AAPT Members

From Scientific American: Selmer Bringsjord at RPI (who made news last spring with an artificially intelligent agent in second life) has created a ‘purely sinister person’:
Are You Evil? Profiling That Which Is Truly Wicked

Douglas Todd at the Vancouver Sun has an interesting blog post about a new book The Book of Dead Philosophers that covers what some famous philosophers said about death: Bravest philosophers faced death to learn how to live . I could be used as backbone for an interesting First Year Seminar, Jan Term, or even intro class.

The Book of Dead Philosophers

Simon Critchley. Granta Books 2008, Hardcover, 256 pages, $22.83

In the Baltimore Sun, thanks to Stephen Kiehl: Bingo! Another Fallacy. The bingo cards we generated, along with our cheat sheet, are also available via the Sun: Play ‘Debate Fallacy Bingo’ during final presidential debate.

What is the likelihood of another 9-11?

Presidential Debate 1, Question 8 Static Link

Russia.

Presidential Debate 1, Question 7 Static Link

What is your reading of the threat from Iran?

Presidential Debate 1, Question 6 Static Link

Afghanistan - do you think new US troops should be sent? How many and when?

Presidential Debate 1, Question 5 Static Link

A 59-year old Home Depot employee from West Linn, OR won the Great American Thinker contest last month. I am not familiar with the contest, but it looks essentially like an oratory / essay contest. The web site (linked previously) has the finalist essays - which certainly should be usable in a CT course.

Much has been said about the lessons of Vietnam. What do you see as the lessons of Iraq?

Presidential Debate 1, Question 4 Static Link

What are you going to have to give up as a result of the financial rescue plan?

Presidential Debate 1, Question 3 Static Link

Using your word ‘fundamental’ - are there fundamental differences between your (McCain) approach and Senator Obama’s approach to get us out of the financial crisis?

Presidential Debate 1, Question 2 Static Link

I’ll be posting these as they come out. We’re playing fallacy bingo around here, which is great fun. I may post the bingo cards at some point.

Where do you stand on the financial recovery plan?

Presidential Debate 1, Question 1 Static Link

I haven’t noted all the fallacies yet, but feel free to comment and point them out!

• When McCain begins, he does so by sending his best wishes to the ailing Ted Kennedy (who famously endorsed Obama, and sat next to Obama at the State of the Union last year). This may be used to demonstrate both an appeal to friendship / kindness. Plausibly, if Kennedy is a good friend of Obama, one would expect Obama to mention his concerns, not McCain! We feel friendly towards those who are concerned about their friends - and we worry about the character of one who does not show such concern. See Aristotle Rhetoric Book 2, Ch 4: Friendship and Emnity.

A  famous blog in philosophy circles recently called for philosophers to be more engaged in pointing out fallacies in presidential debates. Um…. This is new?

I’m trying to collect as many of these speeches for analysis in my CT courses as possible, and I’ve done so for years. If anyone is interested in making comparisons between the rhetoric of the debates in 2008 and 2004, here is my ‘debate browsers’ from 2004:

Debate 1 (Foreign Policy) Static Link

Debate 2 (Foreign & Domestic Policy) Static Link

Debate 3 (Domestic Policy) Static Link