Levels 401 to 500

Grammar Logic

Seminar

• G. W. F. Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit: the Preface

Tutorial: Laboratory

Gilbert: the Earth as a magnet. Read the selections on the lodestone, then lay a bar magnet on paper and trace its field with a compass, taking at least eight readings and noting the direction of each.

• Gilbert, De Magnete: Book 1, selections

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate the Preface's main claim about how a philosophy has to be presented, in 300 words, and answer the strongest objection a careful reader would raise. Then trace the field of a bar magnet with at least eight compass readings and say what the readings show. You pass when your 300 words hold up on a second reading of the Preface and your drawn lines match the readings.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• G. W. F. Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit: the Introduction and Consciousness, selections

Tutorial: Mathematics

Dedekind: what continuity is. Read the first half of the essay slowly and write each definition in your own words, then test each definition on five cuts of your own choosing, saying for each cut whether it fills a gap.

• Dedekind, Essays on the Theory of Numbers: Continuity and Irrational Numbers, first half

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons

Pass when: Reconstruct the Introduction's account of how knowing can be tested, in 300 words, and state the strongest objection to it. Then define a Dedekind cut in one sentence, classify five cuts against that definition, and read your definition and objection aloud to a listener. You pass when every cut is classified with a reason and the listener can state your objection in their own words.

On the site: How to Read a Great Book: Levels, Modes and the Completion Standard

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• G. W. F. Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit: Self-Consciousness: lordship and bondage

Tutorial: Laboratory

Magnets and compasses: map a magnetic field with a compass. Place two magnets with like poles facing and then unlike poles facing, and map each field with at least twelve compass readings.

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate the section in 250 words, naming the two self-consciousnesses and what each needs from the other, then give the strongest objection to the account. Map the fields of like and unlike poles with at least twelve readings each and note where a reading disagrees with your drawing. You pass when your restatement survives a second reading of the section and your maps match the readings a listener takes.

On the site: Hypotheses, Predictions and Tests

Grammar Logic

Seminar

• G. W. F. Hegel, Philosophy of History: the Introduction

Tutorial: Language

French: Baudelaire. Read three selected poems aloud in French each day, look up every word you do not know, and translate one stanza into English without a dictionary for the words you already know.

• Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du Mal: selected poems

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons

Pass when: Restate the Introduction's account of how history should be read, in 250 words, and give one objection to Hegel's view. Then translate two of the selected poems into English and mark the tense of each main verb. You pass when your restatement matches the Introduction on reopening and a listener can follow each translation against the French.

On the site: How to Read a Great Book: Levels, Modes and the Completion Standard

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• G. W. F. Hegel, Philosophy of History: selections

Tutorial: Evidence and inquiry

Computation: values, expressions and functions. Work through the opening chapters in Python, typing every example yourself, then write one small function of your own for each chapter's main idea and run it on test values.

• Allen Downey, Think Python: the opening chapters

Acts

Understand exactly, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate the selections' account of how history should be read, in 250 words, and name the claim you think is weakest. Then write a Python program of at least twenty lines that defines three functions, runs each on test values, and prints the results. You pass when rerunning the program gives every printed value you predicted, and your restatement holds on reopening the selections.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling: first half

Tutorial: Laboratory

Franklin: one electrical fluid, plus and minus. Read the selected letters in order and write each letter's claim about charge in one sentence, then rub pairs of objects, sort each into plus and minus, and record which pairs attract or repel.

• Franklin, Selected writings: selected letters

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Reconstruct, in 300 words, the first half's argument about what faith asks of the one who believes, and state the strongest objection to it. Then test Franklin's one-fluid idea on at least ten pairs of charged objects, record them in a table, and name one pair the table cannot explain. You pass when your 300 words survive a second reading of the first half and your table matches the pairs you tested.

On the site: Hypotheses, Predictions and Tests

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Søren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling: second half

Tutorial: Mathematics

Dedekind: cuts and the real numbers. Read the second half of the essay slowly, then write the definition of a real number as a cut in your own words and test it on two cuts of your own choosing.

• Dedekind, Essays on the Theory of Numbers: Continuity and Irrational Numbers, second half

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Reconstruct the second half's main argument in 300 words, and state one objection a careful reader would raise. Then check two cuts against your written definition: one that a rational number produces and one that fills no rational gap. You pass when your 300 words match the second half on reopening it and both cuts are classified correctly with a stated reason.

On the site: Proof and Precise Reasoning: From Arguments to Theorems

Grammar Logic Rhetoric

Seminar

• Søren Kierkegaard, Preface to The Sickness Unto Death: the Preface
• Søren Kierkegaard, Philosophical Fragments: selections, a variable selection

Tutorial: Writing and speaking

Research for the long essay: claims, reasons, evidence and qualifications. Re-read the chapters on argument, then choose one claim from the Kierkegaard selections and set it out in a table: the claim, three reasons, the evidence for each reason and one qualification.

• Booth and colleagues, The Craft of Research: the chapters on argument, a second reading

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Express it truly

Pass when: Write 500 words on one claim from the selections, giving three reasons, the evidence for each, and one qualification. Then read the piece aloud to a listener, who must name the claim and the weakest reason, and revise the piece once to answer that objection. You pass when the listener names the claim and the weakest reason correctly, and the revised text answers the objection on reopening.

On the site: Technical Writing as Reasoning

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Karl Marx, Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844: selections on estranged labour

Tutorial: Laboratory

Nollet: two fluids, and the dispute with Franklin. Read the selections on the two-fluid theory, then run the charged-object test from Level 406 and sort each result by which account, one fluid or two, it supports.

• Nollet, Selected writings: selections

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Reconstruct, in 300 words, the estranged-labour argument as the selections set it out, and state one objection a reader could raise against it. Then run the charged-object test at least ten times, record the results, and say which account each result supports. You pass when your 300 words match the selections on reopening them and your table names one result that neither account explains.

On the site: Hypotheses, Predictions and Tests

Grammar Logic Music

Seminar

• Karl Marx, Theses on Feuerbach: the theses
• Karl Marx, On the Jewish Question: the essay

Tutorial: Music

Wagner: Tristan and Isolde, Act 1, and the opening chord. Listen to the opening of Act 1 with the score, following the first chord and the chord that answers it, and say in your own words what the first chord does.

• Wagner, Tristan and Isolde: Act 1

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons

Pass when: Restate, in 300 words, the theses' and the essay's account of the relation between philosophy and practice, and name one objection. Then listen to Act 1 with the score and mark at least four places where the harmony moves away from rest, giving the bar for each. You pass when your restatement survives a second reading of both texts and a listener finds each marked place in the score.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Karl Marx, The German Ideology: selections

Tutorial: Mathematics

Dedekind: chains and the natural numbers. Read the selections on chains and on the natural numbers, then define a chain in your own words and test the definition on three sets of your own choosing, each with a mapping you choose, saying which are chains of that mapping.

• Dedekind, Essays on the Theory of Numbers: The Nature and Meaning of Numbers, selections

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate the selections' main claim about how ideas arise from material life, in 250 words, and state one objection. Then test three sets, each with a mapping you choose, against your written definition of a chain, classifying each with a reason. You pass when your restatement matches the selections on reopening them and each set is classified with a reason that holds on a second check.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Karl Marx, Capital: Volume 1, the commodity

Tutorial: Laboratory

Coulomb: the torsion balance and the inverse square. Read the selections on the balance, then hang a light charged ball on a thread, bring a second charged ball to six or more measured distances, and measure the deflection at each.

• Coulomb, Selected writings: selections

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Reconstruct, in 300 words, the first chapter's account of the commodity, its use value and its exchange value, and state the strongest objection to it. Then measure the deflection of a charged ball at six distances from a second charged ball and show in a table whether the readings fit the inverse square, with the error of your method stated. You pass when your 300 words match the chapter on reopening and a listener can check your table and verdict.

On the site: Proof and Precise Reasoning: From Arguments to Theorems

Grammar Logic

Seminar

• Karl Marx, Capital: Volume 1, the working day

Tutorial: Language

French: Baudelaire's form and its shocks. Read three further poems aloud in French, mark the rhyme and metre of each stanza, and translate one stanza into English, keeping the rhyme where you can.

• Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du Mal: further poems

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons

Pass when: Restate the chapter's account of the struggle over the length of the working day, in 250 words, and name one objection to Marx's reasoning. Then read two poems aloud in French, mark each stanza's rhyme scheme, and translate one stanza into English that keeps its rhyme. You pass when your restatement matches the chapter on reopening it and a listener can follow your translation against the French.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Karl Marx, Capital: Volume 1, machinery and large-scale industry, selections

Tutorial: Evidence and inquiry

Computation: conditions and loops. Read the chapters on conditionals and iteration, then write a Python program that loops over a list of at least twenty numbers and counts those that meet a rule you choose.

• Allen Downey, Think Python: the chapters on conditionals and iteration

Acts

Understand exactly, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate the selections' account of how machinery changes the work people do, in 250 words, and name the part you find least supported. Then write and run a Python program of at least fifteen lines that uses a loop and an if statement to count the values in a list of twenty or more that meet your rule, and check the count by hand on three values. You pass when the program's count matches your hand check each time you rerun it.

Grammar Rhetoric Arithmetic

Seminar

• Frederick Douglass, Selected speeches: selected speeches

Tutorial: Laboratory

Volta: contact electricity and the pile. Read the letter on the pile, then stack two, four and six pairs of coins and zinc or wet card, and measure each stack's voltage with a multimeter, borrowing one if you do not own one.

• Volta, Selected writings: the letter on the pile

Acts

Understand exactly, Express it truly, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate the main argument of the selected speeches in 250 words, and say what each speech asks its audience to do. Then build stacks of two, four and six pairs as the letter describes, record each stack's voltage in a table with at least three readings for each, and state the spread. You pass when your restatement matches the speeches on reopening them and the table shows whether voltage rises with the number of pairs, with the spread stated.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Frederick Douglass, Selected speeches: further speeches

Tutorial: Mathematics

Dedekind: proof by complete induction, justified. Read the further selections, then write the principle of induction in your own words and prove by it that the sum of the first n odd numbers is n squared, checking the proof on three small cases.

• Dedekind, Essays on the Theory of Numbers: The Nature and Meaning of Numbers, further selections

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Express it truly

Pass when: Restate the main argument of the further speeches, in 250 words, and state one objection. Then prove by induction that the sum of the first n odd numbers is n squared, and read the proof aloud, step by step, to a listener who checks each step. You pass when the listener finds no step without a reason and your restatement holds on reopening the speeches.

On the site: Proof and Precise Reasoning: From Arguments to Theorems

Grammar Rhetoric Arithmetic

Seminar

• Abraham Lincoln, Selected speeches: selected speeches, a second reading

Tutorial: Laboratory

A coin or lemon battery: measure its voltage and explain it. Make one battery from coins and paper, or from two lemons with a copper and a zinc electrode, measure its voltage three times, and explain each reading in a paragraph.

Acts

Understand exactly, Express it truly, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Write 300 words that restate the argument of one speech in your own words and say what it asks its hearers to believe. Then make a battery from coins or lemons, measure its voltage three times, and explain in one paragraph why the readings differ. You pass when the 300 words match the speech on reopening it and the three readings are recorded with a stated spread.

On the site: Hypotheses, Predictions and Tests

Grammar Rhetoric Logic

Seminar

• Booker T. Washington, Atlanta Exposition Address: the address
• Booker T. Washington, Our New Citizen: the essay
• Booker T. Washington, Democracy and Education: the essay

Tutorial: Laboratory

Ørsted: a current moves a needle. Read the paper on the needle, then place a compass under a wire, switch a current on and off and reverse it, and note each deflection and the direction it turns.

• Ørsted, Selected writings: the paper

Acts

Understand exactly, Express it truly, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Write 300 words stating the address's main claim about how its audience should act, and state the strongest objection to it. Then set a compass under a wire carrying a current, note the needle's direction with the current on, off and reversed, and write a paragraph on what the pattern shows. You pass when your 300 words match the text on reopening and a listener can repeat your test and get the same directions.

Grammar Logic

Seminar

• W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk: chapters 1-7

Tutorial: Language

French: Rimbaud. Read six selected poems aloud in French, one each day, then translate the shortest of them into English and mark two words whose English equivalent you cannot match exactly.

• Rimbaud, Selected writings: selected poems

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons

Pass when: Reconstruct the argument of chapters 1-7 in 300 words, naming the main problem the author sets out and one objection a careful reader might raise. Then translate the shortest selected poem into English, mark the two words you could not match exactly, and read both versions aloud to a listener. You pass when your 300 words hold on reopening chapters 1-7 and the listener can follow the translation against the French.

On the site: How to Read a Great Book: Levels, Modes and the Completion Standard

Grammar Logic Geometry

Seminar

• W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk: chapters 8-14

Tutorial: Mathematics

Lobachevsky: geometry without the parallel postulate. Read the opening propositions, then list the Euclidean postulates the argument keeps and the one it changes, and write a short proof of one proposition using only the kept postulates.

• Lobachevsky, Geometrical Researches on the Theory of Parallels: the opening propositions

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Reconstruct, in 300 words, the argument of chapters 8-14 on the question it sets out, and give one objection to its method. Then list the postulates Lobachevsky keeps and the one he changes, and prove one opening proposition using only the kept postulates, reading the proof aloud to a listener who checks each step. You pass when your 300 words hold on reopening the chapters and the listener finds no step that depends on the changed postulate.

On the site: Geometry, Euclid and Trigonometry

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter: the whole novel

Tutorial: Evidence and inquiry

Computation: data structures. Read the chapters on strings, lists and dictionaries, then write a program that stores a passage of the novel in a dictionary and counts how often each word appears.

• Allen Downey, Think Python: the chapters on strings, lists and dictionaries

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Reconstruct, in 300 words, the choice the novel asks its reader to judge, and state one objection to a reading that makes it simple. Then write a Python program that counts word frequencies in a passage of at least 200 words, stored as a dictionary, and check three counts by hand. You pass when your 300 words survive a second reading of the novel and the program's counts match your hand checks.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Herman Melville, Benito Cereno: the whole story

Tutorial: Laboratory

Ampère: forces between currents. Read the selections on the forces, then set up two parallel wires or drawn conductors and record, for each of the four combinations of current direction, whether they attract or repel.

• Ampère, Selected writings: selections

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate the story's central problem in 300 words, naming what the reader is led to believe and what the story shows, and state one objection to that reading. Then describe a set-up of two parallel conductors, test the four combinations of current direction, and record in a table whether each pair attracts or repels. You pass when your 300 words match the story on reopening and your four rows agree with a second run.

Grammar Rhetoric Logic

Seminar

• Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: chapters 1-21

Tutorial: Writing and speaking

Writing: outlining an extended argument. Read chapters 1-21, then draft an outline as a tree of claims, each claim supported by a passage you name, and mark the claim you cannot yet support.

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Express it truly

Pass when: Write an outline of about 500 words in the form of a tree of claims, tying each claim to a named passage in chapters 1-21, and mark the claim you cannot yet support. Then read the outline aloud to a listener, who must name the marked claim and the passage that would support it. You pass when the listener names the gap you marked and the outline holds on reopening the chapters.

On the site: Technical Writing as Reasoning

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: chapters 22-43

Tutorial: Laboratory

Faraday: electromagnetic induction. Read the First Series on induction, then move a magnet into and out of a coil connected to a meter, or draw the set-up if you have none, and record the direction of each reading.

• Michael Faraday, Experimental Researches in Electricity: the First Series, on induction

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Reconstruct chapters 22-43 in 250 words and name one objection to a reading that treats the last part as simple. Then move a magnet in and out of a coil, record the direction of the reading for at least eight motions, and state what the First Series says causes it. You pass when your 250 words hold on reopening the chapters and each recorded direction matches the one you predicted.

On the site: Hypotheses, Predictions and Tests

Grammar Logic Geometry

Seminar

• George Eliot, Middlemarch: Books 1-2

Tutorial: Mathematics

Lobachevsky: the angle of parallelism. Read the section on the angle of parallelism, then state its definition in your own words and explain in writing what a paper diagram can and cannot show about it.

• Lobachevsky, Geometrical Researches on the Theory of Parallels: the angle of parallelism

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate the first two books' account of the central characters' early choices in 300 words, and state one objection to a reading that makes those choices inevitable. Then write the definition of the angle of parallelism in your own words and explain in one paragraph what a paper diagram can and cannot show. You pass when your 300 words hold on reopening Books 1-2 and your paragraph states the limit of the diagram correctly.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• George Eliot, Middlemarch: Books 3-4

Tutorial: Laboratory

Faraday: lines of force. Read the selections on lines of force, then sprinkle iron filings around a bar magnet or sketch the lines by compass, and record at least six points where the lines run and their direction.

• Michael Faraday, Experimental Researches in Electricity: selections on lines of force

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate Books 3-4's account of how one character's situation shapes the others', in 300 words, and name one objection to the reading. Then map the lines of force around a bar magnet at six or more points, record each point's direction, and state where your map is least exact. You pass when your 300 words match the books on reopening them and a listener can reproduce your map and find the same directions.

Grammar Logic

Seminar

• George Eliot, Middlemarch: Books 5-6

Tutorial: Language

French: Valéry. Read the selected poems aloud in French, one each day, mark the verbs and their tenses in one poem, and translate two of its stanzas into English.

• Valéry, Selected writings: selected poems

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons

Pass when: Reconstruct the argument of Books 5-6 in 300 words, naming one choice a character makes and the reason the book gives for it, and state one objection. Then read two selected poems aloud in French, mark their verb tenses, and translate two stanzas into English. You pass when your 300 words hold on reopening the books and a listener can check each translation against the French.

On the site: How to Read a Great Book: Levels, Modes and the Completion Standard

Grammar Logic Geometry

Seminar

• George Eliot, Middlemarch: Books 7-8 and the Finale

Tutorial: Mathematics

Lobachevsky: the angle sum of a triangle. Read the later propositions, then state in your own words what the angle sum of a triangle does in this geometry and why it differs from Euclid's, and write one short proof.

• Lobachevsky, Geometrical Researches on the Theory of Parallels: later propositions, selections

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate the finale's account of how the novel's themes close, in 300 words, and name the ending's weakest claim. Then state the angle-sum result in your own words, prove one proposition from the later selections, and check the proof with a listener who looks for any step without a reason. You pass when the 300 words hold on reopening the finale and the listener finds no unjustified step in your proof.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Gustave Flaubert, Un cœur simple/A Simple Heart: the whole story

Tutorial: Laboratory

Faraday: electricity and chemistry. Read the selections on electrolysis, then state in your own words the quantity Faraday relates to the chemical change, and set up a simple cell with two electrodes if you have one, measuring the current over five minutes.

• Michael Faraday, Experimental Researches in Electricity: selections on electrolysis

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate the story's central argument about devotion in 250 words, and state one objection to a reading that calls the story sentimental. Then state Faraday's relation between current and chemical change in your own words, measure a cell's current at least five times, and calculate the total charge passed. You pass when your 250 words match the story on reopening it and your calculation matches a second check of the same readings.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace: first eighth

Tutorial: Evidence and inquiry

Computation: simulate a process from the year's science. Read the selections, then write a short program that simulates one process you studied this year, such as a falling body or a cooling cup, and print a table of its values at ten times.

• Allen Downey, Think Python: selections

Acts

Understand exactly, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate, in 250 words, what the first eighth shows about one named character's view of society, and name one claim you think it leaves unsupported. Then write a program of at least fifteen lines that simulates one process from this year's science and prints a table of ten values. You pass when the table matches your hand calculation of the first two rows and the 250 words hold on reopening the eighth.

Grammar Logic Music

Seminar

• Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace: second eighth

Tutorial: Music

Wagner: Tristan and Isolde, Acts 2 and 3. Listen to Acts 2 and 3 with the score, following the leitmotifs and noting where a motif returns in a changed form.

• Wagner, Tristan and Isolde: Acts 2-3

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons

Pass when: Restate the second eighth's account of one decision by its central figures, in 250 words, and name the objection the text leaves open. Then listen to Acts 2 and 3 with the score and list five leitmotifs, marking where each returns changed. You pass when your restatement holds on reopening the eighth and a listener can find each marked return in the score.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace: third eighth

Tutorial: Laboratory

Faraday: the absolute quantity of electricity in matter. Read the paper, then repeat the electrolysis measurement from Level 429 three times and record the spread of your totals.

• Michael Faraday, On the Absolute Quantity of Electricity Associated with the Particles or Atoms of Matter: the paper

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate the third eighth's main argument in 250 words and state one objection to it. Then repeat the electrolysis measurement three times, calculate the total charge from each run, and state the spread and the largest source of error in a short table. You pass when your 250 words match the eighth on reopening it and the three totals are reported with the spread and the error stated.

On the site: Hypotheses, Predictions and Tests

Grammar Logic Geometry

Seminar

• Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace: fourth eighth

Tutorial: Mathematics

Lobachevsky: a non-Euclidean trigonometry. Read the trigonometric formulae, then compute the three sides and angles of one triangle you choose, using the formulae as stated, and check the result by a second route.

• Lobachevsky, Geometrical Researches on the Theory of Parallels: the trigonometric formulae, selections

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate the fourth eighth's account of one character's changing view of war, in 250 words, and name one objection to it. Then compute the sides and angles of one triangle using the formulae in the selections, and check the result by a second route. You pass when your 250 words match the eighth on reopening it and the two routes agree to the precision you state.

On the site: Geometry, Euclid and Trigonometry

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace: fifth eighth

Tutorial: Laboratory

Induction at home: a coil, a magnet and a meter. Repeat the experiment of Level 424: move a magnet into and out of a coil connected to a meter, or take readings from a published record of the experiment if you have no meter, and log the direction and size of each reading.

Acts

Understand exactly, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate the fifth eighth's account of one turning point, in 250 words, and say what evidence the text gives for it. Then repeat the induction experiment of Level 424 at least eight times (from your own readings or a published record), log the direction and size of each reading, compare the directions with Level 424, and say where the sizes vary and why. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 250 words match the eighth on reopening it and your log supports the statement you make about induction and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Logic

Seminar

• Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace: sixth eighth

Tutorial: Language

French: Flaubert's sentences. Read the selected prose aloud in French, one passage each day, and rewrite one long sentence as two shorter sentences, keeping every idea.

• Gustave Flaubert, Selected writings: selected prose, in French

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons

Pass when: Reconstruct the sixth eighth's argument about one scene in 250 words, and name the strongest objection to the reading. Then read a passage of Flaubert's French aloud, and rewrite one long sentence as two shorter ones that keep every idea. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 250 words hold on reopening the eighth and you have compared your two sentences with a published English translation of the passage and can show that every idea survives and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Rhetoric

Seminar

• Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace: seventh eighth

Tutorial: Writing and speaking

Speaking: the oral examination, practised. Give a five-minute spoken account of one passage you read this month to a listener, or record it and play it back, then take two questions from the listener (or write two from the recording) and answer each in under a minute.

Acts

Understand exactly, Express it truly

Pass when: Reconstruct the seventh eighth's main action in 250 words, and name one objection to your reading. Then give a five-minute spoken account of one passage you read this month, without notes, to a listener or to a recording, answer two questions on it (the listener's, or two you write from the recording), each in under a minute, and say which of your claims you would now qualify. You pass when your 250 words hold on reopening the eighth, the spoken account matches its passage on reopening it, and both answers stay inside the text.

On the site: Technical Writing as Reasoning

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace: the last eighth, with the Epilogue

Tutorial: Laboratory

Maxwell: Faraday's lines made mathematical. Read the selections, then compute the strength of a simple field (for example that of two sources in Maxwell's fluid analogy, or of two point charges) at three points, and check each by a second route: a scale drawing of the lines, or a meter if you have one.

• Maxwell, On Faraday's Lines of Force: selections

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Reconstruct the last eighth and the Epilogue's argument about history in 300 words, and state one objection a reader could raise. Then compute the field of a simple arrangement at three points, check each result by a second route (a scale drawing of the lines, or a meter if you have one), and state the difference as a percentage. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 300 words hold on reopening the Epilogue and each of the three comparisons agrees within the error you state and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

On the site: Hypotheses, Predictions and Tests

Grammar Logic Geometry

Seminar

• Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov: Part 1

Tutorial: Mathematics

Geometrical systems compared: consistency, intuition and physical space. Reread what you have done on Euclid (Levels 51-60) and Lobachevsky (Levels 420-433), or read one account that sets the two geometries side by side, then write what each system assumes, which assumption each keeps, and whether intuition or consistency decides between them.

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons

Pass when: Restate Part 1's introduction of the Karamazov family and what each member wants, in 250 words, and name one objection to a reading that makes one member the centre of the book. Then write what two geometries each assume, which assumption each keeps, and whether consistency or intuition decides between them, in a table of at least four rows. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 250 words hold on reopening Part 1 and the table's rows can be checked against the sources you used and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov: Part 2

Tutorial: Evidence and inquiry

Computation: debugging as inquiry. Read the material on debugging, then take one program that gives a wrong answer (one of yours from Level 421 or 430, or a working program of your own that you break by changing one line), state the expected output, find the fault by changing one thing at a time, and write down each test.

• Allen Downey, Think Python: the material on debugging

Acts

Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Reconstruct Part 2's main dispute in 250 words, naming the premise each side accepts. Then take a program with a wrong answer, state the expected output, locate the fault by changing one thing at a time, and log each test in a table. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when the program gives the expected output and you can reproduce the fault yourself, starting from the original program, using only your table and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

On the site: Hypotheses, Predictions and Tests

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov: Part 3

Tutorial: Laboratory

Maxwell: a mechanical model of the field. Read the selections, then build or draw a mechanical model of lines of force, such as rollers and gears, and state what each part stands for and where the model fails.

• Maxwell, On Physical Lines of Force: selections

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate Part 3's account of one character's guilt in 250 words, and name the strongest objection to the reading. Then build or draw a mechanical model of lines of force, state what each part represents, and list three places where the model fails. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 250 words match Part 3 on reopening it and each failure you list is a behaviour of lines of force that the model does not reproduce, and you can point to it in the Maxwell selections and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov: Part 4 and the Epilogue

Tutorial: Laboratory

Maxwell: the dynamical theory of the field. Read the opening parts, then take one equation or quantity from them, substitute values you choose, and compute the result at three settings, checking each by a second route.

• Maxwell, A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field: the opening parts, selections

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Reconstruct Part 4 and the Epilogue's main argument in 300 words, and state the strongest objection to it. Then compute one quantity from the opening parts at three settings, check each by a second route, and state the difference. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 300 words hold on reopening the Epilogue and the two routes agree at all three settings to the precision you stated and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil: the Preface and Parts 1-2

Tutorial: Mathematics

Einstein: simultaneity and the relativity of time. Read the kinematical part, then write what it means for two events to be simultaneous, and test the definition on two clocks at rest and two moving relative to each other.

• Albert Einstein, On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies: Part 1, the kinematical part

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons

Pass when: Restate the Preface and Parts 1-2 on the claims of philosophers to truth, in 300 words, and state one objection to Nietzsche's view. Then write the definition of simultaneity from the kinematical part and apply it to two pairs of events, one at rest and one moving. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 300 words hold on reopening the text and a listener agrees your definition applies to both pairs and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

On the site: What Does It Take to Know Something?

Grammar Logic

Seminar

• Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil: Parts 3-5

Tutorial: Language

French: Proust's long sentence. Read the selected prose aloud in French, one passage each day, and mark the main clause of one long sentence, then translate that sentence into English keeping its clause order.

• Marcel Proust, Selected writings: selected prose, in French

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons

Pass when: Reconstruct the argument of Parts 3-5 in 300 words, naming one central claim about religion or morals and one objection. Then translate one long French sentence into English, keeping its clause order, and mark its main clause. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 300 words match Parts 3-5 on reopening them and each clause of your translation can be matched to a clause of the French, marked on the text, and you can explain any clause you reordered and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil: Parts 6-9

Tutorial: Laboratory

Maxwell: light as an electromagnetic disturbance. Read the part on the electromagnetic theory of light, then state the wave speed the theory predicts from measured constants you look up in the text, and compare it with a measured speed of light.

• Maxwell, A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field: the part on the electromagnetic theory of light

Acts

Understand exactly, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate Parts 6-9's account of scholars, virtues and nobility in 300 words, and name the claim you think is weakest. Then calculate the wave speed the theory predicts from the constants the text gives, and compare it with the measured speed of light, stating the difference. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using passages you can point to. You pass when your 300 words match the parts on reopening them and your calculation uses only constants you quote from the text, the measured speed you compare it with is cited from a source you have read, and the difference is stated as a percentage and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Sigmund Freud, Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis: selections on parapraxes and dreams

Tutorial: Mathematics

Einstein: the transformation equations. Read the transformation equations in the first part, then take one pair of events, transform its coordinates by hand, and check that the time interval changes as the text says.

• Albert Einstein, On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies: Part 1, the transformation equations

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate the selections' account of how a slip or a dream is read, in 250 words, and name one objection to treating every slip as meaningful. Then transform the coordinates of one pair of events by hand, check the result by a second route, and report whether the time interval changes as the text states. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 250 words match the selections on reopening them and the two routes give the same result and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

On the site: Judgment Under Uncertainty: Probability, Causation and Forecasting

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Sigmund Freud, Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis: selections on the general theory of the neuroses

Tutorial: Evidence and inquiry

Computation: tests as stated expectations. Read the material on testing, then write a test for one of your programs from Level 439, stating each expected output before you run it.

• Allen Downey, Think Python: the material on testing

Acts

Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Reconstruct the selections' general account of the neuroses in 250 words, naming the claim that a reader can test. Then write at least five tests for one of your programs, each with its expected output stated before the run, and report which expectations failed. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when the tests run, every failure is explained, and you can say from your test file alone what the program is supposed to do, and your sentence matches the program and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

On the site: Hypotheses, Predictions and Tests

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Sigmund Freud, Mourning and Melancholia: the essay

Tutorial: Laboratory

J. J. Thomson: cathode rays and the electron. Read the paper, then state the measurement Thomson describes in your own words, and repeat the calculation of a deflection using values you choose, checking the result by a second route.

• J. J. Thomson, Cathode Rays: the paper

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate the essay's account of the difference between mourning and melancholia in 250 words, and state one objection to it. Then state the measurement in the paper in your own words, calculate a deflection with values you choose, and check the result by a second route. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 250 words match the essay on reopening it and the two calculations agree and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Sigmund Freud, Beyond the Pleasure Principle: the whole work

Tutorial: Laboratory

Millikan: measuring the electron's charge. Read the selections, then use the oil-drop method as the selections describe it, or a published data set if you have none, and calculate the charge of at least five drops.

• Millikan, The Electron: selections

Acts

Understand exactly, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate the whole work's argument about repetition and the death drive in 300 words, naming the step you think is least supported. Then calculate the charge of at least five drops from the selections' method, and report the spread of the results against the accepted value you cite from a source you have read, naming the largest source of error. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 300 words hold on reopening the work, your spread is reported with its source, and the difference from the accepted value is explained by an error you name and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Edmund Husserl, The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology: Part 1 and selections from Part 2

Tutorial: Mathematics

Einstein: the electrodynamical part. Read the selections from Part 2, then write one result of the electrodynamical part about light or fields seen from a moving system, and check one case by calculation.

• Albert Einstein, On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies: Part 2, selections

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Reconstruct Part 1's argument about the crisis of the sciences in 300 words, and name the step a reader could reject. Then write one result of the electrodynamical part about light or fields seen from a moving system and check one case by calculation. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 300 words match Part 1 on reopening it and your calculation matches a second route that you work yourself and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

On the site: What Does It Take to Know Something?

Grammar Rhetoric

Seminar

• Edmund Husserl, The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology: Part 3, selections on the life-world

Tutorial: Language

English poetry: Wordsworth's Prelude of 1799. Read the Two-Part Prelude aloud, one passage each day, then pick out the three lines you find hardest to paraphrase and paraphrase each one in plain prose.

• William Wordsworth, The Two-Part Prelude of 1799: the Two-Part Prelude

Acts

Understand exactly, Express it truly

Pass when: Restate the selections on the life-world in 250 words, and name one claim you think a reader could reject. Then read the Two-Part Prelude aloud, pick three lines you find hardest, and paraphrase each in plain prose. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 250 words match the selections on reopening them and a listener agrees each paraphrase keeps the sense of its line and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Logic Music

Seminar

• Martin Heidegger, Introduction to Metaphysics: the first chapter

Tutorial: Music

Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms. Listen to the whole work with a score or a published listening guide, marking the three places where the text of the psalms and the music answer each other.

• Stravinsky, Symphony of Psalms: the whole work

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons

Pass when: Reconstruct the first chapter's question about why there is something rather than nothing in 300 words, and state one objection a reader could raise. Then listen to the whole Symphony of Psalms with a score and mark three places where the sung text and the music answer each other. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 300 words hold on reopening the chapter and each of your three marked places can be found by the bar number or the time in the recording that you give and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Rhetoric

Seminar

• Martin Heidegger, Introduction to Metaphysics: the later chapters, selections

Tutorial: Writing and speaking

Writing: revising syntax. Take a page you wrote this month and revise every sentence longer than thirty words, cutting each to two shorter sentences or fewer words, without changing its claim.

Acts

Understand exactly, Express it truly

Pass when: Restate the later chapters' main claim in 250 words, keeping the claim in your own terms. Then revise a page of your own writing, cutting every sentence longer than thirty words, and keep the claim unchanged. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 250 words match the later chapters on reopening them, the revised page makes the same claim as your original page (a listener, or you after a day away, can state it from either), and the page reads without a sentence that needs a second reading and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

On the site: Technical Writing as Reasoning

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Martin Heidegger, Basic Writings: selections, including "What Is Metaphysics?"

Tutorial: Laboratory

Rutherford: the scattering of alpha particles, and the nucleus. Read the paper, then count scattered particles at three angles in a table, using a published count if you have no apparatus, and say what the count suggests about where the mass sits.

• Rutherford, Selected writings: the paper

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate the essay's question about what is revealed in a mood, in 250 words, and name one objection a careful reader would raise. Then count scattered particles at three angles in a table (from your own apparatus or a published count), and state what the counts suggest about where the mass sits and how sure you are. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 250 words match the essay on reopening it and your table gives a conclusion a listener can check against your counts and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Martin Heidegger, The Word of Nietzsche: 'God Is Dead': the essay

Tutorial: Laboratory

Planck: the quantum hypothesis. Read the paper, then state the hypothesis in your own words and calculate the energy of one quantum at three frequencies you choose, showing each step.

• Planck, The Quantum Hypothesis: the paper

Acts

Understand exactly, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate the essay's account of what Nietzsche means by 'God is dead', in 250 words, and name one reading you think it rules out. Then state Planck's hypothesis in your own words, calculate the energy of one quantum at three frequencies, and check each calculation a second time. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 250 words match the essay on reopening it and the three energies agree with the second check and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness: the whole novella

Tutorial: Evidence and inquiry

Psychology: one famous finding, and what replication has shown. Read the account of one famous finding, then find one later attempt to repeat it and write down whether the repeat agreed with the original, and by how much.

• OpenStax, Psychology 2e: one famous finding and its replications

Acts

Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Reconstruct the novella's central argument about the narrator's journey in 300 words, and state the strongest objection to a reading that treats the journey as a simple lesson. Then trace one famous psychological finding to one later replication, and write whether the repeat agreed with the original and by how much. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 300 words hold on reopening the novella and your replication note names the later study, gives its source and states the size of agreement and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

On the site: Judgment Under Uncertainty: Probability, Causation and Forecasting

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Marcel Proust, Swann's Way: Combray

Tutorial: Mathematics

Einstein: does inertia depend on energy? Read the paper, then state the claim in your own words and calculate the change in mass for a body that gains a known amount of energy, showing each step.

• Albert Einstein, Does the Inertia of a Body Depend upon its Energy Content?: the paper

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons

Pass when: Restate the Combray section's account of memory and its places in 300 words, and name one objection to treating the memories as reliable. Then state Einstein's claim about inertia and energy in your own words, and calculate the change in mass for a body that gains a known energy, showing every step. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 300 words hold on reopening Combray and a listener can redo your calculation and get the same answer and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Marcel Proust, Swann's Way: Swann in Love

Tutorial: Laboratory

Einstein: light quanta. Read the selections, then state in your own words how the light quantum changes the account of light, and calculate the energy of one quantum for a colour of light you choose.

• Albert Einstein, Selected writings: selections

Acts

Understand exactly, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate the Swann in Love section's account of one jealous attachment in 250 words, and name one objection to a reading that treats the attachment as simple. Then calculate the energy of one light quantum for a colour you choose, showing every step, and check the result on a second calculation. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 250 words match the section on reopening it and the two calculations agree and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Rhetoric

Seminar

• Marcel Proust, Swann's Way: Place-Names: The Name

Tutorial: Language

English poetry: Yeats. Read the selected poems aloud, one each day, then choose one poem and write a plain-prose paraphrase of its first stanza, keeping its images and its sense.

• W. B. Yeats, Selected writings: selected poems

Acts

Understand exactly, Express it truly

Pass when: Restate the section on place-names and what a name keeps of a place, in 250 words. Then read a selected Yeats poem aloud, paraphrase its first stanza in plain prose, and keep its images. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 250 words match the section on reopening it and a listener agrees your paraphrase keeps the images and the sense of the stanza and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Peter Godfrey-Smith, Theory and Reality: the chapters on scientific realism and scientific change

Tutorial: Mathematics

Minkowski: space and time joined. Read the first half of the paper, then write the combined space-time distance for one pair of events in your own words and calculate it for two pairs you choose.

• Minkowski, Space and Time: first half

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons

Pass when: Restate the chapters' account of scientific realism and of change in theories, in 300 words, and name the position you think the evidence least supports. Then write the combined space-time distance in your own words and calculate it for two pairs of events, showing each step. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 300 words match the chapters on reopening them and a listener can redo both calculations and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

On the site: What Does It Take to Know Something?

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Alan Lightman, Einstein's Dreams: the whole book, a variable selection

Tutorial: Laboratory

Bohr: the spectrum of hydrogen. Read the paper, then take the wavelengths of three lines you measure or copy from a published table, and calculate the series term for each, showing the steps.

• Niels Bohr, On the Spectrum of Hydrogen: the paper

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate the book's chosen dreams in 250 words, naming the dream whose account of time changes how its people live most, and one objection to calling it a fair picture of time. Then calculate the series term for three spectral lines, showing each step, and state how far your results differ from the paper's values. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 250 words match the chosen dreams on reopening them and your three differences are reported with a stated size and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Arithmetic

Seminar

• Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway: the whole novel

Tutorial: Laboratory

Spectra: look at a lamp through a diffraction grating and match the lines. Look at a fluorescent or gas-discharge lamp through the grating (a hot filament shows no separate lines), then match each line you see with the colour a spectrum table you name gives, and record any line you cannot match.

Acts

Understand exactly, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate the novel's central argument about one day in one city in 300 words, and name the reading you think it does not support. Then look at a lamp through a grating, match each line you see to a colour in a table, and record every line you cannot match. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 300 words hold on reopening the novel you can match your lines to the same colours on a second look a day later, or against a published photograph of the same kind of lamp's spectrum that you name (use it if you have no grating) and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Logic

Seminar

• Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse: the whole novel

Tutorial: Evidence and inquiry

A causal analysis of a public question, with every assumption stated. Choose one public question, list every cause claimed for it, and state each assumption behind each cause.

Acts

Examine the reasons, Act and review

Pass when: Reconstruct the novel's argument about time and memory in 300 words, and state one objection a reader could raise. Then choose a public question, list the causes claimed for it, and state each assumption behind each cause in a table. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your table names every assumption, and a listener can point to the one you would test first and say why and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

On the site: Judgment Under Uncertainty: Probability, Causation and Forecasting

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own: the whole essay

Tutorial: Mathematics

Minkowski: the world-postulate. Read the second half of the paper, then state the world-postulate in your own words and calculate one space-time interval for two events you choose, showing each step.

• Minkowski, Space and Time: second half

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons

Pass when: Restate the essay's argument about the conditions needed for writing in 250 words, and name one objection to it. Then state the world-postulate in your own words and calculate one space-time interval for two events, showing each step. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 250 words match the essay on reopening it and a listener can redo your interval calculation and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying: the whole novel

Tutorial: Laboratory

de Broglie: matter waves. Read the paper, then calculate the wavelength of an electron at two speeds you choose, and state what the result would mean for a measurement that shows a pattern.

• Louis de Broglie, Matter Waves: the paper

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Reconstruct the novel's account of the family's journey in 300 words, and state one objection to a reading that makes it a single voice. Then calculate the wavelength of an electron at two speeds you choose, and state what a measured pattern would show. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 300 words hold on reopening the novel and your two wavelengths can be redone by a listener to the same values and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Rhetoric

Seminar

• William Faulkner, Go Down, Moses: the first stories

Tutorial: Writing and speaking

Writing: revising structure and style. Take a page of your own writing and move one paragraph to a new place, then rewrite each sentence that starts with the same word as the one before it.

Acts

Understand exactly, Express it truly

Pass when: Restate the first stories' structure and their main claim in 250 words. Then take a page of your own writing, move one paragraph, and rewrite every sentence that starts with the same word as the one before it. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 250 words match the first stories on reopening them, the revised page makes the same claim as the original page, and the moved paragraph still follows from what comes before it and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

On the site: Technical Writing as Reasoning

Grammar Rhetoric

Seminar

• William Faulkner, Go Down, Moses: "The Bear"

Tutorial: Language

English poetry: T. S. Eliot. Read the selected poems aloud, one each day, then choose one poem and write a plain-prose paraphrase of its opening lines, keeping its sense and its images.

• T. S. Eliot, Selected writings: selected poems

Acts

Understand exactly, Express it truly

Pass when: Restate the story The Bear's account of one hunt and what it leaves to the reader in 250 words. Then read a selected Eliot poem aloud and paraphrase its opening lines in plain prose, keeping the images. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 250 words match the story on reopening it and a listener agrees your paraphrase keeps the sense of the opening lines and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Arithmetic

Seminar

• William Faulkner, Go Down, Moses: the remaining stories

Tutorial: Laboratory

Davisson: electrons diffracted. Read the selected essays, then state in your own words how a diffraction pattern shows the wave behaviour of electrons, and set out the measurement you would need to confirm it.

• Clinton Davisson, Selected scientific essays: selected essays

Acts

Understand exactly, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate the remaining stories' argument about inheritance in 250 words, and name one reading you think they do not support. Then state how a diffraction pattern shows electron waves, and set out the measurement you would make to confirm it, with the quantity you would record. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 250 words match the stories on reopening them and your measurement names the quantity you would record, the apparatus or data you would need, and the result that would count against wave behaviour and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Arithmetic

Seminar

• Flannery O'Connor, Selected stories: "Good Country People" and "The Displaced Person"

Tutorial: Mathematics

Multivariable calculus: functions of several variables and partial derivatives. Choose a function of two variables, compute its two partial derivatives by hand, and check each result by changing one variable at a time.

Acts

Understand exactly, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Reconstruct the two stories' account of one encounter between two characters in 250 words, and name the claim you think the stories leave open. Then compute both partial derivatives of a function of two variables by hand and check each by holding one variable fixed. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 250 words hold on reopening the stories and a listener redoes both derivatives to the same results and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Flannery O'Connor, Revelation: the story

Tutorial: Laboratory

Schrödinger: wave mechanics. Read the first lecture, then state in your own words what the wave equation describes, and solve it for a simple case you choose, checking the solution by substitution.

• Schrödinger, Four Lectures on Wave Mechanics: the first lecture

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate the story's account of how a character's judgment of others is overturned, in 250 words, and name the strongest objection to a reading that calls the ending a simple moral. Then state what the wave equation describes, solve it for a simple case, and check the solution by substitution. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 250 words hold on reopening the story and the substitution check succeeds on a second run and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Logic Music

Seminar

• Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon: Part 1

Tutorial: Music

Schoenberg: music beyond the key. Read the selected works and listen to one of them with the score, marking each place where the sense of a key weakens and any place where a clear key returns.

• Schoenberg, Selected works: selected works

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons

Pass when: Restate Part 1's account of how one family's history is told, in 250 words, and name one objection to the telling. Then listen to one selected Schoenberg work with the score and mark at least four places where the sense of a key weakens and any place where a clear key returns. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 250 words match Part 1 on reopening it and each marked place can be found by the bar number or time you give and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon: Part 2

Tutorial: Evidence and inquiry

Forecasts reviewed: score your forecasts from Level 85 onward and say what you learned about your calibration. Write each forecast's probability and outcome in a table, then group the forecasts by their stated probability.

Acts

Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence, Act and review

Pass when: Reconstruct Part 2's central conflict in 250 words, and state the objection you find hardest to answer. Then score at least ten of your forecasts from Level 85 onward, group them by stated probability, and say in one paragraph what your calibration shows. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your scores are recorded in a table a listener can check and your paragraph states one change you will make to your forecasting and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

On the site: Judgment Under Uncertainty: Probability, Causation and Forecasting

Grammar Logic

Seminar

• James Baldwin, Stranger in the Village: the essay

Tutorial: Laboratory

Heisenberg: the limits of the particle picture. Read the chapter, then state in your own words the limit of the particle picture the chapter describes, and give one measurement that shows the limit.

• Werner Heisenberg, Critique of the Physical Concepts of the Particle Picture: the chapter

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons

Pass when: Restate the essay's central argument about what it means to be a stranger in the village, in 300 words, and name one objection to it. Then state the limit of the particle picture in your own words and describe one measurement that would show it. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 300 words hold on reopening the essay and your measurement names the quantity recorded and the result that would show the limit and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Arithmetic

Seminar

• James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time: the whole book

Tutorial: Mathematics

Multivariable calculus: multiple integrals. Choose a region in the plane, set up a double integral over it, evaluate it by hand, and check the result by integrating in the other order, or by counting grid squares if the function is 1.

Acts

Understand exactly, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Reconstruct the book's main argument about a nation and its reckoning in 300 words, and name the claim you find least supported. Then set up and evaluate a double integral of a simple function over a region you choose, and check the result by integrating in the other order, or by counting grid squares if the function is 1. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 300 words hold on reopening the book and the two results agree within the margin you state and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Rhetoric

Seminar

• Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex: the Introduction and selections from Volume 1

Tutorial: Language

English poetry: Wallace Stevens. Read the selected poems aloud, one each day, then write a plain-prose paraphrase of one poem's central image and say what the image adds.

• Wallace Stevens, Selected writings: selected poems

Acts

Understand exactly, Express it truly

Pass when: Restate the Introduction's main claim about how a person comes to be defined by others, in 250 words, and name one objection. Then read a selected Stevens poem aloud, paraphrase one central image in plain prose, and say what the image adds. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 250 words match the Introduction on reopening it and a listener agrees your paraphrase keeps the image and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Logic Rhetoric

Seminar

• Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex: selections from Volume 2

Tutorial: Laboratory

What physical theories let us know and predict: 800 words on the classical and the quantum. Write an 800-word essay comparing what classical and quantum theories let us know and predict, citing only the sources you have read.

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Express it truly

Pass when: Restate the selections' main argument from Volume 2 in 300 words, and name one objection a reader could raise. Then write an 800-word essay on what classical and quantum theories let us know and predict, citing only sources you have read. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 300 words match the selections on reopening them and each claim in your essay is traced to a source you name and have read and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

On the site: What Does It Take to Know Something?

Grammar Arithmetic

Seminar

• Supreme Court of the United States, Selected decisions: selected decisions, first group

Tutorial: Mathematics

Multivariable calculus: vector fields and line integrals. Choose a simple vector field, compute a line integral along a path you choose, and check whether the result depends on the path.

Acts

Understand exactly, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Reconstruct the reasoning of the first group of decisions in 300 words, and name the step you think the court's reasons leave weakest. Then compute a line integral of a simple vector field along a path you choose, and check whether the result depends on the path. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 300 words match the decisions on reopening them and a listener redoes the integral to the same value and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Supreme Court of the United States, Selected decisions: selected decisions, second group

Tutorial: Laboratory

Darwin: variation and natural selection. Read the first third of the book, then list three observed variations in a population you can observe, such as leaves or seeds, and measure them.

• Darwin, On the Origin of Species: the first third

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Reconstruct the second group's reasoning on one question in 300 words, and state the strongest objection to it. Then measure a trait across at least twenty items in a population you can observe, and report the variation as a table with its range. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 300 words hold on reopening the decisions and a listener can check your table's range against the measurements and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

Logic Rhetoric

Seminar

• Supreme Court of the United States, Selected decisions: selected decisions, third group

Tutorial: Writing and speaking

Writing: defending and reconsidering an argument after criticism. Write a short argument on a question you have read about this year, give it to a listener for criticism (or set it aside for three days and question it yourself with the five acts), then write a revised version that answers each objection you accept and states the ones you reject.

Acts

Examine the reasons, Express it truly

Pass when: Write a 400-word argument on one decision from the third group, stating its main reason. Then give it to a listener for criticism, or set it aside for three days and criticise it yourself with the five acts, and write a revised version that answers each objection you accept and states why you reject any you do not accept. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when the revised version answers every objection named by the listener and your reasons for rejecting one are stated in it and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

On the site: Technical Writing as Reasoning

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons: the first half

Tutorial: Laboratory

Darwin: difficulties, and the imperfection of the record. Read the second third of the book, then list two difficulties Darwin admits and say what evidence would answer each one.

• Darwin, On the Origin of Species: the second third

Acts

Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Reconstruct the first half's argument about managing shared resources in 300 words, and name one objection to it. Then list two difficulties Darwin admits, state the evidence that would answer each, and say which you could check with a source you have read. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 300 words hold on reopening the first half and your two evidence statements match what a listener finds in the source and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

On the site: Hypotheses, Predictions and Tests

Grammar Logic

Seminar

• Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons: the second half

Tutorial: Evidence and inquiry

A source investigation: trace a contested public claim to its origins. Choose one contested claim, find its earliest source, and record each step of its path to the present in a table.

Acts

Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Reconstruct the second half's main conclusion in 300 words, and state the objection a critic would raise to it. Then choose one contested public claim, trace it to its earliest source, and record each step of its path in a table with a source for each step. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your table has no step without a source and a listener can follow the path from the earliest source to the claim as it is made today and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

On the site: Hypotheses, Predictions and Tests

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Dorothy L. Sayers, The Lost Tools of Learning: a third reading: what this education has given

Tutorial: Mathematics

Relativity, special and general, in Einstein's popular account. Read the selections, then state in your own words the two principles the account builds on, and work one example of each using numbers you choose.

• Albert Einstein, Relativity: selections, a variable selection

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons

Pass when: Restate the essay's account of the tools an education should give, in 300 words, name the claim you think is weakest, and say which of those tools your work in the Core now shows. Then state the two principles of relativity in your own words and work one example of each with numbers you choose. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 300 words match the reading on reopening it and a listener can redo both examples and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

On the site: How to Read a Great Book: Levels, Modes and the Completion Standard

Grammar Rhetoric

Seminar

• Hugh of Saint Victor, Didascalicon: A Medieval Guide to the Arts: Book 1, a second reading: wisdom first

Tutorial: Language

English poetry: Elizabeth Bishop. Read the selected poems aloud, one each day, then choose one poem and write a plain-prose paraphrase of its last stanza, keeping its sense and its images.

• Elizabeth Bishop, Selected writings: selected poems

Acts

Understand exactly, Express it truly

Pass when: Restate Book 1's claim that wisdom comes first, in 300 words, and state one objection to ordering learning this way. Then read a selected Bishop poem aloud and paraphrase its last stanza in plain prose, keeping its images. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 300 words match Book 1 on reopening it and a listener agrees your paraphrase keeps the sense of the stanza and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

On the site: The Order of the Seven Liberal Arts: Substance, Quantity and the Mind

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Quintilian, Institutio oratoria: Book 12, a second reading: the good speaker

Tutorial: Laboratory

Darwin: the evidence and the recapitulation. Read the last third of the book, then list the evidence Darwin gives for descent, and state for each item what it would look like if the account were false.

• Darwin, On the Origin of Species: the last third

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Restate Book 12's account of the good speaker in 300 words, and name the strongest objection to it. Then list the evidence Darwin gives for descent and, for each item, state what the evidence would look like if the account were false. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 300 words match Book 12 on reopening it and a listener can name the observation that would count against each item and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

On the site: Technical Writing as Reasoning

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Plato, Apology: a second reading, at the end of the Core

Tutorial: Laboratory

Lamarck: an earlier theory of change. Read the selections, then state Lamarck's account of change in your own words and list two ways it differs from the account in Darwin's book you read in Level 477.

• Lamarck, Zoological Philosophy: selections

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons

Pass when: Restate the Apology's account of Socrates' defence in 300 words, and name the argument you think fails. Then state Lamarck's account of change in your own words and list two differences from Darwin's account, with the reason each matters. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 300 words hold on reopening the Apology and a listener can name both differences and their reasons and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

On the site: What Does It Take to Know Something?

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

• Augustine, De doctrina christiana: Book 4, a second reading: eloquence and wisdom

Tutorial: Mathematics

The foundation of the general theory, in outline. Read the opening sections, then write an outline of the theory's foundation in your own words, naming how the principle of relativity from Level 481 is extended and why the extension is needed.

• Albert Einstein, The Foundation of the General Theory of Relativity: the opening sections, a variable selection

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons

Pass when: Restate Book 4's account of how eloquence and wisdom belong together, in 300 words, and name the claim you think is hardest to defend. Then outline the foundation of the general theory in your own words and state how the principle of relativity from Level 481 is extended, with the reason it is needed. Then defend your reading aloud for two minutes against the objection you named, using only passages you can point to. You pass when your 300 words hold on reopening Book 4 and your outline states the extension and the reason, each tied to a passage you name and your spoken defence answers the objection from the text.

On the site: Reasoning for What Ends? Wisdom, Character and the Examined Life

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

Task: The long essay: choose the work and the question

Tutorial: Laboratory

Mendel: experiments on plant hybrids, his ratios recomputed. Read the paper, then recompute the ratios of one cross from his counts, showing each step, and state whether your figures agree with his.

• Mendel, Experiments with Plant Hybridization: the paper

Acts

Understand exactly, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Choose one work from the Core and one question about it, and write the question in one sentence with a 200-word note on why it matters. Then recompute the ratios of one cross from the paper's counts, show each step, and state how far your figures differ from the author's and what could account for the difference. You pass when a listener can state your question in one sentence and check your recomputed ratios against the paper.

On the site: How to Read a Great Book: Levels, Modes and the Completion Standard

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

Task: The long essay: read the chosen work again, first third

Tutorial: Evidence and inquiry

Systems: where to intervene in a system. Read the chapters on leverage points, then list the places in a system you know well (a household budget, a reading habit, a workplace process) where a small change would have the largest effect, and say how you would check each one.

• Donella Meadows, Thinking in Systems: the chapters on leverage points

Acts

Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Reread the first third of your chosen work and write its argument as a list of claims, each tied to a passage you name. Then list the places in a system you know well where a small change would have the largest effect, and say how you would check each one. You pass when every claim has a passage a listener can find, and your list of places names a check for each.

Grammar Rhetoric

Seminar

Task: The long essay: read the chosen work again, second third

Tutorial: Language

English poetry: Gwendolyn Brooks. Read the selections from The Children of the Poor aloud, one each day, then paraphrase one poem's opening in plain prose and keep its images.

• Gwendolyn Brooks, Children of the Poor: selections from "The Children of the Poor"

Acts

Understand exactly, Express it truly

Pass when: Reread the second third of your chosen work and write a 300-word summary of its argument, keeping each claim tied to a passage. Then read a selected Brooks poem aloud and paraphrase its opening in plain prose. You pass when a listener finds each claim of your summary in the second third and agrees your paraphrase keeps the sense of the opening.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

Task: The long essay: read the chosen work again, last third

Tutorial: Laboratory

Hardy, Boveri and Sutton: populations and chromosomes. Read the paper and the selections, then compute the proportions Hardy describes for one population you set out, and state how the chromosome evidence bears on the result.

• G. H. Hardy, Mendelian Proportions in a Mixed Population: the paper
• Boveri, Selected writings: selections
• Sutton, Selected writings: selections

Acts

Understand exactly, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Reread the last third of your chosen work and state its main conclusion in 300 words. Then compute the proportions for one population you set out, and write one paragraph on how the chromosome evidence bears on your result. You pass when a listener can rederive your proportions and finds the chromosome claim matched to a passage in the selections.

Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

Task: The long essay: what others have argued, and which sources to trust

Tutorial: Mathematics

Gödel's incompleteness theorems: what they claim and what they do not. Read the guided reading, then write what each theorem claims and state two common readings that go beyond it.

• Gödel, Incompleteness theorems: a guided reading, a variable selection

Acts

Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Set out, in a table, the arguments your chosen question has drawn from at least three sources, and rate each source on whether it is primary and how recent its evidence is. Then write what Gödel's theorems claim and state two readings that go beyond them. You pass when a listener can trace each argument in your table to its source and each of your two readings is shown to go beyond what the theorem states.

On the site: Judgment Under Uncertainty: Probability, Causation and Forecasting

Grammar Logic Music

Seminar

Task: The long essay: the outline and the thesis

Tutorial: Music

Albert Murray: the blues as art. Read the selections, then listen to one blues recording you own or can access and mark the form's repeated part and its variation.

• Albert Murray, Stomping the Blues: selections, a variable selection

Acts

Understand exactly, Examine the reasons, Express it truly

Pass when: Write the thesis of your long essay in one sentence, and an outline of about 500 words with each section's claim and the passage that supports it. Then listen to one blues recording with the form's repeated part marked, and say what the variation adds to the repeated part. You pass when a listener can state your thesis from the outline alone and finds the music passage you name in the recording.

On the site: Technical Writing as Reasoning

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

Task: The long essay: the first part of the draft

Tutorial: Laboratory

Morgan: chromosomes, Mendel's laws and linkage. Read the selections and the two papers, then state in one paragraph how linkage changes the ratios Mendel's laws predict, and check the change on a small set of counts.

• Thomas Hunt Morgan, Evolution and Genetics: selections
• Thomas Hunt Morgan, The Chromosomes and Mendel's Two Laws: the paper
• Thomas Hunt Morgan, The Linkage Groups and the Chromosomes: the paper

Acts

Understand exactly, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Write the first 1,000 words of your long essay, covering its question, its sources and its method, and mark every claim that still lacks a source. Then check one counted result from the papers against the ratios that linkage predicts, and record the check. You pass when a listener finds no unmarked claim without a source and the counted result agrees with your check.

On the site: Technical Writing as Reasoning

Rhetoric Logic

Seminar

Task: The long essay: the second part of the draft

Tutorial: Writing and speaking

Speaking: a public lecture on one great book. Prepare a ten-minute lecture on one great book from the Core, give it aloud to a listener, and ask for two objections (or record it, play it back and write the two strongest objections yourself).

Acts

Express it truly, Examine the reasons

Pass when: Write the second part of your long essay in about 1,000 words, setting out your argument and the strongest objection, with a reply to it. Then give a ten-minute lecture on one great book from the Core to a listener and answer two objections aloud. You pass when each objection raised to your lecture is answered, in your spoken reply or in the written reply in your essay, and your lecture stays within the time (a listener confirms it, or you do from a recording).

On the site: Technical Writing as Reasoning

Logic Geometry

Seminar

Task: The long essay: the third part of the draft

Tutorial: Mathematics

Poincaré on hypothesis and convention in geometry. Read the selections, then write what Poincaré says a hypothesis in geometry is and whether he treats the choice of geometry as a matter of fact, in your own words.

• Poincaré, Selected writings: selections, a variable selection

Acts

Examine the reasons, Understand exactly

Pass when: Write the third part of your long essay in about 1,000 words, setting out the evidence and its limits. Then state in your own words what Poincaré calls a hypothesis in geometry, and say whether the choice of a geometry is a matter of fact on his account. You pass when a listener finds each limit of the evidence stated in your part and can state Poincaré's position as you set it out.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

Task: The long essay: a competent reader's criticism

Tutorial: Laboratory

Morgan: sex-linked inheritance and crossing over. Read the two papers, then state how sex-linked inheritance and crossing over each show up in counted results, and check one counted set against each explanation.

• Thomas Hunt Morgan, Sex-Linked Inheritance: the paper
• Thomas Hunt Morgan, Crossing-Over: the paper

Acts

Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Give the draft of your long essay to a competent reader, who writes up to five criticisms (or, if none is available, put it away for three days and write the five strongest criticisms yourself). Then check one counted set from the papers against the sex-linkage explanation and one against the crossing-over explanation, and record each check. Then record, for each criticism, whether your essay now answers it or marks it as open. You pass when each criticism is answered or marked as open in your essay, and each counted set agrees with its explanation or the disagreement is stated.

On the site: Hypotheses, Predictions and Tests

Grammar Logic

Seminar

Task: The long essay: revising the argument

Tutorial: Evidence and inquiry

A world chronology and historical atlas: place the year's authors in their time, place and events. Make a chronology of the authors you have read this year, each with the place and the events that surround them, and mark each entry with its source.

Acts

Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Revise the argument of your long essay in about 500 words, changing each claim the criticisms showed to be weak. Then make a chronology of at least ten entries for the authors you have read since Level 401, each with its place, its surrounding events and a source. You pass when a listener finds each changed claim answered in the revised argument and every chronology entry has a source a listener can open.

Grammar Rhetoric

Seminar

Task: The long essay: revising syntax, structure and style

Tutorial: Language

English poetry: Sylvia Plath. Read the selected poems aloud, one each day, then paraphrase one poem's central sentence in plain prose and count its clauses.

• Sylvia Plath, Selected writings: selected poems

Acts

Understand exactly, Express it truly

Pass when: Revise your long essay's structure, cutting every sentence that repeats a claim already made. Then read a selected Plath poem aloud, paraphrase its central sentence in plain prose, and say how many clauses the sentence has. You pass when a listener finds no repeated claim in the revised essay and agrees your paraphrase keeps the sense of the sentence.

On the site: Technical Writing as Reasoning

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

Task: The long essay: the final text

Tutorial: Laboratory

Beadle and Tatum, Watson and Crick: genes, enzymes and the double helix. Read the selected papers, then state in one paragraph what the one-gene, one-enzyme idea and the double helix each claim and what evidence each paper gives.

• Beadle and Tatum, Selected papers: selected papers
• Watson and Crick, Selected papers: selected papers

Acts

Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence

Pass when: Produce the final text of your long essay, between 3,000 and 5,000 words, with its sources and a note of the changes made since the draft. Then state in one paragraph what each set of papers claims and the evidence it gives, and check each statement against the papers. You pass when you can find every source in the bibliography and each statement in the paragraph matches a passage in the papers.

Logic Geometry

Seminar

Task: The long essay: preparing the oral defence

Tutorial: Mathematics

Einstein: geometry and experience. Read the lecture, then state in your own words how the lecture relates geometry to experience, and list two questions a listener could ask about it.

• Albert Einstein, Geometry and Experience: the lecture, a variable selection

Acts

Examine the reasons, Express it truly

Pass when: Prepare a summary of your long essay in 300 words and a list of the ten questions a listener is most likely to ask, with a short answer to each. Then state in your own words how Einstein's lecture relates geometry to experience, and list two questions a listener could ask about the lecture. Then answer the two hardest questions from your list of ten aloud, without a note in hand. You pass when each answer follows from the essay or the lecture (a listener confirms it, or you do from a recording) and the two lecture questions are listed.

Grammar Logic Arithmetic

Seminar

Task: Level 500: the long essay defended aloud, and reconsidered afterwards

Tutorial: Laboratory

Jacob and Monod, and Sussman: gene regulation and molecular structure. Read the selected papers and essays, then state in one paragraph how the papers describe the regulation of a gene, and check one claim you make in it against the papers.

• Jacob and Monod, Selected papers: selected papers
• Joel Sussman, Selected scientific essays: selected essays

Acts

Examine the reasons, Check it against evidence, Act and review

Pass when: Defend your long essay aloud for twenty minutes to a listener who has read it (or, if none is available, to a recording you then play back, answering objections you wrote beforehand), answering without notes. Then reconsider the essay in writing, naming the one claim you would now change and why, and check one claim against the papers. You pass when the listener confirms you answered each objection from the essay, and your written reconsideration names a change the listener agrees is warranted.