Socrates & Plato

Osborne 11-15  

(This is funny, but Woody Allen's "My Apology" really nails it. And if that's not silly enough for you...*)

1. Who were the Sophists? Was Socrates one of them? Did he consider philosophy a profession? What is "sophistry"?

2. Protagoras said "man is the measure..." What does this mean?

3. What do you think Socrates meant when he said "the unexamined life is not worth living"? Do you agree?

4. (T/F) Like the pre-Socratics, Socrates was deeply interested in identifying the basic stuff of which everything is made.

5. Why did Socrates see himself as a gadfly? What other descriptive metaphor did he apply to himself?

6. (T/F) Socrates agreed with Protagoras: objective truth, independent of any particular or exclusively-human point of view, is impossible.

7. What did Socrates mean when he said "we owe a cock to Aesculapius," the Greek god of healing and medicine?

8. What was the aim of Plato's Academy? What was the purpose of his myth (simile) of the cave?

9. In Plato's theory of education, knowledge is ___________.

10. For Plato the parts of the soul provide a model for his ideal republic, in which reason is exemplified by an elite governing class headed by ____________.

self-termination

Red Alert! ch.3-4
1. Do we all really "depend" for our lives on non-human species? How so? What will the disappearance of polar bears, orangutans, and sea turtles mean to humans?

2. Is modern technology too vulnerable to uncontrollable environmental conditions? Is a "lifeway" that is proudly contemptuous of modern technology more sustainable?

3. Conservative projections say the northern ice cap may disappear when? How will it be in 2050?

4. The primary catalyst for our ensuing planetary catastrophe (the first "of human genesis in the history of our cosmos") is what? Do you agree?

5. Is there still a point in encouraging ourselves to "think like a mountain"? Is deep time relevant to attempts to save the planet?

6. Do you believe "changes in our everyday mundane life activities" will matter? What changes are you prepared to make personally?

7. What would it mean for our use of technology to be more attentive "to the life around us"? Can it be part of the biotic community along with land, air, water, and their residents? How about Internet cafes, shopping malls, and gambling casinos?

8.  Does "ecological pluralism" explain religious diversity and prevent religious quarrels? Is mitakua oyasin practicable, and sustainable?

9. What would a "life-enhancing nature-culture nexus" look like, in the foreseeable future?

10. Is native wisdom really experimental and open-ended?

"Lost and Gone Forever"

Thomas Jefferson was quite bright, but he and his contemporaries were quite confused about biodiversity and the fragility of species. 

“Such is the economy of Nature,” he wrote, “that no instance can be produced of her having permitted any one race of her animals to become extinct; of her having formed any link in her great work so weak as to be broken.”

It would be nice to think we'd learned better, by now. But mass extinctions are accelerating in our day, and too many of us continue to be indifferent. We still don't get it.  Richard Coniff: 

Species die. It has become a catastrophic fact of modern life. On our present course, by E.O. Wilson’s estimate, half of all plant and animal species could be extinct by 2100 — that is, within the lifetime of a child born today. Kenya stands to lose its lions within 20 years. India is finishing off its tigers. Deforestation everywhere means that thousands of species too small or obscure to be kept on life support in a zoo simply vanish each year... [more]

Slideshow: "species on the brink"

meaning (2)

You can google "meaning of life"...
Or, you could just ask Tooley:


I taught a course called "The Meaning of Life" several years ago, and this was our exit note - on an old VHS tape ripped from the original telecast. Then as now I don't insist on this being THE meaning. It's one of the good ones though, no?

meaning

Because there's more than one...

pre-Socratics again, & Buddha

PW Quiz 26-33
1. Who said we should not call something divine just because we don't understand it? Why not?


2. What kind of outlook did Thales adopt? What is "techne"?


3. How does Greek philosophy differ from Chinese philosophy with respect to opposing properties like hot and cold, wet and dry... or yin and yang?


4. What did Anaximander say the basic "stuff" of the world is? What did his student Anaximenes think the essential element is? 

5. Pythagoras differed from the Milesian materialists, saying the universe is composed not of stuff but of what? He believed in reincarnation, philosophized with women, inspired ______, and is thought to have been the first to call himself a _________. He is associated with what famous phrase?

6. What "very Eastern point" was Heraclitus making, with his claim about rivers? Who said this perception is not the true reality? Who presented arguments to show its absurdity?


7. What made Democritus a pluralist? What did he think about soul, meaning, and purpose in a material world? What do you?

JMH
8. What did Buddha say we gain by giving up belief in a self? What did he say about Gods, karma, and reincarnation?


9. What does nirvana mean?


And a bonus question, before Groundhog Day gets entirely away:
What did Phil Connors learn about the self, gods, karma,compassion, recurrence & repetition, nirvana, the wonder of every moment, etc.?

Buffalo Calf Woman

Here's a great message, from the legendary Lakota teacher of humility. But, does it really have to be "channeled"?

Red Alert!

Red Alert! Intro-ch1&2
1. Who is the Spiritual Person of the universe? Is the subject of the book's epigraph to be understood as standing outside the universe? In what sense is it a person? Do humans possess spirit, in this sense of the term? Is it a naturalistic concept? How, in general, should we understand "spirit" in native/indigenous contexts?

2. Is there anything wrong with "using" (as well as knowing) reality? Is knowledge a static relation or a verb?

3.Is "cultural genocide" an accurate description of the late-19th century attempts to (re-) educate native Americans?

4. Do you agree that we must renounce any interest in trying to "manage nature," in order to live sustainably with our web of life? Do you see attempts to control nature as "mechanical"?

5. Is it fascination with technology per se that produces "ecological amnesia"? Haven't our "media windows" helped to raise global awareness of the climate crisis and build support for reform through movements like 350.org? Can we recover lost ecological memory and connect activists worldwide by leveraging technology?

6. Why can't "place-shaped knowledges" expand to include the entire planet and a consciousness of the human tribe as singular and inclusive?

7.Does it require anything beyond the local presence of intelligent and purposive humans, to make the cosmos spiritual? Would it be a spiritual world without us? Is the statement that Mother Earth "is trying to tell us something" merely symbolic?

8. What does it mean to live seven generations (as opposed to five or two or none) into the future?

9. How do you distinguish "faux shaman reveries" from the real thing?

10. Wildcat blames the "self-absorbed individualistic popular culture" for creating a sky-is-falling alarmist backlash. Would it be better if popular film (eg) simply ignored the climate crisis?

11. "Nature exists right outside our doors, beyond the monitors and screens we ironically look at in order to feel 'connected.'" How does being outdoors connect you to other people? How does being online disconnect you?

12. Wildcat deplores "the pseudo-evolutionary idea that tribalism is somehow categorically savage and uncivilized." On the other hand, there are no tribal (or national) boundaries visible from space. We are one planet and one species. Indeed, it is one cosmos. Why shouldn't we consider this way of thinking an evolutionary advance?

in the beginning

The latest "Symphony of Science"-

enlightenment

PW Quiz 18-26
1. What central tenets of Hindu thought tend to be rejected by Buddhists? What do they, along with Jains, share?
2. The Sanskrit word for "philosophy" means what?
3. What threatens mysticism?
4. What's the first "noble truth"? What's the first step on the Eightfold Path? What's Nirvana, and what must you free yourself from if you want to attain it? What's karma? What's a Bodhisattva? Who is the Dalai Lama?
5. What did Nagarjuna's "Middle Way" School say about essence and identity? Which sect denied the standard Buddhist claim that the world is an illusion?
6. Confucius and Aristotle both emphasized the importance of what? What is the key Confuciuan virtue? Is it a fixed, determinate trait in all humans? Why is physical exercise important?
7. ______'s Art of War  says the precondition of love is what? Should we love everyone equally, on the Confucian view?
8. Lao Tzu's philosophy de-emphasized what in favor of spontaneity and simplicity? What is the greatest Taoist virtue? What do Taoists seek to forget? What's the significance of yin and yang?
9. In contrast to the Christian concept of soul as an individuated, distributed bit of eternity, Taoists think of it as more like what?



My favorite Buddhist: