Also note
(Late answers will receive 0 points. so get them in early); due dates for postings are on the class schedule.

After you put up your posting, you have a couple of days to respond to items on the board; come back often to see what new items appear that you can respond to. Read what everybody has to say about the discussion topic and respond to any or all of them (you need to put at least one to earn a "C," and at least two solid if you are trying for a "B" or an "A") responses on the board), and feel free to respond to responses :)

Typical postings are about 300+ words; substantive responses should be 200+ words each. Both should include examples (documnted, quoted) when possible.

Remember, discussion points will be assigned according to the thoughtfulness of your answers, not by whether they are "right" or not, since sometimes there is no "right" answer.

However, and this is a bit tricky, you will not get points for unsupported opinions, beliefs, notions, feelings. All of your ideas and claims must be supported with actual examples and by the material in the readings. Quote from the readings whenever possible. This serves two purposes: it illustrates your ideas; it also shows that you have read and understood the assigned readings.

Short, "I agree" or "that was great" or "well I think" statements are not going to earn many response points. Responses need to be substantive, to actually extend the ideas of the discussion to earn full points.

With all of that in mind, after you have read the material in Lecture 1, consider the following ideas that are at the heart of one of the central debates during the Englightenment. Feel free to relate this to the play Phaedra or the short novel Candide or ???

Answer any one of the questions below:

  1. How responsible is an individual in a world ruled by gods and goddesses? If you prefer a modern spin on this ancient question, is a criminal sick (not-sane, out of balance) or evil? In either case, is he responsible for his actions?

  2. If the world/universe is a rational, orderly place, why is it so messed up? Of course this begs the queston "Is the world messed up?" Feel free to argue that it's not.

  3. Is passion (emotion, the id, forces outside the seat of reason) truly the seed of human misery? If so, can it be tempered (squelched, modified)? If so, what would be lost?