philosophy

Steven Pinker's "My Genome, My Self" is a valuable reminder that

• Virtually all behavior is influenced by genes
• Virtually no behavior in determined by genes

as well as a useful summary of the kinds of observations that lead to those conclusions, and wise advice for those who may (or may not) want to know more about their own genes. As Pinker points out, who one is is influenced by genes, but influenced as well by personal experiences, and by chance, so genes are relevant to the question of who one is but not the answer to that question.

Dawn Hathaway

December 19, 2008

Critical Feminist Studies

Professor Anne Dalke

Feminism and Fencing: Metaphor and Reality

For those of you who want to jump immediately into reading the dialogues, feel free. For readers who would like an introduction, of sorts, to the project, read the prologue first.

Normal 0

Why must there be a distinction between truth and falsity, reality and fantasy, or as Harry Frankfurt puts it, between truth and bullshit? I do not argue that one must accept the notion of a single external reality that everyone participates in order to discuss mental health, I argue that one must accept that notion to discuss anything at all. Correspondence theory of truth, where terms and their definitions are attempts at pointing to things that exist outside of us (facts) in an external reality, is the only way we can speak to one another with a shared vocabulary. The term corresponds to the objective reality. What form the term/sign takes is

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE

Isa He, Courtney Jewett and Anna Melker

Paper #11

December 6, 2008

A Modest Proposal