Immoveable Object vs. Unstoppable Force?

Philosophers have fussed with this problem for a long while now:

Irresistible Force Paradox

Here's a physicist's interpretation from MinutePhysics:

Alumni News: Christopher Williams

Here in the Philosophy Dept. at AU, we are always interested in what's happening in the lives of our former students.  This week we were able to catch up with Christopher Williams (Dec. 2010), who told us a story about his travels and work in China:

Chris Williams

“I decided to move to China after working several jobs that could not satisfy my desire for learning. Many of the companies I worked for enjoyed the eloquence and critical thinking skills of a philosophy graduate, but were hesitant on doing much more than talking.  Getting to China took a considerable amount of time, considering that despite an overabundance of work available, many jobs could put you into a crippling financial position or leave you stranded in a foreign country.  Also, the initial funding for the move was a bit daunting and required 80 hour work weeks for two months to properly finance everything.

“Since I have been in China, I direct a lot of my focus towards studying Mandarin, surfing, private tutoring, environmental sustainability projects (such as roof gardens, aquaponic systems, and urban gardening) and basically adopting myself into the culture.  It is a communist society, but there is nothing really restricting a person for doing as he pleases as long as it doesn’t offend the culture.  There are many organizations here and the people as a whole are very communal.

“Many of the citizens are put into an educational system that discourages critical thinking and I am proud to say that my philosophy studies are a considerable asset.  It helps to open up the potential wonder that is in every interaction we hold, and places events as a potential for infinity as opposed to a rigorously objective end.  It enriches dialogue and has helped me to connect in ways that are much more novel do to the ability to look at situations in more innovative designs.

“China offers me a fairly competitive salary, free time to pursue my interests, a lot of great opportunities for travel and very engaging living. I plan on applying for graduate studies in environmental defense this coming February while still traveling and pursuing education.  I can be reached at XeniaKaiPhilias@gmail.com anytime.”

If you are an alumna/us, and have a story to tell, please send it to Dr. Louis Mancha (lmancha@ashland.edu).  We'd love to feature you on our blog, or even the department webpage (AU Philosophy).

Plato Not Playdoh...

Teaching Philosophy to Children?  Absolutely!

In this TEDx talk, Peter Worley of The Philosophy Foundation defends the notion that children can do philosophy:

"Children CAN do philosophy, but they tend to struggle when they're on their own, or when there's just two of them, because they lack the variety of responses that are necessary to sustain a philosophical conversation. However, if you take 20 children...then they start to have the variety of responses that are needed, and with a little bit of facilitation, they can also have the right kinds of responses.

"...[Children] learn to have what Socrates called the 'silent dialogue', this conversation that we have in our own heads when we think things through."

- Peter Worley, TEDx talk 'Plato Not Playdoh'

Ethics and Population Control

In the Ethics courses at AU, we often discuss the topic of poverty, on both an individual as well as on a global scale.  If you're interested in global issues, here's an interesting talk to think about.

The newest episode of Why? Radio is now available online:

"Are there too many people for our environment?"

Philip Cafaro 

http://www.philosophyinpubliclife.org/Why/previousepisodes/episode67.html

Right now waters are rising around the world, chemicals are seeping into our food and people are going hungry. Right now, wilderness is diminishing and cities are increasing in both size and density. In short we have an overpopulation problem and we have way too many environmental crises and no one seems to know what to do about any of it. On this episode of Why? Philip Cafaro attempts to tackle all of this at once by talking about overpopulation from an environmentalist’s perspective.

You can listen to the discussion and then post your comments at the link above, or email the show at whyradioshow@und.edu.