Monday Logic

The quiz question today was what is your favorite example of the Monomyth?

Thursday classes

The quiz question for Introduction to Philosophy is an exciting one I think. Jesus comes to your home and knocks at the door. You know it is Him and you know He is God. He says that you should sell all you have, give the money to the poor, and then follow him. What do you do? Do you go with him or do you argue with him? For History of Philosophy I the quiz question today should be the same as above since we are still overlapping at the beginning of these two courses.

Logic Wednesday

Regarding errors in the syllabus that I still cannot fix: Someone pointed out that there is no September 31. That is correct! It should read 30 instead. But in general we should progress through the book from front to back in sequence. Some places may bog us down and make us go slower but we should keep to that pace so we finish everything by the end of the course. I realize I forgot to ask a quiz question today but I can ask you to send me an example of a true statement - in sentence form of course. In general it would be great if someone reminds me to do a quiz question before we leave. Unless of course you are not present, so if you are not there don't remind me since it would mean you lose points.

Tuesday classes

Our first classes met today for Introduction to Philosophy and History of Philosophy I. As promised, the quiz question today was what are the ten commandments - for Introduction to Philosophy. For History of Philosophy I the quiz question is: what do you think about the thesis that there is moral progress? Here is the David Foster Wallace address to Kenyon College in 2005.

Logic

The quiz question today was what are the ten commandments? Please email me the ones you remembered as well as any thoughts you have regarding that discussion. If you are curious, notice I have further comments on the subject posted here: Favorite Commandments and here. I am also interested in any thoughts you may have had on the introduction. I checked with the Bookstore yesterday and the order for the text was not completely sent by the publisher but the remaining texts should arrive either today or tomorrow.

The End of the Tour

So I am seriously steamed with David Foster Wallace. Kat and I watched The End of the Tour today at the Century 16 and it was just like his book The Infinite Jest. Smart, witty, and profoundly in need of my help. Weren't there any philosophy professors in his life that could have gotten him over the unhappy consciousness stage of development? Hegel described this back in 1807 for goodness sake. Kierkegaard famously got trapped in it. It must feel so good to some people to be so depressed. Heck, I remember that period in my own life. It really was exhilarating in its own despair. But thanks to good teachers they guided me through it. What is depressing me now, and making me angry with Wallace, is why we know how to do this but fail for so many young people. Grrr.

We're baaaaaack!

So summer is still here but we are back in school anyway. If you live in or near Anchorage we also have the State Fair in Palmer coming soon which always seems to have the same fall/ windy / rainy weather each year. But so far I got to go on a walking tour of the main UAA campus with a group of students getting their official welcome to UAA tour. Then today I got to meet a room full - mostly returning students who know me - to give a presentation on professionalism. Yes! Moi! But so if you are interested some links I used included my page on plagiarism with a focus on two sites - the dialectizer - and the postmodern generator. My main point included realizing we have different vocabularies that are appropriate in different contexts and professionalism entails recognizing the context and speaking fluently in the vocabulary of that context without using vocabulary that is not considered appropriate to that context. And the most important skill we pick up is how to use the correct process and apply it to the database of information relevant to that context. So, learn how to do research papers and use the appropriate tools the correct ways - and voila - you have success! Notice from one context to another these tools may change. A second source I used to make these points included Robing Williams explaining the invention of golf. We talked about why his use of power words was obviously appropriate in that context but why the same expressions and style would be inappropriate in others. The second example of this was George Carlin talking about the seven words you can't use on TV. What an incredibly appropriate resource for talking about professionalism! Thanks George. Well, welcome back everyone.