AAPT NewsThe Newsletter of the American Associatiort of Philosophy Teachers

VOLUN,IE 16, NUMBER 2 Ju ly 1993

1994 AAPT Conference in Montreal

[The fo l l ow ing comes f rom AAPT Pres iden t Ph i l

Haml in . - eds . l

P resen t p lans a re f o r t he l 0 th I n l c rna t i ona l

Workshop Conference on Teaching Phi losophy to

be he ld i n Mon t rea l , Quebec , Augus t 4 -8 , 1994 .

T h e c o n f e r e n c e w i l l b e h o s t e d b y M a r i a n o p o l i s

Co l l ege , w i t h do rm i to ry accomoda t i ons a t I r { cG i l l

Un i ve rs i t y , j us t a f ew b locks f r o rn t he hea r t o f

Mon t rea l , on t he s ide o f Moun t Roya l , t he f amous

moun ta in a f t e r wh i ch the c i t y i s named . Th i s i s

one o f t he mos t exc i t i ng announccmen ts I have hadthc p leasu re t o makc . Th i s w i l l be ou r f i r s t con fe r -cnce i n a l a rge c i t y , and ou r f i r s t con fe rence i nCanada !

R i cha rd Wr igh t , ou r f o rmer execu t i ve d i rec -

tor , who is now in the Provost 's Of f ice at Wcstern

M ich igan Un ivc rs i t y , ve ry k i nd l y ag reed to go up

to Mon t rea l i n n r i d - June to e xam ine the s i t e and the

accomoda t i ons . I t hough t t ha t we nceded an expe -

r i cnccd pc rson to l ook ove r t he p lace and make an

eva lua t i on o f i t s s t r cng ths and weakncsses . I have

d i scussed aspec ts c l f wha t he to ld me abou t Mar i -

anopo l i s as a s i t e f o r ou r con fe rence w i th mos t o f

the mcmbcrs of the board, and they are in agree-

men t t ha t we shou ld havc ou r nex t con fe rence a t

Mar ianopo l i s .

Professor James Pettit, who teaches at Mari-

anopol is and who authored the s i te-proposal , has

organized a group of Montreal phi losophers in the

area to help set up the conference. He has agreed

to be the local arrangements chai r person, and as-

s i s tan t p rog ram cha i r . He w i l l he lp us ge t t he wo rd

out to the many phi losophers who teach in Canada,

espec ia l l y i n t he Mon t rea l a rea , t he p rov inces o f

Quebec and On ta r i o , and the Mar i t ime p rov inces .

Betsy Decyk, who was recent ly e lected as

our Vice President , has graciously agreed to serve

as program chair for the 1994 conference. She and

I inv i te you to s tar t developing proposals for work-

shops on teaching phi losophy. One theme f rom our

ear l iest conferences we wanI to engage again: we

wan t t o have a va r i e t y o f wo rkshops on teach ing

continued on page 4

Table of Contents

Letter f rom the President

AAPT Board IUembers Elcctcd' : . . .

Philosophy Teaching ExchangeTeaching Just War Thcory

APA BleCtionic Bul let in Board

AAii at iacific APA Nleeting -

: , , TranSforming Acadernic HonestyInto Academic Integri ty

Ph i losophy C lubs Rev is i ted: : : : | : : : : ' : : : : , : ,

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Book Review: Alrican Philosophv.................'.....:Se8Uo...Cbadegesin,, "

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Calendar of Events

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9

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AAPT News - July 1993

from tfte lPresifentQfti[ J{amfin

'ILniztersity of Tenness ee, Woryiffe

Richard Wright res igned in January as Ex-

ecut ive Director of AAPT, a posi t ion which he held

for several years. He ably performed the duties of

th is posi t ion wi th d ispatch and sty le. Whi le i t is

t rue that he leaves large shoes to f i l l , he has agreed

to help h is successor work in to the posi t ion.

So now we are searching for a new Execu-

t ive Director . Richard has helped me to formulate

the descr ipt ion of th is posi t ion for th is newslet ter .

AAPT's Execut ive Director (ED) per forms

the most important tasks of the organiz.at ion, in the

sense that s /he sees to the day to day running of the

organizat ion. The ED mainta ins the menrbcrship

records and the records of dues payments; s /he sets

up the major mai l ings for and works out the physi -

cal deta i ls of the conferences which we hold every

other year (work ing c losely wi th the local arrange-

mcnts chai rperson) , and s/he handles the running of

the conference ( regis t rat ion, room and key assign-

ments, meal p lans, name tags, etc . ) The ED works

wi th the Treasurer to double check the f inancia l re-

cords of the organizat ion and handles a l l inqui r ies

about the organizat ion and i ts act iv i t ies.

Richard says that the work of the ED takes

an average of one or two hours a week, but tends to

come in spur ts . The bulk of the ED's work is asso-

c iated wi th set t ing up the conferences.

The ideal candidate would be a person wi th

some organizat ion sk i l ls who a lso is able to work

ef fect ive ly wi th people, whose inst i tu t ion is sup-

po r t i ve o f hav ing the na t i ona l o f f i ce o f AAPT

housed there. AAPT can afford some support for

the secretar ia l funct ions requi red by the posi t ion.

However, i t seems unreal is t ic to expect a long or

even shor t l is t o f ideal candidates for the posi t ion

(cer ta in ly you have not managed to get anyth ing

l ike an ideal pres ident th is t ime!) , so I would l ike

to issue an invitation to anyone who is interested to

c o n t a c t m e o r R i c h a r d ( h i s e - m a i l a d d r e s s :

wr ight@gw.wmich.edu) or Betsy (her e-mai l ad-

dress: bdecyk@beachl .csulb.edu) . AAPT needs

you !

AAPT VB At Large BoardMembers Elected

Dur ing the sp r i ng semes te r 1993 , AAPT

conducted a mai l -bal lo t e lect ion of of f icers. Theelect ion was delayed a few months whi le the Boardadjusted to Richard Wright 's departure as Execu-t ive Director . A lso, a c los ing date was inadvertent ly

lef t o f f o f the bal lo t sheets, so the bal lo ts were col -lected for several months before the e lect ion wasdeclared over .

Betsy Newell Decyk was elected the new VicePresident , and she wi l l serve in that capaci ty unt i lAugust 1994, at which t ime she wi l l automat ica l lybecome the new President of AAPT. Betsy wil l then

serve as President for two years, and finally serve two

more years on the Board of Officers as Past President.A n t h o n y M . C o y n e a n d K r i s h n a M a l l i c k

were e lected to the Board as At Large members,

and they wi l l serve unt i l August 1996.About half of AAPT's voting members actually

voted, and this was a very tight election: only eight votes

separated the Vice Presidential candidates, and a handfulof votes separated five of the At Large candidates.

Congratu lat ions to a l l the e lect ion winners!

Page 2

AAPT News - July 1993

Philosophy Teaching Exchangeof AAPT News sharing course materialsReplies to the editors or the authors are

A regular featureexperiences.

and classroomwelcome.

Teaching Just War TheoryJeffrey P. Whitman, Catherine G. Haight

United States Military Academy

On March 16, 1968. a unit of American soldiers(C Company of Task Force Barker) entered the Vietnam-ese hamlet of My Lai, a suspected enemy stronghold, ona search and destroy mission. Finding no encmy sol-diers there, they rounded up the vil lagers and slaugh-tered some 500 of them-mostly women, children, andold men.

This event , perhaps more than any other s inglcevent dur ing the Vietnam war, had a profound inf lu-ence of the Uni ted States Army for years to come. I tbecame, and st i l l is today, the centerp iece of just wartheory instruction at all levels of the Army, from basict ra in ing to the Army War Col lege. At the Uni tedStates Mi l i tary Academy at West Point , the rcsponsi -b i l i ty for th is inst ruct ion to cadets is largely in thehands of the Phi losophy Div is ion of the Engl ish De-pa r tmen t . As pa r t o f an i n t roduc to ry ph i l osophycourse, second year cadets receive inst ruct ion on theLaws of Land Warfare (found in the Hague and Ge-neva Convent ions) and the just war theory that under-g i rds these laws.

Whi le the need to teach the basics of just wartheory to cadets (as professional so ld iers in t ra in ing)shou ld be obv ious , o the r co l l eges and un i ve rs i t i eshave a lso recognized the need for a s imi lar in t roduc-tion to just war theory for their students (as cit izens ina democratic society and potential soldiers in the de-fense of that society). With this in mind, we wouldlike to offer a brief synopsis of the course taught at WestPoint that others may find helpful in developing theirown introductory course.

West Point cadets begin thei r mi l i tary exper i -ence as civil ians, but they take their f irst oath of of-fice at the end of a very long first day of training inwhat has come to be less than affectionately known as"Beast Barracks." The oath of this first day, althoughsimilar to the commissioning oath they take as fledg-ling officers four years later, is also rather different inone significant sense. As cadets, they affirm that theywill support the Constitution of the United Stares; asofficers, they wil l vow "to support and defend theConst i tu t ion of the Uni ted States against a l l enemies,fore ign and domest ic . . . " Exact ly what does i tmean to "defend" the Constitution? How far does onego in i ts defense? What is the scope of a sold ier 'smoral dut ies and legal dut ies? What i f these dut ies

conf l ic t? Based upon these sor ts of quest ions and theissues they ra ise, i t should be c lear that whi le there ismuch for our students to learn and consider, we can-not expect c losure on these issues in any st r ic t sense.Instead, our method is to expose our s tudents to morald iscourse and t ry to convince them that ref lect ion andcr i t ica l analys is are essent ia l to them in thei r ro le asprofessional so ld iers and as c i t izens of a democrat icrepubl ic .

Our course, ent i t led Int roduct ion to Phi loso-phy, is designed to g ive the cadets the rudimentarysk i l ls they need to engage in moral debate as i t ap-plies to just war theory. Organized into three blocks,the first portion of the course deals with elements ofcr i t ica l reasoning. The cadets study about ten lessonso f l og i c w i t h an emphas i s on c r i t i ca l t h i nk ing andclear wr i t ing. We devote the fo l lowing ten to f i f teenclass per iods to a survey of c lass ical eth ica l theor ies:egoism, ut i l i tar ianism, Kant ian absolut ism, v i r tue the-ory, r ights theory, and re lat iv ism. The cadets gain anappreciat ion for the major e lements of each of thev iews and become fam i l i a r w i t h t he l anguage andmethods of phi losophical moral d iscourse. The re-main ing twenty c lass per iods are spent on just wartheory. We use an assortment of f i lms and MichaelWafzer's book, Jast and Unjust Wars to examine thetheory in i ts abstract , phi losophical context and in i tsconcrete, h is tor ica l context . I

The fi lms we use play a particularly importantrole in the course. They take the cadets from abstractthcor iz ing about hypothet ica l s i tuat ions to real l i fesituations they may face on the battlefield. We oftenbegin the semester wi lh a f i lm ent i t led " Interv iewswith My Lai Veterans."z Produced in the early seven-t ies, i t is a mosaic of c l ips f rom interv iews wi th thesold iers who had engaged in the massacre. For manyof the cadets, Vietnam is in the d is tant past , and theyare far more familiar with tales of the atrocities com-mitted by our enemies in various wars. This fi lm ispar t icu lar ly ef fect ive for our purposes because i tshows the typical American soldier, the kind many ofthem will supervise during their f irst assignment as pla-toon leaders. The soldiers on film speak of their atroci-t ies candidly and often in callous, unreflective tones.They of fer naive and inconsistent moral arguments in

continued on page 6

Page 3

AAPT News - JulY 1993

1994 Conference in Montreal ' ' 'continued from Page I

basic phi losophy courses, that is , workshops on

teaching introductory philosophy, ethics, epistemol-

ogy and metaphysics, the history of philosophy'

logic, crit ical thinking, philosophy of religion, phi-

losophy of science, aesthetics, polit ical theory and

phi losophy, Amer ican phi losophy, phi losophy of

history. Of course, we want workshops on others

areas and topics, l ike medical ethics, business eth-

ics, environmental ethics, feminism, Eastern philoso-

phy, professional eth ics, Marx ism, ex is tent ia l ism

and phenomenologY, among others'

One important aspect of the conference wil l

be a focus on philosophy courses as a requirement'

In Quebec province there is such a requi rement '

and in many col leges in both Canada and the US

there is a resurgence of th ink ing about a "core" cur-

r icu lum, or general educat ion, which inc ludes phi -

losophy courses. Our col leagues f rom Quebec wi l l

be prepar ing in format ive sessions on thei r system

so that others may learn from it, and we wil l all be

shar ing our exper iences in teaching s imi lar courses '

Betsy wi l l soon be put t ing together a Pro-

gram Commit tee. She has a pre l iminary l is t o f per-

Ions who have a l ready indicated in terest in th is

v i ta l task. I f you are in terested in serv ing in th is

capaci ty , p lease inform her as soon as possib le '

Wiite to her at home, 4837 Maytime Lane, Culver

C i t y , CA 90230 , o r ca l l he r a t ( 310 ) 559 -6080 '

James Pet t i t t wi l l be assis tant program chair , and

wi l l be receiv ing mater ia ls submit ted f rom Canada'

and be avai lable for d iscussion wi th phi losophers in

his region. James can be contacted at Mar ionopol is

Col lege, 3880 Cote des Neiges, Montreal , Quebec'

H3H lW l , Canada . H i s phone a t t he Co l l ege i s

(5r4) 93r-8't92.We are working on plans for the conference'

even as you read these words' Please send me or

Be tsy you r sugges t i ons f o r wha t we shou ld do

again, do d i f ferent ly , and do that is new to im-

prove our conference. The quickest way to contact

me i s t h rough e -ma i l . My In te rne t add ress i s

hamlin @ utkvx.utk.edu.

I hope that you wil l make your plans early

to attend this our tenth conference' I want to quote

from a recent le t ter f rom one of our members '

Courtney Furman, about the value of these confer-

ences: "The b i -annual workshops are invaluable

and ought to be continued; their loss would be a

tragedy. They are one of the few meetings I sti l l

look forward to, and attend with much profit '"

APA Electronic BulletinBoard ExPands

[Received over the Internet. -eds']

You may have tried our older system, avail-

able to anyone with access to telnet' That Bulletin

Board conta ins a l is t o f e-mai l addresses of APA

members, a Philosophical Calendar, news from the

National Office, information on joining the APA'

and other i tems of in terest to the phi losophical

communit.y. We are now introducing a beta version

of a new system called "gopher." The gopher has

al l the in format ion current ly in the Bul le t in Board,

but i t a lso has some added features ' We inv i te you

try both of these systems' We would l ike your

feedback, especia l ly for the gopher system' Fol -

lowing are inst ruct ions on how to use each system

Please scnd your responses to these quest ions,

and any other comments, to panero@oxy'edu'

Please note that I am personal ly work ing on

th is system only for the summer, so your comments

would be most helpfu l i f sent as soon as possib le '

Thank You, and enjoY.

* * ,* * * * ,i * * * :t t r! * * * 'l"l' * :i * * 'l' * * * * * !t * * :l' * 'i t' * :* 1' l' * 'l 'i

Instructions to use gopher* * * ' i * i ( ,N * * * * * * * * * * * * t f * * * * * * * ' l ' * * * * ' i * ' f * * * * ' l " f ' t

From most systems, just tYPe:

goPher aPa.oxY'edu

I f the response is "Command not found," you need

to ask your system adminis t rator to insta l l a gopher

"client " in order for you to use the APA gopher'

Once you are in the system, you can move through

the system of menus easi lY.

* i. * r.,t( * rc * i( * * X t< * r( * d( * :l' * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *'i * *

Instructions to use the bulletin board* * * * t( * * * * * * * * * *'t( * * 1' * * * * *' l ' * * * * * * *'t * * * * * * *'t *

To access the bulletin board, init iate a telnet ses-

s i o n a n d c o n n e c t t o e i s . c a l s t a t e ' e d u o r

130.150.102.33 Once connected, type "apa" (wi th-

out the quotes, of course) at the login prompt' Fol-

low the menus from there.continued on Page 5

Page 4

AAPT News - July 1993

APA Bul lent in Board. . .continued from page 4

Note: Your system must support telnet. If you are un-sure about the capabil it ies of your host computer,please contact your campus systems administrator.

[Below "<enter>" means hit the enter or return key.]

sample session

you type > te lnet e is .cals tate.edu

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response> SunOS Release 4.1.3 (FAST_P)

#13 : Wed Jun 9 l l : 22 :26PDT I993

response> login:

you type> : apa <enter>

Bul le t in board appears as below

Bullet in Board of the American Philosophical Associat ion

[ ] In t roduc t ion to th is Bu l le t in Board (update : 6 /4 )

[2] From the National Off icc (3/ l I )

[3 ] Ph i losoph ica l Soc ie t ies (5 /28)

t41 Grants , Fe l lowsh ips , NEH Seminars and Ins t i tu tes(6/4)

[5J Ph i losoph ica l Ca lendar (7 / l )

[6 ] E-mai l Addresses o f the Membersh ip (5 /11)

[7] Directories and Computer Resources (5/28)

[8] Bibl iographies and Journal Information (2/23)

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Electronic Bul let in Board for Membcrs of the APA

System Admin is t ra to r - Sau l Tra iger , Occ identa l Co l lcge* * * F o r s u b m i s s i o n s a n d s u g g e s t i o n s , s e n d m a i l t o

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Please send e-mai l responses to panero@oxy.edu,

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Panero , Box 391, Occ identa l Co l lege, 1600 Campus

Road, Los Ange les , CA 90041

Transforming AcademicDishonesty Into

Academic IntegrityThe AAPT session at the Amer ican Phi lo-

sophical Associat ion conference in San Franciscoth is past spr ing drew a substant ia l audience as suchgather ings go, perhaps because i ts topic re lated toan i ssue wh ich pe rvades con tempora ry soc ie t y :academic and professional d ishonesty. Dr . CarolWhi te, associate professor of phi losophy and for-mer associate dean of curr icu lum at Santa ClaraUnivers i ty , who has a lso chai red the task force onacademic integrity there for many years, gave thepresentat ion and led the d iscussion which fo l lowed.

Dr. Whi te began wi th some extraord inaryand unfor tunate examples of p lagiar ism, perhapsthe nrost wel l -known form of academic or profes-s ional d ishonesty. One of the most outrageous in-s tances had to do w i th a manua l on p lag ia r i smwhich was p lagiar ized by one major western uni -ve rs i t y f r om ano the r ma jo r wes te rn un i ve rs i t y !The p lagiar iz ing inst i tu t ion "sel f -corrected" whendiscovered by submit t ing an apology to the univer-s i ty f rorn which they "borrowed" the document .Noth ing e lse by way of amends were made.

Al l branches of academe have exper ienceddishonesty in some form or other as wel l as news-pape rs , t e l ev i s i on and even the m in i s t r y . Wh i l esome professional organizat ions and governmentagencies have sought to prov ide professional guide-l ines (as of th is wr i t ing, nei ther the APA nor theAAPT have produced any official documents relat-ing to the topic) , most of fer no expl ic i t sanct ions,unl ike guidel ines for academic d ishonesty whichapp l y t o s tuden ts , wh i ch o f t en requ i re va r i ousthreats and punishments, depending upon the grav-i ty of the of fense. Even in the student context ,howevcr , Dr . Whi te noted that academic d ishonestyis not t reated as a "moral breach or problem inmoral development , " which would requi re a verydifferent kind of response, "not just routinely metingout the punishment." Very few schools even botherto keep track of cheating cases on their campuses, sothey have no way of keeping track of repeat offend-ers. Further, very few have an office or person as-signed to oversee the academic process regardingacademic dishonesty. Training for faculty in promotingacademic in tegr i ty in thei r c lasses is typ ical ly not

cont inued on page 8

Page 5

AAPT News - July 1993

Teaching Just War Theory. . .continued from page 3

favor of their behavior or deny wrongdoing altogether.The cadets find this fi lm disturbing and see almost im-mediately that Americans do not always wear a whitehat in the conflict. They wonder why the officers didnot stop the slaughter. That is our starting point intheir studies of philosophy, and, after their study of crit i-cal reasoning and ethical theory, we return to it often inthe just war portion of the course.

Since the horrors of war seem to pale in theface of the tidy uti l i tarian calculations that appear inthe pages of history books, we use two specific f i lmsto remind the cadets that war is far more harrowingthan we tend to understand from our history courses.Both the victims and the enemy soldiers have a hu-man face. The first f i lm is perhaps the most graphicof the fi lms we use. Entit led "Prophecy," it confrontsthe cadets wi th the shor t and long term damage doneby the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Na-gasaki . r Produced by the Japanese Ten Foot Society,th is f i lm juxtaposes the wry gal lows humor of U.S.mi l i tary weapons systcm t ra in ing f i lms wi th the un-speakable damage those systems ul t imate ly caused.Al though in i t ia l ly as a group very much in favor ofn u c l e a r w e a p o n s , t h e c a d e t s a r e v e r y s o b e r a n dthought fu l a f ter th is f i lm. They begin to th ink interms of the suf fer ing caused rather than in terms ofthe cold, h igh- tech appeal of a neat new weaPonssystem. This is an important sh i f t for a group ofyoung people who, dur ing the Gul f War, watched thenight ly news to see thr i l l ing v ideo footage that em-phasized only the dazzl ing capabi l i t ies of expensives ta te -o f - t he -a r t weapons , bu t saw I i t t l e b loodshedand mu t i l a t i on .

The second f i lm, though not as graphic, a lsohas a very powerfu l e f fect . A la in Resnais 's "Nightand Fog" of fers a surreal depict ion of Nazi t reatmentof the Jews in Wor ld War I I .a I t ra ises quest ions ofmi l i tary responsib i l i ty and reminds the cadets of pre-c ise ly the level of horror Walzer has in mind whcn heuses the phrase "Nazi . l ike regime" to descr ibe h isl imi t ing case. Both "Night and Fog" and "Prophecy"have d i rec t app l i ca t i on t o Wa lze r ' s chap te r on su -preme emergency which deals wi th one of the greatd i lemmas of war: what are the moral l imi ts on a na-t ion 's act ions in war when i t faces a choice betweencerta in destruct ion at the hands of a t ru ly ev i l enemyor commit t ing a heinous act of war against that enemyin order to thwart certain defeat? Needless to say, thediscussion on th is point is animated.

For the por t ion of Walzer 's book that dealswi th mi l i tary and pol i t ica l responsib i l i ty , we comple-ment our lectures and d iscussion wi th a return to theMy Lai quest ion by v iewing the.Flont l ine episode en-t i t led, "Remember ing My Lai . " ' Much more power-ful than the first My Lai f i lm, this program presents adescription of the events leading up to the massacre atMy Lai, revisits some of those interviewed earlier, in-

terviews Vietnamese survivors of the massacre, andinterviews several people who had the moral courageto refirse to commit the atrocities. Although the inter-views with those who refused to participate in themassacre have an obvious impact on the cadets, thearguments made by the moral ly bankrupt sergeantwho steadfast ly denies wrongdoing in the face ofoverwhelming ev idence of h is culpabi l i ty , and thedialogues with those tortured by their memories makelast ing impressions. There are a number of otherf i lms we a lso somet imes use to supplement Walzer 'stext and our lectures, but these four are the ones wehave the most success wi th.6

Except for thei r commitment to the mi l i tary asa profession, we suspect that the moral outlook of ca-dets is not all that much different from their contem-poraries at other colleges and universit ies. For thatreason we believe other professors can successfullypursue a s imi lar course of s tudy wi th thei r s tudents,us ing Michael Walzer 's text and these f i lms. Whetheryou agree or d isagree wi th Walzer 's arguments, webel ieve he ra ises, in an in terest ing and somet ime pro-vocat ive manner, a l l the major issues involved in thejust war tradition. A course of this nature is sure tostimulate the moral imaginations of your students, as itdoes ours, and hopefully wil l prevent, or at least miti-gate, the horrors of any future war our nation may fight.If i t prevents just one "My Lai," it is well worth theeffort.

Jeffrey P. WhitmanCather ine G. HaightUnited States Military AcadenryWest Point . NY

Notesl. Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars,2nd edition(New York: Basic Books,1972).

2. Laser F i lms. 1970.

3. Avai lable f rom Fi lms, Inc. , Chicago, I l l ino is 60640.

4. Produced in 1955 th is f i lm is avai lable f rom Fi lmicArchives. Botsford, Connecticut 06404.

5. PBS Front l ine ser ies, 1989.

6. Some of these other fi lms include "Under Orders, Un-der Fire" (part of the PBS Ethics in Anterica series) and"Bombs in the. Casbah," Part ll of The Algerian War: A

Questiott of Conscience (available from Peter BattyProduct ions, Kingston, Surrey, England KT27NT).

Page 6

AAPT News - July 1993

Philosophy Clubs:Revisited

A couple of years ago I published a l itt lep iece cal led "Phi losophy Clubs: A Chal lenge," in

Proceedings qnd Addresses of the American Philo-

sophical Associat ion (" Issues in the Profession,"

September, 1991, Volume 65, # l ) . In the present

article I wil l take up the themes and issues raised inthat p iece, whi le h ighl ight ing some of the develop-ments over the past two years related specificallyto undergraduate phi losophy c lubs, and more gen-

era l ly to undergraduate phi losophy educat ion. Ihope to serve two purposes in th is endeavor; f i rs t ,to share wi th other teachers of phi losophy somepos i t i ve expe r i ences assoc ia ted w i th ph i l osophy

clubs; second, to inv i te other in terested teachers ofph i l osophy to pa r t i c i pa te i n t he eve r - i nc reas ing

number of act iv i t ies s temming f rom the growth of

undergraduate phi losophy c lubs.

The Regis Col lege Phi losophy Club cont in-

ues lo f lour ish and expand as i t enters i ts four thyear. Regis Col lege is a pr ivate, l ibera l ar ts col legelocated in Denver, Colorado, wi th about 1000 t radi -

t ional undergraduates. Our c lub, which has about

l0-15 regular members, meets on a weekly basis ,

and we read and d iscuss mater ia ls of in terest tomembers of the c lub. At our of f -campus meet ings- held somet imes at my home, somet imes at the

homes of s tudent members - we have read overthe years everything from The Conununist Mani-

festo to the Tao Te Ching, from Plato, Aristotle, and

Kant to Kr is teva, Derr ida, and postmodern theol -

ogy. We have no t ime l imi ts , and depending on thequal i ty of d iscussions we wi l l meet anywhere f rom

an hour or so to four or f ive hours at a c l ip . We

w e l c o m e a n y o n e t o o u r m e e t i n g s , t h o u g h i t i smost ly majors and minors that at tend. We have

mainta ined th is format for three years, and though

older members have graduated we cont inue to get

new members pr imar i ly by word of mouth amongstudents.

Because of our format , we somet imes readand d i scuss ma te r i a l s assoc ia ted w i th s tuden ts 'c lasses, e i ther d i rect ly (when we read the sametexts that are d iscussed in a c lass) or ind i rect ly(reading, say, existentialists not covered in a class

on that topic in which a number of our members

were enrol led) . Yet , no mat ter what we read in

club meetings, because we are not constrained by

syl labi , t ime l imi ts , and formal i t ies associated wi thformal academic set t ings, we can go at our ownpace and "do our own thing." The result is that thefreedom to question is cultivated, the extent of dis-cussions enhanced, and the depth of understandingintensified. These discussions are often continuedthroughout the week, and they inevitably feed backnot only in to subsequent meet ings but in to c lass-room d i scuss ions as we l l . Th i s has he lped ou rmembers gain a much greater competence wi thwhatever mater ia ls we may cover , and to gain agreat deal of self confidence in their own philo-

sophical abi l i t ies.In addi t ion to our meet ings, the c lub has en-

gaged in a var iety of act iv i t ies that I bel ieve haveprofited our students. For two years now our clubhas published a journal, Premium Cartridge, featur-i n g t h e w o r k o f u n d e r g r a d u a t e s t u d e n t s f r o maround the country. In addi t ion to craf t ing ar t ic lesfor th is publ icat ion, members have had to learn toread wi th care and evaluate the submiss ions of oth-ers, thereby developing the k ind of cr i t ica l appre-c iat ive reading requi red of edi tors, an abi l i ty thatwi l l benef i t them in the future, whether in graduateschoo l o r i n p ro fess iona l l i f e . They have a l solearned much about a l l the rest that goes in to thepubl ish ing of a nat ional journal .

We have, for the last two years, also takentr ips to phi losophy conferences. A couple of yearsago we at tended the Mid-South Phi losophy Confer-ence, held at Memphis State Univers i ty , and one ofour students had the opportunity to read a paper

during the undergraduate sessions. This past year

we at tended the Paci f ic Div is ion Meet ing of theAmer ican Phi losophical Associat ion, held in SanFrancisco. Many students found these trips mostvaluable, especia l ly in terms of becoming bet ter ac-quainted wi th the professional act iv i t ies of phi loso-p h e r s , a n d a s s u c h f e e l m o r e f a m i l i a r a n dcomfortable with the kinds of environments they wil l

begin to encounter directly as graduate students.The act iv i t ies of the Regis Col lege Phi loso-

phy Club are not unique, however. At meetings ofthe APA and the AAPT I have organized sessionsthat have allowed me to meet other teachers of phi-

losophy that are involved with or interested in phi-

losophy clubs. Two of the folks that I have met at

these meetings have spoken to me about experi-ences with their own clubs - with their own formatsand agendas - which I wil l share briefly with you

continued on page I4

Page 7

AAPT News - JulY 1993

Transforming Academic Dishonesty' ' 'continued from Page 5

provided, nor is preparat ion for deal ing wi th d is-

honesty when i t ar ises. According to Whi te, only 6

out of 200 schools surveyed by a researcher on the

subject had any k ind of educat ional program for

students caught cheat ing.One s igni f icant impediment to keeping re-

cords on repeat student offenders is the legal con-

cern of due process. On Dr ' Whi te 's campus, the

pol icy submit ted to the univers i ty by i ts Academic

Integr i ty Commit tee, which she chai rs , was sent

back to the committee for further work because of

a concern over the lack of an adequate procedure

for handl ing d ishonesty, and the possib i l i ty of law-

su i t s because o f i t s absence ' Acco rd ing to D r '

Whi te, " the most important pol icy a univers i ty can

develop is not the statement of penal t ies in i ts bul -

le t in or any e laborate procedural guidel ines for ad-

judicat ing cases . . ' but i ts s t rategies for ra is ing the

tonsciousness of both i ts s tudents and i ts facul ty

around the issues of academic in tegr i ty ' "

Dr . Whi te advised that professors make sure

that thei r "own house is in order" before proceed-

i ng w i th t he c l a r i f i ca t i on o f such i ssues fo r s tu -

d e n t s . S h e a t s o s u g g e s t e d s t r a i g h t f o r w a r d

discussions wi th s tudents about the requi rerncnt of

ef for t for the development of cogni t ive sk i l ls ; a lso

u rged i s t each ing i n a way tha t i nsp i res s tudcn t

sel f -conf idence because quest ions and comments

are taken ser iously rather than v iewed as " in te l lec-

tual one-up-manship" and cr i t ic ism by the profes-

sor . She a lso suggested ta lk ing about academic

d i s h o n e s t y a n d i t s f o r m s , a n d e x p l a i n i n g w h y

cheat ing is wrong, and what the problems are wi th

plagiar ism. Giv ing examples is a lso important , so

students are very c lear in thei r understanding of

what const i tu te instances of academic d ishonesty '

It is important that students realize that acknow-

ledging thei r sources does not detract f rom thei r

wr i t ing, but rather "shows that they know a good

idea when theY see (or hear) one"'

D r . Wh i te conc luded he r p resen ta t i on by

pointing out that "thc pursuit of truth is a coopera-

t ive enterpr ise," and one's readers may wish to

know who inspired one's thoughts and carry on the

investigation into those thoughts further' As one

teaches, one ought to mention those who inspired

one's own interpretations, as well as views of thinkers

with which one disagrees and why. Fairness, inde-

pendent th ink ing, and inte l lectual honesty are a l l

demonstrated this way' Be wil l ing to say "I don't

know" or "I never thought of that" when it 's true' Dr'

White quoted Steven Cahn who said that "such re-

sponses may constitute greater praise (to a student)

than 'good'or 'r ight' in response to set-up questions'"

A good deal of d iscussion fo l lowed the ses-

s ion. Par t ic ipants recounted thei r own problems

and successes wi th academic d ishonesty. Some of

the most fascinating remarks came from a professor

teaching as a v is i t ing scholar in th is country f rom

the former Soviet Union. He found that h is s tu-

dents were more helpful than his colleagues concern-

ing the "etiquette" of student-teacher interaction as

wel l as appropr iate contexts for d iscussion a stu-

dent 's work (e.g. not by name in f ront of the whole

c lass l ) . He a lso ref lected on what academic in teg-

r i t y and d i shones ty mean fo r h im and h i s co l -

l eagues i n Russ ia who a re s t rugg l i ng t o emerge

from a system which st ipulat ive ly def ined such no-

t i ons a long pa r t y l i nes , and wh ich rewarded and

punished one's scholar ly pursui ts accordingly '

Dr . Whi te of fered a handout of suggest ions

for a l l in the audience, l is t ing st rategies in tended to

d i scou rage academic d i shoncs ty ' D r . Wh i te has

thought long and compassionate ly about these is-

sues. and the resul ts are worthy of our at tent ion and

potent ia l ly benef ic ia l in our c lasses '

CYn th ia Ros tankowsk iSan Jose State UniversitYSan Jose , CA

IAAPT Nous hopes to present Professor Whi te 's ob-

servat ions in a future issue. -eds. ]

SEND YOUR SUBMISSIONSThc ccl i tors of AAPT News invite you to send in

matcr ia ls fo r pub l i ca t ion . Share your ideas about

tcach ing in the Ph i losophy Teach ing Exchange, a fea-

tured section of each issue. Write a report of a paper

you have presentecl. Report on sessions you have at-

tcnded at recent confercnces. Send us your thoughts

about what you have read in AAPT News. We want

to hear from You.Submission on cl isk (or E-mail) are nruch appte-

ciatcd. Edit ing is done in WordStar 7.0' and Word-

Star ' s f i l e convers ion u t i l i t y can impor t v i r tua l l y any

MS-DOS word processor f i le format' So, f i les from

PFS Write. Word, WordPerfect, and others are f ine'

Please include a hard coPY.

Diske t te fo rmats o ther than MS-DOS (App le '

Atari , Amiga, Macintosh, etc.) cannot be read' Fi les

may a lso bc sent as E-mai l to Dary l C lose ' In te rne t

76170.2351@compuserve .com; o r Mark Lenssen,

In te rne t 7 I I 65 .533 @compuserve .com.

Plcase cal l us at (4 l9) 447-6442 (Tif f in Univer-

sity) or (4lg) 172-2197 (Ohio Northern University)

for guidel ines for submissions.-The editors

Page 8

AAPT News - July 1993

AAPT Book Reviewcontinued from page 9

For those who are looking for ' lhard stuff 'two sections of part one of the book are particularlyi n te res t i ng ; t he sec t i on on "Causa l i t y andHeal th and l l lness" and the p iece on " Indiv idual i ty ,

Community and the Moral Order." Both sectionsdwel l on Yoruba real i t ies and depending on a phi -losophy professor's own background and interest,both may be tailored to fit the needs of classes inmoral philosophy and metaphysics or even medicaleth ics. I f one is reading Robert C. Solomon's /n-troducing Philosophy (4th ed., New York: HBJ,Inc. 1989), one can incorporate Dr. Gbadegesin'sp iece on "Causal i ty . . . " in to Solomon's chapter on"Mind and Body." In the former, Professor Gbade-gesin presents and analyzes cer ta in Afr ican v iewson the problem of causal i ty . A c loser reading ofth is sect ion wi l l reveal that , just as causal i ty is ex-p la ined in terms of " forces," natura l and/or super-natura l ,6 by our author , the re lat ion between mindand body could be expla ined a lso in terms of theinterp lay or in tervent ion of " forces." "Forces"funct ion, in v iew of th is in terp lay, as the nexus be-tween objects, between persons, as wel l as betweenbody and mind or sp i r i t . Another sect ion whichmay be incorporated in to Solomon's f i rs t chapter isDr. Gbadegesin 's sect ion, "On the Idea of an Afr i -can Phi losophy." In twenty-s ix pages, ProfessorGbadegesin enunciates what could be used to in-st ruct and to chal lenge students 'understanding andappreciat ion of the f i rs t three sect ions in Solomon's" Int roduct ion." The language is luc id, non- techni-cal and wr i t ten in p la in Engl ish. The only unfami l -i a r w o r d s T a r e , p e r h a p s , n a m e s l i k e T e m p e l s ,Kagame, Gyekye (pronounced, ger-chi ) , Senghor,Mb i t i ( b i t i ) , Houn tond j i ( hon - ton -gee ) , W i redu ,Oruka - a l l o f whom are authors; and, the word,"Bantu," which refers to a l inguist ica l ly re latedtr ibal group of Centra l , Eastern, and Southern Af-r ica. Beyond these, anyone at an Amer ican col legewi l l be able to read th is p iece.

Final ly , I wi l l recommend that the phi loso-

phy professor who wishes to use this book knowing

he or she has l imited knowledge on the subject ofAfr ican phi losophy should read f i rs t , Richard A.Wright's African Philosophy, (lst ed. Washington,

D.C. : Univers i ty Press of Amer ica, 1977) speci f i -cally, the "Preface" and the piece entit led, "Investi-

gating African Philosophy." Wright addresses twofundamental concerns which are at the core of Pro-fessor Gbadegesin 's book; v iz . , "What t rends are

there in Africa that are related to philosophy?" and,"Can we outl ine and isolate a tradition of philo-sophical activity for Africa in the future?"

Despite the questions and doubts about the"how," "why," and "what," regarding multicultural-ism, I bel ieve we can add to the bold but importantstep taken at the recent AAPT conference held atthe Univers i ty of Vermont where two workshopsdevoted to mul t icu l tura l ism were conducted. I f aphilosophy department does not presently offer acourse on African and Asian philosophy, the way tobegin is to incorporate relevant sections of Africanand Asian books on philosophy into our syllabi, se-lecting specific subjects, topics, areas and ideas aswe see fit. We have a ground-breaker in ProfessorSegun Gbadegesin 's book. Besides, the book of -fers the graduate student a unique opportuni ty toexpand h is own openings to phi losophy's ongoingsearch for meaning and re levancy in a complex andever-changing wor ld.

NOTE: Dr. Segun Gbadegesin is now pro-fessor and Chair of the Department of Phi losophyat Howard University. Previously, he taught phi-losophy at Obafemi Awolowo Univers i ty in Nige-r ia , Univers i ty of Wisconsin-Madison and ColgateUnivers i ty .

El l io t Wreh-Wi lsonBos!ott UniversityBos ton . MA

NOTESl. This exerc ise began in the 1940's wi th people l ikeJ.B. Danquah (cf . h is Akan Doctr ine of God. London:Lut terworth PR, 1944) and Tempels (c f . h is BantuPhilosophy. Paris: Presence Africaine, 1959).

2. The word "Yoruba" refers to a t r iba l languagegroup in Niger ia. Thei r to ta l populat ion is est imatedat about th i r ty- f ive mi l l ion.

3. See L. S. Senghor, a former pres ident of Senegal ,"Negr i tude: A Humanism of the Twent ieth Century"i n W. Ca r te r and M. K i l son (eds . ) , The A f r i canReader: Independen! Africa. New York: RandomH o u s e , 1 9 7 0 .

4."Negritude" is not related to racism. The referenceis something I have borrowed.

5. Before Senghor, Aime Ceaser used the term "Negri-t ue " t o re fe r t o A f r i can rea l i t i es and i den t i t v o r"b lackness."

6. According to Gbadegesin, "forces" include the su-preme deity as ult imate cause, the deities, forces in na-ture, and human beings endowed with innate abil it ies.7. By th is I am referr ing to words and names not com-monly found in the usual phi losophy books used atAmer ican univers i t ies.

Page 10

AAPT News - July 1993

AAPT Book Review

African Philosophy: Traditional Yoruba Philosophy

and Contemporary Realit ies. Segun Gbadegesin'

New York: Peter Lang, 1992. Pp. 298. Paper

$27.95. ISBN 0-820-4177 -0X.

Th i s book o f "A f r i can Ph i l osophy " i s t he

latest and perhaps the best wr i t ten documentat ion

on Afr ican phi losophical thought in recent t imes.

I t comes in the midst of the ongoing exerc ise l as

Africans and philosophers with an interest in Afri-

can phi losophical issues cont inue to rcach out and

to draw out of past and present Afr ican real i t ies

what is of in terest to phi losophy in general . This

book does very wel l what was once lack ing when

Af r i can ph i l osophy was f i r s t i n t roduced to t he

wor ld, v iz . , to show the phi losophical content and

the re levancy of t radi t ional ideas to the study of

phi losophy anYwhere 'The book is wr i t ten in two par ts . The f i rs t

par t presents and d iscusses what the author regards

as the p i r i losophical ideas of the Yoruba pcople2 of

Niger ia. In order to ef fect ive ly conrmunicate h is

thoughts wi th those who are not fami l iar wi th the

issues and the whole quest ion of "Afr ican phi loso-

phy," namely, whether or not there is an "Afr ican

phi losophy," the author out l ines past and present

at t i tudes and posi t ions on the quest ion. He reduces

these to four general groups or schools of thought ;

a l l o f which are compet ing v iews on what ought to

const i tu te and def ine "Afr ican phi losophy." Ac-

cording to the author, the first group sees African

phi losophy as the phi losophical thought of t radi -

t ional Afr icans as could be s i f ted f rom thei r var ious

wor ld-v iews, myths, proverbs, and so for th. The

second group, he says, regards Afr ican phi losophy

as ref lect ions on, and analys is of , Afr ican concep-

tual systems and socia l real i t ies as undertaken by

contemporary professional phi losophers. Afr ican

phi losophy is v iewed by the th i rd group, our author

says, as a combinat ion of the ideas of group one

and two wi thout suppressing or looking down on

any. The fourth group says that African philosophy

refers to none of the above, but s imply, any col lec-

t ion of texts produced by Afr icans and speci f ica l ly

desc r i bed by t he i r au tho rs as ph i l osophy . Our

author invest igates a l l four v iews by consider ing

thei r mer i ts and demer i ts for Afr ican phi losophical

discourse as well as for philosophy in general.

In par t two, our author complements the past

wi th a rev iew and d iscussion of present day real i -

t ies and attempts to show how the African [Yoruba]

past has impacted the socia l , economic, pol i t ica l ,

re l ig ious and phi losophical ideas now in p lace in

Afr ica. The reader wi l l not ice too that somet imes,

ideology and phi losophy are taken to mean the

same th ing. For example, the d iscussion on "negr i -

tude"3 a term that may be useful in discussing "Af-

rican racism"4 or "African identity" or the relation

between being Afr ican and non-Afr ican, a term

based on a cer ta in ideology, wi l l be shown as the

basis of a phi losophy in Afr ica. However, the d is-

cussion may be very usefu l , i f handled proper ly ' in

mul t icu l turat is t d iscussions of a "Phi losophy of the

Person" c lass or an in t roductory c lass in Exis ten-

t ia l ism. Atso, and th is is important , "Negr i tude"

has been presented as an ant i -Marx is t ideology in

Afr ica. Thus, a d iscussion on "Negr i tude" wi l l f i t

in to a sy l labus of a pol i t ica l phi losophy c lass. The

way ou r au tho r does th i s i s by sugges t i ng t ha t ,

rather than the host i l i ty wi th which others greeted

Marx ism, the Afr ican response was ideological or

hermeneut ica l ; th is way, ideas confronted ideas, ar-

guments confronted arguments, and, in terpretat ions

con f ron ted i n te rp re ta t i ons . Ou r au tho r f u r t he r

shows how the concept of "Negr i tude" was used to

fend of f the Marx is t tendency toward atheism by

showing that "Negr i tude" as an ideology was born

out of the synthesis of Senghor 's) own Afr ican re-

l i g i ous he r i t age and h i s new ly f ound F rench en -

l ightenment ; both of which can be shown to have

traces to a bel ie f in God'Accordingly , the "mul t icu l tura l is t , " by th is I

mean the phi losophy professor who has an authen-

t ic desi re to venture beyond the conf ines of h is own

cul tura l s tand-point or h is present phi losophical in-

terest and mi l ieu, wi l l d iscover that what Professor

Gbadegesin's book has accomplished is (i) to effect

a marr iage or synthesis of the past and present h is-

tor ies and development of Afr ican phi losophical

thought and (i i) to make intell igible the key issues

and ideas at play in the continuing search for an iden-

tity for what is termed "African philosophy" today'

I f one i s no t acqua in ted w i th names l i ke

Danquah, Tempels, Kagame, Mbi t i (pronounced,

biti), Wiredu and so forth, one should get ready for

a brief lesson on African names. These are names

of prominent Afr ican phi losophy professors and

wr i t e r s . No t on l y does ou r au tho r go to g rea t

lengths to present the central themes and ideas of

these great masters, he has also crit iqued their ar-

guments; th is helps the student of phi losophy to

follow easity the debate on "African philosophy."

continued on page I0

Page 9

AAPT News - July 1993

"Out of the Mouths of Babes"or

"Quotable Quotes"Do you realize how much is expected of you

just because you are a phi losopher? Expectat ionsfor philosophers go way beyond being popular inthe c lassroom and publ ish ing def in i t ive texts whi leteaching a fu l l load and serv ing on seven commit-tees. You should know that you are also expectedto test lhe amount of people's identit ies. However,if there is a demand that you do this by using memory,you can avoid doing so by simply pointing out that

"Phi losophers cannot test how much ident i tysomeone has against how much memory they mighthave had."

Now i t i s poss ib le t ha t some peop le w i l lwant to test thei r own ident i ty instead of havingphi losophers do i t for them; you must in form them,however, that they should not t ry to use thei r Drern-ory to test it:

" I f Ia person has] forgot ten a memory, theywon't be able to remember, in order to test their iden-tity. So the theory of memory can never truly betested, which makes philosophers very suspicious."

Personal ly , we don' t th ink anyone who has al i ck o f sense wou ld ac tua l l y use a t heo ry t ha tmakes philosophers suspicious.

Now here is where you can make an impor-tant contr ibut ion: i f people can' t f ind some theoryto t es t t he i r i den t i t y t hemse lves o the r t han thememory one, more than l ike ly they wi l l ca l l uponyou, as philosophers, to do it for them. But what,you may ask, is a phi losopher to use in the test?Well, forget about using the concept of a soul because

"The f i rs t problem involves the fact that nophi losopher can physical ly see a soul . "

Which might lead you to bel ieve that i f yous top be ing a ph i l osophe r you m igh t be ab le t ophysical ly see a soul , or that you might t ry seeinga soul in some manner other than physically. How-ever, you would be wrong on both counts because

"[Another ] problem proposed by phi loso-phers states that they cannot measure what exactlyconsists of same soul . "

Furthermore,

"If a soul is unobservable, then how wouldphilosophers know if a new soul had entered thesame body they were studying? There is no wayfor them to be sure. If identity is housed in thesoul , then phi losophers wi l l have no way of judgingsameness of soul . "

So we suggest that you s imply cont inue tostudy the same body (assuming you are for tunateenough to have been studying a body you f ind at -t ract ive) . Besides,

"We know for cer ta in that soul and body areinseparable; not by personal exper ience but by theobservation of others."

This is good news because i t foresta l ls thefo l lowing quest ion:

"lf the soul of a person were to stand in acorner by itself how would another person recog-nize i t was the soul of a par t icu lar person?"

We advise that you not even mention thisquestion to your intro students for it can easily leadthem to ask all sorts of others, such as, why woulda soul stand in a corner by itself in the first place?wouldn ' t i t get lonely? and wouldn ' t i t wonderwhat i t might do to get i tse l f recognized? and justhow long could it stand in a corner without its feetstarting to hurt? Once your students start askingquest ions l ike these, i t is rather d i f f icu l t to get themto stop; and then you have to try to answer them,and i f you can' t you wi l l g ive your s tudents theappearance of being stupid.

Wh i l e we ' re on the sub jec t o f sou l s (we ' l lignore stupid i ty) , we have an answer for you togive students who are bound to inquire about thevar ious possib le connect ions a soul can have wi th abody. Here it is:

"[O]ne possibil i ty is that only one soul mayoccupy one body; another possibility, on the otherend of the spectrum, is that the body is simply a placewhere a continuous flow of souls passes through.One answer to this question is that surely only one

continued on page 12

Page Ll

AAPT News - Juty 1993

Quotable Quotescontinued from page Il

soul is 'a l lo t ted ' per body whi le we are a l ive, be-cause one of the most concrete ideas that we haveis that we are the same person we were yester-day."

You should be aware that students might askfollow-up questions such as, does the body chargerent? i f so, how much? and how long does eachsoul get to s tay? who does the a l lo t t ing? and is thata good job to have? At th is point , you ' re on yourown. Don' t expect us to do a l l your th ink ing foryou. Next you would expect us to show up at yourtenure or promotion hearing to say what a reallyor ig inal th inker and terr i f ic teacher you are andhow you can come up wi th answers to s tudents 'quest ions which they can actual ly understand. Buri f we d id that for one of you, we would be havingto do i t for everybody and h is duck who askcd; andthat might necessi tate us showing up at two p lacesat the same t ime. Which is obviously somethingwe cannot do, because i t would requi re the abi l i tyof one mind to contro l a t least two bodies (s ince theone body we current ly possess can only be at oneplace at one t ime). Then you would have to ex-p la in t o you r depa r tmen t cha i r and thc bunch o fphon ies who make up you r pe rsonne l con rn r i t t cewhy we refuse to appear to test i fy in your favorwi thout making i t look l ike our refusal was bascdon your ineptness at being able to answer the abovcquest ions. Lucky for you we have prcpared an cx-p lana t i on you may use as t o why wc cou ldn ' t ap -pear before your department 's personnel conrmi t tceon your behal f :

"The concept that a mind can contro l twobodies rests on the idea that a mind has that capa-bi l i ty . I f th is is t rue, then those two bodies wouldshare the same ident ica l mind. That mind would bethe contro l ler of two separate personal ident i t ics,presupposing the idea that those two bodies couldnever a lways share ident ica l wor ld ly exper iencesand therefore could not send ident ica l input to themind. I f a mind was incapable of separate ly con-t ro l l ing the two points of v iew, then the two bodieswould share the same mind by d iv id ing i t . But inturn the two bodies could not be considered humanbeings due to the presupposi t ion that by def in i t iona human be ing has one comp le te body and onecomplete mind. . . .The main problem being that un-t i l sc ient is ts can contro l the mind and per form thenecessa ry expe r imen ts , t he ac tua l ab i l i t y o f t hemind to contro l two separate bodies wi l l never beable to be measured."

You wou ld t hen be immed ia te l y g ran tedwhatever you were apply ing for because your in te l -

I igence would appear to be so beyond the under-standing of your phi losophy col leagues' minds thatnone would dare ask you to explain what you saidfor fear of appearing philosophically incompetent.

But we have d igressed. We were ta lk ingabout the best ways to f ind out who someone is .And here we should inser t a word of caut ion, a longwi th a p iece of advice:

"Never base ident i ty on s ight or sound of aperson, because look-a l ikes are out there. Alwaystalk to a person to make sure they have the sameexper iences as the person you th ink i t is . I f every-th ing checks out , the person probably has the samesoul as the person you once knew."

You should find that reassuring, as well as this:

" . . . the ident i ty is rooted upon the fact thatyou are a human being and you at th is very momenthave a point of v iew upon the outs ide wor ld thatt ravels through your body and into your mind. Inother words wherever you are, there you are."

We are ashamed to admit, however, that weweren' t a l l that reassured because we found our-selves wonder ing just l loru fast a point of v iew mustt ravc l in order to guarantee that wherever you are,thcre you arc. What happens i f i t goes too s/ow?docs that mean that wherever you are you might notbe there unt i l the point of v iew catches up?

We must apologize-we should not be bur-dening you rv i th our own insecur i t ies for that is toneg lec t onc o f ou r du t i es , wh i ch i s t o wa rn youabout the dangers of tak ing cer ta in approaches tothe p loblem of personal ident i ty . One of our re-searchers pointed out one such approach:

"People are not the same f rom moment tomomen t . . . . body ce l l s a re cons tan t l y dy ing andothers are being created, therefore you can' t be thesame person as each second passes. By tak ing anapp roach such as t h i s , a pe rson cou ld neve r ge tanywhere in phi losophy."

Since you have probably gotten somewherein phi losophy (where, though, we would not ven-ture to gucss) , you must not have taken th is ap-proach (whatever i t is ) . Congratu lat ions.

We thought i t would be a good idea to f indout what v iew about personal ident i ty would be re-jectcd by a member of our research staf f chosen atrandom. This is the answer we got :

"The main v iew I re ject as far as f ind ing aniden t i t y i s t ha t o f l ooks . A f te r a l l i f a pe rson ' sident i ty is determined by thei r looks who is to de-c ide whether or not they look good or bad? Thereis real ly no c lear cut way. Also supposing a person

cont inued on page l3

Page 12

AAPT News - July 1993

Quotable Quotescontinued from Page 12

only has a good looking face and the rest of them

is not attractive, then this must mean they have two

different identit ies. It is also important to mention

that a person can manipulate their physical appear-

ance to look as though they want it to look. This then

means that their identity is ever changing and by my

view a person can have only one true identity."

We knew we had some real geniuses on our

staff here but we didn't realize we had anyone Jo

intell igent as to come up with a view that a person

can have only one true identity! That shocked thepants off us and we bet it just now shocked thepants off you too.

About that t ime we star ted th ink ing out loud

about who we are and what factors we had to con-

s ide r when th ink ing abou t who we a re . A re -

searcher happened to be passing by, heard us, and

casual ly remarked that

" Ident i ty is a factor you have to consider

when you are th ink ing about who you are"

and added that

" I bel ieve that your ident i ty is the charac-

ter is t ics that make you d i f ferent f rom everyoneelse."

Wel l , needless to say, we were once again

astonished beyond belief at the sheer bri l l iance of

another QQs researcher. To top matters off ' this

researcher must have been reading our mind, forjust as we were s i lent ly and smugly th ink ing that

it 's probably pretty darned easy to realize our own

identity, we were informed that

"Real iz ing your own ident i ty is very tough

to do."

Even though tha t remark rea l l y t ook t he

wind out of our sai ls and forced us to eat humblepie, we feel honored to be in such quick-wi t tedcompany as th is . And would you bel ieve that , pre-

c ise ly at the t ime when we were about to ask why

is th is so tough, we were g iven the answer?- i t 'sbecause

"How we think people feel about us is cer-

ta in ly an e lement of how we ident i fy ourselves."

Now in case you didn't know, we here at the

QQs Center do not g ive a rat 's behind when i t

comes to thinking about how people feel about us.

Nor do we give one when it comes to being able to

identify ourselves either. (By the way, this is why

the wind was restored to our sails.) As a matter of

fact, we even mentioned this one time to a studentand got this response:

"Many people in today 's society take thetopic of personal identity very l ightly. They be-lieve that who they are at one moment is identicalto the person they wil l be the moment after. Is thiswhat you bel ieve?"

Fortunate ly we had memor ized a re levant

QQ and could respond quick ly :

"I believe that sameness, in relation to someone being the same, s imply involves that the indi -v idual carr ies on the same ideas and values wi th inthem. I t is an ex is temological quest ion to them-selves of what do they know to be t rue ' "

From then on, that particular student has re-ga rded us w i t h t he h ighes t es teem. We th ink ,though, that i t is not so much due to the profundi tyo f t he i dea as i t i s t o t he use o f t he wo rd "ex -i s temo log i ca l ; " we dec ided tha t i t was one f i neword and have s ince used i t when ta lk ing to otherphi losophers l ike you out there and who have l ike-wise begun to regard us wi th utmost admirat ion andrespect . But once again we d igress.

Have you eve r wonde red where pe rsona lidentity is discussed? (If you have not, then whyhave you not? You are supposed to be phi loso-phers, and phi losophers are supposed to wonderabout s tuf f l ike that . ) Based on our research, wecan te l l you where i t is not d iscussed-and evenwhy i t isn ' t d iscussed there:

"Al l in a l l , personal ident i ty is a very com-pl icated issue that is not commonly d iscussed atAmer ica 's d inner table."

We can a lso te l l you where psychologicalcont inui ty is argued:

"Psychological cont inui ty is argued in themanor that a brain in its eternity is most important..."

Un fo r tuna te l y , we a re unab le t o t e l l youwhere th is manor is except to say that i t must besomewhere near the bra in 's etern i ty .

Wr i t ing th is column has resul ted in our in-abi l i ty to te l l where we are. I f you f ind out , wewould appreciate your le t t ing us know. The GoodEd i to rs wou ld p robab l y app rec ia te i t t oo ; t henagain, maybe they wouldn ' t . So just forget i t .

Mary Ann CarrollWherever University

[Appalachian State Univers i ty , Boone, NC]

Page 1,3

AAPT News - July 1993

Philosophy Clubs: Revisited. . .continued from page 7

here. Joram Haber, at Bergen Community College in

Paramus, New Jersey, has a philosophy club that ona regular basis br ings in speakers to d iscuss phi lo-

sophical topics addressed to the entire college com-

muni ty . The Bergen Communi ty Col lege c lub a lsoproduces a journal, Orthos Logos, the first volume

of which was publ ished th is spr ing. In addi t ion,

for over a year now this club has produced a cable

te lev is ion show, compr ised of in terv iews wi th wel l -

known phi losophers, that is avai lable to much of

the metropolitan New York area. Another philoso-

pher involved wi th phi losophy c lubs is Tom Mi l ler ,

of Marywood Col lege in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

He i s t he f acu l t y adv i so r t o a ph i l osophy c lubwhose members focus thei r energies to a grcat ex-tent on wr i t ing and present ing phi losophical essays

that are eventual ly read publ ic ly and serve as thebasis for c lub d iscussions. As you can see, the for-mats and act iv i t ies of phi losophy c lubs is great ly

var ied, and can serve many purposes ta i lored to theinterests of the faculty and the needs of the students.

The smal l but s turdy group of us who have

shared our ideas, in terests, and act iv i t ics wi th oneanother have found our d iscussions most f ru i t fu l .

Some - who were not involved wi th undergradu-

ate phi losophy c lubs - have star ted c lubs at thei r

schools. Some - who were a l ready involved wi th

clubs - learned from others about different for-

mats and act iv i t ies that have subsequent ly been in-

corporated in to thei r c lubs. On the basis of the

value we have found in these d iscussions and ac-

t iv i t ies, in concluding I would l ike to inv i te readers

of the AAPT Neles to join our efforts to cultivate

facul ty in terest in and student involvement wi th un-

dergraduate philosophy clubs.

A group of us held an in formal meet ing at

the APA Eastern Div is ion meet ing in 199 l , and an

even larger group met for an organized session on

undergraduate phi losophy c lubs at the AAPT meet-

ing in Bur l ington, Vermont , dur ing 1992. The suc-

cess o f t hese mee t i ngs has conv inced me , and

others such as Joram and Tom, that there are people

out there who would l ike to get involved. I hope

that sessions can be organized at future APA and

AAPT meetings - and wherever else seems possi-

ble or feasible - in order to discuss these matters.

I am will ing to organize and/or coordinate such ef-

forts, and to involve all parties interested in thesematters. I am open to all suggestions AAP?n Newsreaders may have regarding phi losophy c lubs. Spe-cifically, I would l ike to hear from those interestedin any of the ideas or act iv i t ies d iscussed in th isessay, and/or f rom those who have suggest ionsabout ways to promote opportunities for discussionof phi losophy c lubs and thei r ro le in undergraduateeducat ion.

Though some progress has been made overthe last couple of years, I am convinced that thereis much more that can be done. As such, I wi l lconclude here as I d id two years ago by saying thatthe past three years have "convinced me that phi -losophy c lubs can and do p lay an immensely im-p o r t a n t r o l e i n u n d e r g r a d u a t e p h i l o s o p h i c a leducat ion, yet l i t t le seems to have been done wi th inthe p ro fess ion to unde rs tand the dynamics andmake expl ic i t the advantages of such groups. To a l lphilosophers who also consider themselves teachers,such a situation can no longer be tolerated."

James P. Cadel loRegis CollegeDenver. CO 80221

Prudurm. C"ofnidguPRF.MltlM CARfRll)GE is a biannual inrlcpen<lcnr

.ioumal featrrritrg primarily the work of rrndcrgmdrrate

Jrlri losophy sturlcnts.PRFM IUM G{Rl-l{l l)Gtl cspccially crrcorrmgcs srrl>

missions from undcrgnduatcs on any tlrenre, thinkcr, ortopic of philosoplrical intercst. All submissions wil l bercviwcd by the edirorial board, whose dccisions rcgar<lingprrblication o[ srrbmittc<l matcrials are final.

All srrbmissions should bc accompanied by a copy ofthe essay on a WORITPERFECT DISK and sent to:

Thc Regis Collcge Philosophy Chrbf)epartment of Philosophy

Regis Univcroity3333 Rcgis Roulenrd

f)envcr, Cnlomdo 80221

Snhmirqion Deadlines for I 992-1 993Fdl Isrc: Novcmtra 1,1992

Spring l*rrre: April I, 1993

Page 14

AAPT News - July 1993

The Bu l l e t i n Boa rd i s a

n e w f e a t u r e o f A A P T

N e w s . A l l i t e m s c o n -

cerned with teaching phi-

losophy are welcome. Youmay send us your post ings

at any t ime. E-mai l corre-ponndence is not requi red,bu t i f you have i t ava i l -able, we appreciate i t . -

The editors

Boardo I f you ' re looking for some-

thing fresh for your Introduc-t ion to Phi losophy c lass, youmay w ish to cons ide r Be r -nard Suits' The Grasshopper( in paper f rom Univers i ty ofToronto Press) . Sui ts beginswi th the Aesopian fable butt rans fo rms h i s g rasshoppe rinto the ta le 's hero, for thegrasshopper knows the t ruth:the only way to l ive wel l is toplay games, where "games"are the voluntary at tempts toovercome unnecessary obsta-c les. The book is wr i t ten india louge form, spends muchof i ts t ime in carefu l pursui to f de f i n i t i ona l and concep -tual c lar i ty , and provides anexemplary in t roduct ion to thet o o l s o f t h e p h i l o s o p h i c a lt r ade . W i t t y and we l l - i l l us -t r a t e d , t h i s b o o k h a s b e e nvery wel l - received by begin-n ing phi losophy students.

[The following notice was re-ceived over the Intcrnet-eds.l

o "No Dogs o r Ph i l osophe rsAl lowed," the weekly cal l - inphilosophy talk-show, wil l be"on the b i rd" th is fa l l eachSunday n ight , 8 :30-9:30 EST.A live feed of the program isbeing made available free toany inst i tu t ion in the U.S. wi tha C - b a n d d o w n l i n k i f t h e ycommit to put t ing the showou t l i ve on the i r campus o rcommun i t y educa t i ona l ac -cess channels. (Come on thes h o w a n d t h i n k w i t h u s i fy o u ' r e g o i n g t o b e i n t h eW a s h i n g t o n , D . C . a r e a ! )H e l p u s e s t a b l i s h a p h i l o -sophical agent for the emerg-ing v ideopol is being createdby the technology of signal.

For more information, and tof ind out how you can get aVHS copy of a recent pro-gram, wr i te : NDOPA, P.O.Box 10325 , A r l i ng ton , VA22210-1325 . Vo i ce : (703 )536-7502; FAX: (703) 908-9239; BBS: (703) 920-7564.

Whi le Weeding Through OurMai lbox Department

o Three int r igu ing t i t les f romVernon L. and Juani ta J . Tay-for: Teaching Tips for Part-Tinte Teachers (96 pp.), TheMeasuring Stick: A Guide toS e lf- I mp rove me nt in Te ac hin g(32 pp.) , and How to HoldStudents (96 pp.). The booksare $6.50 each from Key Pro-d u c t i o n s , P . O . B o x 5 2 5 ,Chatham, lL 62629, phone:2 t7 t 483 -4 t32 .

(The new AAPT News Bul le t inBoard works! By a l l repor ts ,persons receiving responses gotthem through e-mail rather than"snai l mai l . " Winter may seemfar away, but this is a good timet o p o s t a m e s s a g e f o r y o u rspr ing courses. I f you have e-m a i l a v a i l a b l e , s e n d u s y o u rposting electronically.)

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Page 15

AAPT News - July 1993

Cit'ii[ar.of Er)ents

J u l y 1 8 - 2 3 , 1 9 9 3 - E t h i c s : P r a c r i c e a n d T e a c h i n g .Workshop a t Co lorado Co l lege, Co lorado Spr ings , CO.P a r t i c i p a n t p a p e r d e a d l i n e , J u n c I , 1 9 9 3 . R e g i s r r a r i o ndeta i l s : E th ics Workshop, Poynter Center , 410 Nor thP a r k A v e . , B l o o m i n g t o n , I N 4 7 4 0 5 . P h o n e 8 1 2 / 8 5 5 -0261, In te rne t appe@ind iana.edu.

August 12-14, 1993 - Eighth Annual Conferencc on Com-put ing and Ph i losophy, Carneg ie Mel lon Un iv . Contac tRobert Cavalier at rc2z@andrew.cnru.edu or CAAE, SmithHa l l , Carneg ie Mel lon Un iv . , P i t t sburgh, PA 15213.

November l0 -13 , 1993 - Four th Nat iona l Confc rence onthe Tra in ing and Employment o f Craduate Teach ing As-s i s t a n t s . U n i v . o f I l l i n o i s a t U r b a n a - C h a m p a i g n . C o n -t a c t M a r n e G . H e l g e s o n , O f f i c e o I I n s t r u c t i o n a lR e s o u r c e s , U n i v . o f I l l i n o i s a t U r b a n a - C l r a m p a i g n , 3 0 7E n g i n e e r i n g H a l l , 1 3 0 8 W . G r c e n S t . , U r b a n a , I L 6 1 8 0 1 .

December 27-30, 1993 - Amcr ican Ph i losoph ica l Assoc .(APA) , Eas tern D iv . , A t lan ta Mar r io t t . A t lan ta , GA.

March 30 - Apr i l 2 , 1994 - Amcr ican Ph i losoph ica l As-soc . (APA) , Pac i f i c D iv . , Bonaventurc Hotc l , Los Angc-l e s , C A . P a p e r s d u e S e p t e r n b e r l , 1 9 9 3 . S u b m i r r oWanda Tay lo r , Execut ivc Secrc ta ry , APA, Un iv . o f Dc la -w a r e . N c w a r k . D E 1 9 7 1 6 .

March 30 - Apr i l 2 , 1994 - APA Comnr . on Prc -Co l lcgcIns t ruc t ion in Ph i losophy (w i th APA) . Papcrs , p roposa ls c lucSept . I , 1993. Contac t Rosa l ind Ekman Ladd, Ph i losophy,Whcaton College, Norton, MA 02766. (508) 285-1722.

I l Iay 4 -7 , 1994 - Amer ican Ph i losoph ica l Assoc . (APA) .Central Div., Hyatt Ccnter, Kansas City, MO. Papcrs dueScptcmbcr I , 1993. Submi t to Wanda Tay lo r , Execur ivcSecre tary, APA, LJniv. of Dclawarc, Newark, DE 197 16.

May 4-7,1994 - APA Comm. on Pre-Collcgc Instruct ir-rn inPhilosophy (with APA). Papers, proposals due Nov. l , 1993.Contact David B. Martens, Humanit ics, Mount Royrl Col lcgc,Calgary, Alberta, Canada T3E 6K6. (403) 240-6698

June 1994 - l4th Annual Conference of The Society forTeaching and Learning in Higher Education. Vancouver, B.C.

December 27-30,1994 - APA Comm. on Pre-College In-s t ruc t ion in Ph i losophy (w i th APA) . Papers , p roposa lsdue March l ,1994. Contac t Rosa l ind Ekman Ladd, Ph i -losophy, Wheaton Co l lege, Nor ron , MA 02766. (508)2 8 5 - 7 7 2 2 .

These l i s t ings are drawn in par t f rom Nancy S imco (ed . ) ,The Philosophical Calendar, publ ished by The Confer-e n c e o f P h i l o s o p h i c a l S o c i e t i e s .

,",'.,..', A'AP..T,,,iiiiliiiii.i.l ,i.:.:;';i.;;;;ll;llliiiil1

BOARD:MEMBERS

H. Ph i l l i ps Haml lnUnivers i ty of Tennessee, Knoxvi l le'

President' ' l

Betsy Newell Decyk , l : ,,.. 'Cal i fornia State Universi ty at Long I leaclr

Vice President ::R ichard E. Har t

Bloonrfield Collcge of New JeiSet ,... '. i...Treaiurer :

Anthony M. CoyneUniversi ty of North Carol ina, Ashevi l le

At Large Doard Member

Kr ishna Mal t i ckI lent ley Col lege . ,

At Large Board Menber , , ,Terrel l Ward Bynum ,,

Southern Connect icut State Universi tyPsst President

D a r y l C l o s e i , , ,Tiffin University , ,

AAPT News Co-Editor , i ,

IVIark LenssenOhio Nor thcrn Un ivers i ty

AAPT News Co-Editor

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