What is there about American society that makes baseball America's "national pastime"? 2 The actor John Gielgud believed that of all Shakespeare's characters Hamlet is probably the one most like Shakespeare himself–since, of all Shakespeare's characters, only Hamlet can be imagined to have written all the Shakespearean plays. How good an understanding of Hamlet's character does Gielgud's belief reflect? 3 Is it true that the U. S. needs to eliminate its national debt? 4 The question of altruism: Can a person be motivated by desires that are not–ultimately–selfish? 5 Various impairments of the mind are commonly associated with old age. To what extent are these biological in origin? To what extent, social in origin? 6 Why does nodding of the head signify Yes and shaking of the head No? 7 Why does music written in a minor key sound "sad" or "downbeat," while music in a major key sounds "happy" or "upbeat"? 8 Discuss the belief that great literature of the twentieth century lacks protagonists who qualify as heroes. (Among the works you discuss, include at least two by the following authors: Anton Chekhov, Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Amy Tan, Chinua Achebe.) 9 Your summer vacation–what was it really like? 10 Is our adversarial legal system–in which an attorney dwells just on the facts that support the side by which he or she is paid–the system likeliest to achieve justice? 11 The U. S. Constitution makes no mention of a right to privacy. Should it be amended to affirm such a right? If so, how should the amendment read? 12 In his Book of Questions, Gregory Stock asks, "If you could spend one year in perfect happiness but afterward would remember nothing of the experience, would you [spend a year that way]?" How would you answer Stock's question? Address either the psychological or philosophical issues raised by your response. 13 What is meant by the phrase "the rise of religious fundamentalism"? Is it an actual current phenomenon? If so, what accounts for its occurrence at this point in history? 14 What is time? 15 Some have claimed that no true democracies ever go to war with each other. In fact, does history bear that claim out? If so, try to explain how democracy exerts such an effect. 16 What accounts for changes in fashion in clothing? 17 Has the fact that divorce is much more common now than it was fifty years ago made divorce easier for adults or children to deal with? 18 What determines what dreams a person has when he or she sleeps? 19 Why do we need sleep? 20 The poet John Keats once wrote (in his poem "Ode on a Grecian Urn"), Beauty is truth, truth beauty,---that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. By contrast, Plato (in The Republic) warns of poetry's power to make a falsehood seem true, by beautifying it. What, then, is the relationship between beauty, as achieved by the artist, and truth? 21 How, exactly, does the status which society-at-large attaches to one's job affect one's job satisfaction? 22 Many admirers of Ronald Reagan credit him and his policies with the fall of Communism. Is that claim justified? 23 How does it affect one's personality to be the oldest of two or more children in a family? Alternatively, how does it affect one's personality to be the youngest child? The middle child? (Of these three questions address only one.) 24 Astronomers deal on a daily basis with distances like light-years, which are so great they are hard to imagine. Do astronomers therefore tend to feel "smaller" than other people do? (If so, in what sense? If not, why?)