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updated: 11/4/15

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[1] Ponder Einstein statement

"A human being is a part of the whole, called by us "Universe," a part limited in time and space.  He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness.  This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us.  Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.  Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security." Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955) Source: Mathematical Circles

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[2] Dass Guided Imagery focused on sending light and love

TODAY'S ACTIVITIES:

 Best and Worst" for first half of alphabet

 

11-5 Coetzee 1;

Coetzee, The Philosophers and the Animals 

 Understand the role of philosophy in ethics generally and advancing animal rights specifically; become aware of the advantages and disadvantages of analogies such as that between the Holocaust and slaughterhouses.

[2A2] ETHICS [ The second goal of the required leadership/ethics flag courses -- learn to make real-life ethical choices -- is closely related to the core purpose of the University of Texas, to transform lives for the benefit of society. It is also one of the basic education requirements of U.T.: "have experience in thinking about moral and ethical problems." Our ethics goals are

 

[2A2a] To experience by analogy a little of ethical dilemma presented by Anti-Semitism, especially the Holocaust.

[2A2b] To experience by analogy a little of ethical dilemma presented by racism, especially slavery.

[2A2c] To experience more directly the ethical dilemmas presented by speciesism, especially cruelty to animals.

[2A2d]  To become aware of real-life ethical choices made daily by all of us involving cruelty to animals.

[2A2e] To return to the traditional college goals of developing character and conscience.

              [2A2f] To practice replacing fear and greed with love, compassion, tolerance, and the sympathetic imagination.

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TODAY'S TOPICS :Use this novel to ONLY CONNECT AND HAMMER INTO UNITY everything we have learned since August about animals and ethics. Special focus: the value and validity of analogies such as those between the Holocaust and slaughterhouses in this novel and elsewhere. In other words, we are testing how well the approach in the course description works for you:

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REVIEW Course Description:

     Because our primary approach to ethics will be emotive (compassion) rather than philosophical (rights), emotional literacy will also be one of our goals. Two of our basic ethics questions are [1] What would I have done about the Holocaust if I had been in Germany and known what was going on at the time? [2] What would I have done about slavery if I had been in east Texas and known what was going on at the time? We are trying to learn ethics experientially. In this case, your assignment is to become an actor, acting as if the analogies are basically true. This "willing suspension of disbelief," as Coleridge put it, is essential to the effectiveness of all novels, plays, movies, etc. In this case, We temporarily relinguish our disbelief in order to experience a little of what that person might have thought and felt who lived by a concentration camp or a plantation supported by slavery. We know that a comparison is not an equation, but as we try to accept the connection, as we mount our defenses against the analogies between factory farming and the Holocaust, we can thus consider the possibility that we would have mounted similar defenses had we been that person who lived by a concentration camp or a plantation supported by slavery.

     Of course it is all too easy to be ethical about events that happened long ago. To make these questions come alive for us now, we will make our ultimate ethical goal to “widen the circle of compassion,” as Einstein put it, not only to all kinds of people but also other species. Analogies between factory farming, slavery, and Nazi concentration camps made by various writers and philosophers, and especially by the shocking documentary Earthlings, will challenge us to become more mindful of ethical decisions we make daily about food, clothing, entertainment, etc., as well as the ethical decisions involved in nonmedical animal research on this campus. Whatever we decide, the goal is to become aware of the importance of practical ethics in daily life.

recall DFW's commencement speech:

one  "truth you shall know" is that you are not just your default settings, you can break free of them:

you have choices, such as your daily ethical choices about food, clothing, entertainment, etc.; because you have choices you are FREE of your default settings, FREE to create your new, more authentic, consistent, ethical self.................

possible topics:

778-779           Coetzee, introduction

780-795           Coetzee, The Lives of Animals: Philosophy

809-810           Marjorie Garber commentary

811-833           Holocaust analogy analysis

834-837           Holocuast comparison quotations,