Philosophy 251

General Information for Completing Writing Assignments:

(i) Each assignment is worth up to ten points. You will get one point for providing the correct answer and up to nine points for clearly and concisely justifying whatever answer you give. Note, that the emphasis is on justifying your solution regardless of whether it is correct or not. (Imagine that you are writing a solution that is to appear in a magazine in which the problem was presented in an earlier issue. Hence, you need to clearly and fully explain why the answer is the way it is, such that the readers will understand exactly why the answer is the way it is.) Below are some questions that I will ask when evaluating your assignments.

1. Is the answer clearly stated and identified as the answer?
2. Is the answer answering the question asked?
3. Does the student justify the answer actually given?
4. Does the student fail to account for (or contradict) a relevant fact from the problem?
5. Does the student make any assumptions not warranted by the problem?
6. Does the student contradict him/herself in the answer or justification?
7. Would the justification be understandable to someone who has read the problem, but does not know the answer?

(ii) All assignments must be your own individual and independent work and be pledged. By 'your own individual and independent work' I understand that the student will not have discussed the assignment with any other individual or looked at any other individual's solution prior to the assignment being handed in.

(iii) All assignments are to be done on separate sheets of paper. Each sheet of paper must have your name on it.

(iv) Late assignments receive no credit.

At 8:00 am you are at the entrance of the Sophia Art Gallery. The gallery is odd in two respects. Firstly, there are no spaces between the paintings--the walls are seemlessly covered with fine art. Secondly, there is one and only one path through the gallery. At 8:01 am, you begin to walk the one and only path through the gallery. Twelve hours later, after numerous breaks to rest and view the various paintings, you finally arrive at the restaurant and hotel located just beyond the point of the gallery path farthest from the main entrance. After a tranquil night and exquisite breakfast, you realize you had better get going or you will be late for a very important date. You start back through the museum at 9:00 am and after only a brief stop to check out the Vermeers again you arrive back at the main entrance two hours later.

Is there any painting in the gallery that you were in front of at the exact same time on each day? Justify your answer.

Due: Monday, Sep. 19, at the beginning of class.