Honors Summer Read, 2013: The Rules of Engagement

Welcome to the new website for Enduring Questions!  If you are enrolled in an Enduring Questions class for the fall semester at ECU (EQ1 or EQ3), this website is for you.  Read on!

"Literary reading" by Vladimir Makovsky (1866)

Responses to questions on this website are designed to generate "virtual conversation." By virtual we do not mean something that looks like conversation but isn't. Instead, we mean REAL conversation in a virtual environment--this website.  And this fall, for the first time, incoming first- and second-year Honors students will be engaged in the same discussion: 1/8th of every student's writing grade in both EQ1 and EQ3 will be based on their responses to the questions raised here.

The sort of conversation we're looking for is academic in character. Thus, your responses should consist of clear, concise statements of your ideas crafted in standard English (not text-speak--some of us are old!). They should be long enough to convey your thoughts, but short enough for other readers to read and respond to fairly quickly. In short, you don't want your responses to be so long that you monopolize (or kill) the conversation by going on, and on, and on.....(we all know how irritating that can be!).

Obviously, responses should not use profanity. They should be civil and respectful. People do not always agree. Responses can be critical; however, all communication is expected to be courteous and professional. Contributor's positions may be questioned; their character should not.

The object here is to reflect on some of the issues raised by the text, to connect the reading to your personal experience, and to help first- and second-year Honors students get to know each other better.

When should I begin posting my responses?
As soon as you have read the opening pages of Subliminal:  How Your Unconscious Minds Rules Your Behavior. After you've read later chapters, you can read the questions associated with them (don't respond to a question about chapter eight until you have read chapters one through seven).

When is this assignment due?
This writing assignment is designed to be completed before classes begin.  Details about where and how to account for and submit your word count total will be provided when the semester starts.

How many questions should I respond to?

We do not expect you to respond to each question, but you should respond to several representing different sections of the book.  There is only one post that everyone should respond to in order to get full credit for this assignment.  Click here to read it.

How much should I write?

Your responses should add up to a sum total of not less than 750 words.  Don't try to load up all 750 words into one or two comments.  You should also respond to comments left by other readers. And pose questions to other readers. (Check back later to see if anyone has responded to your comments-and respond to their responses.)  All of this writing will count toward your word total.  Students are responsible for keeping track of their word total (you can cut and paste your responses into a Microsoft Word document, which has a word count feature).  This is not just a writing assignment, though; it's a reading assignment, too.  Every student is responsible for reading every word of the assigned text.

Where do I post my responses?
At the bottom of each question post, you will find a "comment" link. If it has a "0" beside it, that means no one has commented yet; as more people comment, the number will go up. (Click here to see a list of all the chapters that have questions associated with them.) When you're ready to weigh in, click on the "comments" button, read any previous comments, and start writing. Please sign your posts. And use your real name--not a nickname--so we can get to know each other).

How will this affect my grade in Enduring Questions: Perspectives from Western Humanities and Enduring Questions:  Perspectives from the Sciences?

Your grade on this assignment will represent approximately 1/8th of your writing grade for the course.

More questions?
E-mail us at sbenton@ecok.edu!

Engaging Subliminal

In this post, you will find links to about 50 question sets about Leonard Mlodinow's 2013 work of non-fiction, Subliminal:  How Your Unconscious Mind.  These question sets are organized by chapter and are listed in the order in which the issues they address are raised by the text.

There's also a sandbox where you can raise own questions about the text that are not covered elsewhere (and answer those posed by others).  There's also other good stuff that doesn't directly lead to a question but that may enrich your engagement with the material (you may have to read chapter six before you'll see the relevance of "Butt Slap, anyone?").

Once you've started reading the chapters listed below, click on the links, read the corresponding questions and comments other readers may have left (click on the "comment" button beneath each post to see them), and then join the discussion (or initiate it).

Chapter One:  The New Unconscious
1.1 , 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5
Chapter Two:  Senses Plus Mind Equals Reality
2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4
Chapter Three:  Remembering and Forgetting
3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6
Chapter Four:  The Importance of Being Social
4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4. 4.5
Chapter Five:  Reading People
5.1, 5.2, 5.3
Chapter Six:  Judging People by Their Covers
6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, "Butt Slap, anyone?"
Chapter Seven:  Sorting People and Things
7.1, 7.2
Chapter Eight:  In-Groups and Out-Groups
8.1, 8.2, 8.3
Chapter Nine:  Feelings
9.1, 9.2,
Chapter Ten:  Self
10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7, 10.8
A Final Word of Caution
The Sandbox

Mlodinow: Behold the Man

Curious about what Dr. Mlodinow looks and sounds like? Wondering about how to pronounce his name? The video above--a talk Mlodinow gave in May of 2012 to the good folks at Google--is your path to enlightenment.

My Baby, My Cat (1.1)

"Man with a Cat and Woman with a Child" Marc Chagall (1914)

According to Mlodinow, the human "tendency to believe in consciously motivated behavior is so powerful that we read consciousness into not only our own behaviors but those of the animal kingdom as well" (12). We are particularly prone to anthropomorphize pets.

Have you personally witnessed animals displaying behavior that suggest human-like consciousness? Do you know anyone who attributes such human-like consciousness to their pets? Have you seen animal behavior that suggests a human-like consciousness Mlodinow has too casually dismissed? Or do you think Mlodinow is right that we attribute consciously motivated behavior to animals when it's not really there?

Alternatively--or additionally--can you describe any cases in which you have found yourself retroactively attributing conscious motivation to actions that were not necessarily conscious choices when you made them? Or, to put it in other words, have you ever acted instinctively and later found yourself characterizing your actions as conscious choices?

Human Pets

Framed (1.2)

"A Window on the Street" by John French Sloan (1912)

Mlodinow argues that all human beings "have implicit frames of reference . . . that produce habitual thinking and behavior," but we like ot think that "our experiences and actions . . . [are] rooted in conscious thought" (15).

Sometimes it is easier to see how someone else's experience and background might shape or skew their perception of the world. It can be more difficult to recognize the ways in which your own perception of the world might be shaped in similar ways.

Have you ever had an experience in which you came to realize that your frame of reference (your gender, family history, income level, etc.) was shaping your perception of the world, causing you to see things differently than someone else might? If another person were characterizing your frame of reference, what might they find identify as your potential "blind spots"?

Frames of Reference

Not Me (1.3)

"Shoe Sale" by Burhan Dogancay (1990)

Mlodinow asserts that “The idea that we are not aware of the cause of much of our behavior can be difficult to accept” (16) and adds that although "'environmental factors' such as package design, package or portion size, and menu descriptions unconsciously influence us" (20), we"usually believe--wrongly--that they cannot possibly us" (21).

Are you inclined to agree that we are not aware of the cause of much of our behavior? If so, why do you think people find this so difficult to accept? If not, how would you respond to the claim that those who underestimate the influence of subliminal motivations on our behavior are themselves threatened by the idea that we are not in control of our behavior?

Do you consider yourself less susceptible to manipulation than other people you know? Can you think of cases in which your actions have been influenced by "environmental factors" that you may not have been aware of at the time?

Portion Size

Wholesome and Delicious! (1.4)

"Double Hamburger" by  Andy Warhol (1986)
This artwork may be protected by copyright. It is posted on the site in accordance with fair use principles. Why?

Mlodinow reports that mashed potatoes that have the texture of wool will taste better if a menu describes them as "velvety" because "flowery modifiers not only tempt people to order the lyrically described foods but also lead them to rate those foods as tasting better than the identical foods given a a generic listing" (21).

Use flowery modifiers to describe an unappetizing experience.
Subsequent commenters are invited to give each description two scores of 1-5 based on:
a) how unappetizing the experience is; and
b) how appealing the description is.

What Do They Want? (1.5)

"Letter to a General" by Leon Ferrari (1963)

If Mlodinow is right when he says that "the form of information . . . affects our judgments about the substance of that information," how should this insight affect the savvy student writer?

What "forms" are likely to have a positive effect on college-educated readers of academic writing?

Would You Like Some Lesions with That? (2.1)

"Veterinarian" by Norman Rockwell (1952)
This artwork may be protected by copyright. It is posted on the site in accordance with fair use principles. Why?

According to Mlodinow, "In the late nineteenth century, scientists had begun to study the importance of the occipital lobe in vision by creating lesions in dogs and monkeys" (41).

Imagine that you have been asked to write a policy that will be used to determine how researchers might use living creatures
.  Among the factors you may consider in your policy are: the kind of creature (from microorganisms to human beings), the effect of the treatment (the degree of suffering, potential injury, etc.), the value of the research (is it "pure" research or does it have a specific practical purpose, e.g. a potential cure for cancer or a potentially popular lipstick color) and its potential for success.

Where would you draw the line between what is and what is not acceptable?  Where would creating lesions on dogs and monkeys in order to study the importance of the occipital lobe fall with respect to your guidelines?

Click here to read a New York Times article, originally published on July 8, 2013, on a campaign to end biomedical experiments on chimpanzees.

The Expert Behind the Expert Behind the Expert (2.2)

George Riddoch (1888-1947)

According to Mlodinow, George Riddoch published an important paper on "unconscious vision"  that "virtually disappeared from the literature" because it was "derided" by another doctor who was "far better known" (42). One might conclude from this case that we should not let a writer's fame--whether it is great or not--influence our analysis of the claims they make.  But how realistic is that advice?  While fame accrues to many who may not have done anything to merit it (see, for example, Snooki), there are many realms of human experience in which must rely on the testimony of someone else.  When it comes to dentistry, auto mechanics, or colloquial Spanish, many of us are simply not qualified to judge the evidence on its merits.  When this is the case, we must rely on someone who has more expertise or experience than we do. In these cases, we trust the testimony of people who are held in high esteem by their professional peers, their clients, or their customers, those who have a record of success in their field, and are, within a particular realm of knowledge or experience, "famous."

And it is not just famous people that we trust.  We also trust less famous people who build their claims around the testimony of people who have more expertise or first-hand experience in their

Image by John Kay

field.  Like a series of nesting matroyshka dolls, each level of authority is reliant upon another.
Consider the many layers of testimony that are nested within this assignment, for example.  The book was recommended to you by the faculty of the Honors Program at East Central University, all of whom have Ph. D.'s. The book itself is a national best seller and its author, Leonoard Mlodinow, has a a Ph. D., is the author of another bestselling book, and teaches at the California Institute of Technology.  Mlodinow's account of Riddoch is informed by his reading of Ian Glynn's 1999 book An Anatomy of Thought and an article by Ronald S. Fishman that was published in the journal Documenta Opthalmologica in 1997.

All of these nested layers of authority encourage us to believe what we read, even though we ourselves never had dinner with Lieutenant Colonel T. and cannot confirm on the basis of first-hand experience that he could "detect motion" on the left side of his visual field even though he was otherwise "totally blind" in that area.

Obviously, there is both a value and a danger in trusting the testimony of experts and those with first-hand experience, but (and here, at long last, is the question):  Do you think people today are too trustful of experts or too skeptical?  Does education make someone more or less skeptical of experts? Give examples to support your claim (and, if you want, cite famous people who support your claim!).

We See Through You (2.3)

"Eye Opener"  by Burhan Dogancay (2009)This artwork may be protected by copyright. It is posted on the site in accordance with fair use principles

On pages 42-44, Mlodinow describes an experiment in which the sexual preferences of subjects had a significant effect on their ability to identify the location of an erotic image, although the subjects in these experiments were themselves clueless about the correlation.

Could this experiment be used to bypass someone's conscious resistance to revealing their sexual preferences?  In other words, might a subject be told that this was a vision test, when really it was an effort to determine whether or not they were gay?

Do you see any ethical or scientific problems with such an experiment?  Why or why not?

Do you think that it is possible to train someone's unconscious in such a way that might change their visual abilities in this regard?

Dr. Gut (2.4)

"The Masked Anemone" by Odilon Redon (1840-1916)

On page 45, Mlodinow recounts an experience in which "something" that was not his conscious, deliberate mind, told him to stay out of an area that turned out to be minefield.  That "something" may be characterized as a "gut feeling," and in this case, he should have trusted it.

Can you recount an experience in which you had a "gut feeling" about a situation that turned out either to be right or wrong?

Do you think that people in general rely too heavily on not enough on first impressions and gut instincts as opposed to logic and reason?

 In what kind of situations might gut instincts and first impressions prove to be unreliable or dangerous?

Oops! (3.1)

"The Execution" by Carel Willink (1933)This artwork may be protected by copyright.
It is posted on the site in accordance with fair use principles. Why?

On pages 52-54, Mlodinow describes a disturbing case in which an innocent man spent more than ten years in prison for a rape he didn't commit, in part because the victim "misremembered her attacker" (54).

John Grisham's 2006 nonfiction book, The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town, offers an account of a man from Ada who was put on death row for a murder he did not commit, also, in part, because of unreliable testimony of witnesses who claimed to have seen something they didn't in fact see.

Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 film, The Wrong Man, about an innocent man wrongly identified as the perpetrator of a crime, is based on the true story, described in the book, The True Story of Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero by Maxwell Anderson, and in the magazine article, "A Case of Identity" (Life magazine, June 29, 1953) by Herbert Brean.[3]

Some might say that the unreliability of eyewitness testimony as described by Mlodinow in this chapter (and dramatized by Grisham, Hitchcock, Anderson, and Brean) is a reason that the death penalty should be abolished.  Do you agree?  Why or why not?  Can you think of any other ways that the justice system might be reformed in a way that takes account of this new knowledge about the unreliability of eyewitness testimony?

Repressive or Creative? (3.2)

Sigmund Freud 

According to Mlodinow, Sigmund Freud mistakenly thought that "repression, rather than a dynamic act of creation on the part of the unconscious, was the reason for the gaps and the inaccuracies in our memory "(62).

Why is this distinction important?

How might his mistake have led Freud to overestimate the importance of helping patients become conscious of their unconscious anxieties and fears?

(Don't know much about Freud?  Click on the video below, a lecture by Paul Bloom, recorded in the Spring of 2007 at Yale University.)   

It Was the Way She Said It (3.3)

"Spat on the terrace" by  Klavdy Lebedev (1852-1916)

According to Mlodinow, "although we can retain deep structure--the meaning of what [someone says]--for long periods of time, we can accurately remember surface structure--the words in which it was said--for just eight to ten seconds"  (64).   However, as we saw earlier, the form in which something is communicated--or what might otherwise be described as the surface structure--has a great effect on our evaluation of its worth.

Given that it is the "deep structure" of language, or the meaning of an utterance, that we remember longest, why do you think we attribute so much importance to the form in which something is communicated (and many would say this is especially true with regard to written communication in an academic context)?  

Have you ever had an experience in which someone's concern with surface structure has overridden their concern with deep structure?  Alternatively, or additionally, have you had an experience in which someone attributed more importance to the way something was said than they did to the intended meaning (in a disagreement, for example)?

I Remember It Well (3.4)

"All are but Stories, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam"
Illustraiton by Edmund Dulac (1882-1953)
This artwork may be protected by copyright. It is posted on the site in accordance with fair use principles.

Mlodinow explains that most people remember a few details from a past experience and their mind fills in the rest, unconsciously fabricating information that coincides with their expectations of what they think must have happened.  Eventually, as a result of this process, we are, as Mlodinow puts it,  "remembering the memory, not the event" (66).

Given this tendency, consider the important role narrative plays in shaping the memories we have of past experiences.  The forces that shape the narrative, shape the memory, and what actually happened sometimes disappears into the mists, as it were (it is the job of historians to recover what has been lost).  In short, you could say, that those who tell the best stories, rule.

For this assignment, you should talk to someone with whom you have shared an experience of some importance.  Choose an experience that is sufficiently complex and a partner who sufficiently cooperative that you are likely to produce different accounts of the same event.  Ask your partner (or partners) to help you remember as many details about the experience as possible.  Take mental note of any differences between your memory and theirs--either things you remember differently or details they remembered, but you didn't, and vice versa.

In the comment section at the bottom of this post, report on your experience and reflect on the significance of the differences you encountered.

And consider this:  if you want to have a storehouse of good memories, the quality of the experiences you have may actually matter less in the long run than the stories you start telling about them.

I Have My Doubts (3.5)

"Christ and the Doubting Thomas" by Luca Signorelli (1477-1482)

Because our memories are so often flawed and we are "often wrong but never in doubt," as Mlodinow puts it, "We might all benefit from being less certain, even when a memory seems clear and vivid" (70).

Do you think that "being less certain" would be of benefit to you personally?

Can you think of any class of people (profession, age, gender, etc.) that might benefit from allowing a great sense of doubt into their own minds?

The Way It Wasn't (3.6)

"The Balloon" by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1874)

Mlodinow describes a study in which scientists were able to convince some subjects that they had ridden in a hot air balloon when they were children, when this was not, in fact, the case (75).

If scientists could implant a false memory in your mind, what kind of memory would you choose?

Can you imagine a scenario in which implanting false memories in a patient might serve a useful medical purpose?

What would be the biggest danger in having a false memory implanted in someone's mind?

If Albert Were with Us (4.1)

"Red Cross Nurses Handing out Wool for Knitting" by William H. Johnson (1942)This artwork may be protected by copyright. It is posted on the site in accordance with fair use principles.

If Albert Einstein were to apply to the ECU Honors Program, chapter four's epigraph might have been the first words of his response to the question "What should the goal of human life be?" Try to imagine what he might have added in support of his claim that "That from standpoint of daily life . . . there is one thing we do know: that we are here for the sake of others." What kind of logic would support that assertion?  You may be in a better position to answer this question after you have read the chapter.

Playing Well with Others (4.2)

"Willie Gillis in College" by Norman Rockwell (1946)This artwork may be protected by copyright. It is posted on the site in accordance with fair use principles.

Mlodinow reports that health is directly related to "social ties such as marriage, contacts with extended family and friends, and group affiliation" and people with "many regular and close social contacts" live longer than those who live in "relative social isolation" (84).

Given this correlation, should colleges organize themselves in a way that discourages "social isolation" and seeks to increase "group affiliation" and "regular and close social contacts"?  For this reason, should students be required to have roommates (and not just suite-mates)?

Does university money spent on "social activities" benefit student learning?  Are social contacts made in a work environment (a class, say) qualitatively different from contacts made in non-work environments (such as, say, a ping pong tournament)?

Would the health of students (emotional as well as physical) increase if they continued to live at home or closer to their family?  Do some people thrive in "relative social isolation"?

What I Learned from Friends (4.3)

On pages 87-88, Mlodinow describes human ability to reflect on "4th order intentionality" and offers some examples.

Can you contribute some real-world examples of your awareness of 4th order intentionality?

And click on this link for a well-known example from the TV series Friends ("The One Where Everybody Finds Out").

The Dreaded Group Work Assignment (4.4)

"Mental Arithmetic. In the Public School of S.Rachinsky"
by Nikolay Bogdanov-Belsky, (1895)

Accordingto Mlodinow, "One advantage of belonging to a cohesive society in which people help one another is that the group is often better equipped than an unconnected set of individuals to deal with threats from the outside" (81).  Later, Mlodinow suggests that the key to human progress is our ability to "form organizations" and "work smoothly together to accomplish a common goal with a minimum of miscommunication and conflict" (91).

In what ways do schools and classroom instruction practices encourage cohesion and cooperation and in what ways do they encourage teachers and students to function as "an unconnected set of individuals"?  What are the challenges of both approaches?  Are there situations in which more learning takes place in groups that are organized as "an unconnected set of individuals"?

A Lack of Oxytocin Made Me Do It(4.5)

"The Cure of Folly" by Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1560)

As Mlodinow explains, "although we are much more complex in our behaviors than sheep and voles, people, too, are hardwired to certain unconscious social behaviors, a remnant of our animal past" (96).  Given the relationship between oxytocin and vasopressin receptors and valued human social behavior (love, sociability, monogamy), can you imagine a scenario in which it would be a good idea to alter a patient's hardwiring in this respect in order to encourage a desired behavior, like monogamy?

Some might say that all drugs alter someone's hardwiring, but what policy should govern when such alterations are permissable?  Is it enough for the patient to desire such a treatment?  Under what conditions can a patient's hardwiring be altered without their permission?

On the Value of Bad First Impressions (5.1)

"The Teacher" by Gerrit Dou (1645)

According to Mlodinow, "with regard to our family, our friends, our employees, our employers and even the subjects being interviewed in a marketing focus group: whether or not we wish to, we communicate our expectations to others, and they often respond by fulfilling those expectations," (113).

With this in mind, consider what the effect will be on your teachers during the fall semester when they get an e-mail from the Honors office notifying them that you are in the Honors program, and ask yourself the question:  would you prefer it if people had high expectations for you, and you just met those expectations?  Or would you prefer it if people had low expectations of you, and you surpassed them, even if you didn't perform quite as well as you would when meeting someone's high expectations?

Additionally, or alternatively, we are accustomed to thinking that a teacher's expectations for students will affect their performance, but we are less accustomed to thinking of the way students' expectations affect the performance of their teachers.  Do you think it is unrealistic to think that the expectations of a single student could affect a teacher's performance in a particular classroom (either positively or negatively)?  Why or why not?  Provide examples from your personal experience if you have any.

Feeling Wanted (5.2)

"The Crowning of Helen" by  Frantisek Kupka (1906)

Given Rosenthal's research on the effect that labeling has on intellectual development (113-114), do you think just being invited into an Honors Program could positively affect someone's intellectual performance in college?  What if the student has the GPA and ACT scores to apply, but does not? What if a student starts the program, but chooses not to finish it?  What if a student with sub-par scores is admitted into the program?  Are children the only ones who are likely to be affected by labeling of this kind?

Can you think of any negative associations that might come with being labeled as an Honors student?

Alpha Dogs (5.3)

"Conversation by Henri Matisse (1909-1912)

According to Mlodinow, when it comes to social dominance, "it is not your overall tendency to look at someone that is telling but the way in which you adjust your behavior when you switch between the roles of listener and speaker" (121).  Thus, if you look away from someone when you are speaking, but do not look away when you are listening, you are less dominant;  but if you look at someone when you are speaking, and look away when you are listening, you are more dominant.

Try this out:  engage in a face-to-face conversation with someone and make a conscious--though unstated--effort to look at that person when you are speaking and look away when you are listening.  Then (you could actually do this first--the order doesn't matter), have a separate face-to-face conversation with the same person or a different person and make a conscious effort to do the opposite:  look away when you are speaking and look at them when they are speaking.  In the comment box, share your reflections on the experience, what it felt like and whether you think it had any effect on the conversation.

Sugar Free World (6.1)

"The Lie" by Felix Vallotton , (1898)

According to Mlodinow, "when put in a position where they have to criticize someone face-to-face, people often hesitate or sugarcoat their true opinion" (128).  Do you think the world would be a better place if there was no sugarcoating?  Is there any downside to anonymous critiques that protect that identity of the critic?  What if the critiques are only read by the person being criticized?

It Sounded Good (6.2)

The first speech of Vladimir Lenin in the Smolny.7 by Konstantin Yuon, (1935)

Mlodinow reports that "Expressive speech, with modulation in pitch and volume and with a minimum of noticeable pauses, boosts credibility and enhances the impression of intelligence," (133).

Let's try it.  Engage someone in a conversation in which you're going to do a substantial part of the talking (telling a story, for example).  Try talking faster, lowering the pitch of your voice, and increasing your expressiveness (varying pitch and volume). In the comment box below this post, report on the experience.  How did it feel?  Do you think it had any effect on the listener?

Do you believe that you could enhance people's impression of your intelligence if you were able to modify your voice in the ways described above?

Not Funny (6.3)

Mlodinow reports that "a 2010 study by a group of researchers in Berkeley found a case in which a habit of congratulatory slaps to the skull really is associated with successful group interactions" (136).  Yet earlier this summer, former NFL wide receiver Chad Johnson was sent to jail for 30 days because of the congratulatory slap on the butt that he gave his lawyer when the judge initially indicated that he was not going to be sent to jail.  The judge declared Johnson's slap to be an indicator that the celebrity athlete was not taking the judicial proceedings seriously.  Does the Berkeley study suggest that the judge may have misinterpreted Johnson's behavior? Does the Berkeley study suggest that cultures in which touching is more common are likely to be more successful in which touching is less common?

Looking the Part (6.4)

Many studies have shown that a candidate's appearance exerts a strong influence on voters (140). Candidates who look more competent, tend to get elected.

Now it's your turn.  Who do you think looks more competent:  the candidate on the left or the candidate on the right?  Write down your choices, put them in the comment box, and when the semester begins we'll report back.

1.
 

Butt slap anyone?

Gluttons for Punishment? (7.1)

"Scholars at a Lecture" by William Hogarth (1697-1764)

"...categorization is a natural and crucial shortcut," Mlodinow writes, yet "like our brain's other survival-oriented tricks, it has its drawbacks" (147).  One of those drawbacks is that when we categorize other humans, we tend to see "the doctors in a given practice, the attorneys in a given law firm, the fans of a certain sports team, or the people in a given race or ethnic group as more alike than they really are" (148).

What assumptions (positive and negative) do you think people are likely to make about students in the Honors Program?  Have people ever made wrong assumptions about you based on your membership in a certain group?

If Only They Had More Data . . . (7.2)

"Che Guevara" by Andy Warhol, (1968)This artwork may be protected by copyright.
It is posted on the site in accordance with fair use principles

Mlodinow quotes racist comments made by Lincoln, Gandhi, and Che Guevara (157-158).  How do these quotations affect your view of these progressive icons?  How do they affect your view of racism?

Do you know any virtuous people who have racist attitudes?

Do you think these attitudes can rightfully be described as "categorization" errors associated with "incomplete data" (152) and reinforced by "a culture that embodies negative stereotypes" about certain groups (156)?

What do you think motivates someone with racist attitudes to abandon those attitudes?

Innies and Outies (8.1)

"Family Group in a Landscape" by Frans Hals, c.1620

According to Mlodinow, "Humans have always lived in bands" or and "a highly evolved sense of 'us versus them' [has] been crucial to survival" of our species since prehistoric times (164).  Today, the "in-groups" that we feel a part plays an important role in "the way we see our own place in the world and on how we view others" (165).

Most people belong to several in-groups and "switching the in-group affiliation we're adopting for the moment is a trick we all use" (165).

What in-groups have been important to shaping your worldview?  Have you ever experienced the challenge of switching from one in-group to another?  Have you ever found yourself on the outside of an in-group you once belonged to?

In This Together (8.2)

"The Lion's Group" by Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro (1885)

Mlodinow reports that "the views of others in [our in-group] seep into our thinking, and color the way we perceived the world. Psychologists call those views 'group norms'" (166).

Given the impact of group norms on our behavior, what are the views, attitudes, and behaviors you hope will be encouraged by other students in the Honors Program?

Ganging Up (8.3)

"Meeting of thirty-five heads of expression" by Honore Daumier (1830-1879)

Mlodinow reports that "scenarios that [give] groups common goals and [require] cooperative intergroup actions . . . sharply [reduce] . . . intergroup conflict"and "the more that people in different traditionally defined in-groups . . .find it advantageous to work together, the less they discriminate against one another" (175).

Here's a scenario that includes a common goal and requires cooperative intergroup action:
a) identify a wise, thoughtful, thought-provoking, well-expressed or otherwise valuable comment on this website made by another Honors student in response to one of the questions in posted here;
b) explain why you found the comment to be valuable.

1/8th of of your writing grade in Enduring Questions this fall will be based on your responses to the questions posed on this website.  Ten percent of that score will be based on the completion rate on this assignment by everyone taking an Enduring Questions course this fall.

100 percent completion rate will be achieved if the following two conditions are met:
1) every student identifies a comment that they value; and
2) every student has a comment that is someone else finds value in.