Blog 6: After the First Essay and Looking Toward the Second

The pace of the summer session seems to be catching up with us all - I felt that we were all rather flat today, although in my case being ‘flat’ often means that I’m being a bit too kinetic (i.e., jumping about or moving too quickly – or both). I know that I myself was trying to rush through too many connections, often leaping from a statement about what the text before us was saying to some connection or critical question or thought experiment or alternative view. I’d not used Hume in the previous version of this course and I’m now amazed at how fully he connects with what we’re doing on so many fronts, and so I wanted – and tried – to move through a great deal of information in a single class. Add to this situation the fact that you all are tired and have been focused on the paper and so likely did not read Hume at all or with as much care as usual, and it made for a scattered day. Of course, I’m generally a poor read of these things: the days that I feel scattered are the often the ones that most resonate with students, and the days where I feel on tops of things are often the days that leave students fully confused.

 

Still, the main point was to start to grapple with Hume’s main idea (the idea of the moral sense) and with how he connects with the other thinkers, and I feel that we did that. It is challenging, since he casts previous thinkers in a new light, such that we were not only introduced to Hume today but to new versions (i.e., Hume’s versions) of Hobbes and Locke.

 

The next step is to get an understanding of the role that conversation plays in the development and exercise of this moral sense, and I feel that we go a good start on that, too. It’s a tricky idea, but we made progress. And I look forward to class tomorrow, as I think that Thirteen (powerful all on its own) will help us to make even more sense of what Hume is saying. 

 

Looking toward the next essay, I should stress that Hume’s moral theory continues to be endorsed in various forms by many philosophers today. It was - and still is - tremendously influential. It will likely be one upon which many of you will want to write. It will also connect very well with the next film (Boiler Room).

 

Also, I’ve read through the papers and I’m pleased. As a group, you did very well (meaning that there were many As, although not everyone got an A; however, everyone who turned in a revised paper did get a C or higher). I should have rough scores for tomorrow, but I won’t have my feedback written up. But I can certainly let you know how you did. And everyone has a solid foundation on which to build in the next two papers. Again, I’m very pleased - it’s both a sign that you are developing (which is what, of course, the course is all about) but also that the full revamping of my Intro Ethics course is paying pedagogical dividends.