Syllabus supplement

Weekly dialogue:

Dialogue:

Think of the dialogue as one additional way of discussing things with the others in the class. Since many do not have the chance to meet with one another after class, this electronic tool gives everyone the chance to do that. What would you say to one another about  the topics?

I prefer to use email to do this instead of on-line chat rooms or bulletin boards. Please email me as soon as possible including your name and which class you are in. I will build a class email list and over the first couple of weeks this should come together pretty well. Once I send out the topics each person can "reply to all" and send the reply to everyone in the class email address. You would not want to say something you would say privately to just one person. If you send me a message that you do not intend to be shared with the whole class make sure you note that in the message or I may very well end up sharing it with everyone thinking it a good thing to do! This would be very much like answering a question in class in front of the class. 

As far as my place in the dialogues is concerned: the instructor is supposed to have an occasional presence but make sure not to dominate in this kind of tool. Hmmm. In other words, this is your forum to dialogue with one another and I should only pop in to correct a serious mistake or remind folks to be civil. I have to admit, there will probably be occasions when I won’t be able to help myself! But for the most part I will just be recording everyone’s level of participation for your course grade. The dialogue participation will count towards 10% of the course grade.

  Week 1 (First dialogue question): Why do we have the expression "feminine intuition"? Is it possible that females have a better sense of intuition than males?

  Week 2: In Wittgenstein's picture theory of language we have a powerful description of how language is useful. A statement is meaningful if the atomic relationships between the elements of the statement are organized in the same way as the atomic elements in the fact it describes. We also call this the correspondence theory of truth. Is there any other way we might consider a statement true?

  Week 3: What language games do you speak fluently?

  Week 4: What is the relationship between a scientific paradigm and a narrative?

As we move further into the concept of narratives and narratology the course content guide includes scientifc paradigms as a topic for inclusion. Thomas Kuhn is of special interest here. It seems pretty clear to me when we associate the concept of “narrative” with the language games of math and then scientific hypothesis, it is the concept of “paradigm” that is most pertinent. But what is the relationship? There are concepts of narrative paradigms and that is a very good way of thinking about narratives. Would that do the trick?

  Week 5: Can I will to find something -- or someone -- beautiful or is my finding something beautiful involuntary?

  Week 6: What would it mean to refer to 5 o'clock on the sun? (Further: what is Wittgenstein pointing out with this question?)

  Week 7: What would it mean to say that "Beauty is the unity of meaning and configuration"?

  Week 8: What music is your favorite?

  Week 9: What do you think were the good points / bad points of using the Wittgenstein Reader as a text for this course?

  Week 10: Comment on a high school evaluation of a Wittgenstein quote.

  Week 11: Is all expressive art intended to elicit an emotional response from the audience?

  Week 12: Have a look at this for your own amusement: http://www.class.uidaho.edu/mickelsen/texts/Hegel%20Logic/logic%20-%20VIII.txt and ask which is more difficult, Wittgenstein (any!) or this.