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Part IV
Blank Slate
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| precipice | a very steep rock face or cliff, typically a tall one |
| truism | a statement that is obviously true and says nothing new or interesting |
| relativism | A theory, especially in ethics or aesthetics, that conceptions of truth and moral values are not absolute but are relative to the persons or groups holding them |
| naive realism | a philosophy of mind rooted in a theory of perception that claims that the senses provide us with direct awareness of the external world |
| arbitrary construct | phantasm created by expectations of the social context |
| phantasm | a figment of the imagination; an illusion or apparition |
| fallible | capable of making mistakes or being erroneous |
| piquant | having a pleasantly sharp taste or appetizing flavor |
| innocuous | not harmful or offensive |
| contentious | causing or likely to cause an argument; controversial |
| stereotype | (current) a pejorative and inaccurate image standing for a category of people/ mental pictures that are incomplete, biased, insensitive to variation, and resistant to disconfirming information |
| pejorative | expressing contempt or disapproval |
| pernicious | having a harmful effect, esp. in a gradual or subtle way |
| Zulu | a member of a South African people living mainly in KwaZulu-Natal province |
| tacit | understood or implied without being stated |
| prototypical | archetypal: representing or constituting an original type after which other similar things are patterned |
| WASP | white anglo-saxon protestant |
| Pygmalion effect | people perform as other people (such as teachers) expect them to perform |
| sublimity | nobility in thought or feeling or style |
| ascribe | attribute something to (a cause) |
| arbitrary | based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system |
| denigrate | criticize unfairly; disparage |
| quipped | made a witty remark |
| referent | the thing that a word or phrase denotes or stands for |
| plight | a dangerous, difficult, or otherwise unfortunate situation |
| metonym | a word, name, or expression used as a substitute for something else with which it is closely associated. For example, Washington is a metonym for the federal government of the US |
| ineffable | too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words |
| joie de vivre | exuberant enjoyment of life |
| schlemiel | a stupid, awkward, or unlucky person |
| immutable | unchanging over time or unable to be changed |
| tantric | lovemaking |
| epithet | an adjective or descriptive phrase expressing a quality characteristic of the person or thing mentioned |
| ersatz | (of a product) made or used as a substitute, typically an inferior one, for something else |
| dubious | hesitating or doubting |
| congenial | (of a person) pleasant because of a personality, qualities, or interests that are similar to one's own |
| euphemism treadmill | continuous invention of new words as the connotations change over time |
| semantic | relating to meaning in language or logic |
| salient | most noticeable or important |
| insidious | |
| image | a mental or visual representation of an obejct or event as depicted in the mind, a painting, a photograph, or film |
| hyperreality | world in which images are self-generating and entirely detached from any supposed reality |
| parody | an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect |
| foist | impose an unwelcome or unnecessary person or thing on |
| hash | come to agreement on something after lengthy and vigorous discussion |
| Sambo | a racial term for a person with mixed African and Native American heritage |
| swarthy | dark-skinned |
| disseminate | spread or disperse (something, esp. information) widely |
| perfidy | deceitfulness; untrustworthiness |
| jerry-built | badly or hastily built with materials of poor quality |
| parse | analyze (a sentence) into its parts and describe their syntactic roles |
| incommensurable | not able to be judged by the same standard as something; having no common standard of measurement |
| chimera | one with some cells having one genome and others having another genome |
| flout | openly disregard (a rule, law or convention) |
| rejoinda | a reply, esp. a sharp or witty one |
| piecemeal | characterized by unsystematic partial measures taken over a period of time |
| pragmatic | dealing with things sensibly and realistically in a way that is based on practical rather than theoretical considerations |
| specious | superficially plausible, but actually wrong |
| du-jour | (of food in a restaurant) available and being served on this day |
| acrid | having an irritatingly strong and unpleasant taste or smell |
| bemusement | bewilderment: confusion resulting from failure to understand |
| ken | one's range of knowledge or sight |
| propensity | n inclination or natural tendency to behave in a particular way |
| communal sharing | groups of people, such as members of a family, share things without keeping track of who gets what |
| authoritative ranking | dominant people confiscate what they want from lower-ranking ones |
| equality matching | people exchange goods or favors at different times, and the traded items are identical or at least highly similar or easily comparable |
| market price | the system of rents, prices, wages, and interest rates that underlies modern economies |
| physical fallacy | belief that an object has a true and constant value |
| usury | the illegal action or practice of lending money at unreasonably high rates of interest |
| phillistine | a person who is hostile or indifferent to culture and the arts, or who has no understanding of them |
| reprieve | cancel or postpone the punishment of (someone, esp. someone condemned to death) |
| rival goods | (i.e. food, fuel, and tools) items that are made of matter and energy |
| suffuse | gradually spread through or over |
| mind | a mysterious form of matter secreted by the brain. Its chief activity consists in the endeavor to ascertain its own nature, the futility of the attempt being due to the fact that it has nothing but itself to know itself with |
| arduous | involving or requiring strenuous effort; difficult and tiring |
| altruism | the belief in or practice of disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others |
| nepotistic altruism | self-less concern for those close to you (family members - parents, grandparents, siblings, etc.) |
| reciprocal altruism | concern for oneself by showing concern for others and sharing |
| Machiavellian | cunning, scheming, and unscrupulous, esp. in politics or in advancing one's career |
| confluence | the junction of two rivers, esp. rivers of approximately equal width |
| sunder | split apart |
| non sequitur | a conclusion or statement that does not logically follow from the previous argument or statement |
| groupthink | a cult mentality, and myths of racial purity - the sense that outsiders are contaminants who pollute the sanctity of the group |
| precocious | (of a child) having developed certain abilities or proclivities at an earlier age than usual |
| contemporaneous | existing or occurring in the same period of time |
| usurp | take (a position of power or importance) illegally or by force |
| bereft | deprived of or lacking something, esp. a nonmaterial asset |
| paradox | a statement or proposition that, despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory |
| sword of Damocles | the Greek courtier to Dionysius the Elder who (according to legend) was condemned to sit under a naked sword that was suspended by a hair in order to demonstrate to him that being a king was not the happy state Damocles had said it was (4th century BC) |
| galvanized | shock or excite (someone), typically into taking action |
| communea | group of people living together and sharing possessions and responsibilities |
| social loafing | the idea that when individuals are part of a group, they work less hard |
| eke | shock or excite (someone), typically into taking action |
| magnanimit | the fact or condition of being magnanimous; generosity |
| frequency-dependent theory | the idea that abundance influenced species diversity and dispersal |
| corollary | a) proposition that follows from (and is often appended to) one already proved |
| adduced | cite as evidence |
| callousness | unfeelingness: devoid of passion or feeling; hardheartedness |
| mendacity | untruthfulness |
| fete | honor or entertain (someone) lavishly |
| harebrained | rash; ill-judged |
| inveterate | having a particular habit, activity, or interest that is long-established and unlikely to change |
| pithy | (of language or style) concise and forcefully expressive |
| demmured | the verb "to object or voice opposition" |
| cognitive dissonance reduction | in which people change whatever opinion it takes to maintain a positive self-image |
| venal | showing or motivated by susceptibility to bribery |
| imprudent | not showing care for the consequences of an action; rash |
| deference | humble submission and respect |
| atavistic | relating to or characterized by reversion to something ancient or ancestral. |
| punitive | inflicting or intended as punishment |
| vagaries | an unexpected and inexplicable change in a situation or in someone's behavior |
| mete | dispense or allot justice, a punishment, or harsh treatment |
| bawd | a woman in charge of a brothel |
| sacrosanct | (esp. of a principle, place, or routine) regarded as too important or valuable to be interfered wit |
| venereal | of or relating to sexual desire or sexual intercourse |
| identity | the concept of one's own character that is maintained internally and projected to others |
| desiderata | something that is needed or wanted |
| prig | a self-righteously moralistic person who behaves as if superior to others. |
| rectitude | morally correct behavior or thinking; righteousness |
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bioseniorsem
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