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Part III
Blank Slate
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| guarantor | a person, organization, or thing that guarantees something |
| human nature | an endowment of cognitive and emotional faculties that is universal to healthy members of Homo sapiens |
| fallacy | a mistaken belief, esp. one based on unsound argument |
| winnow | (of the wind) blow |
| twiddle | twist, move, or fiddle with (something), typically in a purposeless or nervous way |
| "small" species | a species that has little variation (humans are an example, although they are expected to have more variation) |
| bureaucratic | relating to the business of running an organization, or government |
| race | a very large and partly inbred family |
| Hebrides | a group of more than 500 islands off the western coast of Scotland |
| bigotry | intolerance toward those who hold different opinions from oneself |
| proscription | the action of forbidding something; banning |
| reprehensible | deserving censure or condemnation |
| laissez-faire | a policy or attitude of letting things take their own course, without interfering |
| cultural capital | habits and values that promote economic success |
| grandiloquent | pompous or extravagant in language, style, or manner, esp. in a way that is intended to impress |
| promulgate | promote or make widely known (an idea or cause) |
| rapacious | aggressively greedy or grasping |
| pogrom | an organized massacre of a particular ethnic group, in particular that of Jews in Russia or eastern Europe |
| specter | a ghost |
| posit | assume as a fact; put forward as a basis of argument |
| dialectical | assume as a fact; put forward as a basis of argument |
| tyrannical | exercising power in a cruel or arbitrary way |
| euphemism | a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing |
| avaricious | having or showing an extreme greed for wealth or material gain |
| larcenous | thievishness: having a disposition to steal |
| totalitarian | of or relating to a system of government that is centralized and dictatorial and requires complete subservience to the state |
| impugn | dispute the truth, validity, or honesty of (a statement or motive); call into question |
| kitschy | bathetic: effusively or insincerely emotional |
| fodder | food, esp. dried hay or feed, for cattle and other livestock |
| jingoistic | chauvinistic: fanatically patriotic |
| warmongering | a policy of advocating war |
| disillusionment | a feeling of disappointment resulting from the discovery that something is not as good as one believed it to be |
| averring | state or assert to be the case |
| philandering | (of a man) readily or frequently enter into casual sexual relationships with women |
| extol | praise enthusiastically |
| glibly | with superficial plausibility |
| tit-for-tat | the infliction of an injury or insult in return for one that one has suffered |
| ineluctable | unable to be resisted or avoided; inescapable |
| poltergeist | a ghost or other supernatural being supposedly responsible for physical disturbances such as loud noises and objects thrown around |
| beget | give rise to; bring about |
| cynical | believing that people are motivated by self-interest; distrustful of human sincerity or integrity |
| staunch | loyal and committed in attitude |
| arrogate | take or claim (something) for oneself without justification |
| pestilence | a fatal epidemic disease, esp. bubonic plague |
| sea change | a profound or notable transformation |
| pyres | a heap of combustible material, esp. one for burning a corpse as part of a funeral ceremony |
| determinism | the concept that is opposed to "free will" in introductory biology courses |
| limerick | a humorous, frequently bawdy, verse of three long and two short lines rhyming aabba, popularized by Edward Lear |
| superfluous | unnecessary, esp. through being more than enough |
| cad | a man who behaves dishonorably, esp. toward a woman |
| allay | diminish or put at rest (fear, suspicion, or worry) |
| Raskolnikov | a fictional character in Dostoevsky's novel `Crime and Punishment'; he kills old women because he believes he is beyond the bounds of good or evil |
| risible | such as to provoke laughter |
| clemency | mercy; lenience |
| chide | scold or rebuke |
| pundit | an expert in a particular subject or field who is frequently called on to give opinions about it to the public |
| deprave | make (someone) immoral or wicked |
| exculpation | excuse: a defense of some offensive behavior or some failure to keep a promise etc.; "he kept finding excuses to stay"; "every day he had a new alibi for not getting a job"; "his transparent self-justification was unacceptable" |
| acquiesce | accept something reluctantly but without protest |
| impunity | exemption from punishment or freedom from the injurious consequences of an action |
| just deserts | poetic justice: an outcome in which virtue triumphs over vice (often ironically) |
| sadism | the tendency to derive pleasure, esp. sexual gratification, from inflicting pain, suffering, or humiliation on others |
| undergird | secure or fasten from the underside, esp. by a rope or chain passed underneath |
| implacable | impossible to placate or appease |
| contingency | a future event or circumstance that is possible but cannot be predicted with certainty |
| nihilism | the rejection of all religious and moral principles, often in the belief that life is meaningless |
| Potemkin | having a false or deceptive appearance, esp. one presented for the purpose of propaganda |
| facade | the face of a building, esp. the principal front that looks onto a street or open space |
| ontology | he branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being |
| callous | showing or having an insensitive and cruel disregard for others |
| intenable | not defensible |
| opprobrium | harsh criticism or censure |
| Midianites | Midian, Madyan, or Madiam is a geographical place and a people mentioned in the Bible and in the Qur'an. William G. Dever suggests it was located in the "northwest Arabian Peninsula, on the east shore of the Gulf of Aqaba on the Red Sea |
| secular | denoting attitudes, activities, or other things that have no religious or spiritual basis |
| unstinting | given or giving without restraint; unsparing |
| posterity | all future generations of people |
| unimpeachable | not able to be doubted, questioned, or criticized; entirely trustworthy |
| platonic | of or associated with the Greek philosopher Plato or his ideas |
| ultimate causation | why something evolved by natural selection |
| proximate causation | how the entity works here and now |
| carrion | the decaying flesh of dead animals |
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bioseniorsem
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