I haven't been keeping up with reports on Intro lately so here's a quick update.
The essay exams took me approximately nine hours to grade. It got pretty tedious towards the end. They did pretty well though and that's encouraging.
Since then I have been talking about late classical philosophy. I introduced it will a quick synopsis of the 4 Noble Truths of Buddhism. The similarity as I see it is that original Buddhism is rather like Stoicism and Epicureanism in that 1) the goal is ataraxia and 2) there is an analysis of human psychology that leads to conclusions about how we should pursue it.
I do the Epicureans first and central to my account of them is the distinction between moving pleasure and static pleasure. A cat sitting contentedly on a sunny windowsill while I go to work embodies static pleasure. I summarize the Epicurean preference for static pleasure as the advice to "be the cat." Then I ask them to imagine trying to follow this philosophy today. They would drop out of school, get a job at Starbucks, and find a cheap apartment to live in with a couple close friends.
Next lecture I introduce the Stoics. They seem to like the idea of holding themselves to high moral standards while simultaneously not blaming other people for their behavior. I can see that a few of them really come to appreciate the Stoic philosophy.
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Spot on in identifying Stoicism with a high moral standard! Teachers often introduce Stoicism to students by focusing solely on the doctrine of apatheia, without mentioning virtue or morality. Doing so only reinforces common misconceptions of the philosophy!
Minor quibble: Ataraxia is not a goal in Stoicism. Virtue is the only good to a Stoic: courage, moderation, justice/benevolence, and prudence. Pursuing virtue does bring emotional tranquility as a side effect, but Stoicism is clear that both pain and tranquility make no difference at all to Happiness (at least in the ideal limit).
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