The Arch of the Sky

(Will anyone connect the song title/blog title to our course?)
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Per popular request, here are your reflection/discussion questions for Never Let Me Go and Slaughterhouse-Five.

To everything there is a season,
a time for every purpose under the sun.
A time to be born and a time to die;
a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
a time to kill and a time to heal ...
a time to weep and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn and a time to dance ...
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to lose and a time to seek;
a time to rend and a time to sew
a time to keep silent and a time to speak;
a time to love and a time to hate;
a time for war and a time for peace.
- Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

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What time is it now?
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How does one rebuild a life?
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Use this space to ask one another questions; I'll pop in three times tonight, but I need to devote more attention to the freshmen, who are taking a two-day-long exam on Romeo and Juliet beginning tomorrow!

Hmm...there doesn't seem to be a lot of demand for these, but I'll post them now that they're finished. Chapters 1-11 and 16-18 are available a few threads down.

Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapters 14 and 15

NOTE: This is the one that's due Friday. If you're looking for the Brave New World presentations, scroll down three threads!

For a quick review, look here: Shifting Gears #6: 42

+ Are you afraid that you won’t have enough time to do the things you dream of doing, or to follow through on your best intentions?

+ What would the worst part about dying be? What do you fear you’ll miss?

+ Do thoughts of “the good left undone” ever give you pause?

+ What is the meaning of life beyond self-perpetuation?

+ Do our most admirable human qualities give us a clue about what the ultimate meaning of life actually is?

+ What would happen if we knew that nothing really mattered?

+ If purpose and meaning are conferred upon us, what are some conceivable meanings?

+ Is purpose unique for every being, or is there a unified meaning of human existence?

+ Do you feel like you understand the meaning of your life? If you don’t yet, do you feel like you’ll get it someday?

+ Is life meant to be complicated? A constant work in progress? Is it meant to be “solved”?

+ If our dreams came true…would we be worthy? Would we be ready?

+ If humanity is meant to improve, how can we get better without losing who we are?

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This post is due at 11:59pm on Friday, May 14th.

Please try to post insightful, specific, and polished pieces. Your post should be at least two seven-sentence paragraphs long, and punctuation, grammar, and mechanics all count towards your grade. Compose your replies carefully, and always remember to state the why for every what!

For this post, written feedback for two of your peers is required!

Good luck!

For a quick review, look here: Shifting Gears #5: What If This Storm Ends?

+ Numerous cultures and theologies provide different explanations for what death actually is. Why don’t we have a “Unified Theory of Death”?

+ If you’re wrong about death, were you wrong about life?

+ Can there be a meaning in death, or is there only meaning in life?

+ How should one greet death? How should we greet life?

+ Do we tread more or less carefully, depending on how we feel about the end? Should we?

+ If there’s no “beyond,” is there any point to the “here and now”? How would our lives in this “plane” (using the dualist system) change if nothing lies beyond?

+ Does the mystery surrounding death actually help us live better lives?

+ Is fear a positive or negative force?

+ Is there existence beyond death? What’s the basis of your belief?

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This post is due at 11:59pm on Wednesday, May 12th.

Please try to post insightful, specific, and polished pieces. Your post should be at least two seven-sentence paragraphs long, and punctuation, grammar, and mechanics all count towards your grade. Compose your replies carefully, and always remember to state the why for every what!

For this post, written feedback for two of your peers is required!

Good luck!

For a quick review, look here: Shifting Gears #4: The Dark Night of the Soul

+ If we have souls, where are they? What’s the relationship of the soul to the physical form? Do you believe they’re joined, interactive, or related in some other what?

+ What constitutes a human being? Is the Monist or Dualist school closer to what you believe? Do you subscribe to a subset (Materialist, Idealist, Interactionist, etc.)? Which sounds most logical? Which do you believe? (Are they the same?) Why do you believe what you believe?

+ Can my soul be “bruised”? Can it suffer injuries through interactions with the physical world? Can it be altered by what we do or experience?

+ If the soul can be altered, how can we construct identities? (For that matter, if it can be changed, how do you go about changing it?) If the soul can’t be altered, do we ever have true freedom?

+ Are we more than what can be sensed? Is what goes on in my head – my consciousness and thoughts – different from my soul?

+ If we’re just programmed by cells and chemistry, are our “infinite possibilities” actually limited – at a sub-molecular level?

+ Are we more capable of goodness because of our experiences, or because of what we’re born with?

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This post is due at 11:59pm on Friday, May 7th.

Please try to post insightful, specific, and polished pieces. Your post should be at least two seven-sentence paragraphs long, and punctuation, grammar, and mechanics all count towards your grade. Compose your replies carefully, and always remember to state the why for every what!

For this post, written feedback for two of your peers is required!

Good luck!

For some reason, I can't shrink the file size of my presentations. Here they are in .doc form; they're not in the usual Feraco format, but I think they're still usable.

Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Seven

I'm altering Part Six (Chapters 12-15), and hope to finish it tomorrow morning.

For a quick review, look here: Shifting Gears #3: Smile Like You Mean It

+ “Morality is not properly the doctrine of how we may make ourselves happy, but how we may make ourselves worthy of happiness.” -- Immanuel Kant

Is Kant on the right path? Is everyone worthy of happiness (which would mean Kant was wrong), or should we be doing something in order to deserve our good fortune (karma, caution, compassion, etc.)?

+ “We are always getting ready to live but never living.” -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Has Emerson observed the human condition correctly? Were we always the way Emerson suggests we are, or does this shift with age?

+ Do you prefer Kant’s system, or Aristotle’s? Which school best reflects your beliefs – teleology, deontology, or something you created yourself? Which beliefs have you established?

+ Is there more to happiness than the simple fulfillment of moral imperatives – which seem to be the basis of both systems?

+ We contrasted what made you happy when you were five versus what makes you happy now. Was it easier to be happier when you were younger? Which happiness was "better"?

+ Are you more concerned with the well-being of others now that you’re older? When did you think more about your own happiness – then, or now? How has your attitude towards happiness changed, and why?

+ Is a life spent waiting for intermittent pleasant surprises worth living?

+ If happiness is such an important human concern – and if great minds seem to have devised ways to find it – why do we still sabotage ourselves?

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This post is due at 11:59pm on Tuesday, May 4th.

Please try to post insightful, specific, and polished pieces. Your post should be at least two seven-sentence paragraphs long, and punctuation, grammar, and mechanics all count towards your grade. Compose your replies carefully, and always remember to state the why for every what!

For this post, written feedback for two of your peers is required!

Good luck!