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HNRS 240
Final Exam Preparation
Spring 2013
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The purpose of this course was to give you many opportunities to look at how
we can know so much about the universe -- about reality -- that is apparently
beyond our senses, and often contradictory to what we're sure we experience.

So we looked at:

* How science works, and the field known as the philosophy of science.

* How knowledge was obtained (scientifically) about big things (cosmology,
  relativity), small things (quantum mechanics), and even no-things
  (nothingness).

* Whether there are other ways of knowing and finding things out besides
  science: can religion and mysticism help us here or not?  What is
  religion anyway?

* Reductionism and Emergence, since knowledge seems to rely on understanding
  basic, primitive principles, or laws. But these "laws" seem to emerge
  (unless you assume some agent assigned from outside with little dials and
  switches).  Wholes don't look anything like their parts!

* Language, as a vehicle for representing and communicating our knowledge.

* Logic, as a tool for reasoning about knowledge.  We saw there were many,
  many, different systems of logic.

* Brains and minds and cognition, to examine how we can know and infer
  anything.  Our brains evolved in a certain way, so many things that
  are real surprise us, we believe strange things, and our inference
  mechanisms are so often wrong.  But we are capable of knowing our
  cognitive limitations, and overcome them.

* Consciousness and free will and and purpose, because these are
  sometimes considered hard problems that science cannot address.  But
  is that really true?  What have we learned about these things?  They
  certainly matter to us.  Even if you believe there is one single
  universal consciousness, there is an experience of self that is real
  (at least to most people).  This is an aspect of the universe that is
  worth exploring.

For your final, you'll have to answer a number of questions to show:

* You recall some of names of people, discoveries, and movements that have
  influenced humankind's understanding of the universe and human nature.

* You can do a couple little technical things, like representing a sentence
  in logical notation, parse a logical formula, or determine whether an
  orbit converges or diverges.

* Describe a paradox.

* Find flaws in an argument.

* Identify different views of determinism and free will.

To prepare for the final:

* Skim the notes for the course in order.  Watch some of the short videos
  as time permits.

* Review the answers to Homework sets 1 and 2.

* The exam is open book and open notes and open devices, but you must
  not solicit any help either in person or electronically, and you
  must not exceed two hours.  So make sure you've gathered up resources
  before you start.

Hopefully this class was a good experience for you, and you can take away
from it:

* A new appreciation of the scale of the universe (big and small).

* A better ability to critique claims made by others.

* A slightly stronger knack for asking the "next" why question.

* A realization that absolutes lead to paradoxes and that this is no
  big deal.

* New views on morality, consciousness, free will, and purpose (that
  were new to you, I mean).

* The view that logic isn't dry -- it may be hard but it isn't just
  for math.

* A habit of reading XKCD and Edge, and a better knack for understanding
  them.

Whatever your own views were on science, religion, and mysticism were
coming into the course, I hope you've either strengthened them or changed
them.  I hope you see things differently and are asking new questions.
Perhaps you also find some things awesome that you didn't care about
before, or you now have explanations for things you thought might have
been unexplainable before.

Happy studying for the final and have a great summer.