Intro to Philosophy quiz for Oct 18: Do you think we should have a Constitutional Convention in Alaska with the aim of changing our bicameral house and senate to a unicameral legislature (single house)? http://www.adn.com/john-havelock/ is an article arguing for this.

Quiz questions I have used for Intro to Philosophy this semester so far: What are the limits of religious tolerance that we should accept? (This especially in regards to Spinoza and Jefferson, and the Taliban shooting a little girl who wanted an education.) What do you think our rights should be or what are the inalienable rights that should be in our social contract? (This in regard to Hobbes and the Social Contract). Does the earth go around the sun or does the sun go around the earth? (This in regards to Galileo.) What do you think of the comparison of spirit / matter to energy / mass? Was Aquinas doing physics in describing the nature of the Angels? How persuasive do you think the Ontological Argument is? Have you heard of Saint Augustine before? What have you heard? What do you think of the You-tube videos used in class? If you were a platoon leader in a war zone and ordered to have your platoon avoid being approached by children even to the extent of shooting them to keep them away, would you give that order or how would you deal with the dilemma? Do you think modern educated women are no longer "women"? If there is no eternal soul what would be the goal of life? What do you find the most beautiful thing/ experience? Do you have a soul and what is it? What are the ten commandments?

Quiz questions for this semester by class: Intro to Humanities II Do you think that we live in a democracy or a plutocracy? Is there any form of art that you appreciate just for the sake of the art/ how it makes you feel? What did you think of Tremalchio's Feast in the film Fellini's Satyricon? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpMakUEn4hs What did you think of Beethoven's 9th? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8R1f8d1oLI Which picture is your favorite Madonna and Child? What would be your conception of an ideal death? Truth Beauty Goodness What comforts you the most? What makes the movie Avatar so beautiful? Do you think the discussion concerning the nature of the individual was PC? Does the earth go around the sun or does the sun go around the earth? What can't you express in language? How could you prove you were in class? Do you find the Ontological Argument convincing? What are the ten commandments?

Another philosophical week has gone. Meetings for Friday of course and tutoring on Saturday, but the courses are finished until Monday evening. So was much accomplished? I think so. I made inquiries concerning how my use of the materials was appreciated by everyone and the responses are all positive. This week I used a Betty White and Johnny Carson skit about Adam and Eve and tied that in with a reading from Mark Twain - Eve's Diary, all to introduce Augustine's interpretation of what the Fall represented. This followed by the crucifixion scene from The Passion to discuss the sacrifice and how Augustine interpreted that. At one point I also showed the entire TED talk that Steven Pinker gave concerning The Better Angels of Our Nature - and that violence has declined. I argued a main reason for the decline is the growth in acceptance of the main Christian principle of Love.

A note on some previous blogs: when I use the speech to text function of my Nexus the blogs tend to be a bit scrappy - philosophers' names tend to be difficult, for example. I discover some words that make me look grammatically literate drop off. Just saying. Typing this one! Coming from class just now introducing Jesus using the Front Line Jesus to Christ presentation for part of the class. My main emphasis was on the variety of interpretations of who Jesus was and how that is reflected in the variety of religious sects that refer to themselves as Christians. I mention Harold Bloom's "The American Religion" and point out that he considers most sects in the US that call themselves Christians as pagans. (I try to remain neutral in this while still pointing out why he thinks so.) Today, despite my efforts I had one student ask a question that clearly indicates I need to explain further, since she wondered if she should check with a preacher to get a good answer! I asked what preacher? She obviously figured it did not matter, if they were a Christian preacher they would know "the answer". Obviously I did not convey the idea that there would be as many answers as preachers depending on the tradition of the sect and school that they attended. Hmmm. Must work on this. Next class we do my interpretation of Saint Augustine.

(Repaired by typing) This evening in humanities class we never got to cover the videos on the syllabus. The Internet was working fine and so we went over some of the things we could not cover last week.I felt like things went very well and everyone seems to follow what we were covering. We spent most of the time covering the philosophies from Plato and Aristotle up through the post Aristotelians. When we talked about the Cynics I referred to Dionysius. While discussing him I showed the class the picture by Rafael titled the School of Athens. Then I talked about Epicurus which led to a discussion about the Epicurean philosophy. For an example I played portion of the movie by Fellini titled Satyricon. The portion I showed from the movie was Tremalchio's feast. Then we talked about the Stoics and their philosophy with an emphasis on Epictetus. Next, we talked about the Skeptics and after the Skeptics we talked about the neo-Platonists and then right away to talk about Jesus. For the topic of Jesus I showed a portion of the Front Line presentation on Jesus to Christ.

Easy variability is what is wrong with pre-scientific explanation. David Deutsch explains http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=folTvNDL08A