Friday, July 12, 2002 From Ethics to Epistemology By Diana Hsieh @ 1:11 PM Over the past few weeks, I have been pondering shifting my primary focus in philosophy from ethics to metaphysics and epistemology, particularly for my work in graduate school. (Since metaphysics and epistemology are so closely intertwined, I'm mostly just going to talk about epistemology here, with the understanding that I'm referring to many issues in metaphysics too.) My reasons are many and varied, so let me just indicate a few of them here. First and most importantly, I have always considered epistemology to be my first love in philosophy. My first two philosophy classes at WashU concerned epistemology, as did a great many of my later classes. It was Ayn Rand's theory of concepts that spurred me to take a more serious interest in her philosophy. And, as I've mentioned before, my autobiography will simply have to be titled How I Was Seduced By Epistemology. So I would not be developing an interest in epistemology, but rather returning to it. I might be a bit rusty after all these years, but the necessary gears are still there. Second, I have slowly come to realize that refocusing my attention on issues in metaphysics and epistemology need not require me to sacrifice my interest in the practical, real life impact of philosophical ideas. Towards the end of my time at WashU, I turned my attention away from epistemology and towards ethics, largely because I was tired of heated debates over esoteric subjects like the status of future tense propositions. When I started lecturing at the Summer Seminars of The Objectivist Center, I wanted those lectures to be interesting and relevant to the regular folks, so ethics seemed like a natural choice. But listening to Barbara Branden's excellent tape course Principles of Efficient Thinking, working on issues related to self-deception for my paper "Excuses Excuses," developing the lecture on metaphysics and epistemology for "Objectivism 101," and hearing Mike Huemer's excellent lecture "Why Political Beliefs Are Irrational" drove home the point that the abstract and technical issues in metaphysics and epistemology often have significant and interesting real-life consequences. Many of these philosophical issues have the added benefit of intersecting with psychological issues, which (sometimes) adds good empirical data into the mix. So the challenge for me will be in finding and highlighting those real-life consequences of these very abstract ideas for my more popular writings and lectures on philosophy. Third, I worry about finding a hospitable climate in which to do ethics at Boulder. Boulder has a strong applied ethics section, but it may well be too leftist for me to do well there. If I want to do ethics, my best bet would be through the also-noteworthy ancient philosophy section, but I doubt that my interest in the ancients would be strong enough to sustain a Ph.D. (I'm just in the MA program at the moment, but pursuing a Ph.D is definitely not out of the question.) On the other hand, Boulder is also well known for metaphysics and epistemology. And those are also Mike Huemer's primary areas of focus. (Mike isn't an Objectivist, but he's Objecti-familiar and Objecti-friendly -- perfect for graduate school.) Fourth, good work in metaphysics and epistemology requires a depth of understanding that will simply be easier to achieve during graduate school than at any other time. I have generally found the literature in ethics to be fairly straightforward and easy to master while working solo. But the debates in metaphysics and epistemology are simply much more twisted and slippery, so help is far more critical. So better to work on those more difficult subjects when the resources of graduate school are at my disposal! Fifth, focusing on metaphysics and epistemology will allow me to stretch myself and stand out in a way that I simply would not as just another woman in ethics. Given my interests and capacities, I have no desire whatsoever to be permanently associated with "softer" subjects like ethics. To be so associated would mean not being taken as seriously, since it is generally so much harder to do good work in metaphysics and epistemology than in ethics. So metaphysics and epistemology offer me a genuine challenge with the potential for greater rewards. Of course, I won't be forever departing the field of ethics! I plan on continuing to work in that area, particularly on the virtues. But my scholarly focus is shifting. And my popular work will be broadening into metaphysics and epistemology as a result. So now I just need to figure out what sort of course changes for the fall I might want to make! Link / Noodles / Trackback Wednesday, July 10, 2002 Slides and Swings By Diana Hsieh @ 8:12 PM As promised, I've posted the slides from my seven lectures to the 2002 TOC Summer Seminar. White Lies, Black Lies: PowerPoint or HTML Objectivism 101: Philosophy: PowerPoint or HTML Objectivism 101: Reality and Reason: PowerPoint or HTML Objectivism 101: Life and Happiness: PowerPoint or HTML Objectivism 101: The Virtues: PowerPoint or HTML Objectivism 101: Individual Rights: PowerPoint or HTML Objectivism 101: Spiritual Fuel: PowerPoint or HTML The raw, unedited tapes of these lectures should be available through The Objectivist Center at some point soon. I'll be sure to post an announcement when they are. In the meantime, it seems that my 2001 lecture "Forgiveness and Redemption" is still available on audiotape from TOC Live! under a horribly hyphenated perversion of my name. I've also posted the notes from my introductory remarks to my Advanced Seminar paper "Excuses Excuses." I've give a report on how the seminar went a bit later. Link / Noodles / Trackback Orsies! By Diana Hsieh @ 7:48 PM My horses have returned! Hooray! Order and balance has returned to Chez Hsieh! (For those of you who don't get the joke, "Chez" and "Hsieh" are basically pronounced identically.) As usual, Jackson seemed unperturbed at the move back home; he just wanted to know where grain could be found. Tara was a bit more disturbed at the change of scenery, but she seems to have settled back into the routine just fine. (A bit of history: Mike Paul was kind enough to keep the horses at his farm until our return from California. We didn't want our housesitter to have to deal with evacuating the horses in the unlikely event that the Hayman fire flared up again.) Once I've recovered from my seminar sleep deficit, I'll be able to get Tara going again. Yeah! Link / Noodles / Trackback Tuesday, July 09, 2002 Untested Courage By Diana Hsieh @ 9:09 PM Eugene Volokh has a nice piece on courage in National Review. Those of us enjoying the benefits of a free society often inadvertently demean the virtue of courage by presenting small acts of courage (like risking an academic career by voicing unpopular opinions) as more significant than they actually are. Those on the left, I think, are particularly prone to this error (or perhaps evil), often acting as if they are the equivalent of Soviet dissidents in critiquing the policies of the US government. But risking harsh criticisms by people who think their ideas are stupid is hardly on par with risking 10 years of forced labor in a Siberian work camp for opposing Soviet totalitarianism. We ought to be careful about what we call brave and courageous. Most of us living in a free society are simply lucky enough to never have had our internal sense of courage put to significant test. If we were, I suspect that many of us who think ourselves courageous would crumble. And unexpected others would rise from nowhere to meet the challenge. Link / Noodles / Trackback Letter to Allan Gotthelf By Diana Hsieh @ 7:28 PM I just sent in my membership to The Ayn Rand Society. Here's the letter to Allan Gotthelf that accompanied it. 9 July 2002 Allan Gotthelf The Ayn Rand Society Department of Philosophy The College of New Jersey Ewing, NJ 08628-0718 Dear Professor Gotthelf: Enclosed is my application for student membership in The Ayn Rand Society. Since I hope to be attending the next meeting, I thought that I would take a moment to introduce myself now. I became seriously interested in Ayn Rand's work 9 years ago, during my freshman year in college. I subsequently spent my years at Washington University thinking of little other than philosophy, graduating with a B.A. (magna cum laude) in philosophy in 1997. I then spent a few years in web programming, although still philosophizing on the side. Last summer, I decided to return to philosophy full time. I will be starting the MA program in philosophy at the University of Colorado at Boulder this fall. As for my particular work related to Objectivism: While a senior at WashU, I wrote an essay entitled "Sex and Gender Through an Egoist Lens: Masculinity and Femininity in the Philosophy of Ayn Rand" which was published in the 1999 anthology Feminist Interpretations of Ayn Rand. In that essay, I argued that Rand's individualism and egoism offers fruitful ground for a rational theory of masculinity and femininity. At the 2000 and 2001 summer seminars of The Objectivist Center (respectively), I gave lectures entitled "Moral Habits" and "Forgiveness and Redemption" which tackled those issues from an Objectivist perspective. At TOC's 2002 seminar, I taught the six-lecture introductory course on Objectivism entitled "Objectivism 101," which covered the essentials of Ayn Rand's philosophy from metaphysics to aesthetics. I also gave a lecture on the virtue of honesty entitled "White Lies, Black Lies." Additionally, in the Advanced Seminar, I presented a paper entitled "Excuses Excuses: Undermining Moral Growth in the Concealment of Wrongdoing" which argued that lies to conceal wrongdoing undermine a person's capacity for moral growth. (That paper was also my writing sample for my application to CU Boulder. I am planning on revising it this fall for submission to mainstream ethics journals.) If you are interested, much of that work is available my web site at: <http://www.dianahsieh.com> Although my attention in recent years has generally focused on practical issues in ethics, I strongly suspect that I will be returning to my first love, epistemology, while in graduate school. Also, my interests in Objectivism are not limited to scholarly work, as I have a great enthusiasm for developing popular presentations of Objectivist ideas, including for high school students. I am very much looking forward to the opportunity to interact with other Rand scholars through The Ayn Rand Society. Since I am entering graduate school openly as an Objectivist, I greatly appreciate the work that those before me, such as yourself, have done to make academia a little more friendly to Objectivism. One last note: Is the any way to acquire the papers of years past presented at the society? I'm happy to pay for the privilege, of course. Best wishes, Diana Mertz Hsieh P.S. A note about my application: I suppose that I am not yet officially a student associate member of the APA, as I am sending my APA student membership form at the same time as this letter. But I figured that such is close enough. I wonder what sort of response I might get, if any. Link / Noodles / Trackback Monday, July 08, 2002 Moooooooo By Diana Hsieh @ 11:38 PM I have reached a milestone in my marriage. My husband spontaneously made mooing noises as he passed a herd of cows a few days ago. Wow. Marriage really can change a man. Link / Noodles / Trackback More on Sins (of Memory, That Is) By Diana Hsieh @ 3:00 PM I am always pleased when merely reading the opening pages of a book conveys a clear sense of the insights and delights to come. I had exactly that experience in reading the introduction to David Kelley's Truth and Toleration. His tone was so reasonable and his writing was so clear that I was almost certain that I would agree with the substance of his arguments. I was not wrong. I am currently enjoying a very similar impressing in the opening pages of Daniel Schacter's book The Seven Sins of Memory. Interested in why and how memory fails us, he has divided up the errors of memory into seven basic categories: Transience: "the weakening or loss of memory over time" (4) Absent-mindedness: a failure of recall due to the fact that the information is "either never registered in memory to begin with, or not sought after at the moment it is needed, because attention is focused elsewhere" (4) Blocking: "a thwarted search for information that we may be desperately trying to retrieve" (5) Misattribution: the "assigning [of] a memory to the wrong source" (5) Suggestibility: the implanting of memories due to "leading questions, comments, or suggestions when a person is trying to call up a past experience" (5) Bias: a change in recollections due to "the powerful influences of our current knowledge and beliefs on how we remember our past" (5) Persistence: the "repeated recall of disturbing information or events that we would prefer to banish from our minds altogether" (5) These sins of memory, however, are not ammunition in a simplistic attack on memory, but rather consequences of "otherwise desirable and adaptive features of the human mind" (6). But it is not merely the prospect of the content of the book that has me all warm and fuzzy inside, but rather the promise held out by his engaging and clear writing. His style of writing is friendly and accessible, without being condescending. So far, it is popular science writing at its best. Of course, my predictions could be entirely wrong. I am no Miss Cleo! :-) But if the reviews on Amazon are any indication, my initial impressions will likely last. So off to read I go! Link / Noodles / Trackback Sunday, July 07, 2002 Arabs on Arab Problems By Diana Hsieh @ 10:58 PM Josh "I need a blog" Zader sent me a link to a rather interesting story on the good grasp that Arab scholars and intellectuals have on the problems in their own countries. I particularly enjoyed this tidbit: But the academic Left isn't alone in misjudging the Middle East. The realpolitik of the U.S. government that allies itself with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and other "moderate" Arab states offers little long-term hope for an improved relationship with people of the Middle East. It is no accident that America is more popular in countries whose awful governments hate the United States -- Iraq and Iran, for example -- than among the public of its so-called allies. Saudis, Kuwaitis, Pakistanis and Egyptians, after all, have been murdering Americans far more frequently than have Iranians, Iraqis and Syrians. Yup! (Josh mentioned that he found the story through InstaPundit, but I haven't caught myself up on the InstaVacationBacklog yet. So it's like those NBC summer reruns: New to me!) Link / Noodles / Trackback Productiveness: The Next Battle By Diana Hsieh @ 10:52 PM Since my talk on honesty at the seminar was so well-received, I've been thinking about lecturing on other virtues at upcoming seminars. While it would make sense for me to return to start with the primary virtue in Objectivism, rationality, I think that I would like to focus on the virtue of productiveness next instead. My reasons are primarily personal, in the sense that productiveness is the virtue I have struggled with most over the past year. The problem is not that I'm unproductive, but rather that I think I could be so much more productive if I instilled good habits within myself. Or perhaps not. I just don't know. So productiveness it is and shall be! What follows are simply some preliminary notes on the direction I think such a lecture should take. As usual, I would like to integrate a theoretical understanding of the virtue with its practical applications. As those who are familiar with my previous work on virtue, good habits will be just that link between theory and practice. (I was dissatisfied with my explication of the function of habit within the virtue of honesty in my recent lecture "White Lies, Black Lies." I fear that I failed to convey the richness and robustness that habit brings to theory and practice of honesty. Additionally, there is much, much more in the psychology of habits that would be useful and productive for me to explore. For example, I am presently reading what promises to be an excellent and useful book entitled The Seven Sins of Memory. In short, I want to be sure to fully explicate the role of habits in any forthcoming lectures on virtue.) From a theoretical perspective, the Objectivist case for productiveness is fairly simple. We need to create values in order to survive. Productiveness means creating those values necessary for life and happiness. Of course, there is always the perennial and thorny question of the prudent predator -- or in this case the prudent moocher and prudent looter. I think the basic answer to these apparent counter-arguments is that we are wasting time and energy, not to mention creating bad habits, by keeping ourselves open to and on the lookout for such opportunities for predation. In other words, being on the prowl has consequences all its own. Another theoretical issue concerns the relationship between the virtues of responsibility and productiveness. In common parlance, productiveness seems to relate primarily to work and career, while responsibility concerns all of life's activities. So it would seem that responsibility might be the primary virtue, with productiveness as one aspect of it. This is essentially what David Kelley has argued. He conceives of productiveness as primarily relating to the creation of wealth. Responsibility is the more fundamental virtue of achieving all the values necessary for a long and happy life. He has a point. However, I'm not sure that I entirely agree with this conceptual schema. Productiveness perhaps ought to be defined as David Kelley defines responsibility, as the virtue of achieving all the values necessary for a long and happy life. After all, one of Objectivism's more interesting insights is the way in which the pursuit of value in an individual's personal life is fundamentally the same as in the economic sphere. For example, Objectivists don't just see trade as only activity of business relationships, but also something we do in friendships, in romantic relationships, and familial relationships. (The trades in such personal relationships, of course, tend to be longer-term, unaccounted, and more spiritual in nature than in business. But the fundamentals of trade still apply.) So it would not be unprecedented in Objectivism to take a virtue that seems to primarily apply to the economic sphere and broaden it to apply to all areas of life. Such would be essentially consistent with much of the Objectivist project in ethics. Speaking of the relationship between virtues, I should also think about the nature of certain key minor virtues within productiveness, such as self-discipline, ambition, creativity. I will want to be able to given account of these aspects of productiveness, given how essential that are in daily life. One interesting topic along these lines would be an account of competitiveness, rational and irrational. Also, on both a theoretical and a practical level, I am interested in comparing and contrasting the Objectivist virtue of productiveness with the ideas in the current business self-help literature, as well as the Protestant ethic of thrift and industry championed by Benjamin Franklin and others in years and centuries past. From a purely practical perspective, the major issue seems to be how to become more productive in daily life. In other words, how can we make ourselves maximally-efficient pursuers of value in all areas of life? I think that I might find a great deal of insight in the business self-help literature. (But I will need to be careful not to get mired in the business side of productiveness, if I do take the virtue to be applying to all of life.) Some relevant question include: What sort of habits of productiveness can we cultivate? What are some tricks that help us get past the blocks? How can we motivate ourselves to grand visions without burning out? What is the role of relaxation and down time? How does an active mental life contribute to productiveness? Those are just a few of the issues that come to mind at the moment. I'm sure there will be more! Link / Noodles / Trackback

Blog Stuff All Comments Trackback NoodleFood XML Good Stuff Meredith Brickell Ceramics Paul Hsieh's GeekPress Front Range Objectivism Ayn Rand Institute Archives 03/03/2002 - 03/09/2002 03/10/2002 - 03/16/2002 03/17/2002 - 03/23/2002 03/24/2002 - 03/30/2002 03/31/2002 - 04/06/2002 04/07/2002 - 04/13/2002 04/14/2002 - 04/20/2002 04/21/2002 - 04/27/2002 05/05/2002 - 05/11/2002 05/12/2002 - 05/18/2002 05/19/2002 - 05/25/2002 05/26/2002 - 06/01/2002 06/02/2002 - 06/08/2002 06/09/2002 - 06/15/2002 06/16/2002 - 06/22/2002 06/23/2002 - 06/29/2002 06/30/2002 - 07/06/2002 07/07/2002 - 07/13/2002 07/14/2002 - 07/20/2002 07/21/2002 - 07/27/2002 08/04/2002 - 08/10/2002 08/11/2002 - 08/17/2002 08/18/2002 - 08/24/2002 08/25/2002 - 08/31/2002 09/01/2002 - 09/07/2002 09/08/2002 - 09/14/2002 09/15/2002 - 09/21/2002 09/22/2002 - 09/28/2002 09/29/2002 - 10/05/2002 10/06/2002 - 10/12/2002 10/13/2002 - 10/19/2002 10/20/2002 - 10/26/2002 10/27/2002 - 11/02/2002 11/03/2002 - 11/09/2002 11/10/2002 - 11/16/2002 11/17/2002 - 11/23/2002 11/24/2002 - 11/30/2002 12/01/2002 - 12/07/2002 12/08/2002 - 12/14/2002 12/15/2002 - 12/21/2002 12/29/2002 - 01/04/2003 01/05/2003 - 01/11/2003 01/12/2003 - 01/18/2003 01/19/2003 - 01/25/2003 01/26/2003 - 02/01/2003 02/02/2003 - 02/08/2003 02/09/2003 - 02/15/2003 02/16/2003 - 02/22/2003 02/23/2003 - 03/01/2003 03/02/2003 - 03/08/2003 03/09/2003 - 03/15/2003 03/16/2003 - 03/22/2003 03/23/2003 - 03/29/2003 03/30/2003 - 04/05/2003 04/06/2003 - 04/12/2003 04/13/2003 - 04/19/2003 04/20/2003 - 04/26/2003 04/27/2003 - 05/03/2003 05/04/2003 - 05/10/2003 05/11/2003 - 05/17/2003 05/18/2003 - 05/24/2003 05/25/2003 - 05/31/2003 06/01/2003 - 06/07/2003 06/08/2003 - 06/14/2003 06/15/2003 - 06/21/2003 06/22/2003 - 06/28/2003 07/27/2003 - 08/02/2003 08/03/2003 - 08/09/2003 08/10/2003 - 08/16/2003 08/17/2003 - 08/23/2003 08/24/2003 - 08/30/2003 10/05/2003 - 10/11/2003 10/12/2003 - 10/18/2003 10/19/2003 - 10/25/2003 10/26/2003 - 11/01/2003 11/02/2003 - 11/08/2003 11/09/2003 - 11/15/2003 11/16/2003 - 11/22/2003 11/23/2003 - 11/29/2003 11/30/2003 - 12/06/2003 12/07/2003 - 12/13/2003 12/14/2003 - 12/20/2003 12/21/2003 - 12/27/2003 01/04/2004 - 01/10/2004 01/11/2004 - 01/17/2004 01/18/2004 - 01/24/2004 01/25/2004 - 01/31/2004 02/01/2004 - 02/07/2004 02/08/2004 - 02/14/2004 02/15/2004 - 02/21/2004 02/22/2004 - 02/28/2004 02/29/2004 - 03/06/2004 03/07/2004 - 03/13/2004 03/14/2004 - 03/20/2004 03/21/2004 - 03/27/2004 03/28/2004 - 04/03/2004 04/04/2004 - 04/10/2004 04/11/2004 - 04/17/2004 04/18/2004 - 04/24/2004 04/25/2004 - 05/01/2004 05/02/2004 - 05/08/2004 05/23/2004 - 05/29/2004 05/30/2004 - 06/05/2004 06/06/2004 - 06/12/2004 06/13/2004 - 06/19/2004 06/20/2004 - 06/26/2004 06/27/2004 - 07/03/2004 07/04/2004 - 07/10/2004 07/11/2004 - 07/17/2004 07/18/2004 - 07/24/2004 07/25/2004 - 07/31/2004 08/01/2004 - 08/07/2004 08/08/2004 - 08/14/2004 08/15/2004 - 08/21/2004 08/22/2004 - 08/28/2004 08/29/2004 - 09/04/2004 09/05/2004 - 09/11/2004 09/12/2004 - 09/18/2004 09/19/2004 - 09/25/2004 09/26/2004 - 10/02/2004 10/03/2004 - 10/09/2004 10/10/2004 - 10/16/2004 10/17/2004 - 10/23/2004 10/24/2004 - 10/30/2004 10/31/2004 - 11/06/2004 11/07/2004 - 11/13/2004 11/14/2004 - 11/20/2004 11/21/2004 - 11/27/2004 11/28/2004 - 12/04/2004 12/12/2004 - 12/18/2004 01/02/2005 - 01/08/2005 01/09/2005 - 01/15/2005 01/16/2005 - 01/22/2005 01/23/2005 - 01/29/2005 01/30/2005 - 02/05/2005 02/06/2005 - 02/12/2005 02/13/2005 - 02/19/2005 02/20/2005 - 02/26/2005 02/27/2005 - 03/05/2005 03/06/2005 - 03/12/2005 03/13/2005 - 03/19/2005 03/20/2005 - 03/26/2005 03/27/2005 - 04/02/2005 Lasagne Blogs GeekPress Best of the Web Instapundit Volokh Conspiracy Daily Dish The Bleat Impromptus Manicotti Blogs Anger Management Absolute Reason Ayn Rand Meta-Blog GeekPress Blog Without a Name Brian Schwartz Cox and Forkum Dollars and Crosses Ego A Galaxy Far, Far Away GMU Objectivist Club Greedy Capitalist Haight Speech In the Mouth of Madison Jerk Sauce John J Enright Light of Reason Marshall Sontag Live! Minority of One Mudita Journal Not A Blog Noumenal Self O.T.H.E.R.'s Blog Poor and Stupid Positive Liberty Quare Rule of Reason Presence of Mind Sid's Blog of Doom Terrible Swift Sword Venting Steam Wickens.ca Atlasphere Bloggers Objectivist Bloggers Conchiglie Blogs Dynamist Blog The Agitator The Anger of Compassion Asymmetrical Information Armed and Dangerous Banana Oil Catallaxy Files Charles Murtaugh Citizen Smash The Corner EnviroSpin Watch Eve Tushnet The Fly Bottle God of the Machine Gweilo Diaries The Idiot Villager Intel Dump Interrobang Julian's Lounge The Kolkata Libertarian Liberty and Power Locke, or Demosthenes? McBlog The Marmot's Hole Natalie Solent OxBlog Raving Atheist Reductio Ad Absurdum The Right Coast Right Wing News Samizdata Sargent Stryker Secular Islam Shoutin' Across the Pacific Tom Palmer The Truth Laid Bear Two Blowhards An Unsealed Room VodkaPundit Capellini Blogs Critical Mass Brian's Education Cranky Professor Discriminations Highered Intelligence SCSU Scholars Tightly Wound Spaghetti Blogs Joanne Jacobs EducationWeak Home School & Stuff Number 2 Pencil Fettuccine Blogs Apple Core Assigned Seat Assorted Stuff Entry Year Teacher Math Teacher Ms. Frizzle School Yard Science Teacher Teaching High School Weblogg Ed Write It Linguini Blogs Chez Miscarriage Konkadoo Loco Parentis Rational Parenting One Sixteeth Our Homeschool Journey Our Horrible Children Penne Blogs Brian Leiter Rod Long Brian Weatherson Rigatoni Blogs Criminal Appeal Is That Legal? Legal Theory Lessig Blog Mirror of Justice Punishment Theory Stephan Kinsella Unlearned Hand Macaroni Blogs Adam Smith Blog Brad DeLong EconLog Economist Marginal Revolution Rigatoni Blogs The Loom ScienceBlog Orzo Blogs Andrew Breese Terry Foote Ted O'Connor Kirez Reynolds Peter Saint-Andre Mike Shapiro Douglas Wagoner's Journal Ramen Blogs Dave Barry Fark ScrappleFace Support Amazon.com