South Park Episode Based on Truman Show

http://www.southparkstudios.com/guide/704/

This is an episode of South Park that has a similar premise to The Truman Show (which you will be watching in class). You may have to have an updated Adobe Flash Player to watch it. Hope you can handle getting your computers to run this...

I hope your vacation time is going well. See you next Friday.
-Mr. James

Don't Think That Neo's Powers Are Realistic?

Based on the responses on our first partial exam, it seems that many people in the class are still very sure that the world we live in is just as it seems. Some people said that the world is too complex to be a mere illusion. I thought maybe some videos might help our imaginations.

Here are some videos that show powers that are similar to those of the character Neo in the matrix. You can doubt the validity of the things shown in the video if you like, but don't think for one second that you can that these powers do not exist.

The first video shows a man who can set paper on fire with his hands using the power of Chi. He can also stop pellets, shot from an air rifle, with his hand. The pellets are deformed after he catches them. As if they had hit thick steel.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F3ovb2kZ9Q&feature=related

The second video is short and it shows a monk who can use his chi to throw a needle through a piece of glass.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU7qAtFFXxY


Here are some monks doing a demonstration. This is performance, but it is undeniably impressive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Llqup1Uir6k&feature=related

Exam Will Be Friday

The exam will be on Friday. Here is a study guide that will help you get a perfect score.

Know who these people are and what they did. They have all been mentioned in our book and in the movie.
Copernicus, Socrates, Plato, Leonardo Da Vinci, Johan Gutenberg, Robespierre, Soren Kierkegaard , George Berkley, Olympia De Gouges, Rene Descartes, Aristotle, Francis Bacon

Essay 1:

Describe Karl Pearson's Telephone Exchange thought experiment. Explain its significance.


Essay 2.

In The Matrix, the main character is shocked when he is taught that his whole life has been an illusion. The matrix in which his mind had been living was not physical reality, but only a simulation of it created by machines.
How do we know that the lives we are living are real? Can we be sure that we are not living inside of a similar matrix? Explain at length.

Essay 3.

In The Matrix, the main character is given a choice between two pills, a blue pill and a red pill. One pill will cause him to forget everything and go back to his comfortable life, the other pill offers to give him knowledge of the truth.
If you were given this option, which pill would you choose? Why? Explain the philosophical implications of your decision.

An Activity Related to The Martix

http://www.philosophers.co.uk/games/matrix.htm

Please follow this link and complete the activity. It will be very helpful when you take the exam.

Red Pill or Blue Pill, Which Would You Choose?

Here is an article that elaborates on the significance of Neo's dilemma: Red pill or blue pill?

http://www.arrod.co.uk/essays/matrix.php

Questions Related to The Matrix

Please post questions related to the movie we are watching in class: The Matrix.

Reading for Monday, March 8

Please read pages 29-31.

This section is about sense and imagination. It relates our current movie The Matrix.

Test Rewrites Due Monday

Just to remind everyone, rewrites for the first test are due Monday. I will not accept them late. You must type and print the rewrites. You only have to rewrite questions on which you hope to recoup points. In other words, if you got all the points for a question, you do not have to rewrite that answer.

Reading Assignment, Friday March 5

Please read pages 26-29 by Monday.

Reading, Tuesday, March 2

Please read pages 23-26 before Friday's class.