21W.747 Classical Rhetoric and Modern Political Discourse (MIT)
This course is an introduction to the history, theory, practice, and implications of rhetoric, the art and craft of persuasion throughAnalyzing persuasive texts and speechesCreating persuasive texts and speechesThrough class discussions, presentations, and written assignments, you will get to practice your own rhetorical prowess. Through the readings, you'll also learn some ways to make yourself a more efficient reader, as you turn your analytical skills on the texts themselves. This combination
21W.747-1 Rhetoric (MIT)
This course is an introduction to the theory, the practice, and the implications (both social and ethical) of rhetoric, the art and craft of persuasion. This semester, many of your skills will have the opportunity to be deepened by practice, including your analytical and critical thinking skills, your persuasive writing skills, and your oral presentation skills. In this course you will act as both a rhetor (a person who uses rhetoric) and as a rhetorical critic (one who studies the art of rhetor
In Pursuit of the Salesman: Mathematics at the Limit of Computation - December 16, 2009
Lunch 'n Learn presentation: The traveling salesman problem, or TSP for short, is easy to state: given a number of cities along with the cost of travel between each pair of them, find the cheapest way to visit them all and return to your starting point. Easy to state, but difficult to solve! Despite decades of research by top applied mathematicians around the world, in general it is not known how to significantly improve upon simple brute-force checking. It is a real possibility that there may n
Simulations at the Petascale and Beyond for Fusion Energy Sciences - March 10, 2010
Lunch 'n Learn presentation: Major progress in magnetic fusion research has led to ITER – a multi-billion dollar burning plasma experiment supported by seven governments (EU, Japan, US, China, Korea, Russia, and India) representing over half of the world’s population. Currently under construction in Cadarache, France, it is designed to produce 500 million Watts of heat from fusion reactions for over 400 seconds with gain exceeding 10 – thereby demonstrating the scientific and technical fea
Simulations at the Petascale and Beyond for Fusion Energy Sciences PDF - March 10, 2010
Lunch 'n Learn presentation: Major progress in magnetic fusion research has led to ITER – a multi-billion dollar burning plasma experiment supported by seven governments (EU, Japan, US, China, Korea, Russia, and India) representing over half of the world’s population. Currently under construction in Cadarache, France, it is designed to produce 500 million Watts of heat from fusion reactions for over 400 seconds with gain exceeding 10 – thereby demonstrating the scientific and technical fea
Reunions Seminar 2010: Thoughtful Legacy Planning in an Uncertain Environment
Francis J. Mirabello ’75 P07, a partner and the manager of the Personal Law Practice of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP in Philadelphia, presented a practical discussion to Princeton alumni on how to ensure their estate plans achieved their goals for family and philanthropy, particularly in light of changing federal estate and transfer tax laws under consideration in Congress.
Peter Ward, University of Washington: Part 1 - "The Undesigned Universe - Designs on Life" - January
Beginning with various definitions of life and a brief history of how life arose and evolved on Earth, the first lecture will consider the diversity of possible life, basic precepts of Darwin's theory of evolution and the theory’s battles with creationism, and finally how life is a series of biological compromises superimposed on historical contingencies and structural constraints. A Stafford Little Lecture
Ken Steiglitz, Princeton University: "Snipers, Shills and Sharks - eBay and Human Behavior"
Lunch 'n Learn presentation: eBay changed Ken Steiglitz's life by opening up the market for low-end ancient coins. That led him to a professional interest in internet auctions. In this talk he'll raise and try to answer questions like the following: Why is eBay so successful, all but monopolizing the online auction market? What are its theoretical roots? How well does auction theory predict eBayers' behavior? How does eBay take advantage of departures from theory? What are economists learning
Ken Steiglitz, Princeton University: "Snipers, Shills and Sharks - eBay and Human Behavior"
Lunch 'n Learn presentation: eBay changed Ken Steiglitz's life by opening up the market for low-end ancient coins. That led him to a professional interest in internet auctions. In this talk he'll raise and try to answer questions like the following: Why is eBay so successful, all but monopolizing the online auction market? What are its theoretical roots? How well does auction theory predict eBayers' behavior? How does eBay take advantage of departures from theory? What are economists learning
Ken Steiglitz, Princeton University: "Snipers, Shills and Sharks - eBay and Human Behavior" PDF
Lunch 'n Learn presentation: eBay changed Ken Steiglitz's life by opening up the market for low-end ancient coins. That led him to a professional interest in internet auctions. In this talk he'll raise and try to answer questions like the following: Why is eBay so successful, all but monopolizing the online auction market? What are its theoretical roots? How well does auction theory predict eBayers' behavior? How does eBay take advantage of departures from theory? What are economists learning
16 - Backward induction: reputation and duels
In the first half of the lecture, we consider the chain-store paradox. We discuss how to build the idea of reputation into game theory; in particular, in setting like this where a threat or promise would otherwise not be credible. The key idea is that players may not be completely certain about other players' payoffs or even their rationality. In the second half of the lecture, we stage a duel, a game of pre-emption. The key strategic question in such games is when; in this case, when to fire. W
11 - Evolutionary stability: cooperation, mutation, and equilibrium
We discuss evolution and game theory, and introduce the concept of evolutionary stability. We ask what kinds of strategies are evolutionarily stable, and how this idea from biology relates to concepts from economics like domination and Nash equilibrium. The informal argument relating these ideas toward at the end of his lecture contains a notation error [U(Ŝ,S') should be U(S',Ŝ)]. A more formal argument is provided in the supplemental notes.
01 - Introduction: five first lessons
We introduce Game Theory by playing a game. We organize the game into players, their strategies, and their goals or payoffs; and we learn that we should decide what our goals are before we make choices. With some plausible payoffs, our game is a prisoners' dilemma. We learn that we should never choose a dominated strategy; but that rational play by rational players can lead to bad outcomes. We discuss some prisoners' dilemmas in the real world and some possible real-world remedies. With other pl
05 - Insurance: The Archetypal Risk Management Institution
Insurance provides significant risk management to a broad public, and is an essential tool for promoting human welfare. By pooling large numbers of independent or low-correlated risks, insurance providers can minimize overall risk. The risk management is tailored to individual circumstances and reflects centuries of insurance industry experience with real risks and with moral hazard and selection bias issues. Probability theory and statistical tools help to explain how insurance companies use ri
20 - The value of life, Part II; Other bad aspects of death, Part I
Lecture 20 continues the discussion of the value of life. It considers the neutral container theory, which holds that the value of life is simply a function of its contents, both pleasant and painful, and contrasts this with the valuable container theory, which assigns value to being alive itself. The lecture then turns to a consideration of some of the other aspects of death that may contribute to the badness of death. Among the issues addressed are the inevitability, variability and unpredicta
19 - Immortality Part II; The value of life, Part I
The lecture begins with further exploration of the question of whether it is desirable to live forever under the right circumstances, and then turns to consideration of some alternative theories of the nature of well-being. What makes a life worth living? One popular theory is hedonism, but the thought experiment of being on an "experience machine" suggests that this view may be inadequate.
13 - Personal identity, Part IV; What matters?
The personality theory is revised to state that the key to personal identity is having the same personality provided that there is no branching, that is, provided there is no transfer or duplication of the same personality from one body to another. Similar "no branching" requirements are added to the other theories as well. At the end of class, Professor Kagan suggests a shift from thinking about the survival of the soul in terms of "what does it take to survive?" to "what is it that matters in
12 - Personal identity, Part III: Objections to the personality theory
The lecture focuses on the problems directly related to the personality theory as key to personal identity. The theory states that a person retains his or her individuality so long as he or she has the same ongoing personality. The main objection raised to this claim is the problem of duplication. The lecture explores cases in which the same personality has been transferred or exported to multiple bodies.
10 - Personal identity, Part I: Identity across space and time and the soul theory
The lecture focuses on the question of the metaphysical key to personal identity. What does it mean for a person that presently exists to be the very same person in the future? The first approach to answering this question is the "soul theory," that is, the key to being the same person is having the same soul. Difficulties with that approach are then discussed, independent of the question whether souls exist or not.
01 - Course introduction
Professor Kagan introduces the course and the material that will be covered during the semester. He aims to clarify what the class will focus on in particular and which subjects it will steer away from. The emphasis will be placed on philosophical questions that arise when one contemplates the nature of death. The first half of the course will address metaphysical questions while the second half will focus on value theory.
