Thursday classes

For History of Philosophy II today we covered some information about Berlin, Taylor, Ignatieff, and Fukuyama (and Randall Collins). The quiz question was what cultural influences do you think have affected your beliefs? For Introduction to Philosophy today we covered Kierkegaard. The quiz question is a serious one, why do you think David Foster Wallace committed suicide?

Logic Wednesday

The quiz question today was problem 2 on page 408. This is also the exercise the test questions will be from that we will do on Monday April 4. So be ready for the test Monday! It will work the same as test 2 in class but you can certainly take home those you haven't completed and hand them in on Wednesday.

Tuesday classes

For History of Philosophy II today the quiz question was how many forms of life are you fluent in? For Introduction to Philosophy the quiz question was a fill in the blank: Mill says "It is better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied. Better to be a Socrates dissatisfied than a __________ satisfied."

Monday Logic

The quiz question today was to do problem 27 on page 397. If you feel like it, you could also continue to try and solve problem 11 on page 395. Notice also that test 3 on this section has been postponed at least until Monday next week instead of Wednesday this week.

History of Philosophy I Friday evening

Of course as soon as I started driving home I remembered who John of Salisbury was (he was the main assistant to Thomas Becket. But we will pick up with him next week. The quiz questions tonight were 1: Who do you think Anselm is calling a fool? and 2: What is your favorite Gregorian chant?

Thursday classes

In History of Philosophy II today talking about Husserl and Phenomenology I brought up two examples. One was Van der Leeuw (this link is to a newer edition) and the other was Peter Berger and Sociology of Knowledge As an example of the socially constructed reality I brought up elements of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series - "the journey from the mind of a single mother to a global media franchise" and the quiz question was who do you think the house elves best represent? Would you support SPEW? For Introduction to Philosophy today we moved on to Hegel and for some reason I thought, hey, why not? Let's ask the same question! Would you support SPEW?

Wednesday Logic

The quiz question today was to do the word problem #8 on page 373.

Tuesday classes

For History of Philosophy II today the quiz question was are you glad to be back? A very pragmatic question! For Introduction to Philosophy the quiz question today was what is Enlightenment?

Logic Monday second day of spring

The quiz question for today was to do problems 1 through 10 on page 362.

Friday evening History of Philosophy I

There were two quiz questions this evening. The first was to say whether you were voting for Rome or Greece prior to watching the debate between Boris Johnson and Mary Beard on Intelligence Squared and then the question did you vote differently after the debate ended? (And sort of what did you think of the debate that I think was really smashing...) The second question asked just before everyone left for Spring Break (remember we have no class next Friday) was what do you think of the concept of The Immaculate Conception?

Thursday classes

Have a nice Spring Break! The quiz question today for both classes was what are your plans for Spring Break? Please be safe and have fun.

Wednesday Logic

The quiz question today (Wednesday) was what did you think of Thomas Frank's argument?

Tuesday classes

The quiz question today for History of Philosophy II on Kierkegaard is what gives your life meaning? For Introduction to Philosophy today the quiz question is do you think of energy as spirit? (What did Berkeley meaning by Spirit?)

Monday Logic

Remember to get your test 2 in to me if you haven't yet. Also, I notice there are some who have not sent in test 1! So make sure you do. We began work on chapter 7 today and the quiz question is to do problems 12 through 15 on page 298.

Friday evening History of Philosophy I

The quiz question this evening was what did you think of the way I presented the information this evening. How embarrassing! I promised several people I would video the class last night and post it on youtube. But the first part of the class the batteries cut off after only five minutes – which was probably even before we started. And after I changed the batteries for the second half I forgot to turn the camera on. We had quite a few miss because of various things (thank you all for emailing me ahead of time regarding that) but so I thought I would at least try to summarize things I mentioned. To start though I would like to mention the article by Chris Thompson in this morning’s Dispatch News which was all about Creeds! Part of what we discussed last night was the First Church Council at Nicaea and how they resolved on the creed in support of Bishop Athanasius But I started the class reviewing Plotinus to emphasize that during the early Christian period his version of Platonism was the primary philosophical view accepted and so reflected in Christian doctrine as we will see with Saint Augustine (who we will really begin looking at next week.) Plotinus emphasizes the connection between the material world and heaven through beauty which is primarily mathematical and mystical. In describing the beginnings of the Jewish religion I mentioned the book The Bible as it Was to emphasize that scholars consider the Bible (basically library) to be interpreted from the beginning with an attempt to view the variously collected elements to be parts of a single narrative. But the parts are from different groups and different time periods as Richard Friedman describes in his book Who Wrote the Bible and one such portion is beautifully portrayed in the book of J . I mentioned the various versions of stories regarding Abraham which sets up the ongoing conflict between the heirs of his sons Isaac and Ishmael. In talking about the New Testament I referred to the Front Line presentation Jesus to Christ. By the way, as expected, once I got home I remembered the answer to the one question was Massada!

Thursday classes

For History of Philosophy II today the quiz question was what do you think of Karl Marx's love poems? For Introduction to Philosophy the quiz question was what do you think of Leibniz view that this is the best of all possible worlds?

Wednesday Logic

Today we did test 2. If you have not done test 2 already go to my blog for Monday and click on the last link to the test and turn it in on Monday.

Tuesday classes

The quiz question today was the old fill in the quote from John Stewart Mill "It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a (what?) satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, is of a different opinion, it is only because they only know their own side of the question.” So fill in the blank - even though the quote actually gives it away. Do you think Mill is right? For Introduction to Philosophy on John Locke - how do you resolve the epistemological problem of empiricism?