Supplemental Philosophical Readings

Pick one philosophical question which is addressed both in The Three-Body Problem and in some of the supplemental philosophical readings. (For example: what does it mean to be alienated? How should we make decisions about which scientific research gets funded in a democratic society? Why should we care about non-human animals? Why should we care about discovering alien life? What would it look like if the principle of the uniformity of nature were not true? Is life absurd, and if so, what should we do about it? Is all qualitative change due to the internal contradictions of all things? But that’s only a partial list!) First, describe one way in which The Three-Body Problem helped you think about this problem and one way in which the supplemental philosophical readings helped you think about it. (For example: did the reading clarify what the problem means? Did it show you why the problem matters? Did it convince you that some answer to the problem is correct? Did it otherwise change your mind about the problem?) Second, do you think this problem is better addressed by a philosophical essay or through fiction, or are both approaches valuable in different ways? Why? I’m grading for clarity (can I tell what you mean, or do I have to guess?), organization (do I know why each sentence is located where it’s located?), plausibility (do you contradict yourself, say things without any evidence, or say things that are obviously false?), and presentation (any errors of grammar, spelling, word choice, etc.?) pull information from the reading the Three-Body Problem