HSH1000 Notes (College of Humanities and Sciences)

Lecture 1 and 2

The importance of language and qualitative critical thinking to the humanities

How definitions work and how we can construct and evaluate them - Tutorial 1

Express our critical thinking and thoughts with words, stories and arguments

Pay attention to the form of what you are reading or listening to

We communicate with each other all the time

What AND how we say it matters

Crunching the hard concepts that come up, including the substance of it

The ones who walk away from the Omelas

Ursula Le Guin - American author

Speculative fiction - A type of genre (read about it on the blog!)

The identity of the narrator

Omniscient narrator - deliberate inclusion of the readers

We are complicit in the co-creation of the Omelas

Activist narrator, she is making sure that we develop our own ideas of the Omelas and to create Omelas in the image of our own community

The moral challenge vs Utilitarianism

We view humans as an end, not a means to an end

This is why we feel empathy for the child

Moral and ethical reasoning

Descriptive vs Prescriptive (Normative)

Not all normative claims are moral, but moral claims are usually prescriptive

Individual morality

Inescapability of the moral

Utilitarianism - Measuring right and wrong in units, the greatest happiness

Should morality be measured by the happiness of the majority?

Le Guin's literary artistry leads us to think about how we perceive our world, and the moral dimensions of it

Tutorial 2:

Civilization is the mode of conduct which points out to man the path of duty

Swaraj (self-rule) Political self government + internal spiritual self-rule

Satyagraha (Soul force) Change of heart through persuasion

Ahimsa (Non violence) Refusing to use violence to achieve goals

SOURCE DOMAIN: The word used in the metaphor

TARGET DOMAIN: The idea derived from the metaphor

SIMILARITY: Between source and target

Metaphors and Rhetorical Questions

Lecture 4

Hind = India in this context

Root word for Hindi and India

Derived from the Indus River

swa = self, raj = rule

swa = self, raj = government

swa = home, raj = rule

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BENEFITS OF MODERN CIVILIZATION?

Ethics, technology, social media, science, convenience, connectivity, healthcare, internet, transportation

DOWNSIDES?

Stress, pollution, overwork, competition, discrimination, isolation

• Humans are not lucid enough to assess the true impact of civilization, Gandhi compares it to alcohol or a mouse gnawing at an object
• Pathology Metaphor: Diseases, Symptoms, Causes, Treatment
• To Gandhi, doctors and lawyers are all about the money. They are not doing it for the welfare of humanity.
• Renumeration of Lawyers: Why do they need more money than the average laborer?
• The Doctor: Mind and body weakens due to intervention from Western medicine

I am not able to post the rest, sorry. The other notes are a whole cohort group effort and you will probably come across them if you are a student. Or maybe, DM us. We might have something for you.