I'm the best! (and you too)

I'm a self-centered pluralist. It means I'm the best.

I'm also an ethnocentric pluralist. It means my people (Lebanese, and more particularly Maronite Lebanese) are the best.  

Now, very important: My being the best does not exclude many other bests.

Here's the definition for "best" from the dictionary: One that surpasses all others.

Ok, now "surpasses all others" needs to be qualified. 

In what respect I surpass all others? 

I surpass all others precisely in my being this particular individual that I am. All the notes that make me myself.

Say, temporal notes (about the time I've lived so far), character notes (character is the set of all consensual behaviors of witnesses about me), psychological notes (memories, desires, hopes, etc),
physical notes (gender, sex, race, endurance, etc), behavioral notes (what I do in the world), skill notes (what I'm good at), etc. You get the idea. 

The same with you, with similar results.

Suppose you retort: well, you're not a better cook than Daniel Boulud, are you? So how could you be best? I'm not saying being best chef, nor the best French chef, which means being best in all possible French-chef notes. Boulud (whom I admire) is the best French chef I know, but not the best Chinese chef, nor the best Mexican Chef, and so on.

Best is not an unqualified universal category. 

"Best" is more a regional category, otherwise there's no way to even know what's best. As when I say: 

"John (my mechanic) this is the best SAAB mechanic in Coral Gables." I don't doubt there are better mechanics than John in Miami.   

"Best" is function of all the notes that make a respective particular.

f(ni) = p

Why is this good? Because without a balanced sense of SELF & community one is more prone to be dispossessed.

topics for review for chapter 4 (MINITERM)

find the topics for review for Exam #3 (Chapter 4) here. 
here is the link to your textbook.

section 4.3 identity, character and moral responsibility

click here for more information,

section 4.3 identity, narrative and moral persons

click here for more information.

Elon Musk believes we live inside a simulation algorithm (so you don't think i'm the only cuckoo here)

it's known as the simulation hypothesis. 

here you have professor frenkel's version for the NYTimes (the mathematician i introduced you to, here) 

two well-known cases of DID

Kim Noble, with 100 personalities,

Karen Overhill and her 17 personalities, 

(psychological duplication) DID and how to treat it

DID and how to treat it, from Psychology Today. 

A good movie dealing with duplication: Identity, 2003. Click here for the trailer.

my lemma 4 u

this is my lemma 4 u. don't forget it.

race bias and social mobility in america

my ten cents to professor Ralph Richard Banks's valuable article in the New York Times.

professor ed frenkel discusses professor langland's contributions to mathematics

i know that some of the stuff we do in class is "out-there" and sometimes you resist it. well, here is a great russian mathematician, ed frenkel, from UC Berkley talking about professor langland's contributions to mathematics. check 7:30, when frenken presents the question: if there are aliens, would they use the same mathematics we use? or 10:48, where he hypothesizes how numbers are tied to our practical human tasks (supposing aliens had tasks). this is a great lecture for all of you, not only math enthusiasts! here is professor frenkel's personal website.

the "nobel" prize in mathematics goes to...

(there's no Nobel for math, but the Abel Prize is kind of a Nobel). in any case, the winner is  Professor Robert Langlands, from Princeton, (I would've given anything to be his student). Read this Langland's interview.

also, we have the biggest prime so far: 2^74,207,281 − 1

a propos of primes (the bread and butter of number theory), three students of my 2016 honors class approached me with this question: are there infinite more prime numbers than composite numbers?

Find my sketched proof here.

section 4.2 memory theory

how memories work? (scientific american)

so we have fake memories (apparent in our jargon)

why are some memories memorable? (scientific american)

Locke's theory makes sense

look at clive hearing's unbelievable case of retrograde amnesia,

why causes are so complicated

click here for more information.

check these guidelines for our in-class peer review of your first drafts coming up

click here for more information.

i say don't tweak social roles unless you have to (to Maria Antonieta and Luis)

click here for more information.

it's PI day!

via ariel, who reminded me, click here.

getting ready for the first draft of your phi paper (for next week)

it's time to finish your first draft. after all, you have four paragraphs already. all you need to do is add what's left and a conclusion.  
 
cilck here for a 4-paragraph sample plus conclusion samples.

what we need to do now is to bring that draft to class and have a peer-to-peer review of it.

here are the guidelines for that review. 

cherry-picking the past with jimmi hendrix in it

click here for more.

2 reviews for our midterm next week (for T,R 8:25am & 11:15am classes)

there are two reviews, conducted by our diligent student assistants:

1- Otari Oliva is conducting a review on Monday, March 12, at 9am, at Wolfson Library, second floor.

2- Gabriel Conte and Pedro Emerique are conducting a review on Monday March 12, from 2:30-3:30pm, at Wolfson Library, Room 1216.

topics for our midterm exam HONORS

Click here for the topics to the midterm exam.

Click here for a link to your textbook's tests and notes. 

Remember to bring your own scantrons (and a pencil) to our test.  

To all my HONORS Student Assistants: Is there a possibility to coordinate a review for our midterm on Monday?

Interamerican class (HONORS)

Click here for more information. 

Interamerican Student Assistants. Is there a possibility to coordinate a review before Monday to study for my test?

If anybody has any questions regarding our test leave them here. 

PC and presentism are inseparable friends

click here for more.

PC and political diversity

what are the implications of diversity? click here.

PC going amuck

click here for the link.

in how many different ways is a proposition true or false?

click here for more information.

mind experiments. why? (for gabrielle)

click here for the answer.