For Intro to Humanities II Monday evening October 29 the question was what is your favorite waltz? The quiz question for my Intro to Philosophy classes on October 30 was: Prove that you were here today.

Quiz question for my two Intro to Philosophy classes on Thursday is the old favorite: if a tree falls in the forest and there is no one there to hear it does it make a sound? For my Truth Beauty and Goodness class the question was: What do you consider the most beautiful building in Anchorage? In Alaska? That you have ever seen?

The quiz question for my two Intro to Philosophy classes on Tuesday was: Do you think this is the best of all possible worlds? (We watched the video by Brian Greene on TED where he basically argued the same point as my interpretation of Leibniz' view.) In Truth Beauty Goodness after looking at how several examples of prose create feelings of sadness and happiness, hilarity, and joy, I asked the question what is the saddest you have ever been? Tough question I know. But is this all done through language?

How do different language games (a la Wittgenstein) interact with each other? For example, while we think of various models of the universe as all "true" to the extent that they are accurate, and they enable prediction - especially about future events - the most difficult sort of predictions to make of course, and further that each model is coherent we run up against the difficulty of seeing how they can all be true at the same time. In short, they really are true. But at the same time it is easily apparent that they are in radical conflict. The heliocentric model, the geocentric model, the vacu-centric model, Einstein's Light Cone model, Brian Greene's Frozen River model (from "The Fabric of the Cosmos") and my favorite http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82p-DYgGFjI or if you like really great music: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6jBK1ZV-qs&feature=related which look at the Sun's motion through the Galaxy as the frame for the model. I am sure there are many other models that are also true that I am not even thinking about or that have been dreamed about yet. But notice even in the presentations on the Galactic model - great music and all - they make a serious mistake in thinking we have been lied to all these years since the preferred model is true and so all the others must be false! But actually, we do say each model is true and the worst mistake is thinking one model is true and the others false. Following Hegel we can see that the Truth is the Whole - which I interpret to mean our models are never the whole thing we are trying to describe in nature. Rather, we are thinking abstractly in order to think at all and conceptual models are tools that enable us to accomplish the "work" that the tools are designed to enable us to do, but mislead us if we think that is all there is to the phenomena as it is in its entirety - or as it is "in itself". So how do we relate these various complex systems, or models, to one another in a way that it is easy to see how they remain coherent in themselves without interfering with the coherence of each other? How do we see that each is true without thinking other models must be false?

The TBG quiz concerned our favorite poem. I played several performances - Sylvia Plath reading "Daddy", Fiona Shaw doing "The Wasteland", and Billy Collins doing "The Revenant" as well as "For What Binds Us" by Jane Hirshfield http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQb5g5CISn4 - so the question could be taken as which of these did you like best or do you have another that is more your favorite. In general a point of this evening was discussing the relationship between music and poetry, the music in poetry as well as our normal speaking voices, and the connection between music and emotion in the brain. I also read a few selections from "This is Your Brain on Music" by Daniel Levitin http://daniellevitin.com/publicpage/books/this-is-your-brain-on-music/

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?