Quiz Reviews

[jsalbato@cnm.edu]

Reviews of the weekly quizzes…

Below are the basic elements in a good answer. Full credit requires that your answers are explained in your own clear, down-to-earth language. If the language in the lectures or readings is helpful, you can use some of it, but you will lose points if you borrow from sources outside the class. I want to see how you understand and interact with these ideas, not software or the internet.

Use these reviews to make corrections/clarifications to your reading questions answers. This will help with your exams.

• This topic was modified 3 years, 2 months ago by jsalbato@cnm.edu.
• This topic was modified 2 years, 10 months ago by jsalbato@cnm.edu.
• This topic was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by jsalbato@cnm.edu.
• This topic was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by jsalbato@cnm.edu.
• This topic was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by jsalbato@cnm.edu.

[jsalbato@cnm.edu]

Review Quiz #1
1. The tasks for each week are listed at the top of our webpage: In order: (1) Do the reading while (2) answering the Reading Questions, then (3) use Jeff’s lectures to correct and add clarity to your answers, then (4) take the Friday Quiz.
2. The absolute deadline for quizzes and exams is Saturday at noon.
3. The best prep for the Friday quizzes is the Reading Questions, because most of the quiz comes straight from those questions. (Note: But please be sure to read the questions carefully, because there are some subtle differences from the reading questions that I want you to think about. You can paste some of your reading questions answers straight over, but this won’t work for all of the quiz questions.)
4. The Friday quizzes cannot be made up, but there are many extra points built into the class to make up for missing a quiz or two. These extra points are built into every quiz and exam (they are not extra credit assignments).
5. Grades are based on earning points. For example, a “B” is earned when you get 80 points. (Note: It is not a percentage; that’s way harder. Out of the 130 possible points, 80 points is only 61%…you see, Jeff is a softy).
6. Philosophy is the study of the presuppositions in all fields of thought. (Note: Philosophy is the home of genuine critical thinking, carefully checking the support for all of our ideas, even the ones that we assume are obvious.)

[jsalbato@cnm.edu]

Review Quiz #2
1. My belief is only true if it agrees with reality. (Some might say that it is evidence or proof that makes something true, but that is not quite right, because our evidence could be mistaken. Think of those who thought the sun revolved around the earth: they thought this because it looks like the sun is moving. It is reality that makes a claim true, not the evidence or proof.)
2. The idea of “personal truth” or some belief being “true to me” is saying no more than “I believe this” or “This is my perspective”. And, of course, your believing something has no bearing on whether it agrees with reality. People believe false things or are deceived by their limited perspective constantly.
3. We should judge others’ values when they are irrational and when they could harm others. This can be done fairly by judging others’ values based on their own consistency, that is, we can judge someone’s values as being irrational if they are inconsistent with reality and/or inconsistent with their own values. (We are not judging others based on our own values.)
4. Jeff immediately grows a glorious beard. (I am so ashamed of my immaturity.)
5. The Cave story mocks the “seeing is believing” mindset, because it shows the cave-dwellers (most people) staring at illusions and taking them for reality. If all you see is deception, then your beliefs will be delusions. And, in Plato’s view, the whole physical world of sight is deceptive.
6. Normal science studies things in the physical world. In the cave story, these would be the shadows, and thus science, to Plato, is just playing the “shadow game” of naming and predicting the shadows. (Now, don’t overstate this, you people who deny science in the name of astrology or religion or conspiracies… scientists are better at dealing with the physical world than you, but they are not experts when it comes to abstract knowledge.)
7. Our everyday, physical world is untrustworthy for three reasons (pick two): 1. The world is always changing, 2. Our perspectives are always changing, and 3. The theories we use to interpret the world are always changing. (But, note, that doesn’t mean that objective truth doesn’t exist in Plato’s view; it just isn’t found using everyday perception. It is found in the realm of ideals, like math and philosophy.)
8. Philosophy is the study of presuppositions in all fields of knowledge. The Cave prisoners are us, and their stupidity and stubbornness about their assumptions should inspire us to want to study philosophy to check our assumptions so that we can avoid errors and escape our oppressive caves.

[jsalbato@cnm.edu]

Review Quiz #3
1. Since I am thinking abut this crazy question as my current task, this question and how to word my answer to it are phenomenologically closest to me right now. Whereas my self, my computer, my keyboard … all fade into the ready-to-hand background.
2. A steering wheel normally appears as an everyday tool I can just take for granted (i.e. ready-to-hand). It barely appears at all…it is “just” a steering wheel. The other items are not normally taken for granted but are more mysterious and disrupt our mindless projects.
3. Death normally appears as in-the-way of my tasks and something I have to figure out (present-at-hand)…death breaks all of our projects. The other objects are normal things we don’t give much thought to and just use.
4. If math or my job is directly related to my life goals (you will need this math in your career or your job is in your career field), then to concentrate on my current task I have to let those goals fade into the background of my thoughts. This can be bad, because I might lose sight of those goals. For most people, however, math class and their job are not connected to their goals and those goals do not appear at all (they are no-thing) except when daydreaming. This is really bad because you are likely to continue at these irrelevant tasks and never reach anything you seek.
5. Present-at-hand is how broken or missing tools appear. So the correct answer is not the tool, but how it appears… They appear as objective things that must be studied to repair them back to the ready-to-hand. (Very rarely these present-at-hand experiences can lead to seeing what the tool and projects are for and allow you to evaluate the value of the project in full.)
6. “I am” the They. Remember, the They is everyone and oneself, but always no one in particular. The They cannot be located as a definite thing, whereas the other choices are definite things. This is the worst thing about the They, that is, that it cannot be ignored or defied, because it is not definable, but we know what it thinks, because it is what we think. (spooky)(Note: Some of you answered “All of the above”, which is a pretty good answer as well, because The They is everyone and no one. I mean, The They can’t be pointed out, so this isn’t as good of an answer, because the other answers are things we can identify.)
7. If death became truly present-at-hand this would mean we are studying death objectively and realizing that all of our current projects are breaking, and this, if Jeff’s hopes are realized, would allow us to see all of the projects behind our everyday tasks and evaluate them to assess their worth. “Since I am dying (hint: we all are, by the way), do I really want to do this task to achieve that goal? Wait, I am not even working toward any of the goals that matter. Damn it! Please help me Jeff.” (Or, you know, something like that.)
8. The They says, “Sure, death will happen to you, but not soon, so don’t think about it. You have plenty of time to take control of your life someday. For now, just keep working at the Krusty Krab to buy another companion cube.” (Note: Krusty Krab = your job; companion cube = your phone)

[jsalbato@cnm.edu]

Review Quiz #4
1. Hell is other people! (Because we hate being so dependent on them for acceptance of our identities.)
2. Garcin cannot leave because he must first convince Estelle and Inez that he is the tough guy that he thinks he is. We are desperate for people to recognize us as what we think we are.
3. Estelle needs her mirror, because a mirror is how superficial people try to control how other people see them, and so, without it, her identity is up for grabs. And even if you aren’t purely superficial, we all still try to control the “self” we portray to others, whether it is Jeff’s “I’m a kind nerd” or your “I want people to see me as someone who doesn’t care what they think.” (Wicked irony, eh?)
4. We spend a ton of effort altering our looks and buying things to get other people to accept us as the person we want to be (and this person is often a lie, such as working class people trying to look rich by buying iphones). The car, clothes, gadgets are tools for our social performance that is trying to get people to see us as the social identity we are trying to portray. And even if you aren’t purely superficial, we all still try to control the “self” we portray to others.
5. The basic definiton of Bad Faith is “a lie to oneself” (even though that seems impossible).
6. The waiter doesn’t “have to” do any of this. What we choose is a choice to value that thing, and he won’t admit that he is choosing tips over being himself or doing something else for money. He makes the choice to act like a robot for tips instead of choosing to be himself, value authenticity over money, get another job, be nice because it makes others happy, etc.
7. The girl on the date is lying that her date only wants sex, so that she doesn’t have to make a choice. She pretends his comment about her looks isn’t manipulative and even ignores his first move of holding her hand.
8. The girl on the sate is lying to deny that her date is manipulative and insincere so that she can believe the fantasy that he cares about her as a person and feel good about herself. She makes several psychological moves to avoid this reality that is calling for her decision.

[jsalbato@cnm.edu]

Review Quiz #5
1. Our list is: love/companionship, self-expression, acceptance, and purpose/achievement. (And, of course, there are also our baseline physiological and security/safety needs.)
2. A neurosis is a failure in the Reality Principle. In other words, it is a behavior that shows an inability to accept reality in seeking to meet your needs. I am out of touch with reality if I think the shoes I bought express my genuine thoughts and feelings and not just my copying others to gain acceptance for a fake version of myself. The designer of the shoes is expressing her actual self; I’m not. I’m only gaining acceptance for my ability to have enough money to obey a trend and/or copy others as a fake self.
3. If our physiological needs are unmet, like our need for food, we die. If you psychological needs are unmet, we die psychologically, that is, we will go insane.
4. If our psychological needs are only partially met for long period we begin to psychologically deteriorate and will usually develop neurotic traits to try to artificially cope with these needs being unmet.
5. From defines sanity in a universal and objective way. A person who rationally seeks and meets their real needs is sane. (He is rejecting the Sociological Relativist conception of sanity that says a person is sane if they “fit in” in their given society, no matter how insane that society might be.)
6. Selfishness is a defect in that it will lead to difficulties in meeting our real needs (like love), and it is socially patterned in that this is a common, and even encouraged, behavior in our society. (And so the selfish person has a hard time seeing their defect, because they see many others being selfish and being applauded for it…like being elected president…zing!)

[jsalbato@cnm.edu]

Review Quiz #6
1. Product alienation is caused by the product never being yours but the owners, and it reflects only their choices and skills.
2. Product alienation results in a loss of expression, acceptance, and purpose in one’s work, because it reflects the owners skills and expressions, not yours. So, you cannot express yourself, gain acceptance from others’ view of your work, and cannot build expertise in creating it, because the goal is copying a model, not improvement.
3. Activity alienation stems from your choices and actions being dictated by the owners. Your time and choices are owned by the payers of the wage.
4. Activity alienation robs the worker of expression, and the results of this are mental exhaustion, deep boredom, aggression, neurotic means of expression, etc.
5. Georg avoided product and alienation because his products belonged to him, he could see his thinking and skills reflected in his work, allowing for expression, acceptance, and purpose.
6. Georg avoided activity alienation because his choices during work were completely up to him, allowing him to express what he thought and felt in his work.
7. The long-term effects of alienation include hatred of work, exhaustion, boredom, and a long-list of neurotic coping mechanisms to replace the loss of expression and acceptance, such as abuse of drugs, aggression, overspending on artificial needs, adopting a fake self for the They on social media, etc.

[jsalbato@cnm.edu]

Review Quiz #7:
1. The secretary is nowhere near equal to her boss in salary, social respect, or opportunity, but the trick our society pulls is to make her “feel” equal by having the same expensive tastes and values as her boss, driving a nice car, having the same clothing brands, cell phone, cynical attitudes towards poor people, etc. She even votes in ways that cater to the rich, because that’s how she sees herself.
2. The key to oppression today is giving people expensive artificial needs that can never be satisfied, so they will oppress themselves in jobs to make as much money as possible to afford these inexhaustible fake needs.
3. The key steps in the cycle are: You work a job that is alienating, so your real needs are frustrated. You “treat yourself” to some expensive artificial need because you worked so hard. These needs are not actually fulfilling of your real needs so they must be constantly replaced and cause you to go into debt. You overwork at your alienating job just to make as much money as you can to afford them. The alienated nature of such jobs makes your dissatisfaction even worse. So you buy even more false needs to compensate for your alienated and dissatisfying life…debt…overwork…frustration… Repeat…
4. Our alienation is hidden from us for four reasons (provide two): 1. We are too busy to do anything about it, because we are in the spiral of alienation and false needs, 2. We are convinced society is fair and equal because everyone has the same false needs, so we must all be rich, 3. We have no one to blame, because everyone is just playing their replaceable roles in the system that we support, 4. Our minds contain only images, which means we lack the concepts and ideals that would allow us to challenge the status quo with a better way it could be.
5. Being lazy and hating your job are not natural, but they are the standard, psychological results of alienated work.
6. They asked for their manuscript and accused the other person of stealing it. The interesting part is they made up total lies to justify their false belief.
7. You believe Apple, because the ads and social effects of the brand is like hypnosis, with no real evidence given to support why you should agree with them. Then, you act and feel on the belief by buying the phone and feeling joy that you are now rad, too. Finally, you repeat or make up total lies to try to make sense of your totally irrational belief and actions. (Your real reasons are something like, “People will see that I have the same overpriced phone as millions of people and think I fit in and am rich,” but you will tell yourself “It has a great camera, my old phone is uncool, and I’m an Apple person.”)
8. “Marketing Orientation” explains how we value ourselves as if we are products to be bought, so we go to the gym because we think if we improve our looks we will be worth more in other’s eyes and so we’ll feel better about ourselves as products.

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