Daily Quiz

1. Feb 12 
2. 1. Who wrote about "What It Means to Be an American" and said effective social critics & philosophers challenge their societies from the inside? 
3. 2. What was at the heart of Stocism? 

3. Who said Americans (and everyone else) should have "an original relation to the universe," and  disinterred his wife's body?

4. Name one of Cicero's "problems with growing older."

5. Which Stoic philosopher took his own life due to a Roman emperor, Nero, accusing him of plotting against him and telling him to commit suicide? 

6. Which American philosopher rejected the name "pragmatism," threatened suicide, and said we should only entertain "real and living doubts"?

7. What "kind and good" philosopher said (while still a young man) "my first act of free will shall be to believe in free will"?

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4. 1. Michael Walzer. 2. The idea that we are responsible for what we feel and think. 3. Emerson. 4. it gets harder to work, the body becomes weaker, _______________, and death is close. - Joy in physical pleasure goes pg. 30. 5. Seneca (LH 32). 6. Peirce. 7. James

Also of note-

FQ: Who wrote the book "A Machine That Would Go of Itself: The Constitution in American Culture"? - Michael Kammen

DQ: Why is Michael Kammen is a better political philosopher than the other scholars?

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OBFyqILT8I - a short clip about how Kammen's book is about in a political cartoon

FQ: Which of the Stoics was a playwright, politician, and businessman along with his career as a philosopher?
FQ: According to Seneca, why do people preoccupy themselves with trivial work?
FQ: What was the stoic ideal way of living?
FQ: What did Seneca say was necessary to feel truly alive?
FQ: Where was Seneca exiled for 8 years?
FQ: Who forced Seneca to commit suicide for supposedly plotting to kill him?

DQ: What do you think would be an effective way to live the remainder of your life?

LINK: http://www.amazon.com/Breaking-Bad-Philosophy-through-Chemistry/dp/0812697642
The link is for the book on Amazon. If you have an E-reader or any device that has a Kindle app, just get the Kindle edition if you really want the book. It'd be a lot easier for the writers to all at least get a copy of the book or share with one of the other writers.

FQ: What was the name of the painted porch in Athens where philosophers used to meet? p. 29 Stoa

DQ: Do you allow uncontrollable things to ruins your happy day?

Here is a paraphrase version of the Stoic handbook.
https://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/stoicismtoday/2013/11/20/video-introduction-to-the-stoic-handbook-of-epictetus/

FQ: What was the name of the painted porch in Athens where philosophers used to meet? p. 29 Stoic

DQ: Do you allow uncontrollable things to ruins your happy day?

Here is a paraphrase version of the Stoic handbook.
https://blogs.exeter.ac.uk/stoicismtoday/2013/11/20/video-introduction-to-the-stoic-handbook-of-epictetus/

DQ: Do you think the Stoics' idea that we should only worry about the things we can change a wise idea to live by? (LH29)

FQ: Besides being a philosopher, what other occupations did Seneca find time to do? playwright, politician, and businessman (LH31)

FQ2: How did Seneca feel we should spend our time? Studying philosophy (LH 32)

DQ2: Do you agree with what Seneca believes? That life is not too short, but most people don't use their time wisely? (LH 31)

LINK: Want to learn more about Stoicism and Seneca? Follow the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3aFNCkoLzDk

FQ: Along with being philosopher, what other occupations did Cicero have? He was a lawyer and a politican.
DQ: Do you agree or disagree that the soul lives on forever, like Cicero did and that old people shouldn't worry about dying?
FQ: What four problems did Cicero identify in his book, On Old Age, with growing old? It gets harder to work, body becomes weaker, joy in physical pleasures go and death is close.
FQ: In what empire did Cicero come from and whose teachings did he help spread? Roman empire and Stoic teachings.
Link to a quote I enjoyed by Cicero
http://izquotes.com/quotes-pictures/quote-if-you-have-no-confidence-in-self-you-are-twice-defeated-in-the-race-of-life-with-confidence-you-cicero-37410.jpg

FQ: Who was the eccentric philosopher that was dismissed from lectureship at Johns Hopkins University because of "unspecified moral grounds?"
A: Charles Sanders Peirce (p. 72)

DQ: Biographer Joseph Brent mentioned that rumors of "homosexuality, sexual promiscuity, chronic drunkenness, violence and drug addiction" swirled around Peirce, and they were often true. Brent went on to qualify Peirce as "impulsive, quick-tempered, and often perverse and arrogant," stating that Peirce "loved luxury and taking risks (p. 72)."
Brent said that Peirce's character "caused him to fail at every turn of his career." How do you think a philosopher of Peirce's genius--as well as his erratic nature--would fare in today's society?

Link: Learn more about Peirce here: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/peirce/

Link:How to Make Our Ideas Clear by Charles S. Peirce 
http://www.uh.edu/~cfreelan/courses/americanphil/peirce.html

DQ: Are there scenarios in which the absence of emotion would serve a person better than emotional control?

Link: More Calvin and Hobbes!!
http://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/1992/12/26#.UvpsWfldWtM

FQ: The philosopher-critic should work from within a community's _____ _______, rather than snipe from the rooftops. (pg.58)

DQ: What are you most critical of? That is to ask: what subject (controversial or not) do you have a strong critical opinion on?

http://alignmap.com/2008/07/29/calvin-and-hobbes-on-life-and-patient-compliance/

1. Link: info on Walzer http://www.ias.edu/people/faculty-and-emeriti/walzer
2. DQ: What would the world be like if imagination was reality?
3. DQ: Do you think that it is alright to "rationally reconstruct" American thinkers into skeletons made of their theses and arguments?
4. Link/Quote: "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson~