Claude’s perspective on Playground

https://claude.ai/share/eb537cb6-4e4c-4d1f-9174-955ed9497049

Librarians on the front lines defending 1st amendment

RCLS library director refuses to comply with board's book restrictions; faces disciplinary action or termination on March 30

Rutherford County Library System (RCLS) director Luanne James emailed members of the RCLS board on Wednesday, March 18, stating her refusal to comply with the board's March 16 vote to restrict access to more than 100 children's books. A copy of that email was obtained through an open records request by the library advocacy group Rutherford County Library Alliance. It is included below as a PDF.

Luanne James's email to RCLS Board - 18 March 2026

417KB ∙ PDF file

Download

RCLS chair Cody York has scheduled a special board meeting for March 30 to discuss disciplinary action for Ms. James. The Daily News Journal reports that York said, "As chair, I believe this matter warrants serious disciplinary consideration, up to and including termination." The special-called meeting will take place at 5 p.m. at the Rutherford County Historic Courthouse. It will be open to the public.

https://open.substack.com/pub/indecentlibraries/p/rcls-library-director-refuses-to?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web

Just keep going

"THE NEXT DAY they were mostly quiet on their drive back to Durham. Something had changed between them after the night's fire on Ocracoke, some shift toward intimacy she wasn't ready for. His eyes on the road, Limpet asked, "Do you have a life philosophy?" "Life philosophy?" The phrase felt like a contradiction in terms. "Words you live by."

She didn't live by words. She lived by life. But the question was sweet, and she did her best. She fed him that classic bit of Quebecoise wisdom. "Attache ta tuque et lache pas la patate!" "Meaning?" "Put on your little beanie cap and don't release the potato." Bart Mannis laughed so hard he almost ran them off the highway. But the meaning was clear, wasn't it? Hold on tight and keep going. Just keep going. Like any good creature of the tides."

— Playground: A Novel by Richard Powers
https://a.co/0c1VZjoK

FINAL REPORT PRESENTATIONS

Indicate your date and topic preference in the comments section below. The final report includes a blog post, the final draft of which is due May 2... but you may want to post earlier. Sign up as an AUTHOR on this site, in order to post. For specific "Arguments" in Goldstein, see Appendix (scroll down). You can choose to do something pertaining to what is assigned on your requested date, OR you can select an additional text and/or author of your own to report on... as detailed on the syllabus.

MAR

31 Richard Powers, Playground -p.292. Presentation: ___

APR

7 Richard Powers, Playground -p.381. Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, 36 Arguments for the Existence of God -pages to be announced. Argument #s 1-9. Presentation: ___

14 Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, 36 Arguments for the Existence of God -tba. Argument #s 10-18. Presentation: Amanda

21 Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, 36 Arguments for the Existence of God -tba. Argument #s 19-27. Presentation(s): Markeem

28 Last class. Exam 2. Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, 36 Arguments for the Existence of God -tba. Argument #s 28-36. Presentation(s): ___

MAY

2 Final report blog post (final draft) due. Post earlier for feedback.

Questions MAR 24

1.  Go ahead and post your questions and comments about Playground to p.193.
2. COMMENT ?: "The safest way forward was to keep to the group. That's why they called it schooling." 95
3. COMMENT ?: "...transfixed by the thought of a world after humans." 96
4. Any thoughts about my conversation with Claude? https://claude.ai/share/eb537cb6-4e4c-4d1f-9174-955ed9497049 Have you looked at or listened to any of the Powers conversations Claude recommends?
5. What’s your opinion of The Common Task? Is that really where evolution is headed? 
6. Whose vision of the future are you more comfortable with, Todd’s or Raffi‘s? Whose do you think is more likely to be realized? 
7. Has Bart made the right choice, to stay married to Evie?
8. 
   

Philosophy classes, Fall 2026

 

• PHIL 1030 – Introduction to Philosophy 3 credit hours Basic philosophical problems suggested by everyday experience integrated into a coherent philosophy of life through comparison with solutions offered by prominent philosophers. 

• PHIL 2110 – Elementary Logic & Critical Thinking Principles of deductive and inductive reasoning, problem solving, and the analysis of arguments in everyday language.  Dr. Slack 

• PHIL 3150 - Ethics Examines major ethical theories, the moral nature of human beings, and the meaning of good and right and applies ethical theories to resolving moral problems in personal and professional lives.  Dr. Johnson, Mr. Easley 

• PHIL 3170 - Ethics and Computing Technology Exposes students to the fundamentals of ethical theory and familiarizes them with some of the practical, ethical, and legal issues with which they would have to deal as computer scientists.  Dr. Johnson 

• PHIL 3690 – Social Philosophy The main problems of social philosophy are surveyed: the distinctive nature of social reality and the nature of social knowledge and how they relate to value theory.  Dr. Slack

• PHIL 4010 – History of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy The development of philosophical thought from Thales to Occam. Offered fall only. Dr. Newman 

• PHIL 4200 – Existentialism The nature, significance, and application of the teachings of several outstanding existential thinkers. Dr. Oliver - T/Th 4:20-5:45 pm, HONORS BLDG #117*

• PHIL 4250 – Philosophy of Gender Examines major work in contemporary feminist philosophy and feminist theory, with particular emphasis on the relation of sex and gender, feminist accounts of inquiry, feminist ethical issues, and feminist aesthetics.  Dr. Magada-Ward 

• PHIL 4500 – Philosophy of Science The methods, problems, and presuppositions of scientific inquiry. TBA 

*PHIL 4200-Existentialism Texts Fall '26
Required

• Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails with Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir,Albert Camus, Martin Heidegger,... - 978-1590518892
• Mariana Allesandri, Night Vision: Seeing Ourselves through Dark Moods - 978-0691242699
• Irvin Yalom, When Nietzsche Wept - 978-0062009302
• tba

Recommended

• Todd May, A Significant Life: Human Meaning in a Silent Universe - 978-0226421049
• Susan Wolf, Meaning in Life and Why It Matters - 978-0691154503
• Samuel Scheffler, Death and the Afterlife - 978-0190469177
• Soren Kierkegaard, tba
• William James, What Makes a Life Significant; Is Life Worth Living; On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings; tba
• tba

Lyceum Apr 17