May

Question 1

Dennett best example of memes

Answer 1

Words

No myth of creation or design. Classified already into family trees. Change and adapt and succeed or fail.

Question 2

Dennett best definition of a meme

Answer 2

A way.
A way of thinking
A way of wearing a hat
A way of designing a bridge

Question 3

Dennett: humans are not simply learners…

Answer 3

… they are also persuadable. Theyrespond to reasons that are represented to them.

Question 4

Ant colony structure

Answer 4

Ants perform particular roles but these roles are not fixed. The ants are not specialists. They display collective intelligence and respond to gluts of food by reallocating guards to workers, threats by reallocating workers to soldiers. Roles can change by age as well as economic need. In hundreds of species the ants are homogeneous with no physical distinctions at all.

Question 5

Ant intelligence expert

Answer 5

Deborah Gordon

Question 6

Major system:

Cthulu

Answer 6

715

Question 7

Major system:

Avicenna

Answer 7

802

Question 8

Major system:

chum

Answer 8

63

Question 9

Major system:

bored

Answer 9

941

Question 10

Jemma birthday

Answer 10

22/11

Nun toad

Question 11

Isla birthday

Answer 11

2/11/2018

Indict Isla

Question 12

Olly birthday

Answer 12

22/5/2017

Ninny Olly

Question 13

Edinburgh Anniversary

Answer 13

15/4

Dollar!

Question 14

Kenya Anniversary

Answer 14

11/6

Add dosh

Question 15

Keri birthday

Answer 15

6/4

Chore

Question 16

Tracy Birthday

Answer 16

21/4

Indoor

Question 17

Julian Birthday

Answer 17

1/12

Die dino

Question 18

Dennett tentative proposal for origin of language

Answer 18

Chomsky’s recent revision to his Language Activation Device (LAD), MERGE. Merge is the capacity to formulate recursive linguistic conceptual relationships by associating two concepts using just the label of one of them.

Merge is a candidate for a very simple adaptation that enabled later complex language use.

Question 19

Lee Siegel 1991 “Real magic…”

Answer 19

Real magic, in other words, refers to magic that is not real, while the magic that is real, that can actually be done, is not real magic.
Dennett uses as an analogy for consciousness and neuroscience

Question 20

Dennett “the hard question”

Answer 20

“and then what?”

If a theorist finds a way to explain how a representation makes it into phenomenal consciousness, we must ask why? What is it doing there? Dennett’s claim is that there is never a satisfactory answer, that all the work has already been done by the subpersonal processes.

Question 21

Dennett free will is just as real as…

Answer 21

… dollars, centres of gravity etc. we cannot do without them and we cannot do without free will.

Question 22

Frances Arnold

Answer 22

Biochemist. 2018 Nobel prize chemistry. Novel protein evolution.

Question 23

Biochemist. 2018 Nobel prize for Chemistry. Novel protein Evolution.

Answer 23

Frances Arnold

Question 24

Thomas Landauer

Answer 24

Pioneering development of “latent semantic analysis”.

A professor sets an essay question on an exam, and writes an A+ answer to the question, which is then given to both the computer program and a human teaching assistant as an example of what a good essay on the topic should be. (The A+ answer is not shown to the examination takers, of course.) Then the program and the teaching assistant grade all the student answers, and the program’s grades are in closer agreement to the professor’s judgments than the grades submitted by the teaching assistant, who is presumably a budding expert in the field.

Question 25

Latent semantic analysis Pioneer

Answer 25

Thomas Landauer

Question 26

Seleucid empire dates and context

Answer 26

311BC emerged after death of Alexander the great. Introduced a universal standard for time - counting years.

Question 27

Trial of Socrates order of dialogues

Answer 27

``` Meno Euthyphro Apology Crito Phaedo ```

Question 28

The science of storytelling author date

Answer 28

Will Storr 2019

Question 29

The brain is not a logic...

Answer 29

The brain is not a logic processor, it is a story processor. Attributed to Jonathan Haidt by Will Storr

Question 30

Monomyth theorist

Answer 30

Joseph Campbell

Question 31

Number of explanation seeking questions asked between age 2 and 5

Answer 31

40,000

Question 32

The psychology of curiosity author year main points

Answer 32

Loewenstein 1994 Curiosity induced by 1 posing question or problem 2 giving a sequence with an anticipated but unknown resolution 3 violation of expectations triggers a search for explanation 4 knowing that others possess some information

Question 33

Elements of personality from will Storr science of storytelling

Answer 33

Neuroticism Openness Extraversion Conscientiousness

Question 34

Culture differences east and west

Answer 34

Individual hero v collective harmony Greek situation mountainous. Unsuitable for communal farmers. Individuals who could hustle were successful. China and India have paddy cultures of harmonious cooperation leading to success.

Question 35

Prof Sarah Humble experiment

Answer 35

Present people in MRI evidence that contradicts their political beliefs. Fight or flight neural response recorded. Like coming across a bear in the woods.

Question 36

Split brain researcher

Answer 36

Michael Gazzaniga

Question 37

Michael Gazzaniga findings

Answer 37

Split brain patient. Left hem told to walk. Right hem confabulated reason "I want a coke" Left hem shown pictures of burning people. Right hem "I don't know why but I am scared, I feel jumpy, I don't like this room, you are making me nervous. "

Question 38

Difference principle

Answer 38

John Rawls | Inequalities are just insofar as they work to the benefit of the least well off.

Question 39

3 Objections to Rawls and replies

Answer 39

``` Incentives (accounted for by difference principle) Meritocratic based on effort (influenced by natural and cultural contingencies) (meritocracy does not measure effort but outcome) Self ownership (rights protected by veil of ignorance) ```

Question 40

School experience effects

Answer 40

Research shows that people with a positive high status school experience watch episodes of intense social interaction and attend more closely to the positive interactions, those who were low status at school would attend to negative and unkind behaviour.

Question 41

Brian Little: average number of personal projects we have going on at once

Answer 41

15

Question 42

Leibniz main work

Answer 42

Monadology 1714

Question 43

Curlicue

Answer 43

A pretty curl or twist | "A curlicue of smoke"

Question 44

A pretty curl or twist

Answer 44

Curlicue

Question 45

Tao the Ching: The master is...

Answer 45

The master is content to serve as an example and not to impose her will.

Question 46

Epoché

Answer 46

Suspension of judgement | Phenomenology: ridding experience of any theoretical baggage by attending closely to the phenomena.

Question 47

Suspension of judgement | Phenomenology - thought rid of presuppositions

Answer 47

Epoché

Question 48

At the Existentialist Café author date

Answer 48

Sarah Bakewell 2016

Question 49

Dasein

Answer 49

Heidegger Being there Humanness

Question 50

Das Man

Answer 50

Heidegger The they as in they say it will be over at Christmas But we are part of it. Must resist brig swept along by it