Wednesday Logic

The quiz question for today concerned the cause and effect relationship between disgruntled Islamists and individual acts of terrorism as for example in the Ohio State University attacks from the other day. I also mentioned DARPA's various studies to understand how they may be able to use Social Media to detect these kinds of events before they happened and change the mind of the individuals before they act.

Tuesday classes

For Introduction to Philosophy the quiz question is do you think there ought to be a National (or better International!) authority that licenses individuals (and organizations?) to profess religious doctrine. (What I am thinking about here is something along the lines of Miroslav Volf in his book Flourishing.) The quiz question for Ancient and Medieval Philosophy today was should I use just Internet sources or texts in the future for this course?

Monday Logic

Today we were discussing statistical reasoning and the quiz question concerned Malthus' prediction regarding population growth versus available resources. Do you think the programs that feed the hungry are only making poverty worse in the long run? I mentioned Sally Struthers in this regard. The TED talk we watched was by Thomas Piketty.

Wednesday Logic

The quiz question today on moral arguments is what cultural group do you associate with your moral beliefs?

Tuesday Classes

Beginning our look at Pragmatism for Introduction to Philosophy we ask what unique characteristics of the American experience had to do with the can do philosophy of the pragmatists. The quiz question today was what do you think those characteristics were? For Ancient and Medieval Philosophy the quiz question concerned abortion - what did Aquinas consider the point at which the soul entered the fetus?

Monday Logic

We are zipping through some chapters to catch up to where we are supposed to be. Today we zipped through Analogical Arguments, and then Legal Arguments. The quiz question was from chapter 10A part II question 3 - discuss! Next class we should do Moral Arguments and Statistical Arguments. We will probably finish those chapters.

Thursday classes

For Introduction to Philosophy this morning the quiz question was why does Nietzsche say "God is dead"? For Ancient and Medieval Philosophy the quiz question was what does Aquinas mean by Natural Law? For Introduction to Philosophy this evening we began looking at Marx and since economics was a main area of his interest the quiz question was do you think President Elect Donald Trump will be good for business? The second quiz question of the evening was why does Nietzsche say "God is dead"?

Wednesday Logic

Today we went over more translation issues with regard to symbolic logic and went over the final exam questions. Note that the final exam is posted on the web at the bottom of the syllabus. The quiz question today is in regard to issues with translation and that is do you think movies are/is the most powerful tool we have to change other cultures to be more like ours? As examples of this I compared an American song which was modified in its presentation in the US to appear primarily romantic with the songs use in Germany and France where it was the main song in a musical that puts an entirely different slant on the words! (Is Europe trying to influence the US culture?) As a further comparison I brought up Disney's Frozen (again) and the translation of that into at least 25 different languages - as for example Arabic. Notice that often the translations are modified to appeal to the foreign culture.

Tuesday classes

For Introduction to Philosophy this morning we began looking at Marx and since economics was a main area of his interest the quiz question was do you think President Elect Donald Trump will be good for business? For Ancient and Medieval Philosophy there were two questions today. One was when discussing the relationship between faith and reason, what sort of things do you have faith in? (We were looking over Aquinas Summa when asking this.) A fun second question was how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

Monday Logic

Today in Logic we reviewed Conditional Proof and Indirect Proof, then went on to Predicate Logic introducing the symbols used. A question regarding the translation of normal human speech into symbolic systems about what is lost in translation brought up the difficulties in translating even normal speech between humans, as for example this quote from The Atlantic "When he makes claims like this, the press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally." My quiz question is how could computers - using the symbolic language we are examining - deal with this kind of nuance? Can we lose so much in human language translating into symbolic languages and enable computers to deal with the complexity in human issues?

Thursday classes

For my morning Introduction to Philosophy class the quiz question today was comparing Kierkegaard's presentation of Agamemnon in contrast to Abraham do you feel a closer affinity toward either one? For Ancient and Medieval Philosophy the quiz question is why do some philosophers argue the sacred scriptures are misleading? For my evening Introduction to Philosophy course the first quiz question regarding Mill is a fill in the blank: "It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a ____ satisfied." The second quiz question today was comparing Kierkegaard's presentation of Agamemnon in contrast to Abraham do you feel a closer affinity toward either one?

Tuesday classes

Today in Introduction to Philosophy we talked about Mill and the quiz question was a fill in the blank: "It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a ____ satisfied." For Ancient and Medieval Philosophy the quiz question was do you think all three of the religions of the book are the same religion? Better, I should have asked, do they all worship the same God?

Monday Logic

Today we went over problems from exercise 8F which will be the exercise the test questions come from on Wednesday. We will start from the beginning of class on Wednesday. Remember you can use your book, notes, web, and conversation - but remember how that usually results in shared wrong answers! If you need more points after the test you can earn them by doing more exercises. The quiz question for today was problem 17 which does have the answer in the back of the book. Try doing it yourself first and then compare to the suggested solution in the back. There are often more than one way to solve these.

Thursday classes

For Introduction to Philosophy this morning the quiz question is what do you think about the lecture David Foster Wallace gives titled This is Water. For Ancient and Medieval Philosophy the quiz question is how do you think Thomas Becket should have avoided death? For Introduction to Philosophy this evening the first quiz question was in two parts: first, in the Detroit scenario what do you feel your categorical imperative would be - to interfere or not? two, what do you imagine yourself actually doing? The second half quiz question is what do you think about the lecture David Foster Wallace gives titled This is Water.

Wednesday Logic

Note that the test will be postponed to Wednesday next week instead of being on Monday. The quiz question today was to do problem 11 in exercise 8F section IV. Notice also that the test will be from this section of exercise 8F.

Tuesday classes

For Introduction to Philosophy this morning the quiz question was in two parts: first, in the Detroit scenario what do you feel your categorical imperative would be - to interfere or not? two, what do you imagine yourself actually doing? For Ancient and Medieval Philosophy the quiz question today was what characteristics do you think should be added to the definition of God that Saint Anselm gives us in his Ontological Argument?