Study lists 'bizarre' college courses

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by Charles, Sep 14, 2002.

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  1. Charles

    Charles New Member

    Georgetown's "Philosophy and Star Trek" should be a pretty interesting course. I've often thought that many Star Trek episodes would be excellent teaching tools for ethics classes.

    "Philosophy and Star Trek" at Georgetown University. The course asks: "Is time travel possible?" "Can a person survive death," "Could we go back and kill our grandmothers?" and "Is Data a person?"

    http://www.washtimes.com/national/20020913-91299948.htm
     
  2. Dennis Ruhl

    Dennis Ruhl member

    The course I'm waiting for is philosophy and the Flintstones.
     
  3. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Consider the source.
     
  4. BillDayson

    BillDayson New Member

    I like the idea of courses that use science fiction to teach elementary philosophy.

    It's probably most appropriate for general education courses intended for non-majors. But even for professional philosophers, reading science fiction is an education.

    For example, science fiction has addressed the topic of the time-travel paradoxes certainly more grippingly, and probably more deeply, than have many professional journal articles.

    A staple of science fiction is the first-contact story. Consideration of all the possible sorts of alien intelligences that one finds in science fiction stories leads seamlessly into discussions of what personality means and discussions about anthropomorphism. I have an anthology of stories on my shelf somewhere that are all about the problems and pitfalls of communicating with beings whose thought processes and conceptual schemes are irreducibly alien. There's another anthology there about alien religions.

    Here's one for our theologians: How can man tell the difference between a truly superior alien being and a god? If both transcend our understanding, what possible human experience can differentiate the demi-gods from the gods?

    There are endless varieties of sociological, political and psychological science fiction as well.

    The future is kind of a blank canvas, and speculative fiction allows us to imagine an endless variety of alternative possibilities in graphic and tangible ways.
     
  5. Dennis Ruhl

    Dennis Ruhl member

    I still prefer the philosophy of the Flintstones.
     
  6. Chip

    Chip Administrator

    In case anyone hasn't figured it out yet, that list of courses referred to in the Washington Times article would be a great place to mine credits for a portfolio :)
     
  7. Nosborne

    Nosborne New Member

    If you think time travel is possible, you should read Kip Thorne and Stephen Hawking, not philosophy.

    Nosborne, JD
    (Who is neither a physicist nor a philosopher)
     
  8. Myoptimism

    Myoptimism New Member

    And if you want to read about family life growing up in a small, mormon, university town (Logan, UT), you should read Kip's mother. ;)

    Tony
     
  9. Nosborne

    Nosborne New Member

    "And if you want to read about family life growing up in a small, mormon, university town (Logan, UT), you should read Kip's mother"

    Oh really? That's interesting. I wonder if he went to BYU?

    Nosborne, JD
     
  10. Guest

    Guest Guest

    Me thinks thou hast watched too many Star Trek flicks, Bill. How many of those alien beings suffered and died for you personally?
     
  11. Nosborne

    Nosborne New Member

    And if they're out there, where ae they?

    Nosborne, JD
    (Who is looking for a Martian Bar Review course...)
    (Martiandale-Hubble?)
     
  12. Charles

    Charles New Member

    What is it that we should consider about the source? Is this subject unworthy of discussion because it's from a Washington Times article?



    That's why I think this could be such an interesting course. For example James H. Toner True Faith and Allegiance - The Burden of Military Ethics , refers to Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers on four separate occasions. Here is the actual course listing from Georgetown's Undergraduate bulletin:

    "180. Philosophy and Star Trek (3)
    Professor Wetzel
    Star Trek is very philosophical. What better way, then, to learn philosophy, than to watch Star Trek, read philosophy, and hash it all out in class? That's the plan. This course is basically an introduction to certain topics in metaphysics and epistemology philosophy, centered around major philosophical questions that come up again and again in Star Trek. In conjunction with watching Star Trek, we will read excerpts from the writings of great philosophers, extract key concepts and arguments and then analyze those arguments. The questions that we will wrestle with include: 1. Is time travel possible? Could we go back and kill our grandmothers? What is the nature of time? 2. Could reality be radically different from what "we" (I?) think? Could we be brains in vats? 3. What is the relation between a person's mind and his functioning brain--are they separate substances or identical? Can persons survive death? Can computers think? Is Data a person? 4. What is a person? When do we have one person, and when do we have two (think of the episodes where people "split" or are "fused")? 5. Do people have free will, or are they determined by the laws of nature to do exactly what they wind up doing, while believing they have free will? Or both? What is free will? Fall".

    http://www.georgetown.edu/undergrad/bulletin/179courses.html
     
  13. Anthony Pina

    Anthony Pina Active Member

    Quote from the article:

    " 'Cultural History of Rap' at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). The class offers a discussion "on musical and verbal qualities..."

    Well, I sure learned something new today. Rap, apparently, has "musical and verbal qualities." That certainly is news to me!

    Tony
     
  14. Anthony Pina

    Anthony Pina Active Member

    Nope, Kip Thorne went to Cal Tech and Princeton. But he was adjunct faculty at University of Utah for awhile.

    Tony
    (who DID go to BYU)
     
  15. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

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