Quiz July 10 (11)

Appiah, 3-4. Posting this early so we can all enjoy a long holiday weekend (and page #s provided in case we don't have time to go over these in class). Add yours.

Remember, we're not meeting in class on the 10th. We'll gather in Nashville at the Tennessee State Museum, 1000 Rosa Parks Blvd, 37208-text me when you arrive, if you don't see us inside: 615-525-7865. I'll plan to be there by 4. Museum will be open 'til 8. (I might break away at 7 for the Sounds game next door.)

1. When Europeans used labels like "German" and "Italian" in the 19th century, what were they thinking about? (72)

2. What does it take to make a nation? (77)

3. Romantics at the end of the 18th century were entranced by who and what? (82)

4. Italo Svevo's Zeno is, above all, what? (86)

5. How did many of the former British and French colonies avoid linguistic/ethnic conflict? (93)

6. What are some unfortunate consequences of Singapore's "one-race-one-mother-tongue" policy? (95)

7. What's the Medussa Syndrome? (97)

8. What insight follows the recognition that nations are invented? (102)

9. What did Italo Svevo embody? What false dilemma ("forced choice") does his legacy allow us to reject? (104)


DQ (add yours)

• Is our allegiance to nationality founded on an "incoherence"? 
• Is it a better world when each nation vigorously pursues its own self-interest above all others? (Would you call that the Drumpf Doctrine?)
• How do you create shared sentiments that make it possible for people to live productively together? Does the same formula apply to individuals, families, communities, nation-states, international alliances, etc.?
• Why are some romantics equally smitten with military conquerors, creative geniuses, AND ordinary people? 
• COMMENT: “The world of today is at the crossroads--[t]he whole scheme of aimless capitalism and the last dregs of traditionalist nationalism are being seen more clearly in their death struggle.” Alfred Kazin, author of A Walker in the City
• Should English be America's official language? Do we need one? Should bilingualism be a required learning objective in public education?
• Will anything good come of Brexit, whether or not Britain ends up divorcing from the EU?
• What does patriotic globalism look like, to you?
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10. Who was Tsar Peter the Great's godson? (108)

11. Leibniz thought what was the distinctive difference between peoples? (111)

12. What are the three legs of the racial triad? (113f.)

13. The view that some people are natural slaves was defended by what ancient Greek philosopher (among others)? [HINT: more generally this philosopher repudiated essentialist thinking of the sort represented by Plato, the mentor whose metaphysical views he rejected?] (117)

14. The older view of race makes no sense in the absence of a what? (120)

15. What makes us the (potentially, at least) wise species? (122)

16. Victims of the 20th century's worst atrocities fell to hostilities based on what, rather than race? (127)

17. Half a century after the 1965 Voting Rights Act, median wealth of white households exceeded that of black households by how much? (131)

DQ

• Do you think humanity will ever entirely expunge the impulse of some to enslave or otherwise control others?
• Who do you consider the wisest voices, among our contemporaries, on matters pertaining to race in America? Barack Obama? Cornel West? Ta-Nahesi Coates? ...
• Do you think most white people in America historically have genuinely doubted the intellectual abilities of African Americans, or was that a desperately contrived rationale for denying equal opportunity, good schools, etc.?
• I used to read We're Different, We're the Same to our kids. Have most young Americans been taught some variant of that message, at this point? How long do you imagine it will be, before that simple statement of humanistic pluralism becomes universally ingrained in the national psyche?
• Do you think less of David Hume and Immanuel Kant, given evidence that they did not rise above the racist thinking of their age? How in general should we evaluate the racist errors of otherwise-luminous thinkers of the past? 
• What do you think of Nike's decision not to feature shoes depicting the Betsy Ross flag, bearing in mind that such historical iconography is often misappropriated by contemporary racists?
• Is it possible to discuss and account for racial stereotypes with respect to things like rhythm, athleticism and the like (blacks supposedly possessing a gift for the former, whites being incapable of jumping, etc.) scientifically and inoffensively? Or is genetic science inherently fraught with the risk of racist interpolation?
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