re the quizzes up on lumiNUS yet? I can’t seem to find them

Are numerous attempts allowed for each weekly quiz?

Will we be able to see the quiz marks upon completion each time so we can retry for full marks?

What’s the difference between MCQ and MRQ?

Is there a time limit for the quizzes?

How long and elaborate should our MRQ [probably referring to the SAQs] responses in the quizzes/exam be?

The first quiz begins in Week 3 on the Monday following the Webinar “W02 Well-being”. It will show up in Luminus>Module>Overview>2 then, and be open for a whole week. There isn’t a time limit each time you try it, only a final deadline. You can attempt as many times as you like but we will only take the last submission (do remember to actually submit). The correct answers and scores won’t be shown until the quiz has closed (the following Monday) and I have published the full quiz explanations, usually soon after.

An MCQ only has one selectable answer. An MRQ (Multiple Response Question) allows you to select as many options as you want. I intend to create some MRQs with between 1-4 correct options (none will have 0 correct options). You can get the mark for that question only if you select all of the correct options.

An SAQ (Short Answer Question) basically requires you to write a mini essay. I’ve not decided on the exact word limit yet but it will likely be in the 100-200 words range. For comparison, the first paragraph above (“The first quiz begins in Week 3…”) has 92 words. So the answers are expected to be relatively succinct. The plan is to make them a bit like what you are asked to do for the group discussion summaries–so it’s more about your responses. Except that this time, you really shouldn’t be exhibiting serious misunderstandings.

Disjunctive syllogism historically known as modus tollendo ponens is quite hard to wrap my head around? Is there any easier way to understand it?

Hello Prof! Can i check how do you interpret the table in the “A short lesson on Arguments and Logic” under “A basic logic primer?” about the different argument forms?

Hi Prof Loy, can you explain the Modus Tollens argument? I don’t really understand it from the readings 🙁

There’s an explanation for “Affirming a Disjunct” but I still don’t get it 🙁

the reading materials for the 2 types of arguments are they important? Because you didn’t touch them at all today.

Necessary and sufficient thingy killed all my brain cells. send help Prof. Loy!

i don’t understand disjunctive syllogism T^T

I think it’s mainly on inductive and deductive arguments and stuff tho.. now im getting worried ahout my pool of knowledge..

What the bot do

Like one of the students said–“the reading abt the argument is just a side lesson tdy is just an intro to philosophy chilll” I will say more about the “Short Lesson” and how it’s intended to be use in future Webinars. We are expecting to reinforce the concepts introduced in it throughout the semester. So hang in there. The bot? Akan Datang.

do we get to pick our groups for group discussions

hi prof, can we choose our tutorial discussion groups please?

what if we got no friends taking this mod 🙁

How do we know and get into contact with our assigned groups?

Hi Prof Loy, what are some details for group challenge 😀 (The videos by seniors were cool though)

The small groups will be allocated. We are doing this precisely because not everyone already comes to the class with friends. The group work is basically weekly discussion summaries where you tell us your responses to the readings. We will put out a sample in due time but the basic idea is roughly–what did people in your group find convincing, or unconvincing in the reading, and why. And members don’t have to agree–the disagreement can be part of the response. The group challenges consist of 2 x meme competitions, one for each half of the semester, worth a total of 4% While we will reward those who created seriously good memes that won the applause of your fellow students, the whole component–discussion summaries and meme challenge–are deliberately low stakes. We are rewarding conscientiousness and engagement, rather than sophistication or “getting it right”. And we are basically giving everyone a platform to make some new friends! Incidentally, nothing stops you from forming your own unofficial groups to talk shop–many students from previous semesters tell me they belonged to multiple discussion groups for the module.

what do you think of using some sort of forum instead of this? it would be interesting to see discussion on these issues, beyond just having answers be answered. Also, some questions are kind of irrelevant.

Hi prof, can this platform be used to reply other students question

can we please have a discussion forum as well, i think this pollev is kinda being abused

Can we have a tele channel instead so we don’t get spammed

is it possible to remove questions once in a while?

Engineering has live chat for large classes, but I guess that’s cause we’re introverted af

The Pollev is meant primarily for Questions, though general comments are fine. With this in mind, I think the live chatter should probably move to the telegram chats. Don’t get me wrong–I actually enjoy live chats for classes. Just in the summer, I taught a seminar module for USP and the live chat was very much a part of the class discussion. But that was a class of 24, not 450. So let’s monitor to see how things go but the general rule of thumb should be, use the Pollev for genuine questions. If you want to send a message to the instructor and tutors, use the Zoom Chat. For the live chatter, the various telegram groups are probably best. As you get to know each other in the tutorials, I suspect the best live chatter will be in the slightly smaller chats–where you don’t get drowned out just by the sheer volume. I am familiar with the Forum format. But so far, the experience is that the modern chat group (usually telegram or some equivalent) serves you better. But as I said, let’s monitor to see how things go.

Tutors all look so cool

will tutorials/ what we say be recorded?

Can we attend another tutorial slot if we can’t make it for our allocated one that week?

Will tutorial files be primarily distributed over Teams or LumiNUS?

Yes, my tutors are cool! 😀

We don’t have a policy to record the tutorials–we are mindful of your privacy! If you can’t make it to your tutorial slot for a particular week, it’s fine to attend a different one–but it will be your responsibility to ensure that your own tutor knows about this and can check on your participation. At the end of the day, you are expected to stick to your actual allocated group unless it’s an emergency. If you absolutely need to change your slot, work with us to make it official. We are doing all this to help make sure that the number of students in each tutorial meeting is not too large. Remember that you are meeting over Zoom. And we do want you to be discussing stuff in the meetings.

Your own tutor will decide. In general, we want to use Luminus for module-wide matters, and the various Teams for tutorial wide matters. Teams is also more sleek as a platform… You will be submitting your group work using Teams (through a shared document accessible to group members).

Are lectures asynchronous and recorded or fixed timing every Friday?

Can the lecture be in Zoom meeting style instead of Webinar style?

I think one break would be gd enough!

So you mean if we want to ask questions we just need to indicate and we will be able to have a proper chat over Zoom?

Am I free to leave now? I have a physical lecture at 4pm.

The Webinars are live every Friday. But they are also recorded so that you can review. The primary modality is synchronous, not asynchronous–this ensures that you keep to a schedule. But of course, if, for whatever reason, you prefer to just watch or listen to the recording, you are an adult responsible for your own life! (I don’t mark attendance too.)

The live E-Lecture uses Zoom Webinar simply because the class enrolment exceeds the capacity of regular Zoom (300). Even if live attendance falls below 300, the problem is that we can’t predict in advance. We do need to make sure that everyone who is in the class can attend if he or she wants to.

Yeah, I think one break is probably enough. But I’ll try having two to see how it works.

Another thing I’m keen to try is to have a slightly longer break in the middle where students keen to ask a question can do so directly. This actually replicates the situation in the in-person lecture where students will often come down during the break to ask me questions. But during the live Webinar itself, the main interaction will have to be via Pollev–it’s a numbers issue. Again, if you need to send a message to the instructors, you can use the Zoom Chat to do so. Each of the meetings will be supported by at least a couple of my tutors who can help me monitor. I will probably need to experiment a bit. Once the Webinar has officially ended (I always target to end no later than 1:35hrs), you can also stay back to hangout with me and I’ll promote you to panelist status so that you can unmute, etc.. For the first Webinar, there were around 10 students who did that and another 30 who hang around to listen.

just to check, this module can be taken as a UE module right?

GET1026 and GET1028 cannot be counted towards a philosophy minor is that right?

Does this mod have any resemblance to Everyday Ethics in Singapore GES1041?

when are the surveys due?

Yes, it can be used for UE. Yes, that’s right, neither GET1026 nor GET1028 can count towards the minor.  Some resemblance. A couple of the topics in the first half are applied ethics topics. A big part of GES1041 is applied ethics, in a Singapore context. (Dr Chin is a very good instructor, by the way.) The surveys are all due at the end of the semester. 16 November, I believe. You can see the deadlines attached to the survey itself within Luminus.

Although we’re not going to deep dive, are we going to be learning on major common philo teachings of the different eras? ( e.g pre-socratic, aristotle, niet/)

Are there any philosophers that are useful in the discussion of this mod?

Will we touch on eastern philosophy?

If this mod even touched on existential nihilism, I think just based on Nietzche life and Kierkegaard life everyone will be depressed.

Will we be participating in thought experiments in this module?

The module does offer relatively deep-ish dives–for beginners, on narrow fronts. We can’t teach you everything there is to know about, e.g., Free Will, Determinism, and Moral Responsibility. But if you pay attention and engage with the material, you would have gone fairly deep into the specific arguments we are discussing to the degree possible for beginners. What the module can’t do is to give you comprehensive coverage. The ten topics are listed in Luminus. As you can see for yourself, they are deliberately not framed historically. Nor are they framed around thinkers. The frame here is ten topics. No, you won’t be getting any systematic discussion of the history of philosophy. However, I won’t shy away from making side references to the history and some of the major thinkers whenever relevant to the discussion at hand. Including thinkers from the East. So watch out for them

Hmm… not sure what you are expecting. But I guess some of the arguments we will be discussing are thought experiment arguments. More generally, philosophers are doing thought experiments all the time, so…

Is the name of the course a reference to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?

Didn’t you notice that my self-introduction video is exactly 42 seconds long?