to vent their anger and frustration, a deliberative poll forum encourages <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deliberative_democracy">deliberation</a> among participants. This means that people are chosen as representatives of the variety of opinions in a community, are given packets before the meeting that contain information and data about the specific question at issue, and then are charged to talk ("discourse") with one another. It is not sufficient to simply chant or repeat the views that one had at the beginning of the meeting. The hope is that the group can actually think through the issue together, weigh evidence, looks at counterexamples, and perhaps come away with a different understanding of the problem than they had when they came in.<br /><br />Fiskin notes:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">"...we have collaborated on more than 50 deliberative polls around the world. The process has certainly been shown to help overcome sharp divisions. In a 2007 deliberative poll in Northern Ireland on education reform, the percentage willing to agree that “most Catholics” or “most Protestants” were “open to reason” rose 16 points. Those agreeing that most Protestants or Catholics were “trustworthy” also increased considerably.<br /><br />One we held in Bulgaria, about policies toward the Roma, or Gypsies, produced strongly reconciliatory policies at a time when loud fringe groups wanted to build walls around the Roma communities. And in a deliberative poll in Brussels just before the recent European Union elections, people from 27 countries, partaking in discussions in 21 languages, moved to support more tolerant policies toward immigrants.<br /><br />If deliberative polls can produce mutual understanding in such cases of sharp ethnic and political conflict and across such linguistic divisions, surely this process can help members of Congress have civil, constructive conversations with their own constituents about health care."<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span><br /><br />For all the talk about politicians such as Obama tapping into new technology, like Facebook and Twitter, for campaigning, maybe we should also consider new ways of doing democracy that don't harken back to the days of powdered wigs and horse drawn carriages.Joseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31439825.post-84085225394840276992009-08-12T18:29:00.000-07:002009-08-12T18:39:12.215-07:00Religiosity and College majors: Where are all the Faithful?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif-lM8ApR0U9yFv4nQulyV8nfOzD26yZy4sx2jtBFoTAykoM4obdiM70O9SipC0Y33uDaW-EQWg9RSTkLcPEu5amKh6d7cuClUU5eWJ1ESVP8l3Yr1qC5DKNfIGmm1NdbqWzLfZQ/s1600-h/religiosity.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 293px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif-lM8ApR0U9yFv4nQulyV8nfOzD26yZy4sx2jtBFoTAykoM4obdiM70O9SipC0Y33uDaW-EQWg9RSTkLcPEu5amKh6d7cuClUU5eWJ1ESVP8l3Yr1qC5DKNfIGmm1NdbqWzLfZQ/s400/religiosity.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5369254632175951650" /></a><br /><br />For some reason, education seems to be the major that attracts, keeps, and strengthens the faithful in college, according to <a href="http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-07/uom-ssh073109.php">this study</a>. Interestingly enough, the scientists are not turning the youth into atheists with their theories of evolution and such (yet, even though they don't think its important, they go to services anyway?). Seems that honor goes to the folks in departments like sociology and political science. The humanities are not far behind in making us secular humanists, though.Joseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31439825.post-15399837369346509752009-08-10T14:37:00.000-07:002009-08-10T14:43:22.919-07:00Sexist Jokes Promote Violence Toward WomenAs readers know, I've been interested for a while in the use of humor (particularly satire) for social justice work, as well as understanding what makes racist and sexist jokes morally problematic (check out the philosophy of humor tag). Now Spanish researchers have done <a href="http://esciencenews.com/articles/2009/07/02/sexist.jokes.favor.mental.mechanisms.justify.violence.against.women">a study</a> that suggests that young men who listen to sexist jokes somehow become desensitized to statements that justify aggression and violence toward women.<br /><br />Surprising?Joseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31439825.post-54476316142160374022009-08-06T16:02:00.000-07:002009-08-06T16:05:45.669-07:00Sotomayor is Confirmed 68-31<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbC93qUjVCIQP1RpsA9PO44LfT1LdEflM_Kv-9EsyCOtnbv3MkPF4yo5vc0kbUTt8bp_oR7XJeam8zOxS12Xxjjh5KRfm8dYHGNjGgsb5fxExgb13nnvkdPvVG64LWBgcpZDwpHg/s1600-h/Sonia_sotomayor_illustration_vert.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 235px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbC93qUjVCIQP1RpsA9PO44LfT1LdEflM_Kv-9EsyCOtnbv3MkPF4yo5vc0kbUTt8bp_oR7XJeam8zOxS12Xxjjh5KRfm8dYHGNjGgsb5fxExgb13nnvkdPvVG64LWBgcpZDwpHg/s320/Sonia_sotomayor_illustration_vert.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366990298689215010" /></a><br /><br />I spoke to a group of Latin@ high school students today and told them we need them to be the leaders of the community in the future. I told them we need to achieve like Sonia.Joseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31439825.post-36101456590483065232009-08-02T17:27:00.000-07:002009-08-02T18:00:09.482-07:00Democracy and Civil Disobedience: Philosophy Cafe @ Powell's Books: Aug. 1<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_xMotx63RPix2ZHHNcE4ilU4q1ACk6IjEBZayutcnEAwXxI3f-0cPAkVrOGSiOOGhBVeu___ew_9WDjrJXBVXRjrwgDnmZMKfnbw0E9vgRETQ5o2Z3dT20BI2cfiDQzHYW-YN-Q/s1600-h/*philocafe.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_xMotx63RPix2ZHHNcE4ilU4q1ACk6IjEBZayutcnEAwXxI3f-0cPAkVrOGSiOOGhBVeu___ew_9WDjrJXBVXRjrwgDnmZMKfnbw0E9vgRETQ5o2Z3dT20BI2cfiDQzHYW-YN-Q/s320/*philocafe.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365527833277190306" /></a><br /><br />Yesterday, I participated in the Philosophy Cafe at Powell's Books. Its a new event organized by a new friend of mine, Brian Eliot, and his colleague, John Farnum. The hope is to involve everyday folks in philosophical discussions about a wide variety of topics. My talk yesterday focused on "Democracy and Civil Disobedience". Brian and John told me we reached the highest audience numbers with this one (about 55 people total). After I gave my presentation, the audience asked some questions and then they were broken up into small discussion circles. John, Brian, and I listened in to some of the conversations. There was some great soul searching about whether or not people thought they would be willing to put their lives, jobs, reputations on the line for justice and whether non-religious people could have the same fortitude to engage in social justice work and nonviolence as figures like Gandhi, King, or Chavez, who were all deeply spiritual men. (I pointed out <a href="http://spot.colorado.edu/~chernus/NonviolenceBook/Deming.htm">Barbara Deming's,</a> work as a secular theory of nonviolence)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV4FsaRuwsP4PAeYrMBxHi8fVw0coe53cKrRWsnO7xfcYEbRVElsrvyMR0WgFONnXSfNyXuXN-Jpo65hPVFQcjf3_YdbeiLuoZ0-KIk4d-TOeNhDwWakLIFed7qgFZBoaxWV4CsQ/s1600-h/IMG_3658.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV4FsaRuwsP4PAeYrMBxHi8fVw0coe53cKrRWsnO7xfcYEbRVElsrvyMR0WgFONnXSfNyXuXN-Jpo65hPVFQcjf3_YdbeiLuoZ0-KIk4d-TOeNhDwWakLIFed7qgFZBoaxWV4CsQ/s320/IMG_3658.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365529587038195346" /></a><br /><br />The talk I gave provided two views on the legitimacy of civil disobedience (which I defined, following Rawls, as "the public, conscientious, and nonviolent refusal to obey laws or commands of the government in order to bring a change in such laws or commands").<br /><br />I offered two arguments from Socrates in the <span style="font-style:italic;">Crito</span> which say that CD should not be allowed because: 1) laws and government institutions are "like parents" in that they provide the conditions for nurturance for a person to live and flourish and as such, they are owed obedience and gratitude by citizens who benefit from them; and 2) to the extent that a citizen stays in a society and abides by the laws and government power without dissent, then an implicit contract is formed in which the citizen agrees to accept the legitimacy of the laws and government. If a citizen does not like the laws, then he can leave; if he does not, he accepts them and the power they hold over him. <br /><br />I then countered with Martin Luther King's point that even if a rule is legal this does not make it moral. There are just laws and unjust laws. While we have a legal and moral responsibility to obey just laws, we have a moral duty to disobey unjust laws.<br /><br />I finished by talking about why nonviolence is the method with which we ought to think about making social change. Sometimes, when the injustices of our society are grasped in their enormity, it might seem that only violent upheaval can make the changes needed so that people will not suffer or die any longer. I offered some quotes by Cesar Chavez on how armed struggle rarely results in a situation of social justice and ended with the views of Barbara Deming. She says that nonviolence is the most ethical way to resist evil because it resists oppression "with one hand", but offers the other hand to the oppressor to reassure them that we do not seek their destruction or suffering.Joseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31439825.post-100898248831587292009-07-30T15:19:00.000-07:002009-07-30T15:25:22.215-07:00Spurned again by the Academy: Top Ten Philosophy Blogs<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgByvW379rCLGoL9vDOn3p_VVzQRKEbKR_8aHHAYG7dInclldxmh9KjpCyCKibf5sSU60owNZF7PaW02l6-4Co9imjigSe7Y6A2UFCW4U5bUOdBDhqeELV02Vhf_0bNnhQW4qXwCw/s1600-h/susan+lucci.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 281px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgByvW379rCLGoL9vDOn3p_VVzQRKEbKR_8aHHAYG7dInclldxmh9KjpCyCKibf5sSU60owNZF7PaW02l6-4Co9imjigSe7Y6A2UFCW4U5bUOdBDhqeELV02Vhf_0bNnhQW4qXwCw/s320/susan+lucci.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364382461393005938" /></a><br />Alas, I again did not make Brian Leiter's cut for being one of the <a href="http://www.blogs.com/topten/top-10-philosophy-blogs/">top ten philosophy blogs on the WWW</a>. I feel so much like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Lucci">Susan Lucci</a> (don't know who she is? you need more camp in your life, my friend.)Joseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31439825.post-3646610263618767292009-07-22T12:01:00.000-07:002009-07-22T12:12:09.490-07:00Leftist Faith: Kolakowski on Religious Feeling at the End of Days<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1ZvCu-aJhDetusnGOhwpuxRk-alZXI9xpb015W6QaeqGINlE_vGuk9iP7zEOU703mgUvLxKwL4RVXs3_TUQYk0r79qaMTps7sFbu2k7aDPFHlLf8OVjZutKJuhU2aG-w4_QG3YQ/s1600-h/Kolakowski.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 270px; height: 314px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1ZvCu-aJhDetusnGOhwpuxRk-alZXI9xpb015W6QaeqGINlE_vGuk9iP7zEOU703mgUvLxKwL4RVXs3_TUQYk0r79qaMTps7sFbu2k7aDPFHlLf8OVjZutKJuhU2aG-w4_QG3YQ/s320/Kolakowski.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5361363811942380194" /></a><br />Polish philosopher Leszek Kolakowski passed away last week. I've never been familiar with his work, but <a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/university_diaries/in_memory_of_leszek_kolakowski">Margaret Soltan writes a very thoughtful memorial about him</a>. She respects him for being a leftist who found a place for religious feeling toward the end of his life. However, it was not some desperate grab for a foundation in life or a calculated bet to win rewards in the afterlife <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/pascal-wager/">a la Pascal</a>. Instead, Kolakowski simply recognized a sense of mystery and awe about the complexities of life that don't seem to be reduced to a set of philosophical propositions or explainable according to biology or physics:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">"People - and by no means professional philosophers only - often have experiences which they describe as astonishment at the fact of existence, awe in the face of 'Nothingness', apprehension of the unreality of the world or the feeling that whatever is impermanent must be accounted for by what is indestructible. Experiences of this kind are not mystical in the strict sense, i.e., not events people interpret as direct encounters with God. They might rather be described as a strong feeling that in the fact of being and of not being - in this very fact and not only in the experiencing person's existence - there is something unobvious, alarming, puzzling, queer, astounding, something which defies all the ordinary, daily norms of understanding. Such feelings cannot be and need not be converted into scientific 'problems'; they are expressed, more or less clumsily, as metaphysical riddles. There is in them no stuff for 'proving' anything if 'to prove' retains the sense it usually has in scientific procedures. Indeed, inserted as links into a chain of reasoning they usually look poor and unconvincing. Yet it is astonishingly foolish to dismiss them, as empiricists often do, as errors generated by the wrong usage of words or subject to explanation as an abuse of semantic standards."<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span>Joseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31439825.post-86043732606473429132009-07-17T13:42:00.000-07:002009-07-17T13:55:20.290-07:00John Woo Gets Punked: Should Nonviolent Protest ever be Mean?Via this exciting new blog, <a href="http://wagingnonviolence.org/2009/07/chasers-confront-torture-lawyer-john-yoo-in-class/">Waging Nonviolence</a>, a video from an Australian comedy group confronting Bush Administration torture apologist John Yoo in his class at Berkeley. My favorite part comes when the protester is asked to leave by administration and he says he is going to go to the human rights class down the hall.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/TkqENek7fXs&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/TkqENek7fXs&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />Eric Stoner, the blog author, writes that such protests, confronting officials and ridiculing them, make him uncomfortable and can seem unproductive. Is it perhaps because they seem mean-spirited or disrespectful? <br /><br />Gandhi believed that nonviolence should be done with a spirit of charity and King with a spirit of love and respect for the other who might be doing wrong.<br /><br />Is ridicule an appropriate form of social criticism/protest?Joseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31439825.post-39451974762766127282009-07-09T15:31:00.000-07:002009-07-09T16:07:26.409-07:00Should 39th Become Cesar Chavez Blvd in Portland? Interview on the Mark and Dave show (1190 KEX AM)<span style="font-weight:bold;">(Cesar Chavez Street in Austin, Texas. <a href+"http://www.flickr.com/photos/drmillerlg/3665412914/">By Larry Miller via Flickr</a>)</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6RlVX7UpA0B86j25hQ3zpG70Wu2vDelyU_PI2FY1UnFtyFyYksyIZHpobD6PHs50fz8eFbUA3mweaek8-KeP9irecQ7fVx5QAfZlmutIt066ZpJfxrZQHqqs9OJ86pXy7nIFMWA/s1600-h/3665412914_4e017bab20.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6RlVX7UpA0B86j25hQ3zpG70Wu2vDelyU_PI2FY1UnFtyFyYksyIZHpobD6PHs50fz8eFbUA3mweaek8-KeP9irecQ7fVx5QAfZlmutIt066ZpJfxrZQHqqs9OJ86pXy7nIFMWA/s320/3665412914_4e017bab20.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356593624960534338" /></a><br />I was interviewed on the Mark and Dave Show on 1190 KEX Am News radio yesterday about the legacy of Cesar Chavez. You can listen in <a href="http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/18227/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/18227/podcast/PORTLAND-OR/KEX-AM/07-08-09%20Hour%203.mp3?CPROG=PCAST&MARKET=PORTLAND-OR&NG_FORMAT=newstalk&SITE_ID=610&STATION_ID=KEX-AM&PCAST_AUTHOR=1190_KEX_-_Mark_and_Dave&PCAST_CAT=News_%26_Politics&PCAST_TITLE=Mark_and_Dave_Podcast">here</a> (the show plays during rush hour from 4-7pm. My interview is during the last hour, about 3/4 of the way through the podcast) <br /><br />Yesterday, the Portland City Council voted to <a href="http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2009/07/debate_starts_on_renaming_39th.html">rename 39th Avenue after Cesar Chavez</a>. Seems like there is a very big political controversy over this. For the past few years, the City Council has made missteps in trying to get a street named for Chavez, angering various groups in the process.<br /><br />As I said in the interview, I think its appropriate that a major city on the West Coast do something to honor Chavez (especially considering how much agriculture is part of the Oregon economy!) I don't really have an opinion as to whether a street is the best way to do that.<br /><br />What I think is unfortunate is how the issue of the street becomes one of recognizing Latino/a contributions to the city ( some of the mayor's remarks suggest that this is a way of honoring Latino/a history in Portland). This reinforces the idea that Chavez was an ethnic leader most of all. Chavez always pointed out that the farmworker movement, and the United Farm Workers in particular, was multi-racial. In fact, the first big strike by the farmworkers was organized by Mexican and <a href="http://www.ufw.org/_page.php?menu=research&inc=history/04.html">Filipino workers</a> (led by Larry Itilong). Here is Itilong, alongside United Auto Worker labor leader Walter Reuther, and Chavez:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIGS_4kvPNAoiM2lVDGoUvCDKK8-aeT52vEa1qXxsATBTpPSnKi9Tv07hmhM2EiLyjC3JmlK0C-_PA8m4hFlRi0S6QpKb2-supLhcM5HfqJ2q4b5KAbyd9c5UMxZQRiGYW-ia6ww/s1600-h/362_0.preview.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 218px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIGS_4kvPNAoiM2lVDGoUvCDKK8-aeT52vEa1qXxsATBTpPSnKi9Tv07hmhM2EiLyjC3JmlK0C-_PA8m4hFlRi0S6QpKb2-supLhcM5HfqJ2q4b5KAbyd9c5UMxZQRiGYW-ia6ww/s320/362_0.preview.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5356597206884588930" /></a><br /><br />Personally, I think it would be great if Portland had a public school named after Chavez. Maybe one of the Portland Community College branches? How about a work center for day laborers in NE so they they could have a place to meet, instead of having to stand around the street corners off Burnside? Maybe one that could offer legal advice, provide child care, and even English classes for free? Something that could make a real tangible difference in the quality of worker's lives would truly honor Chavez's legacy.Joseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31439825.post-17831774304149739092009-07-02T17:42:00.000-07:002009-07-02T18:33:13.607-07:00Guerilla Philosophy: Is there room for philosophical graffiti?The London Underground drivers are exposing commuters to philosophical thoughts ranging from Sartre to Gandhi (presumably over the speakers?). <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/jun/28/observer-panel-philosophy-london-underground">Here</a> some philosophers and politicians share what aphorisms they would like to hear.<br /><br />This made me think of what it would be like to do guerilla philosophy--graffiti with a philosophical twist, spread out across public spaces. Such graffiti is common in Latin America (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Galeano">Eduardo Galeano</a> is good at collecting this "street wisdom." He has said: "The walls are the publishers of the poor".)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEzyd1NMS0-cE-nFvnv_RjM4EsORprBzEnw998CSd5idcTRB0Al9dkWRiF6Re-m6JwBq5aS8z7NU9aWZJFnc5m0_7Sznhhh9EsEdduFm-qu4l5jI1V8IXBzAt9mMCfS38yMBopQQ/s1600-h/3449831050_887938fddb.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 299px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEzyd1NMS0-cE-nFvnv_RjM4EsORprBzEnw998CSd5idcTRB0Al9dkWRiF6Re-m6JwBq5aS8z7NU9aWZJFnc5m0_7Sznhhh9EsEdduFm-qu4l5jI1V8IXBzAt9mMCfS38yMBopQQ/s320/3449831050_887938fddb.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5354037710689007522" /></a><br /> (Translation: Poverty is a time bomb) <br /><br />Anyway, here is my selection for a philosophical nugget in the public sphere:<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;"><span style="font-weight:bold;">"With individuals, as with nations, respect for the rights of others means peace"</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Benito Juarez</span><br /><br />(Photo by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/guillermo_campos/3449831050/in/set-72157616963614426/">Guillermo Campos via Flickr</a>. Street art in Coyoacan, Mexico)Joseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31439825.post-56464859062425221602009-07-01T13:14:00.000-07:002009-07-01T13:18:35.204-07:00What Good is a Master's Degree Philosophy during a Recession?According to <a href="http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/what-is-a-masters-degree-worth/?em">these experts</a>, if your Master's is not in law, business, engineering, or medicine, you're wasting your time.Joseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31439825.post-50057270439788006632009-06-26T12:22:00.000-07:002009-06-26T13:12:37.256-07:00"Men Live Better Where Women Are in Charge"Not surprising really.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtYq917U5M10LxnJYoWcnUz1zyKJb3XGWIXd-oZyAKu9RA09ugwJr-bPzMXuL-YxIkgLizcgfmvj8yKZlBpJXjMORFoN2HnkS5OBQz8F0UZi3ijOXNK1Ah2bgy4esjJpm4772I7g/s1600-h/0,1020,1534440,00.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtYq917U5M10LxnJYoWcnUz1zyKJb3XGWIXd-oZyAKu9RA09ugwJr-bPzMXuL-YxIkgLizcgfmvj8yKZlBpJXjMORFoN2HnkS5OBQz8F0UZi3ijOXNK1Ah2bgy4esjJpm4772I7g/s320/0,1020,1534440,00.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5351721330780521858" /></a><br />Ricardo Coler went to live among the Mosuo, a matriarchal ethnic minority in China. He talks about his experience in this <span style="font-style:italic;">Der Spiegel</span> <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/0,1518,627363,00.html">interview.</a><br /><br />It would be interesting to get a more ethnographic account of this society (to flesh out what "living better" really means, how "work" is distributed and what the women think about the whole situation). But from Coler's description, it sounds as if the Mosuo <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonobo#Psychological_characteristics">live like the bonobos.</a>Joseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31439825.post-18770744113669225942009-06-23T22:22:00.000-07:002009-06-23T23:27:20.281-07:00The Revolution Will Not be Twittered: Some Skepticism on Twitter and Politics<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx7aVKVKZXa7m6whAjYV0NYkctO6kS4_EjraOiNpdQ_QQVRtC7zrnTiPSn9XlNYGHLRl2K60wdewz2TLzhqdqUA76774XptZwEsSA266HCNFZJk2CkqgiwrtJYZJfrDOf-Qy-RUQ/s1600-h/523413820_08516df9b0.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 213px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx7aVKVKZXa7m6whAjYV0NYkctO6kS4_EjraOiNpdQ_QQVRtC7zrnTiPSn9XlNYGHLRl2K60wdewz2TLzhqdqUA76774XptZwEsSA266HCNFZJk2CkqgiwrtJYZJfrDOf-Qy-RUQ/s320/523413820_08516df9b0.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5350772017520582210" /></a><br />Since most mainstream journalists have been neutralized in Iran, news of the protests pouring out to the world has come from social media, particularly Twitter. Twice now, previously in Moldova, and now in Iran, Twitter has become a tool for people to use in revolutionary political circumstances. It has helped to coordinate mass actions and to spread news about authoritarian repression.<br /><br />But does it transform political action?<br /><br />Mike Madden, in <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/06/18/iran_twitter/index.html">this piece</a> in Salon.com, thinks not. Social media has been useful in documenting what is going on, getting information out, but it has not been something that radically changes how political action is taking place. Indeed, he worries at how easily social media can be blocked and then subverted by officials to spread disinformation and confuse activists.<br /><br />Michael Walzer (one of my favorite political thinkers) muses <a href="http://dissentmagazine.org/online.php?id=243">here</a> that its not clear whether the internet has changed political action very much. <br /><br />In order to change things, people need to get out and be organized. Twitter and Facebook can be useful in getting people information and mobilizing mass rallies. But mobilization is not the same thing as organizing. Getting a bunch of folks to show up to a protest can be a good thing, but really, what matters more is if you can get them to stick around afterwards to do what Walzer calls "scut work"--filling envelopes, handing out fliers, cleaning up the meeting place, and generally showing their dedication to a group ideal. <br /><br />If you have people who are willing to show up to protests, you have <span style="font-style:italic;">activists<span style="font-weight:bold;"></span></span>. But activism is usually very "flash in the pan" kind of activity--going to a rally, signing a petition, writing a letter. These things are important, no doubt. But what I take Walzer to suggest is that a social movement, in order to challenge entrenched power, needs <span style="font-style:italic;">organizers<span style="font-weight:bold;"></span></span>--people who are willing to do the activism, but also the less visible, and less publicized/glamorous, work of fundraising, phone banking, door to door knocking, and scut. (For an excellent discussion of the difference between organizing and activism, see <a href="http://www.markrudd.com/?organizing-and-activism-now/1968-organizing-vs-activism.html">this essay</a> by Mark Rudd) <br /><br />Organizing work is more long term and about building relationships with people so that they become aware of an issue and of the group of people who want to do something about that issue. This is not quite the same thing as creating a network, which social media is really good at. To say that people are in a network does not really say much about the quality of the linkage (think of all the people who might be your Facebook friends or followers on Twitter--to say they are all linked up does not fully describe the differences or similarities between them all. After all, we are all networked or linked up to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Degrees_of_Kevin_Bacon">Kevin Bacon by six degrees of separation</a>, but that really doesn't tell us anything very interesting about the power relationships in those links).<br /><br />There is a really great story that, I think, really captures the difference between activism and organizing (and also hints at the tedium of organizing and why it might not be so interesting to many): Some young activists went to see Cesar Chavez to find out how he made the farmworker movement so successful--building a powerful union out of literally nothing. He replied: "Well, we talked to one person, and then another person, and then another person, and then another person." No, they said, what's the <span style="font-style:italic;">secret</span> to organizing? He answered: "You talk to one person, then another, then another, and then another."<br /><br />Organizing, then, creates a group solidarity among individuals through discussion and deliberation that they might not have had before. It gives them a sense that they can accomplish actions together (Hannah Arendt says this is <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/arendt/#ActPowSpaApp">what power really is</a>). Instead of being simply an aggregation of bodies at a rally, they are are group of colleagues united in a cause, trying to construct new opportunities for different kinds of political action. Organizing creates those relationships. Social media, it seems, can help the work of a movement get done faster, but it cannot replace the need to raise consciousness and a sense of agency that is the essence of political action.<br /><br />(Photo: By <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/32239176@N00/523413820/">Kamyar Adl on Flickr</a>)Joseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31439825.post-88515593378698507692009-06-17T16:22:00.000-07:002009-06-17T16:32:53.842-07:00Mark Rudd as Commencement Speaker? (or What can Kids today learn from a terrorist)I can't imagine OSU ever doing this, but one can dream. Timothy Noah, over at Slate.com, <a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2218597/">suggests that colleges and universities shouldn't recruit successful people to give the commencement speech</a> at the end of the year. Instead, schools should get failures--people who have screwed something up in their lives and can talk about the wisdom they gathered from the experience. One of his examples is our old friend, Mark Rudd. Here is Noah:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">"Mark Rudd. Rudd (author of Underground: My Life With SDS and the Weathermen) is a refreshing departure from Weather Underground veterans like Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, who continue to glamorize their radical past and to deny the Weather Underground's violent intentions. Rudd sees "very little positive" in the Weather Underground and much to be ashamed of, including its destruction of Students for a Democratic Society, the anti-war group the Weather Underground grew out of. He does not deny that the explosives that killed three of the Weather Underground's members in a Greenwich Village brownstone in 1970 were intended to kill soldiers and their dates at a dance at Fort Dix, N.J. He feels bad about the toll his life took on his parents. Worthwhile message: Don't intellectualize violence."<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span><br /><br />What a great talk that would be! (And I agree with Noah's review of Rudd's work in comparison to Ayers. <span style="font-style:italic;">Fugitive Days</span> is a bore and a tad pompous. Rudd actually has some lessons for people about politics today)<br /><br />Check out Mark talking about his new book on C-Span <a href="http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/includes/templates/library/flash_popup.php?pID=285483-1&clipStart=&clipStop=">here</a>.Joseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31439825.post-80609999899335475142009-06-08T17:06:00.000-07:002009-06-08T20:40:14.765-07:00Satire and Social Justice: Racial Jokes, Racial Wisdom, and Richard Pryor as a Philosopher of Race<span style="font-weight:bold;">Warning: this post contains quotations and links that use language that might offend some readers.</span><br /><br />From City Journal: an <a href="http://www.city-journal.org/2009/19_2_urb-richard-pryor.html">interesting article about Richard Pryor</a> and how, over the long term of his career, he developed some very nuanced views about race and white racism. One of Pryor's monologues explains how he gained some insight into race dynamics in the United States after a trip to Africa:<br /><br /><span style="font-style:italic;">"One thing that happened to me that was magic was that I was leaving, sitting around the hotel lobby, and a voice said, “What do you see? Look around.”<br /><br />And I looked around, and I looked around, and I saw black people everywhere. At the hotel, on television, in stores, on the street, in the newspapers, at restaurants, running the government, on advertisements. Everywhere.<br /><br />And the voice said, “You see any niggers?”<br /><br />I said, “No.”<br /><br />It said, “You know why? ’Cause there aren’t any.”<br /><br />I’d been there three weeks and hadn’t said it. And it started making me cry, man. All that crap. All the acts I’ve been doing. As an artist and comedian. Speaking and trying to say something. And I’d been saying that. That’s a devastating word. That had nothing to do with us. We are from a place where they first started people. I left regretting ever having uttered the word on a stage or off it. It was a wretched word. I felt its lameness. It was misunderstood by people. They didn’t get what I was talking about. And so I vowed never to say “nigger” again."<span style="font-weight:bold;"></span></span> <br /><br />I've <a href="http://engagepodcast.blogspot.com/2008/07/best-description-of-philosopher-ever.html">mentioned before</a> how use of humor, and satire, in particular, to explore and challenge dominant ideas in society is a particular powerful tool. But it's a very volatile one. <br /><br />Recent studies suggest that satire is a form of humor that can challenge, but also reassure and confirm, one's own biases. In <a href="http://www.miller-mccune.com/media/the-truthiness-of-the-colbert-report-1156">one study</a>, liberal and conservative viewers were asked to assess the political humor of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Colbert">Stephen Colbert</a>. Liberals tended to think he was using humor to poke fun of right wingers; conservatives thought he was using satire to make fun of liberals.<br /><br />This kind of indeterminacy of satire as a tool of social justice makes me think about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Chappelle">Dave Chappelle</a>. During the last season of his wildly successful show on Comedy Central, Chappelle developed a series of sketches about racial stereotypes called the Pixie series. The idea was to show the kind of burden certain stereotypes impose on different ethnic groups. But he decided to abandon the show, in part, because he wasn't sure that his humor was having the effect he wanted it to have. He wasn't sure whether he was challenging the stereotype or, instead, retrenching the stereotype in the mind of some viewers. Here is a clip from the show:<br /><br /><table style='font:11px arial; color:#333; background-color:#f5f5f5' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='360' height='353'><tbody><tr style='background-color:#e5e5e5' valign='middle'><td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;'><a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/chappelles_show/index.jhtml'>Chappelle's Show</a></td><td style='padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; text-align:right; font-weight:bold;'></td></tr><tr style='height:14px;' valign='middle'><td style='padding:2px 1px 0px 5px;' colspan='2'><a target='_blank' style='color:#333; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=71772&title=pixie-stereotypes-in-flight-meal'>Pixie Stereotypes - In-Flight Meal</a></td></tr><tr style='height:14px; background-color:#353535' valign='middle'><td colspan='2' style='padding:2px 5px 0px 5px; width:360px; overflow:hidden; text-align:right'><a target='_blank' style='color:#96deff; text-decoration:none; font-weight:bold;' href='http://www.comedycentral.com/'>comedycentral.com</a></td></tr><tr valign='middle'><td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'><embed style='display:block' src='http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:71772' width='360' height='301' type='application/x-shockwave-flash' wmode='window' allowFullscreen='true' flashvars='autoPlay=false' allowscriptaccess='always' allownetworking='all' bgcolor='#000000'></embed></td></tr><tr style='height:18px;' valign='middle'><td style='padding:0px;' colspan='2'><table style='margin:0px; text-align:center' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0' width='100%' height='100%'><tr valign='middle'><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='hhttp://shop.comedycentral.com/?v=comedy-central_shows_chappelles-show&SESSID=870783e1901f9dd5c2769413fc45aa24'>Buy Chappelle's Show DVDs</a></td><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/chappelles_show/videos/index.jhtml'>Black Comedy</a></td><td style='padding:3px; width:33%;'><a target='_blank' style='font:10px arial; color:#333; text-decoration:none;' href='http://www.comedycentral.com/videos/index.jhtml?videoId=11909&title=hes-rick-james'>True Hollywood Story</a></td></tr></table></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br />Should people concerned with social justice trust humor, and especially satire, as tools to raise critical awareness about issues such as racism?Joseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31439825.post-87645118784318937902009-06-05T11:00:00.000-07:002009-06-05T11:06:23.409-07:00New Film on Cesar Chavez in the Works!I received an email from director Dieter Heisig about a new biographical film on Cesar Chavez in production right now! Finally! Here is the press release:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Cesar Chavez and the grape boycott of the late 1960s will be the subjects of a new feature film to be produced by German production company MN Visionen. “This is a long overdue project on one of America’s great heros – the man who fought for the underdog, and who first popularized the famous phrase in the recent US presidential election: ‘Yes, we can!’,” said MN Visionen head Dieter Heisig. During the 1960s and 70s, Cesar Chavez – an American migrant worker and union organizer – helped create and lead the United Farm Workers Union. Using methods of non-violence protest inspired by Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi, Chavez and the movement labored against phenomenal odds under the slogan “Si, se puede!”. His fasts and the famous March on Sacramento in 1966 were honored by many, including Robert F. Kennedy, while the Grape Boycott received international attention. The completed screenplay for this powerful film is based on the contemporary biography Cesar Chavez: Man of the Migrants by Jeanne Pitrone. It tells the story of a man and a movement dedicated to gaining the same civil rights for migrant workers as for all other American workers. It is estimated that well over a million U.S. citizens are still employed today as migrant workers under bleak conditions, many of them children.<br /><br />MN Visionen is a newly formed independent German production company. Company head Dieter Heisig has worked as a producer and publicist for countless film, music and television productions in Germany, France and Austria.</span><br /><br />For more information on the directer, go <a href="http://www.dieter-heisig.com/mods/sites/?id=1">here</a> (for those who read German).Joseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31439825.post-78892812942560679572009-06-04T00:16:00.001-07:002009-06-04T00:40:10.296-07:00Is Marriage Equality Radical Enough? Judith Butler on Same Sex Marriage, Polyamory, and the StateNew Hampshire becomes the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/us/04marriage.html?hp">sixth state to legalize same sex marriage today</a>. <span style="font-style:italic;">The New York Times</span> calls it another step in "mainstream Amerca" coming to "accept" the idea of marriage equality.<br /><br />Judith Butler, <a href="http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/butler160509.html">in this new interview in <span style="font-style:italic;">The Monthly Review</span></a>, talks about the conservative trend behind the marriage equality movement. She worries about it having the effect of normalizing certain kinds of relationship configurations, namely two individuals in a special legal/romantic bond, while making other kinds of romantic bonds seem perverse or unnatural. Moreover, she also considers that the marriage equality movement reinforces the idea that recognition by the state should be something that our affective relationships require for validation. Here's an except from a really good read:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUPg9dGWFWs3PhVrq-tWxcvzskw1qIzXk8WojScOGHEmyQz2Fpx5UvlYurJcNa-kKKbyLdA4m_TEywzyJLfAmQ1S-zRbun04o5Z-EcktImVBh8qVGS7Zq_WY3uLCOyJ1kOF5viiA/s1600-h/butler2.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 192px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUPg9dGWFWs3PhVrq-tWxcvzskw1qIzXk8WojScOGHEmyQz2Fpx5UvlYurJcNa-kKKbyLdA4m_TEywzyJLfAmQ1S-zRbun04o5Z-EcktImVBh8qVGS7Zq_WY3uLCOyJ1kOF5viiA/s320/butler2.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343373550622169730" /></a><br /><br />Butler :<span style="font-weight:bold;">"Of course, if marriage exists, then homosexual marriage should also exist; marriage should be extended to all couples irrespective of their sexual orientation; if sexual orientation is an impediment, then marriage is discriminatory. For my part, I don't understand why it should be limited to two people, this appears arbitrary to me and might potentially be discriminatory; but I know this point of view is not very popular. However, there are forms of sexual organisation that do not imply monogamy, and types of relationship that do not imply marriage or the desire for legal recognition -- even if they do seek cultural acceptance. There are also communities made up of lovers, ex-lovers and friends who look after the children, communities that constitute complex kinship networks that do not fit the conjugal pattern.<br /><br />I agree that the right to homosexual marriage runs the risk of producing a conservative effect, of making marriage an act of normalisation, and thereby presenting other very important forms of intimacy and kinship as abnormal or even pathological. But the question is: politically, what do we do with this? I would say that every campaign in favour of homosexual marriage ought also to be in favour of alternative families, the alternative systems of kinship and personal association. We need a movement that does not win rights for some people at the expense of others. And imagining this movement is not easy.<br /><br />The demand for recognition by the state should go hand in hand with a critical questioning: what do we need the state for? Although there are times that we need it for some kinds of protection (immigration, property, or children), should we allow it to define our relationships? There are forms of relation that we value and that cannot be recognised by the state, where the recognition of civil society or the community is enough. We need a movement that remains critical, that formulates these questions and keeps them open."</span>Joseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31439825.post-27212943464715868452009-06-01T01:12:00.000-07:002009-06-01T02:53:38.713-07:00Empathy, Equity, and the Wise Latina Judge: Sotomayor and the Supreme Court Oath of OfficeThe conservatives may have point about Sonia Sotomayor. Some <a href="http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NGM1Y2U0NTAzMjhkM2NlMGEyNDg2NTQwNzFiNzYxYWQ=">pundits</a> have pointed out that the oath of office for the Supreme Court seems to dismiss the kind of judicial attitude espoused by Sotomayor and Obama. That is, it seems to disallow "empathy" as a judicial tool, and certainly prohibits anyone from claiming that certain <a href="http://feministphilosophers.wordpress.com/2009/05/28/sotomayor-and-standpoint-theory/">"standpoints"</a> (perhaps such as those by a "wise Latina judge"--that now infamous phrase of Sotomayor's) ought to be epistemically privileged in legal decision making. Here is the text of the oath:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">“I, (name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as (title) under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God.”</span><br /><br />One commentator <a href="http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/fischer/090527">(who has a philosophy degree from Stanford!)</a> suggests that these words immediately disqualify Sotomayor from the Supreme Court. According to Bryan Fischer, she has said that she will take into account "persons" and will rule based on factors such as empathy with the identity of the petitioners in court, rather than strict impartiality as the oath calls for.<br /><br />I don't know much about the history of the word-smithing behind this oath but the phrase "...I will administer justice without respect to persons," is a curious one. Given the clause that follows ("and do equal right to the poor and to the rich"), the phrase might suggest that a judge is not to allow the identity, or reputation, or influence of an individual in a case, to sway an understanding of the appropriate application of the law. This would be a general warning against bias or favoritism.<br /><br />Yet, commentators are taking this wording to suggest that "impartiality" means not taking into account <span style="font-style:italic;">any</span> particularities of a person's background or history. In laying out his criteria for choosing a justice, Obama said he thought we needed:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">“... somebody who’s got the heart — the empathy — to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom. The empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor or African-American or gay or disabled or old — and that’s the criteria by which I’ll be selecting my judges.”</span> <br /><br />Jonah Goldberg, of <span style="font-style:italic;">The Nation Review</span>, calls this deeply offensive, i.e, racist, and nonsense:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">"The reasoning here is a riot of dubious assumptions. Obama and Sotomayor both assume that a firsthand understanding of the plight of the poor or the African-American or the gay or the old will automatically result in justices voting a certain (liberal) way. “I would hope,” Sotomayor said in 2001, “that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life.” This is not only deeply offensive, it is also nonsense on stilts. Clarence Thomas understands what it is like to be poor and black better than any justice who has ever sat on the bench. How’s that working out for liberals?"</span><br /><br />These views seem to imply that the administration of justice is a mechanical thing. Law is like an algorithm: anyone can plug in a few variables and get the same answer. Indeed, some commentators are now using former <a href="http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/adjunctprofs/2009/05/oconnor-on-judicial-elections-civic-education-and-the-high-court-vacancy.html">Justice O'Connor's saying that a wise man and wise woman should come to the same conclusion</a> as some kind of repudiation of Sotomayor and Obama.<br /><br />If this is how the oath of office is to be interpreted, then I say so much the worse for the oath. It seems to assume a very simplistic idea of legal decision making that ignores a fundamental virtue of jurisprudence: <a href="http://etext.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv2-17">equity</a>.<br /><br />As Plato and Aristotle understand it, equity is a kind of correction to the written law administered by real live judges.<br /><br />In <span style="font-style:italic;">The Statesman</span>, Plato writes against the idea of the law as some of kind of system of rules that can be applied like a logical proof:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">"The differences of men and actions, and the endless irregular movements of human things, do not admit of any universal and simple rule. No art can lay down any rule which will last forever...."</span> <br /><br />Equity, then, is an art (or more accurately, the practical wisdom) of learning how to take into account certain details of a particular case and consider them relevant in deciding how a law applies. It is an art in the sense that it is not a codified science, but more like a knack, a practice, that seasoned practitioners know how to do.<br /><br />Aristotle calls equity "justice that goes beyond the written law" and offers an example: Imagine a law that prohibits the infliction of wounds with iron weapons. X strikes Y while X is wearing an iron ring. In addition to the general assault, shouldn't X face of charge of inflicting a wound with an iron weapon? Aristotle says this is a case for equity--learning to see the case in a wider perspective that takes into account: <span style="font-weight:bold;">"not to the action itself, but to the moral purpose; not to the part, but to the whole; not to what a man is now, but to what he has been, always or generally."</span> Clearly, justice, according to Aristotle, can only occur if we have some sense of the people we are dealing with.<br /><br />An oath is not necessarily a job description (even though federal officials can be charged with treason or high crimes for violating their oaths). But it seems that, in the case of the Supreme Court oath of office, we ought to reconsider whether we are committing judges to an unsophisticated kind of jurisprudence. We should recall Cicero who said that only "the crowd" identified law and justice with the written decree; true law has to do with reason and the wisdom that comes from experience interacting with persons in the real world.Joseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31439825.post-21985829601804902152009-05-27T23:09:00.000-07:002009-05-27T23:18:37.690-07:00Gays are good for it: The money, that isAccording to the folks over at <a href="http://www.thefacultylounge.org/2009/05/the-economics-of-marriage-equality.html">The Faculty Lounge</a>, Massachusetts saw over $100 million injected into the state over the last 5 years as a result of legalizing same sex marriage:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">"According to one study, "marriage equality resulted in an increase of younger, female, and more highly educated and skilled individuals in same-sex couples moving to the state." And according to another, same-sex couples’ weddings injected significant spending into the Massachusetts economy and brought out-of-state guests to the state, whose spending also added to the economic boost."<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span><br /><br />California voters may want to rethink their decisions on Prop 8 as they watch their state go down the economic sinkhole.Joseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31439825.post-27266053119782493402009-05-23T17:54:00.001-07:002009-05-23T18:02:39.798-07:00Is the U.S. ready for a new economic paradigm? America, Argentina, and a New Paradigm of DignityBack in December 2008, <a href="http://engagepodcast.blogspot.com/2008/12/should-latinoa-workers-occupy-new.html">I compared the take over the the New Republic Window factory in Illinois with the factory take overs in Argentina in 2001</a>.<br /><br />This interview with a couple of Argentine journalists describes how the economic situation in Argentina in 2001 is similar to what is taking place in the United States today. They say we are now faced with making choice about whether we want to go back to a system in which banks control the economy, or a "new paradigm" in which work builds the economy in favor of the dignity of people and of society. Is the U.S. ready for a new anarchist inspired worker's movement?<br /><br /><embed src="http://blip.tv/play/gdElgYPcZYyWCw" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="320" height="240" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed> <br /><br />Thanks to <a href="http://lanr.blogspot.com/">Latin American News Review</a>.Joseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31439825.post-49511593596322846642009-05-22T11:43:00.000-07:002009-05-22T11:51:25.682-07:00We Get Excited Easily: Habermas on Obama and Human RightsJurgen Habermas received the Spanish Brunet Prize for Human Rights recently. He was asked about the implication of Obama's election for human rights. <a href="http://habermas-rawls.blogspot.com/2009/05/habermas-receives-brunet-prize-for.html">Here is what he said</a>:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">"Obama is an American phenomenon. After eight years of Bush, Obama has been a great gift...Something that sets us apart from the Americans is that they have a great willingness to get excited with things. The history of Europe in the twentieth century has been quite complicated, with disasters and dictatorships. Perhaps it is appropriate that here in Europe we are less enthusiastic and have both feet on the ground."<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span><br /><br />After these last two weeks--in which Obama has adopted the Bush position on not releasing military abuse photos from Iraq and Afghanistan, has decided to keep the flawed military commissions system for trying detainees in Guantanamo, and has pledged to keep some detainees in permanent preventative detention--maybe we should learn to be more European.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii6lVjRAqfrsSpBHLH_fCEiqeXfuMUN4T5_GCnMZcMJO1bhd-xFjdMWs3-eV1uxZY_TiDwKqvmTpXb4HSyfbGnbgmlcauxpCfeUUJRwRQqomWHxlmjNEfYic5ulQ7cu1VB2-_oMw/s1600-h/Bush_Obama_s_20081111.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 222px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii6lVjRAqfrsSpBHLH_fCEiqeXfuMUN4T5_GCnMZcMJO1bhd-xFjdMWs3-eV1uxZY_TiDwKqvmTpXb4HSyfbGnbgmlcauxpCfeUUJRwRQqomWHxlmjNEfYic5ulQ7cu1VB2-_oMw/s320/Bush_Obama_s_20081111.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338722465002026354" /></a>Joseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31439825.post-75328668582450042542009-05-21T16:41:00.000-07:002009-05-21T16:50:49.930-07:00What Good is a Philosophy Degree in a Recession?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZJcUqSRpzGW9T2l8XvEm3qQCLYgYagR8KBzZ8mmblpY9jtu9xyp7OYMKGo4S4GzedG-aRHQ1ZRzidfUOD_rjOzIYroZsf6uDsShncvhBjlyePHbU2K3yEiWDzIUcLZ9Z3Ju7ndA/s1600-h/mcdonalds1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 268px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZJcUqSRpzGW9T2l8XvEm3qQCLYgYagR8KBzZ8mmblpY9jtu9xyp7OYMKGo4S4GzedG-aRHQ1ZRzidfUOD_rjOzIYroZsf6uDsShncvhBjlyePHbU2K3yEiWDzIUcLZ9Z3Ju7ndA/s320/mcdonalds1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338427536829345042" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Not much, <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/content/may2009/bs20090518_320933.htm"> according to business folk over at Business Week</a>. Forget about critical thinking. Less than 5% want people with liberal arts degrees. They want you to show them that you know how to take orders. <br /><br />Grad school? They say its a waste of time. Just find a job.Joseph Oroscohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04950358209722798820noreply@blogger.com0