{"id":168,"date":"2019-10-08T02:13:33","date_gmt":"2019-10-08T06:13:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thegoodclass\/?p=168"},"modified":"2019-10-10T10:07:03","modified_gmt":"2019-10-10T14:07:03","slug":"the-good-blog-chapter-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thegoodclass\/2019\/10\/08\/the-good-blog-chapter-5\/","title":{"rendered":"The Good Blog: Chapter 5"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago, The Good Class switched up its premise with a crazy Mike Schur visit, and during our last class meeting, we let that sit. But this week, we switched it up again(!) with a visit from Pamela Hieronymi, officially rounding out our Philosophy Trinity: Meghan, Chidi, Pamela. The Good Class got to know several important details about Professor Hieronymi including her favorite philosophy (contractualism) and her philosophical spirit animal (Dr. Peter Strawson).\u00a0 After an interesting warmup that concluded with two members of the Philosophy Trinity (not Chidi) discussing Derek Parfit\u2019s wardrobe selection and the upshots of his separation of self theory (disjointed future self, teleporting, split brains, and other normal stuff), it was time to talk <\/span>The Good Place<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Professor Hieronymi made it into an episode of The Good Place!<\/p><\/div>\n

Professor Hieronymi explained her journey working on <\/span>The Good Place<\/span><\/i>. She received an email from Mike Schur about a year before the show started and agreed to meet with him, not realizing his work included the world\u2019s favorite tv shows. They had a three-hour conversation about the show\u2019s premise and about philosophy, and Pamela didn\u2019t hear anything else for a year, until she saw a billboard for <\/span>The Good Place<\/span><\/i>\u2019s premiere.<\/span><\/p>\n

Professor Hieronymi returned for Season 2, this time talking with the entire writers\u2019 room, including a lesson on the Trolley Problem. \"\"She didn\u2019t consult for Season 3, but she returned for Season 4 to provide suggestions about how blame leads to ethical power struggles.\u00a0 But since she never sees the final scripts, she claims to be just as clueless about the final season as the rest of us!
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

She went on to describe the very serious, smart-brained approach taken by the writers\u2019 room when presented with new philosophical topics.\u00a0 Although she states that Mike Schur was the only <\/span>Good Place <\/span><\/i>member to receive reading homework from her, Professor Hieronymi described the writers as very motivated students who learn best through applying theories to story.\u00a0 Since her profession often requires her to be an \u201cabstract thinker\u201d and \u201creader of obscure books,\u201d Professor Hieronymi shared that she has found it very gratifying to share these important philosophical ideas through exciting stories.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pamela spent lots of time discussing her own philosophical belief, contractualism, which is also championed by T.M. Scanlon, author of <\/span>What We Owe to Each Other<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 Fun Fact: Scanlon was Professor Hieronymi\u2019s dissertation advisor!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Contractualism has its basis as a political theory in Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau\u2019s ideas of the social contract. Philosophically, it is neutral on the \u201cgood life,\u201d which makes it suitable for pluralist society. Contractualism aims for the minimum standards for living together respectfully and peacefully, pushes for compromise, and tries not to give special preference to any one interest, all with the goal of living in accordance with terms that no one could reasonably object.<\/span><\/p>\n

Professor Hieronymi offered \u201cfree rider\u201d problems as examples of contractualism. When we drive on the highway, we all understand that we must wait in line to exit; it\u2019s an unspoken rule of the road. However, when someone drives up to the split and forces their way in, cutting the line, we get angry, not because we lost any real time, but because that person has broken the contract. (The Good Class has sent an email to the Good Place Accounting Department concerning how to quantify the amount of points lost by improperly merging in traffic, but has yet to hear back.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Pamela also pointed to the presence of contractualism in <\/span>The Good Place<\/span><\/i>: the Soul Squad\u2019s overall arc is learning to be better people and do more good because of their relationships. For example, in Season 3, when the Soul Squad has learned about the afterlife, terminating their point accrual and damning them to the Bad Place, they head out to help others get into the Good Place. They owe it to other people to help them since they still have a chance (well, <\/span>theoretically<\/span><\/i>, as we would discover by the end of Season 3).<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Finally, Professor Hieronymi opened up about more of her philosophical takes. She is not so sure that the \u201cfake it till you make it\u201d method of repeating good acts is gonna cut it for someone to become a good person. She said there needs to be some sort of change in character, change of view or perspective, etc. According to Professor Hieronymi, repetition and philosophy can provide <\/span>consistency<\/span><\/i>, but one also needs <\/span>empathy<\/span><\/i> to be a good person, and repetition won\u2019t necessarily give someone that.<\/span><\/p>\n

She also offered her opinion on free will, which is that we have it, so we can totally dump iced tea on people. Next time your friend rants to your table in South Dining Hall about living in a causally determined world, really let \u2018em have it!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We rate this Chapter…<\/span><\/p>\n

Dancing Ability: Still no in-class dancing, but until that happens, I want you thinking about dance 24\/7. That means every day, you think 20 thoughts about dance for 7 minutes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coolness: so cool that we didn\u2019t hate the moral philosophy professor!!<\/span><\/p>\n

Dopeness: we\u2019re ALL on our way to dope souls and hella ethics<\/span><\/p>\n

Freshness: 100% certified fresh (like <\/span>Shrek 2<\/span><\/i> should be on Rotten Tomatoes)<\/span><\/p>\n

Smart-brained: 8\/13 (did that philo lesson have any ftt majors trippin??)<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago, The Good Class switched up its premise with a crazy Mike Schur visit, and during our last class meeting, we let that sit. But this week, we switched it up again(!) with a visit from Pamela … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3528,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[387908],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging-assignment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thegoodclass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thegoodclass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thegoodclass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thegoodclass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3528"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thegoodclass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thegoodclass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":181,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thegoodclass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions\/181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thegoodclass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thegoodclass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/thegoodclass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}