I've collected here, last semester's semi-optional assignments. We'll have something similar.

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1. 15 September

   Semi-optional assignment 1 due. Remember, you'll have to do 4 of these this semester. I'll post at least 6 but maybe 8. The assignment is a viewing and some questions on BlackBoard.
   
   Short writing assignment, 1-2 typed pages. This can be done in BlackBoard or on paper you hand in in class. Watch the movie "Roshomon." The movie is available on Kanopy (see the link in our current assignments page) and also on HBOMax if you have that and a dvd is on reserve in the library.  This is one of the greatest films ever made, directed by the greatest director who ever drew breath. How lucky you are to see it for the first time! Watch "Roshomon" and then answer the following questions in a short essay.
   
   What do you think happened? Are all three stories true or just one of the stories true? Or none of them? Why do you think so? What might a relativist say? What might a skeptic say? How is your own interpretation of the film related to relativism or skepticism? (That is, is your answer to question 1 relativistic? Skeptical? Or something else?)
   
   try accessing Kanopy from top of this page.

2. 1 October

   Semi-optional assignment 2: read ML King's essay "Pilgrimage to Nonviolence." Answer the questions on BlackBoard (which are: "What is his 'sixth basic fact'? Does this claim require that there is a god? Is King right-- that is, does ethics dependent upon the claim that the universe has purposes independent of us? What do you think Descartes would say? (Descartes did not give us a theory of ethics, but he did have a lot to say about the relationship between knowledge and God.)").

3. 8 October

   Semi-optional assignment 3: read Meditation IV and answer the questions on BlackBoard.

4. 13 October

   Semi-optional Assignment 4: read the selection from the letters of the Princess of Bohemia. Please read the letters back and forth from May 1643. The princess challenges Descartes dualism with an argument that many repeated afterwards. Answer the questions on BlackBoard.
   
   Remember that there are helpful registration workshops available to you. Click here for a schedule! Let me know if you go, and which slot you went to.

5. 22 October

   Semi-optional assignment 5: Read Turing's classic popular paper, "Computing Machinery and Intelligence." This was published in 1950, in a philosophy journal called Mind. The paper introduces what is now called "The Turing Test" but what Turing called "The Imitation Game." One source is here. Skip the technical stuff in sections 4 and 5 of the paper (these are meant to explain computers to people who never saw one--but you all do not need convincing that computers exist and work).
   
   Write up your answer to the following questions, in 1 or 2 pages:

   1. What is The Imitation Game (also known now as The Turing Test)? What is it supposed to test for? Why introduce this test--that is, what does the test allow him to avoid defining?
   2. Consider his objections to the claim that computers might be capable of thought. Which is strongest, in your opinion? That is, which do you think gives us the most reason to doubt that computers can think? Do you believe that Turing's answer to that objection is sufficient?
   3. Do you think the Turing Test (The Imitation Game) is a good test for intelligence? That is, do you think a machine that passes the test is intelligent? Why or why not?

6. October 29

   Read Wegner's The Illusion of Conscious Free Will. Write your brief answer to the following. What is the consistency principle? What is the priority principle? What is the exclusivity principle? How together do they (according to Wegner) cause the experience of will? Do you agree with Wegner that your conscious experience of free will is an illusion? Why or why not?
   
   Here is the paper we discussed by Soon et al.
   
   On this day, we'll start our discussion of our last topic: is there a purpose to our lives? (This is our clarification of the question: What is the meaning of life?)
   
   Quiz on freewill.

7. 4 November

   The Steinkraus Lecture! You can join us via Zoom, using the QR code on the talk poster.
   
   
   
   Semi-optional assignment 7: attend this talk (it's all via Zoom) and write up your understanding of the main hypothesis defended. What do you think is the strongest evidence for the hypothesis? What do you think is the strongest evidence against the hypothesis?

8. 10 November

   Read the short story by Ursula Leguin, "The Ones who walk away from Omelas." Would you walk away from Omelas? Why or why not? How can this story be interpreted as a criticism of consequentialism? Explain. When is it appropriate to put the interests of a child over the interests of a community?

9. 17 November

   Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote a great novel, The Brother's Karamazov. You must read it as soon as you have time. Meanwhile, in the novel is a very famous story-within-a-story. One of the brothers (Ivan) tells another of the brothers (Alyosha) an allegory that has come to be known as "The Grand Inquisitor." An online readable version is at: here. Or you can watch a dramatization of it on YouTube.
   
   Write up your answer to the follow question, preferably on BlackBoard: What does the Inquisitor criticize Jesus for? That is, why does he claim that he (the Inquisitor) is kinder than Jesus? What is the burden that Jesus put on his followers, according the Inquisitor. Do you agree with the Inquisitor--that is, did Jesus put this great burden on his followers? Should he not have done so?