Up@dawn 2.0

Monday, August 31, 2015

QUIZ ch1-2, "What is happiness?"

T SEP 1 - READ: Haybron ch1-2. Our first quiz (posted on the 31st): take it before class.
Podcast ch1... Happiness 2

1. What nation did Gallup find to be happiest in terms of daily experience?

2. What does Haybron say will most likely NOT be on your deathbed list of things you'd like to experience again before you go?

3. Which of Haybron's three happiness theories is not mainly concerned with feelings?

4. Your posture or stride reveals something deeper than what?

5. Tranquility, confidence, and expansiveness are aspects of what state of mind/body?

6. What famous western Buddhist says happiness is an optimal state of being, much more than a feeling?

(Ace the quiz with six correct answers, including answers to non-redundant quiz questions posted before class in the comments section by a classmate, and score a run. You can also score by posting such a question yourself- but don't take credit for answering your own question.) 

Discussion Questions
  • Do you agree that there's never been a better time to be alive? 1
  • Do you think many poor communities are happier than the average college student? 3
  • How important is health, and healthcare, in your conception of happiness? 7
  • Do we need a theory or definition of happiness? 10
  • Can you be a genuinely happy individual in an unhappy society? 13
  • How much does happiness depend on achieving a "mindless" state such as Haybron's dad described? 14
  • Can you describe a pictorial moment of your own like the one in the photo of Haybron and his dad? 18
  • Do you agree that Americans pursue joy, where Asians seek attunement? Who's happier? 19
  • Do you ever "flow"? 21
  • Do you share the Stoic quest for "at home"-ness as the mark of happiness? 22
  • Do you experience "time poverty"? 25
(Score a run if you posted a non-redundant DQ in the comments section before class. Remember to log  in your notebook all the runs you will be claiming on the scorecard each day, so that your discussion group's scorekeeper can certify them and post the totals.)

Calvin and Hobbes (@Calvinn_Hobbes)
Never forget about the simple things in life. 🌅🌌 pic.twitter.com/2vxFPJqiJP

                      
Are Americans sacrificing their right to walk? (, )


Friday, August 28, 2015

Comment here

Reporters from yesterday's class stroll over to the Naked Eye Observatory, you can all post your brief summaries of what you and your two discussion partners discussed in a comment here. And everybody else who'd care to comment, as well.

Watch this space on Monday, for our first quiz.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Introductions

3 minute podcast: happiness is to be "dissolved"... 9 minute Schopenhauer podcast
==
Let's introduce ourselves, Fall 2015 Happiness collaborators!

I invite you all to hit "comment" and reply with your own introductions, and (bearing in mind that this is an open site) your answers to two basic questions: Who are you? Why are you here? (in this course, on this campus, in this state, on this planet...)

Our first class meeting will consist mainly of introductions and a heads-up that this is an unconventional course in ways I hope you'll find delightful, instructive, and rewarding. If you don't like to move, breathe, and converse in the open air, this may not be the course for you. But if you don't especially like the conventional lecture-style academic model in which I talk and you scribble silently in your seats, it may be just what you're looking for.

We'll not go over the syllabus or get bogged down in the nuts and bolts of course mechanics on Day #1, there's plenty of time for those details later. But do peruse the blogsite and syllabus (linked in the right margin) before next class and let me know what's unclear. Meanwhile, read your classmates' intros and post your own.

I'm Dr. Oliver, aka (despite my best efforts to discourage it) "Dr. Phil." I live in Nashville with my wife, Younger Daughter, a dog (Angel) and a cat (Zeus). Older Daughter is a film student in another state.

My office is in James Union Building 300. Office hours are Mondays thru Thursdays from 1 to 2 pm, & by appointment. On nice days office hours will probably be outside. I answer emails during office hours, but not on weekends. Surest way to get a quick response: come in or call during office hours.


I've been at MTSU for over a decade, teaching philosophy courses on diverse subjects including atheism, childhood, happiness, the environment, the future, and bioethics.

My Ph.D. is from Vanderbilt. I'm originally from Missouri, near St. Louis. I was indoctrinated as a Cardinals fan in early childhood, so I understand something about religious zeal. My undergrad degree is from Mizzou, in Columbia MO. (I wish my schools weren't in the SEC-I don't approve of major collegiate sports culture or f
ootball brain injuries, as I'm sure to tell you again.)

My philosophical expertise, such as it is, centers on the American philosophical tradition of William James and John Dewey. A former student once asked me to respond to a questionnaire, if you're curious you can learn more about me there.

What you most need to know about me, though, is that I'm a peripatetic and will encourage you all to join me in that philosophical lifestyle as often as possible during discussion time. (If you're not sure what "peripatetic" means, read the syllabus or ask me. Or look it up.)

I post my thoughts regularly to my blogs Up@dawn and Delight Springs, among others, and to Twitter (@osopher), and am planning to experiment with podcasting as a classroom tool this semester. Follow me if you want to.
But of course, as Brian Cohen said, you don't have to follow anyone. (Extra credit if you get that reference... and real extra credit if you realize that my "extra credit" is usually rhetorical.) However, if a blog or podcast link turns up with the daily quiz (which will always be posted on this site no later than the night before class), you might find it helpful to read or listen.
Enough about me. Who are you? (Where are you from, where have you been, what do you like, who do you want to become,...?) Why are you here? (On Earth, in Tennessee, at MTSU, in philosophy class)? Hit "comments" below and post your introduction, then read your classmates'... and bear in mind that this is an open site. The world can read it. (The world's probably busy with other stuff, of course - Kardashians and cooking shows and other examples of  what passes for "reality" these days.)