May 2010

Jostein Gaarder:
 Sophie’s World o Terms
 Agnostic: someone who is unable to say categorically whether or not god/gods exist
 Cultural optimism: the generally accepted view during the enlightenment movement that once reason and knowledge became widespread, humanity would make great progress; irrationalism and ignorance would make way for an enlightened humanity
 Determinism: if an intelligence had known the positions of all particles of matter, nothing would be unknown
 Empiricism: Nothing exists in the memory before experiencing it through the senses
 Epicureanism: the pursuit of pleasure (good) to avoid pain
(bad), but actions must be weighed against possible consequences
 Fatalism: whatever happens is predestined
 Golden Mean: Balance in human relationships
 Idealism: everything is fundamentally a perfect image and spiritual in nature
 Law of Causality: the natural human tendency to casually link natural processes together because of an innate view of everything as a matter of cause and effect
 Materialism: Democritus’ antithetical view of idealism
 Skepticism: sophist view that regardless of philosophical answers, man cannot possible know the truth about riddles of nature and the universe o Philosophers:
 Aristotle: (384-322 BC) used senses in tandem with reasoning; refused Plato’s “idea” forms.
 Golden Mean
 Berkeley, George: (1685-1753) Irish bishop philosopher, tied Christianity to philosophy
 Material ideas had a spiritual cause beyond conscience
 Democritus: (460-730 BC) last of great natural philosophers
 Eternal legos
 Descartes, Renée : (1596-1650) Concerned himself with achieving insight into the nature of man and the universe, but became more conscious of his ignorance
 “Cognito, ergo sum”

 Grottfried von Herder, Johann: (1744-1803) opposed linear history; favored history that evolves, continues, develops
 Hegel, George Wilhelm Friedrich: (1770-1831) world spirit defined by humans and their history
 “Truth is subjective”
 “Dialectic process”: thesis, antithesis, synthesis
 Dynamic reasoning
 Heraclitus: (540-480 BC) believed constant change was the most basic characteristic of nature
 “Everything flows”/ Heraclitian flux
 Hume, David: (1711-1776) Considdered to be the most important empiricist, focused on the everyday instead of big abstract ideas; focused on the viewpoint of children.
 Kant, Immanuel: (1724-1804) first university philosophy professor, taught that everything that senses and reasoning fail to explain or answer must be left to faith
 “Das ding an sich”
 “Never treat anyone simply as a means, but also as an end”
 Locke, John: (1632-1704) empirical philosopher who believed that before perceptions, a person is a clean slate.
 “Tabula Rasa”
 Protagoras: (485-410 BC) believed the ‘right-ness’ of something must be in relation to a person’s needs
 “Man is the measure of all things”
 Socrates: (470-399 BC) Largest influence on European thought. Used discussions and debates as teaching tools.
Put to death for asking too many questions.
 Baruch Spinoza: (1632-1677) powerful speaker in relation to free speech and religious tolerance. His views earned him an excommunication from the Jewish community
 Pantheism: God is all, all is in God
 Kierkegaard, Sørn
 Significance of the individual
 Existentialism
Plato:
 Allegory of the Cave o People are shackled in a cave of pretenses (“shadows”)
 Real light hurts eyes, so they slowly progress: shadows, then reflections, then real objects
 More willing to accept real objects at night because they appear closer to their original reality
 After accepting “true” reality, they pity their friends still in the cave o Upbringing helps determine how focused a person is inward

o Man’s struggle for ultimate truth is always an uphill battle
 World is to cave as sunlight is to firelight
 (cave shadows  earthly objects  divine “idea of the good”) o Most “virtues” are actually learned through habits and practices, but the virtue of understanding is divine because it is useful and helpful o Things that require intelligent observation are things that cause the senses to fail to produce a sound result
Marie Winn:
 Television: the Plug-in Drug o Not necessarily a problem if parents raise kids correctly o Misinterpreted as a “cure-all”, but it isn’t
 Stagnates and ferments problems
 Takes away intimate family bonding
 Diminishes the quality of family bonding o TV provides a shadowlike representation of real life, distorting reality and seriously degrading the development of a child o Act of watching > what’s being watched o Strips away familial uniqueness by making families the same o Forces family interactions from interactive to parallel
Jean-Paul Sartre:
 Existentialism o Truth is personal
 Ex. Is it more ‘right’ to take care of mother or more ‘right’ to fight for a cause that may or may not take hold? o Man is responsible for his actions and how he interacts with the rest of humanity o Situational ethics/ morals o Individual actions are more important than whether or not God exists o “Man is condemned to be free.” o “If God didn’t exist, then anything would be possible.”
Stephanie Ericsson:
 The Ways We Lie o White lie
 Arrogantly deciding what is best for someone else o Façade
 Seduces one into believing an illusion o Deflecting
 Perpetuating untruths o Omission
 Changes the story by leaving out key features o Stereotype/cliché
 “Candy bar of misinformation instead of a balance meal of truth”

o Groupthink
 Loyalty to the group view trumps all else o Out-and-out lie
 Refutes a given perception of reality o Dismissal
 Rejection of truth o Delusion
 Accepting excuses as fact
 Filters out things we don’t want to believe
Stephen L Carter:
 Insufficiency of Honesty o Integrity:
 Discerning right/wrong
 Acting on that discernment
 Openly sharing/knowing you act on that decision o Integrity may involve keeping secrets to avoid harming others o Honesty ≠ Integrity
 Honesty allows us to escape moral responsibilities o Lying ≠ Nondisclosure o Most problems arise from lack of reflection, which warps our views of right/wrong o Laws have two functions:
 To tell people to do what they’d rather not or forbid them from doing what they would
Noetic Science: o Physical reality can be altered with the mind to the point where o actual changes occur in the realm of reality
Jean Kilbourne:
 Killing Us Softly 3 o Perception and Artificiality o Feministic objectification o “You have the right to remain sexy” (advert. Slogan) o Women judged fragmentationally
Susan Sontag:
 A Woman’s Beauty: Put-Down or Power Source? o Beauty alienated to superficiality by Christianity
 Women = beautiful sex = weaker sex
 Feminine  caring about one’s looks; masculine  caring about what one is and does

o Beauty typically viewed as essential to feminine character, whereas men’s looks are secondary o The desire for beauty isn’t wrong, just the obligation/attempt o Beauty is the only form of power women are taught to seek o Preening is a womanly duty—damned if they do, damned if they don’t o Nothing less than perfection will do (but perfection is impossible)
Angela Carter:
 Wound in the Face o Theory behind makeup: it makes women more beautiful
 Advertisers don’t understand imagery any more than consumers do o Makeup styles and fashion generally reflect their mother era
 Ex. Vogue stuck in the 30’s with gaunt looks
 Ex. 60’s era defined by minimal makeup use o Makeup often used as a satire on beauty
 Mocks women, because they are used as the canvas o Sometimes looks are driven/perpetuated by men
 Ex. Interview uses flashy transvestites, causing women to want to model themselves after men who model themselves after what they think women should look like o Symbolism of makeup disappears unless colors are re-arranged
 Ex. Norm = black eyeshadow and red lipstick; Oedipal implications become apparent when eyeshadow is red and lipstick is black
Mandohla Dargis
 A World where Truth Turns Out Not to Be Beauty o Movie review of The Invention of Lying o “A world without lying is also one without art” o Lying is an outlet, a means by which we can escape reality and commonplace happenings o Truth can hurt; it tickles our inner bully
 Ex. The nursing home called ‘a sad place for hopeless old people’
Emily Prager
 Our Barbies, Ourselves o Hard edged German adult toy  doll for American girls o Paradoxically embodies both masculine and feminine traits
 Masculine:
 Not realistically proportionate
 Lacks softness and realism
 Ken doll lacking penis o Indicates dignity of concealment

 Feminine:
 Liberated/successful woman
 “Totemic”
 A 60’s girl: free love, fun colors, molded boyfriend
Alice Walker
 Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self o Chronological progression from “cute” child, to scarred, to psychologically healed and coped o Plays wild-western games with brothers
 “relegated to Indian” because she was a woman and wasn’t given a BB gun
 Gets shot in the eye, goes blind o “There’s a world in your eye”
 Said by her little girl (children make the boldest philosophers)
Yevgeny Zamyatin:
 On Literature, Revolution, Entropy, and Other Maters o Entropy: Decline or degeneration o “Revolution is everywhere, in everything. It is infinite.” o Heretics are vital to humanity—they prevent man from going stagnant o Useful literature is only useful today, but harmful literature stays harmful o Children make the best philosophers because of their naïveté o “Children are the boldest philosophers” o Two kinds of people:
 Dead-alive
 Automatons, never making mistakes, never questioning
 Alive-alive
 Constantly in error, always asking questions, etc. o Errors more important than truths
 They raise questions which eventually become truths o Ordinary is comfortable, but revolution is a necessary pain
George Orwell:
 1984 ( satire) o Written as a warning to avoid total complacency and government control o Freedom of expression is severely limited (unless it’s praise of the
Party, it’s banned)

o Government turns children against parents, destroying the most basic basis for proper development o Urges are suppressed by making them less pleasant o Everything about the government (facts, figures, etc.) are either faked or ‘revised’
 “Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past.” o The viewpoint of the superpower—like that of its two enemies—is highly insular; they choose to assume that they are the world, and as a result, the victors of the perpetuated war
 The war is just a means whereby luxuries cannot be produced, forcing everyone into submission to the government
 ‘my enemy is who my government says it is’
 The nationalism of Oceania is just sex gone sour o The intoxication of power (in this case by the government) is a real threat o True character is revealed in times of great peril o “War is peace” o “Freedom is Slavery” o “Ignorance is strength” o “Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.” o “Power is not a means, it is an end”
 1984 Afterword (Eric Fromm) o “Can man forget he is human?” o “How can millions be wrong?” o “How can a minority of one be right?”
 Politics and the English Language o (written from a communication standpoint, not a literary one) o Modern English prose characterized by a façade of eruditeness masking a large incompetence o Uninterested writers pervert original metaphors o Passive voice favored o Noun constructions are favored over gerunds o Simple things are made more complicated o Words often have no direct relevancy to topic o Vague descriptions have become more popular than concrete ones o Mentality: it’s more complicated, so it must be better o Four clarity questions:
 What am I trying to say?
 What words will express it?
 What image/idiom will make it clearer?
 Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? o Rules for avoiding vagueness/humbug:

 Never use a metaphor, simile or figure of speech common in print
 Choose the shorter word if it means the same thing
 Cut words out wherever possible
 Use active as much as possible
 Use everyday English instead of foreign phrases whenever possible
 Break rules 1-5 sooner than saying anything barbarous o “if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought” o “if you simplify your English, you are free from the worst lies of orthodoxy”
 Freedom and Happiness o “Freedom and Happiness are incompatible”
 Shooting an Elephant o Claim: The fear of humiliation is a stronger drive than that of death o He had to shoot the elephant to avoid looking like a fool o “only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro” o “he wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it” o When white man turns tyrant, it is his own freedom that he looses

Three Appeals
 Logos (logic)
 Pathos (emotion)
 Ethos (character)
Five canons of classical Rhetoric
 Invention
 Arrangement
 Style
 Memory
 Delivery

Francine Prose:
 Close Reading o Creativity is a process of discovery
 Form can be taught, but creativity is up to the pupil o “Put every word and mark on trial for its life” o Learning to write well comes from writing and reading word by word o New Criticism:
 Close reading requires thinking in tandem with reading
 Close reading comes with time and practice
 Punctuation is critical in conveying a point
Reading Essays (with Living Like Weasels) : o Four acts:
 Observe information, presentation, evidence, etc.
 Connect to argument
 Infer prepares for interpretation
 Concluding ties everything to how you see it
Commentary: o Observe details o Connect details o Make inferences o Arrive at interpretation
General: o Read actively and with critical judgement o Qualities of good writing:
 Clarity
 Coherence
 Logical organizaion
 Accuracy and correctness
 Sufficiency
 Style o Vary sentence beginnings, length, structure o Should be a linguistical smoothie o Be specific o Write with an age appropriate voice

Analysis paper: o Read the prompt closely for the what, how, and why o Be Explicit o ID specific literary/rhetorical features o Look for any contextual clues o *if comparative in nature, look for contrast o Be sure to blend key words from prompt into essay
Intro: Be explicit, ID specific literary/rhetorical features and how they specificlly cause their intended effect (tone, purpose, meaning, exigence, etc.)
Body: Block x Block: Body Paragraph 1: Passage 1
Body Paragraph 2: Passage 2 (integrating contrast language)
Conclusion: Don’t be repetitive. o DIDLS:
 Diction is tone—Adjectives, nouns, verbs, adverbs, synonyms, contrast, anything that stands out.
 Imagery creates a strong picture that appeals to senses
 Details
 Language—words that describe the entire body of words in a text
 Syntax
 Patterns and structures
 Construction of sentences to convey attitude
 Punctuation
Synthesis paper
9
 Introduction contextualizes issue for readers: why should educated informed citizens care about this topic? o Writer takes a clear position on the topic o Thesis captures complexity of the issue and focuses the writer’s position
 Writer combines sources and position to form a cohesive, well-
organized, supported argument in 2-4 paragraphs o Argument is convincing o Connection between position and sources is clearly established o Significance of sources in relation to thesis is examined o “Conversation” between writer an sources is established o at least three sources are used effectively to support the position identified n the introduction o signal phrase verbs successfully capture the intent of the source author o all sources used in the essay are properly cited
 writing is effective o each paragraph contains a separate idea o General statements are supported o Explanations are clear, thorough, and accurate

 Mature stylistic elements are present: o Effective diction o Some figurative language o Sentence structure variety o Detectable/ appropriate voice/tone o Few errors in spelling and mechanics

Conclusion does not summarize but address how educated, informed citizens should continue to think about the issue and how the issue will affect the reader’s lives o There are keywords in every writing prompt. Blend them into the essay. o Blend the last line of prompt into introduction o Avoid the Fallacies o Read and understand the sources
Help with argument:
 3 types of claims: o –fact: something is true vs. false o –value: something has vs. lacks value o –policy: something ought vs. ought not to be done
 Two kinds of argument: o Deductive—impossible for the premises to be true but the conclusion to be false o Inductive—premises support an argument in such a way that if both premises are true, then it’s improbable (but not impossible) that the conclusion would be false.
 Use qualifiers; they make a claim more flexible.
 More evidence presents a stronger case.
 Making concessions add believability to you overall claim.
Elements of Satire: o What: the topic or subject being ridiculed or attacked o How: Literary device (irony, parody, exaggeration, etc.) o Why: the motivation to change the teme/purpose o Effective: the ability to eval and comment on the relationship between what and how o Relevency: the ability to evaluate and comment on the relationship between what and why
 Connections to Reads, Observations, Experiences o Two kinds of satire:
 Horatian (there’s hope for humanity)
 Juvinalian (No hope for humanity)

1.
Begging the question: assuming something to be true that really needs proof.
 “The unsanitary condition of the slaughterhouse is detrimental to health.”
2.
Ignoring the question: shifting the argument to new ground, usually with a question irrelevant to the logic of the case.
 “You talk about apartheid in Africa. Do you know what Americans to
Indians?”
3.
Equivocation: using the same term with different meanings in the same argument.
4.
Non-sequitur (‘it does not follow’): the conclusion does not follow from the preceding arguments.
 “He doesn’t drink or smoke, so he must be a good husband.”
5.
Faulty dilemma: the major presents a choice that doesn’t exhaust all possibilities.
 “Better dead than red.”
6.
Post hoc ergo proper hoc (after this, therefore because of this): attempts to prove that a second event was a result of the first event because it followed the first event.
 “Every time democrats get into office, we have a war.”
7.
Argumentum ad hominem (argument to the man): attack on character involved.
 “He shouldn’t be elected; his father is an alcoholic.”
8.
Ad misericordiam: an appeal for sympathy.
 “The reason I stole the money is because I’m out of work, my wife got arrested, I haven’t eaten in two days…”
9.
Hypothesis contrary to fact: beginning with a premise that is not necessarily true and drawing conclusions from it.
 “If he hadn’t been my teacher, I never would have understood algebra.”
10.
Composition: arguing that a group must have the same characteristics as its members.
 “Each player is the best at his position in the entire country; therefore his team is the best in the country.”

11.
Division: arguing that an individual must have the same characteristics as the group.
 “That team is the best in the country, therefore their pitcher must be the best one in the country.”
12.
Dicto simpliciter: Argument based on unqualified generalizations.
 “Exercise is good; therefore, everyone should exercise.”
13.
Contradictory premise: The main premises contradict each other.
 “If God can do anything, can he make a stone so heavy that he can’t lift it?”
14.
Over-generalizing: too few instances presented to produce accurate conclusion.
 “Tall men like ice cream.”
15.
Premise and common ground: The terms of the premise must be accepted as true.
 “all college graduates are geniuses.”
16.
False analogy: wrongful comparisons of dissimilar situations.
 “Doctors use x-rays during surgery; therefore students should use textbooks during exams.”
17.
Ad vericundiam: appeal to a general authority.
 “My teacher said…”; “Figures prove…”
18.
Ad populum: appeal to a crowd.
 “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.”
19.
Self-evident truths: proceeding from an unwarranted assumption to a foregone conclusion.
 “Everybody knows…”
20.
Guilt/innocence by assosciation: use of irrelevant connections to accuse or vindicate.
 “He reads radical magazines; so he must hold the same views.”
21.
Either/or fallacy: requires absolutes which do not allow for intermediate cases.
 “Do you want to go to college or dig ditches the rest of your life?”


“A mind once stretched by a new idea never gains its original dimensions”(Oliver Wendel Holmes)

“Adversity has the effect of eliciting talents which in prosperous circumstances would have lain dormant” (Horace)

“Carpe diem” (Coined durin g the Baroque Per.)

“Categorical Imperative” (Immanuel Kant)

“Children are the boldest philosophers” (Zamyatin)

“Cognito ergo sum” (Renee Descartes)

“Conscience and cowardice are really the same things” (Wilde)

“Credo quia absurdum” (Kierkegaard)

“Das ding an sich” (Immanuel Kant)

“Dialectic process”/“Thesis, antithesis, synthesis” (George F.W. Hagel)

“Esse es percepti” (Berkeley) o Two levels of perception: temporal (earthly) and spiritual (divine)

“Everything flows” (Heraclitus)

“Existence precedes essence” (Sartre)

“Freedom and happiness are incompatible” (Orwell)

“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.” (Orwell)

“Harmful literature is more useful than useful literature” (Zamyatin)

“If God didn’t exist, then anything would be possible.” (Sartre)

“If you simplify your English, you are free from the worst lies of orthodoxy”
(Orwell)

“In times of deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act” (Orwell)

“Know thyself” (Above temple of Delphi)

“Knowledge is power” (Francis Bacon)

“Man is condemned to be free.” (Sartre)

“Man is the measure of all things” (Protagoras)

“Memento Mori”


“Never treat people as a means, but as an end” (Immanuel Kant)

“Power is not a means, it is an end” (Orwell)

“Real beauty ends where an intellectual expression begins” (Wilde)

“Revolution is everywhere, in everything. It is infinite” (Zamyatin)

“Sanity is not a statistical” (George Orwell)

“Some kinds of failure are better than other kinds” (Orwell)

“Tabula Rasa” (John Lock e)

“The basis of optimism is sheer terror” (Wilde)

“The commonest thing is delightful if only one hides it” (Wilde)

“The cruelest lies are often told in silence” (R.L. Stevenson)

“The lie is the spirit committing treason against itself” (Martin Buber)

“The privileges of beauty are immense” (Cocteau)

“The telling of beautiful untrue things is the proper aim of art” (Oscar
Wilde)

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple” (Twain)

“To define is to limit” (Wilde)

“War is peace…freedom is slavery…ignorance is strength” (Orwell)

“When you learn how to die, you learn how to live” (Morrie Schwartz)

“Who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past” (Orwell)

“Wilderness is more a state of mind than a fact of nature” (Emmerson)