This is a pretty neat website! I love this story about Ithaka! (It's too big of a picture to post and take up the whole timeline with)

http://zenpencils.com/

extra credit discussion question

can someone repost the extra credit discussion question. i am having difficulty finding it. please and thanks. leigh

Free Will v. Determinism

I found this over at 3 Quarks Daily and found it interesting.  MIT professor Richard Holton talks about the problem of free will.  Enjoy!

Be Like Water: Bruce Lee

Solara's comment reminded me of the fascination I had with Bruce Lee when I was in high school.

Below is a quote from Bruce Lee and a link to the brain pickings.com site that has a nice article on the master.

“In order to control myself I must first accept myself by going with and not against my nature.”

http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/05/29/like-water-bruce-lee-artist-of-life/

The cosmic perspective

Yesterday's HAP 101 discussion is still on my mind, in particular the interestingly-diagnostic reactions of people to that Alan Watts video and its Sagan-like wisdom that "Billions of years ago you were a Big Bang." (Carl's version: "We're starstuff, pondering the stars.") Point is, we're still bangin'... We are the universe, the cosmic "process" turned back on itself in wonder, pondering its destiny and (some of us) dreaming of something marvelous waiting to happen.

Interestingly diagnostic, I say, because some of us thrill to that cosmic perspective while others wrinkle their faces and complain that it somehow shrinks or demeans us to acknowledge our continuity with all those stars and the spaces between them, and all the bugs beneath our feet and the microbes beneath our skin, etc.

Continues at Up@dawn 2.0

Spreading Joy

I know this isn't about our class, but I feel like it's something related to happiness, and needs to be spread. I don't know how many of you watch Kid President on YouTube but he's just an 8 or 9 year old boy who wants to make this world more awesome. He has a "brittle bone" disease and has broken bones over 70 times, and he still find reasons to smile. He put a video up today about an organization that helps spread a little joy to children with cancer. Every purchase from Sevenly.org will go towards one Joy Jar for a child. The joy jar is filled with fun things for the child, and lets them know that someone cares and that they are special. I'm a sociology major, so these kinds of things hit my heart and make me want to give back to those who may lose their hope. If you cannot purchase anything or don't want to, that's cool! But if you could take the time to go to the video and share it to any social media you are on, or just tell someone else about it, you will still be helping by spreading the word to those who maybe haven't seen it or heard about it yet, in turn potentially helping a child anyway!
Here's the link if you'd like to watch! http://youtu.be/0arq7UWRghU

Exam #1 study guide

Remember to study by locating & re-reading relevant textual passages. Don't just memorize Qs & As. Any relevant discussion question will do, for extra credit.

Happy studying! Good luck.

Group 1: Ten Test Questions

1.     Whose description of pantheistic ecstasy began with "My life was ecstasy in youth, before I lost any of my senses, I can remember that I was all alive, and inhabited my body with inexpressible satisfaction;"

a.     Henry David Thoreau  

b.     Seneca

c.     William James

d.     Bon Jovi

e.     Bertrand Russell

2.     True or false: Aristotle and Schopenhauer believed that women had more capacity for happiness than men.

a.     False

3.     Who said "real wealth is poverty adjusted to the law of nature?"

a.     Ayn Rand

b.     Donald Trump

c.     Seneca

d.     Sigmund Freud

e.     Karl Marx

4.     What was the title of Pascal's book, which literally means thoughts?

a.     Pensées

b.     Vaginees

c.     Wager of Discontents

d.     On Happiness

e.     The Happiness of Discontents

5.     Aristotle wrote "The educated person seeks exactness in each area to the extent the nature of the subject allows" in what book?

a.     The Republic

b.     Nicomachean Ethics

c.     Metaphysics

d.     Techne of Happiness

e.     On Rhetoric

6.     What philosopher/psychologist suggested that temperament is "organically weighted," which implies (at least in some sense) a physiological explanation for happiness?

a.     Seneca

b.     Lycus

c.     Freud

d.     William James

e.     Bertrand Russell

7.     What was Sigmund Freud’s book on happiness?

a.     The Conquest of Happiness

b.     Civilization and its Discontents.

c.     Nicomachean Ethics

d.     Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics

e.     50 Shades of Happiness

8.     What was Bertrand Russell’s book on happiness?

a.     The Conquest of Happiness

b.     Civilization and its Discontents.

c.     Nicomachean Ethics

d.     Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics

e.     50 Shades of Happiness

9.     What expression did psychologists Phillip Brinkman and Donald Campbell use to explain how people respond briefly to ups and downs in life and then go back to a neutral state?

a.     The Life Cycle

b.     Hedonic Treadmill

c.     Circular Happiness

d.     The Experience Machine

e.     The State of Nature

10.  Which Greek Merchant spent long hours imagining performances of his favorite tragedies, which everyone misunderstood him for crazy?

a.     Loveus

b.     Lycas

c.     Hateus

d.     Epicurus

e.     Bocephus 

==

Group 2 Factual Question Study Guide

1. What philosopher from the Greek island of Kos has an Oath (that graduating doctors take) named after him? Answer: Hippocrates

2. Who invited followers to "live retired" in a garden surrounded by friends, enjoying simple pleasures, but staying away from public?
Answer: Epicurus

3. What is the title of Thoreau's essay and lecture on the subject of walking?
Answer- Walking

4. How did John Stuart Mill's opinions differ from Bentham's?
Answer: Mill felt that Bentham was to narrow minded.

5. Who urged us to wager that God exists because "if you win, you win everything, if you lose, you lose nothing"Answer: Pascal

6. Seneca, the stoic who shared similar views with Aristotle on wealth, once said to his detractors, "I own my _____, yours own you."
Answer: riches

7. Finish the quotation by Stanley Cavell: "The achievement of human happiness requires not the perennial and fuller satisfaction of all needs as they stand but the __________ and ____________ of these needs"
Answer: examination and transformation

8. My factual question would be how many students would try the machine?
Answer: 5%
(or)
8. Who gave us the Experience Machine thought experiment?
Answer: Robert Nozick

9. Kant's stress is on _________ rather than on some unachievable full truth.
Answer: truthfulness

10. The two senses of what term are: extent, range, reach, sweep of perceptions, thoughts, or actions; and freedom, latitude, and leeway?
Answer: scope

(Some questions have been supplemented due to repeats among groups and a lack of questions formed for the final chapter)   

I liked this because as I commented on Dean's post of test questions, by turning a negative issue or situation into something positive, i.e. something to learn, grow, and expand by, we are having the strength to maintain happiness. Plus, would you rather have someone let you win a game or truly win it with your earned merits? P.S. Bruce Lee is forever my idol.

Group 2 Factual Question Study Guide

1. What philosopher from the Greek island of Kos has an Oath (that graduating doctors take) named after him? Answer: Hippocrates

2. Who invited followers to "live retired" in a garden surrounded by friends, enjoying simple pleasures, but staying away from public?
Answer: Epicurus

3. What is the title of Thoreau's essay and lecture on the subject of walking?
Answer- Walking

4. How did John Stuart Mill's opinions differ from Bentham's?
Answer: Mill felt that Bentham was to narrow minded.

5. Who urged us to wager that God exists because "if you win, you win everything, if you lose, you lose nothing"Answer: Pascal

6. Seneca, the stoic who shared similar views with Aristotle on wealth, once said to his detractors, "I own my _____, yours own you."
Answer: riches

7. Finish the quotation by Stanley Cavell: "The achievement of human happiness requires not the perennial and fuller satisfaction of all needs as they stand but the __________ and ____________ of these needs"
Answer: examination and transformation

8. My factual question would be how many students would try the machine?
Answer: 5%
(or)
8. Who gave us the Experience Machine thought experiment?
Answer: Robert Nozick

9. Kant's stress is on _________ rather than on some unachievable full truth.
Answer: truthfulness

10. The two senses of what term are: extent, range, reach, sweep of perceptions, thoughts, or actions; and freedom, latitude, and leeway?
Answer: scope

(Some questions have been supplemented due to repeats among groups and a lack of questions formed for the final chapter)   

Group 2 Discussion - Illusion, Delusion, Confusion :P

Our group continued the discussion on illusory happiness by examining the costs and benefits of becoming enveloped in another, overtly unreal reality such as fantasy worlds. Although we focused mostly on the Power Puff girls, we concluded that the schism is more or less applicable to any such stimulation to which we may attach meaning or a sense of synthetic consciousness. Essentially, we saw the pursuit of these realities and the dissociative effects they can have upon a human mind as analogous to the experience machine, in which one may opt out of ordinary reality for the chance at an ideal state, or at least an ideal set of conditions with which to continue life. We determined one of the key differences, however, was that the pursuit of unrealities may not be quite as voluntary as as hooking yourself up to an experience machine, as most of the dissociative harm they incur goes more or less unnoticed by the individual, possibly lapsing one into "delusion". It was here we had to make the distinction that it would be the shut-in who never leaves his house in order to play WoW constantly that would be the candidate for living a deluded life, far more so than the one who willingly gives himself to an experience machine, and is thus at least aware of the nature of his unreality.

In the end, we concluded that the pit falls of completely whimsically thinking/living are not conducive to a comprehensive sense of happiness, or at least a happiness that is not simply your own. However, the stimulant happiness/pleasure that unrealities can provide are not themselves inherently harmful. In fact, i would say they're a rather healthy thing to enjoy from time to time. It is at the very least, healthier to be able to enjoy them, than having all your metaphysical senses (which i would use to describe the manner in which we enjoy all art, Power Puff girls included) shut off to all that which is not overtly tangible. I don't need to forget which reality i live in when i read a book to enjoy it, but i do need the ability to imagine. Is becoming lost in fantasy a healthy thing? No, but neither is the inability to do so in a particularly self-aware manner. This is the line between enjoying your illusion, and losing to delusion.  

We're the same, yet different

That's roughly the title of one of my kids' favorite Sesame Street books, way back when. It's also roughly the message from Sagan and Rue et al, regarding reality and illusion and "everybody's story" as discussed last class.

Most importantly today, though, it's classmate Leigh Koger's photo exhibit for which there will be a reception in the Photo Building on campus at  6:30 pm right after Happy Hour/Philosophy Club at the Boulevard. Another happy occasion!

Group 3 test questions

1. What is Bertrand Russell’s outlook on happiness in The Conquest of Happiness
   “it lies within the power of individuals, given average good fortune, to achieve or “conquer” happiness. Chapter 7
   
2. Shelly Taylor writes about “positive illusions” and says that people have at least 3 mildly self­enhancing beliefs. What are they?
   1. self aggrandizing perceptions
   2. illusion of control
   3. unreal optimism about the future p. 164, Chapter 8
   
3. Bok says that we can be happy without being optimistic or outgoing. What do we need to experience fully? Gratitude Chapter 7
   
4. Schopenhauer was said to believe that every trace of happiness found on earth is to be frustrated­­true or false? True
   
5. What are Teilhard 3 attitudes to life and happiness?
   1. the tired, constricted view
   2. the approach of the hedonist/pleasure­seeker
   3. the enthusiast p. 117, Chapter 6
   
6. According to WayneSumner, what are 4 dimensions of value that lives can have? 1. prudential value
   

2. aesthetic value
3. perfectionist value
4. ethical value p. 130

7. Seneca believes that wealth can add to happiness,­­true or false? corrupt or dominate.
   
8. How does Diderot summarize Seneca’s message in De Vita beata? without virtue” p. 82
   

True, if it doesn’t
“no happiness

9. Who was the first Christian to depict torment in hell as the punishment for suicide?
   Augustine p. 70
   
10. Aristotle specified 3 sorts of goods as contributing to happiness­­what are they? 1. goods of the soul­­moral virtues
    2. bodily goods­­health
    3. external goods­­wealth p. 47 
    

Singer vs. Lennox

Here's that extra credit opportunity I mentioned, if anyone would care to weigh in. Do you see any illusion/delusion here? Or happiness, for that matter?

Group 1: Ten Test Questions

1.     Whose description of pantheistic ecstasy began with "My life was ecstasy in youth, before I lost any of my senses, I can remember that I was all alive, and inhabited my body with inexpressible satisfaction;"

a.     Henry David Thoreau (pp. 20-21)

b.     Seneca

c.     William James

d.     Bon Jovi

e.     Bertrand Russell

2.     True or false: Aristotle and Schopenhauer believed that women had more capacity for happiness than men.

a.     False (p. 14)

3.     Who said "real wealth is poverty adjusted to the law of nature?"

a.     Ayn Rand

b.     Donald Trump

c.     Seneca (?)

d.     Sigmund Freud

e.     Karl Marx

4.     What was the title of Pascal's book, which literally means thoughts?

a.     Pensées

b.     Vaginees

c.     Wager of Discontents

d.     On Happiness

e.     The Happiness of Discontents

5.     Aristotle wrote "The educated person seeks exactness in each area to the extent the nature of the subject allows" in what book?

a.     The Republic

b.     Nicomachean Ethics (p. 83)

c.     Metaphysics

d.     Techne of Happiness

e.     On Rhetoric

6.     What philosopher/psychologist suggested that temperament is "organically weighted," which implies (at least in some sense) a physiological explanation for happiness?

a.     Seneca

b.     Lycus

c.     Freud

d.     William James (p. 107)

e.     Bertrand Russell

7.     What was Sigmund Freud’s book on happiness?

a.     The Conquest of Happiness

b.     Civilization and its Discontents (pp. 132-133)

c.     Nicomachean Ethics

d.     Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics

e.     50 Shades of Happiness

8.     What was Bertrand Russell’s book on happiness?

a.     The Conquest of Happiness (pp. 132-133)

b.     Civilization and its Discontents.

c.     Nicomachean Ethics

d.     Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics

e.     50 Shades of Happiness

9.     What expression did psychologists Phillip Brinkman and Donald Campbell use to explain how people respond briefly to ups and downs in life and then go back to a neutral state?

a.     The Life Cycle

b.     Hedonic Treadmill (p. 145)

c.     Circular Happiness

d.     The Experience Machine

e.     The State of Nature

10.  Which Greek Merchant spent long hours imagining performances of his favorite tragedies, which everyone misunderstood him for crazy?

a.     Loveus

b.     Lycus (pp. 158-159)

c.     Hateus

d.     Epicurus

e.     Bocephus