Class 2: Signal and Noise

Today we will introduce what I call the the signal/noise distinction and the concept of attributive responsibility.  We’ll connect both to ideas inspired by Strawson about participant responses and the participant stance, and get an interpretation of the idea of the participant stance.  We’ll explore why making mistakes about the signal/noise distinction has consequences for interpersonal relationships, and why the ability to distinguish signal from noise creates the possibility of new kinds of mistakes.

The main assigned reading for today’s class is chapters 1 and 2 from When Things Get Personal.

For each class I will also include suggested background reading. This reading is not assigned and we will not be discussing the text directly, but it is typically implicated or mentioned explicitly in the primary readings, and it will help to give you important context.

For this week I also suggest, if you haven’t read them before, the classic papers by Frankfurt and Strawson that I reference in these chapters, as background. For many weeks you may want to look at the suggested readings selectively depending on how interested you are in that week’s particular topic, but in the case of this week’s readings, these are foundational readings that affect much of the semester’s material and so I strongly recommend that you eventually find time to read them, even if you can’t fit them in this week.

For most weeks of the seminar, I will also include a group of “also recommended” readings, for digging around further if the topic is of special interest to you. This week I am “also recommending” classic papers from the early ‘90s by Korsgaard and Langton. But in a way this entire research project begins, for me, from reflecting on and responding to Langton’s paper. So I strongly recommend finding a time sometime during the semester to read it, though there is not an obvious week where it clearly fits in.