2. The Ring of Gyges: Morality and Hypocrisy
Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature w/ Tamar Gendler
Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature (PHIL 181)
After introducing Plato's Republic, Professor Gendler turns to the discussion of Glaucon's challenge in Book II. Glaucon challenges Socrates to defend his claim that acting justly (morally) is valuable in itself, not merely as a means to some other end (in this case, the reputation one gets from seeming just). To bolster the opposing position--that acting justly is only valuable as a means to attaining a good reputation--Glaucon sketches the thought experiment of the Ring of Gyges. In the second half of the lecture, Professor Gendler discusses the experimental results of Daniel Batson, which suggest that, at least in certain controlled laboratory settings, people appear to care more about seeming moral than about actually acting fairly. These experimental results appear to support Glaucon's hypothesis in the Ring of Gyges thought experiment.
00:00 - Chapter 1. Introducing Plato and "The Republic"
11.39 - Chapter 2. Glaucon's Challenge
22:28 - Chapter 3: Batson on Moral Hypocrisy
40:17 - Chapter 4. Question and Answer
Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://oyc.yale.edu
This course was recorded in Spring 2011.
3. Parts of the Soul I
Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature
w/ Tamar Gendler
Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature
(PHIL 181)
Professor Gendler reviews four instances
of intrapersonal divisions that have appeared
in philosophy, literature,
psychology, and neuroscience:
Plato's division between reason, spirit, and appetite;
Hume's division between reason and passion;
Freud's division between id, ego, and superego;
and four divisions discussed by Jonathan Haidt
(mind/body, left brain/right brain,
old brain/new brain, and
controlled/automatic thought).
A discussion of a particularly vivid passage from Plato's Phaedrus concludes the lecture.
00:00 - Chapter 1. Dividing the Soul: Overview
07:57 - Chapter 2. Plato, Hume and Freud
15:28 - Chapter 3: Haidt's Four Divisions
36:12 - Chapter 4. Plato's Division between Reason, Spirit, and Appetite
Complete course materials are available
at the Open Yale Courses website :
This course was recorded in Spring 2011.
4. Parts of the Soul II
Philosophy and the Science
of Human Nature w/ Tamar Gendler
Philosophy and the Science
of Human Nature (PHIL 181)
Professor Gendler begins with a demonstration of sampling bias and a discussion of the problems it raises for empirical psychology. The lecture then returns to divisions of the soul, focusing on examples from contemporary research. The first are dual-processing accounts of cognition, which are introduced along with a discussion of the Wason selection task and belief biases. Next, the influential research of Kahneman and Tversky on heuristics and biases is introduced alongside the famous Asian disease experiment. Finally, Professor Gendler introduces her own notion of alief and offers several examples that distinguish it from belief.
00:00 - Chapter 1. Sampling Bias
05:58 - Chapter 2: Dual Processing Accounts of
Cognition and the Wason Selection Task
23:55 - Chapter 3. Kahneman and
Tversky on Framing Effects
32:18 - Chapter 4. Alief
Complete course materials are available
at the Open Yale Courses website:
This course was recorded in Spring 2011.
