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I really enjoyed yesterday's reports,* and look forward to the rest on Monday and Tuesday. Remember to post your groups' factual questions to the study site so I can make your exam. I'll use as many of your questions as I can, changing the wording when necessary but sticking to your general topics. I'll also use my own relevant posts to generate questions if needed. All final report presenters in #16-17 must be present on Monday. Final essays from non-presenters in H1 are due Tuesday & in #16-17 Wednesday. All presenters/groups: please give me a brief written summary of your main points.

*...Asiyah’s report in H1 on Anne Rice’s vampires took me one step closer to understanding the strange world of the undead (and of the living who find it so compelling). Who knew there were Existentialists and Stoics among the bloodsucking crowd? Guess I’m naive. They’re everywhere. ["Monsters We Love"]

Shannon’s discussion of linguistics and the philosophy of language clarified the pragmatic approach: why we communicate matters at least as much as how, and ambiguity makes interpersonal life richer and more interesting. Wish we’d talked more about puns, and those things… what do you call them?… that are the same spelled backwards and forwards? (“Notlob? That’s not a palindrome!”)

Tim told us all about Auguste Comte’s positivism. Was he also in charge of the sheep-dip? No, that was Bruce.

And then Matthew and Dean and I had a nice discussion about “The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life,” as the Philosophy Club across the hall rolled a screening of “Life of Brian.” (What have the Romans ever done for us?”)

All in all, it was a day of philosophy in middle Tennessee the way it was meant to be: no stuck-up sticky beaks here, just Pythons and happy collaborators.

So: when we hire new Bruce to teach comparative religion, in the next month or two, we’d better take care. And ask the padre for a prayer. -No Stuck-up sticky beaks...