By all means, comment on this post with answers, or followup questions, to any of these questions. Incidentally, just 'cause I give "hints" doesn't mean there's a "right" answer ;)
Re: "The Case of the Obliging Stranger" by William Gass
1) What does 'obliging' mean? Dictionary defs are fine but also what does it mean "ethically". i.e. is it good/moral to be obliging? Is it immoral or bad not to be?
2) Gass concludes that something is missing ("overlooked") by moralists of all kinds; what?
Hint:
The obliging stranger is overbaked. I wonder whether this is bad or not. I ask about it. Presumably there is a reason for my wonderment. What is it? Well of course there is not any reason that is a reason about the obliging stranger...
3) In the "postscript", Gass says that practicing Aesthetics is similar in some ways to ethics. How so?
Re: "The Virtues of Heroic Societies" from After Virtue, by Alasdair MacIntyre
4) Why the heck did I send this out alongisde the Gass essay? Hint: the full name of our class is "Local and Global Philosophy"
5) MacIntyre says that the analogy between rules of behavior in heroic societies and the rules of chess is "dangerous, but illuminating". What is dangerous about it?
6) What would people in heroic societies make of Gass's idea of "clear cases"?
Extra Credit: MacIntyre makes an offhand reference to Simone Weil. We'll be looking at Weil's work later. Who is she?
