Chapter 7: Virtual Bodies: The Construction of Race and Gender in the Matrix Explain the differences in race and

gender outlooks between: (a) human culture within the Matrix, (b) human culture within Zion, (c) machine culture within the Matrix. What accounts for these differences?

What are the main differences between the "Ideal of Blindness" and the "Ideal of Difference?"

What is the difference between biological sex and gender?

Is gender a social construction? Why should we think so?

On Baker's analysis, what do personal pronouns suggest about the significance of gender?

What do they say about power relations?

According to Simone de Beauvoir, what defines "woman?"

What effects does the current construction of female beauty have on womens attitudes toward their bodies? How does this translate into their actions?

According to Susan Bordo what is the ideal of feminine appearance taken to its extreme conclusion?

According to Catherine Mackinnon, what is a leading cause of violence against women?

Why might the Merovingian's special desert be construed as a "cyber-rape?"

What is "repressive satisfaction?" What are the consequences for women who do not live up to society's gender norms?

FREEDOM AND DETERMINISM Chapter 5: The Problem of Choice How did researchers at SUNY Medical Center control the will of a Rat?

Are people's wills controlled like this within the Matrix?

What is determinism?

What is the difference between hard determinism, soft determinism, and libertarianism?

What does each maintain about determinism, free will, and moral responsibility?

Which characters from the Matrix best illustrate each of the views above?

Explain the hypothetical example entitled "Red or Blue." How does this illustrate the compatibilist view of freedom?

What was Pierre Simone Laplace's view? (Did he believe in determinism?)

Chapter 6: How to Really Bake Your Noodle: Time, Fate, and the Problem of Foreknowledge Name three parallels between the Oracle of Delphi and the Oracle of the Matrix. What pronouncement of the Oracle helped to shape the direction of Socrates life? Do you agree with the argument on pg. 72 that concludes that it is impossible for Neo to refuse the candy at 2:13 pm?

What is fatalism (i.e., partial fatalism)? How does it differ from determinism? Explain the difference between tensed and tenseless theories of time.

How does Einstein encourage us to think of time in a way that is akin to how we regard space?

On a tenseless theory of time can the Oracle change the future?

If the tenseless theory of time is true, how should we answer the Oracles question: If I hadnt said anything about the vase, would you still have broken it? Explain Nietzsches doctrine of eternal recurrence. What is the psychological point behind it? Lectures on Free Will and Determinism What is the difference between compatibilism and incompatibilism?

What is fatalism?

What makes (or would make) the story of Oedipus Rex an example of fatalism rather than determinism?

Which do you think is most likely to be true: determinism, indeterminism, or fatalism?

What was the point of the "spit" example?

What was the point of the "Sphex (African Digger Wasp) example?

How is the existentialist view of freedom more radical than mainstream libertarianism? Clarence Darrow: The Crime of Compulsion What crime did Leopold and Loeb commit?

What was their motive?

Why did Darrow think that Leopold and Loeb were not responsible for their crime?

What causal factors does Darrow point to in order to explain the crime?

Does Darrow believe that any child raised in that environment would inevitably become a criminal? Why/why not?

What sentence did they receive? (In real life.)

What did Darrow think about the thesis of determinism?

Is Darrow a hard determinist, soft determinist, or libertarian? Why?

Chapter 12: Facing the Absurd: Existentialism for Humans and Programs What does Sartre think about the thesis of determinism?

Does he think that people are morally responsible?

What does he mean by "existence precedes essence?"

What does he mean by "man is condemned to be free?"

What is "facticity?"

In what ways is your life restricted by facticity? In what ways does Sartre think that you are free?

What is it to be in "bad faith?"

What is it to live "authentically?"

What was the point behind his "paper cutter" example? How is it related to his atheism?

Is Agent Smith more like a person or an artifact (e.g., a paper-cutter)? Why?

Is Smith free?

How do "Zion's War" "Persephone's Kiss" and "Trinity's Love" illustrate authenticity?

What existentialist concept is illustrated by Raymond K. Hessell in Fight Club?

PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION St. Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologica What are the general themes of each of Aquinas' five arguments for God?

The "Second Way" (1st cause argument) is also called the "cosmological" argument. Why?

What is the basic idea behind this argument?

Why does Aquinas say that it is not possible to proceed to infinity in efficient causes?

What are the main objections to this argument?

How might Aquinas respond to these objections?

What are the two main models in big-bang theory? (Lecture)

What is meant by the term "flat universe?" (Lecture)

If the universe is indeed flat, which big bang theory seems more plausible?

How might Aquinas respond to this objection? (Your own opinion)

What three attributes of God create the "problem" with respect to evil?

Why are things like disease, tornadoes, etc. considered in the problem of evil, when these things aren't really "evil" in the literal sense?

What are the basic ideas involved in each of the "solutions" to the problem of evil that we looked at?

Are any of these solutions successful? Why/why not?

Why did Leibniz say that this is the "best of all possible worlds?"

Why did Russell say that this is the "worst of all possible worlds?

Who do you think is closer to the truth, Leibniz, or Russell?

What is meant by the term "theodicy?"

Why do you suppose that Rowe uses the example of a fawn rather than a human being?