Freedom

A free person honors the authority he respects and rebels against the authority she does not.

Of Most Immediate Importance

WAITLIST problem

i am advised by our registrar that i may not selectively admit from the waitlist based on who shows up for the first class unless i have duly announced this policy in advance.

i will admit those on the waitlist who attended and all those higher.

Introduction

Led by Charles and Fern Nesson. This seminar will ask the ultimately unanswerable questions about the nature of freedom and how we handle it. We will read widely in philosophy, science, literature, and law. Fern and I would like to open up a discussion with prospective students in which we plan our detailed curriculum together. We propose to do this by seeding a wiki with our starting suggestions.

what's a WIKI
how do i join in

For Monday, Feb. 4

Hunter S. Thompson -- "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"

Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) was an American journalist and author, famous for his novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. He is credited as the creator of Gonzo journalism, a style of reporting where reporters involve themselves in the action to such a degree that they become the central figures of their stories.

john stuart mill -- on liberty

Groups

hay redux

fight club, book and film, to explore anarchism, when to work within, when to topple, the imposition of freedom on others

iraq war

revolution and ararchy

waitlist

surveillance, systems imposes on freedom, self-surveillance

lives of others

unbearable lightness of being

walden two, b.f. skinner

more time

individual fear and freedom in different art forms;

rocky

music as requiring rules that can be stretched and broken

if art is all freedom

miles davis, bitches brew

kuhn, paradigm shift

nabokov, pnin

thomas nagle, other minds

Much More Time

Physical, biological, pyscho-social constraints on free will, and free will as an underlying assumption of freedom

• Physics

The issue of Determinism -- if the nature of physics rules out options, then what of free will?

In a brief history of time, the anthropic principle.

• Biology

evolutionary game theory

Ernest Becker, "The Denial of Death"

• Psychology & Culture

Piaget, the mind of the child. Erikson: who sets the rules? Separating from your parents. Also, Cf. Skinner and Freud.

Liu, accidental asian

crusades through other eyes

we don't know

fear, confronting fear, in a surprise activity

you name it

what are the consequences of the different ways in which people take their freedom

ghandi

fanon

battle of algiers

james caroll, vietnam

Grab Bag

jonathan zittrain -- perfect enforcement

tao te ching; finding oneself

accidental asian/ mad hatter's lunch

who are you in context?

piaget

who is the interpreter of "the word"

master/slave

orwell's elephant: who is the slave?

colonialism/independence

haiti/jamaica/south africa/etc.

• battle of algiers/ satyagraha: what are the repercussions of the way in which we claim our freedom?

authority - Antigone, Mill, Thoreau,Civil Disobedience

how should a free person regard constraint?