Answer: 34%

Context: According to statistics collected by the Association of Religion Data Archives from 2010, about 34% of Alaska residents were members of religious congregations. 100,960 people identified as Evangelical Protestants, 50,866 as Roman Catholic, and 32,550 as mainline Protestants. Roughly 4% are Mormon, 0.5% are Jewish, 1% are Muslim, 0.5% are Buddhist, and 0.5% are Hindu. The largest religious denominations in Alaska as of 2010[update] were the Catholic Church with 50,866 adherents, non-denominational Evangelical Protestants with 38,070 adherents, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with 32,170 adherents, and the Southern Baptist Convention with 19,891 adherents. Alaska has been identified, along with Pacific Northwest states Washington and Oregon, as being the least religious states of the USA, in terms of church membership.

Question: According to the Association of Religion Data in 2010, what percentage of Alaskans are members of a relgious congregation?


Answer: Evangelical Protestants

Question: Which religion is most prevalent in Alaska?


Answer: least religious states of the USA

Question: How does Alaska compare with other states in church membership?


Answer: Washington and Oregon

Question: Which other nearby states are also considered to be less religious than others?


Answer: First Russian Orthodox Church

Context: In 1795, the First Russian Orthodox Church was established in Kodiak. Intermarriage with Alaskan Natives helped the Russian immigrants integrate into society. As a result, an increasing number of Russian Orthodox churches gradually became established within Alaska. Alaska also has the largest Quaker population (by percentage) of any state. In 2009 there were 6,000 Jews in Alaska (for whom observance of halakha may pose special problems). Alaskan Hindus often share venues and celebrations with members of other Asian religious communities, including Sikhs and Jains.

Question: Which church was established in Kodiak in 1795?


Answer: Intermarriage with Alaskan Natives

Question: What was one way in which Russian immigrants integrated into Alaskan society?


Answer: Quaker population

Question: Alaska has the largest population of what religious lifestyle of any state?


Answer: observance of halakha

Question: What religious tradition may be a problem for Alaskan Jews?


Answer: $40,042

Context: The 2007 gross state product was $44.9 billion, 45th in the nation. Its per capita personal income for 2007 was $40,042, ranking 15th in the nation. According to a 2013 study by Phoenix Marketing International, Alaska had the fifth-largest number of millionaires per capita in the United States, with a ratio of 6.75 percent. The oil and gas industry dominates the Alaskan economy, with more than 80% of the state's revenues derived from petroleum extraction. Alaska's main export product (excluding oil and natural gas) is seafood, primarily salmon, cod, Pollock and crab.

Question: What was the per capita personal income in Alaska in 2007?


Answer: 15th in the nation

Question: How does Alaska's per capita personal income rank against other states?


Answer: 80%

Question: How much of Alaskan state revenue comes from petroleum extraction?


Answer: seafood, primarily salmon, cod, Pollock and crab

Question: Beyond petroleum, what is Alaska's largest export?


Answer: Fairbanks North Star, Anchorage and Kodiak Island boroughs, as well as Kodiak

Context: Employment is primarily in government and industries such as natural resource extraction, shipping, and transportation. Military bases are a significant component of the economy in the Fairbanks North Star, Anchorage and Kodiak Island boroughs, as well as Kodiak. Federal subsidies are also an important part of the economy, allowing the state to keep taxes low. Its industrial outputs are crude petroleum, natural gas, coal, gold, precious metals, zinc and other mining, seafood processing, timber and wood products. There is also a growing service and tourism sector. Tourists have contributed to the economy by supporting local lodging.

Question: In which Alaskan areas are military bases prevalent as an important part of the local economy?


Answer: Federal subsidies

Question: What program allows Alaska to keep low taxes?


Answer: crude petroleum, natural gas, coal, gold, precious metals, zinc and other mining, seafood processing, timber and wood products

Question: What are some of Alaska's industrial products?


Answer: supporting local lodging

Question: How, specifically, have tourists helped the local economy in Alaska?


Answer: Texas, North Dakota, and California

Context: Alaska has vast energy resources, although its oil reserves have been largely depleted. Major oil and gas reserves were found in the Alaska North Slope (ANS) and Cook Inlet basins, but according to the Energy Information Administration, by February 2014 Alaska had fallen to fourth place in the nation in crude oil production after Texas, North Dakota, and California. Prudhoe Bay on Alaska's North Slope is still the second highest-yielding oil field in the United States, typically producing about 400,000 barrels per day (64,000 m3/d), although by early 2014 North Dakota's Bakken Formation was producing over 900,000 barrels per day (140,000 m3/d). Prudhoe Bay was the largest conventional oil field ever discovered in North America, but was much smaller than Canada's enormous Athabasca oil sands field, which by 2014 was producing about 1,500,000 barrels per day (240,000 m3/d) of unconventional oil, and had hundreds of years of producible reserves at that rate.

Question: What other states rank higher than Alaska in crude oil production?


Answer: fourth

Question: How does Alaska rate in comparison with other states in crude oil production?


Answer: Prudhoe Bay

Question: Which area in Alaska is the nation's second highest-yielding oil field?


Answer: 400,000

Question: How many barrels of oil does Prudhoe Bay produce per day?


Answer: North Dakota's Bakken Formation

Question: Prudhoe Bay is second place in production to what other oil field in the US?


Answer: up to 2.1 million barrels

Context: The Trans-Alaska Pipeline can transport and pump up to 2.1 million barrels (330,000 m3) of crude oil per day, more than any other crude oil pipeline in the United States. Additionally, substantial coal deposits are found in Alaska's bituminous, sub-bituminous, and lignite coal basins. The United States Geological Survey estimates that there are 85.4 trillion cubic feet (2,420 km3) of undiscovered, technically recoverable gas from natural gas hydrates on the Alaskan North Slope. Alaska also offers some of the highest hydroelectric power potential in the country from its numerous rivers. Large swaths of the Alaskan coastline offer wind and geothermal energy potential as well.

Question: How much oil can the Trans-Alaska Pipeline transport per day?


Answer: 85.4 trillion cubic feet

Question: How much recoverable gas is still undiscovered in Alaska, according to the US Geological Survey?


Answer: wind and geothermal energy

Question: Alaska's coastline also has potential in which two environmentally friendly energy types?


Answer: hydroelectric

Question: Alaska's large rivers have potential for what environmentally friendly type of energy production?


Answer: low (less than 50¢/gal) fuel prices, long distances and low population

Context: Alaska's economy depends heavily on increasingly expensive diesel fuel for heating, transportation, electric power and light. Though wind and hydroelectric power are abundant and underdeveloped, proposals for statewide energy systems (e.g. with special low-cost electric interties) were judged uneconomical (at the time of the report, 2001) due to low (less than 50¢/gal) fuel prices, long distances and low population. The cost of a gallon of gas in urban Alaska today is usually 30–60¢ higher than the national average; prices in rural areas are generally significantly higher but vary widely depending on transportation costs, seasonal usage peaks, nearby petroleum development infrastructure and many other factors.

Question: Why were alternative energy sources judged uneconomical in 2001?


Answer: 30–60¢ higher

Question: How much does gas cost in Alaska, in comparison to the national average?


Answer: transportation costs, seasonal usage peaks, nearby petroleum development infrastructure

Question: What are some reasons why gas prices may vary in Alaska, especially?


Answer: diesel fuel

Question: What does Alaska's economy heavily rely on?


Answer: heating, transportation, electric power and light

Question: What purpose does diesel fuel have in Alaska?


Answer: constitutionally authorized appropriation of oil revenues

Context: The Alaska Permanent Fund is a constitutionally authorized appropriation of oil revenues, established by voters in 1976 to manage a surplus in state petroleum revenues from oil, largely in anticipation of the recently constructed Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. The fund was originally proposed by Governor Keith Miller on the eve of the 1969 Prudhoe Bay lease sale, out of fear that the legislature would spend the entire proceeds of the sale (which amounted to $900 million) at once. It was later championed by Governor Jay Hammond and Kenai state representative Hugh Malone. It has served as an attractive political prospect ever since, diverting revenues which would normally be deposited into the general fund.

Question: What is the Alaska Permanent Fund?


Answer: 1976

Question: In what year was the Alaska Permanent Fund established?


Answer: to manage a surplus in state petroleum revenues from oil

Question: Why was the Alaska Permament Fund established?


Answer: Governor Keith Miller

Question: Who originally proposed the Alaska Permanent Fund?


Answer: fear that the legislature would spend the entire proceeds of the sale (which amounted to $900 million) at once

Question: Why did Governor Keith Miller propose the Alaska Permanent Fund before the Prudhoe Bay sale?


Answer: discourage

Context: The Alaska Constitution was written so as to discourage dedicating state funds for a particular purpose. The Permanent Fund has become the rare exception to this, mostly due to the political climate of distrust existing during the time of its creation. From its initial principal of $734,000, the fund has grown to $50 billion as a result of oil royalties and capital investment programs. Most if not all the principal is invested conservatively outside Alaska. This has led to frequent calls by Alaskan politicians for the Fund to make investments within Alaska, though such a stance has never gained momentum.

Question: Was Alaska's Constitution written to encourage or discourage state funds being used for a particular purpose?


Answer: political climate of distrust existing during the time of its creation

Question: Why is the Permanent Fund an exception to the premise of the Alaskan Constitution?


Answer: outside Alaska

Question: Where is the principal of the Permanent Fund invested?


Answer: $734,000

Question: How much was the initial principal of the Permanent Fund?


Answer: $50 billion

Question: How high has the principal of the Permanent Fund grown?


Answer: minimum of 12 months

Context: Starting in 1982, dividends from the fund's annual growth have been paid out each year to eligible Alaskans, ranging from an initial $1,000 in 1982 (equal to three years' payout, as the distribution of payments was held up in a lawsuit over the distribution scheme) to $3,269 in 2008 (which included a one-time $1,200 "Resource Rebate"). Every year, the state legislature takes out 8% from the earnings, puts 3% back into the principal for inflation proofing, and the remaining 5% is distributed to all qualifying Alaskans. To qualify for the Permanent Fund Dividend, one must have lived in the state for a minimum of 12 months, maintain constant residency subject to allowable absences, and not be subject to court judgments or criminal convictions which fall under various disqualifying classifications or may subject the payment amount to civil garnishment.

Question: How long must an Alaskan have lived in the state in order to receive a Permanent Fund Dividend?


Answer: 5%

Question: What percentage of the Permanent Fund is divided betwen Alaska's eligible residents?


Answer: 1982

Question: When did disembursements from the Permanent Fund begin?


Answer: $1,000

Question: How much was the initial disembursement from the Permanent Fund?


Answer: barley and hay

Context: The Tanana Valley is another notable agricultural locus, especially the Delta Junction area, about 100 miles (160 km) southeast of Fairbanks, with a sizable concentration of farms growing agronomic crops; these farms mostly lie north and east of Fort Greely. This area was largely set aside and developed under a state program spearheaded by Hammond during his second term as governor. Delta-area crops consist predominately of barley and hay. West of Fairbanks lies another concentration of small farms catering to restaurants, the hotel and tourist industry, and community-supported agriculture.

Question: Which crops are produced in the Delta-area?


Answer: restaurants, the hotel and tourist industry, and community-supported agriculture

Question: Small farms west of Fairbanks cater to whom?


Answer: Delta Junction area

Question: Which area did Hammond develeop during his second term?


Answer: shipping costs

Context: Most food in Alaska is transported into the state from "Outside", and shipping costs make food in the cities relatively expensive. In rural areas, subsistence hunting and gathering is an essential activity because imported food is prohibitively expensive. Though most small towns and villages in Alaska lie along the coastline, the cost of importing food to remote villages can be high, because of the terrain and difficult road conditions, which change dramatically, due to varying climate and precipitation changes. The cost of transport can reach as high as 50¢ per pound ($1.10/kg) or more in some remote areas, during the most difficult times, if these locations can be reached at all during such inclement weather and terrain conditions. The cost of delivering a 1 US gallon (3.8 L) of milk is about $3.50 in many villages where per capita income can be $20,000 or less. Fuel cost per gallon is routinely 20–30¢ higher than the continental United States average, with only Hawaii having higher prices.

Question: What causes food in Alaskan cities to be relatively expensive?


Answer: 50¢ per pound ($1.10/kg)

Question: How high can the cost of transport be in some remote areas?


Answer: Hawaii

Question: Which state in the US is the only to have higher fuel prices than Alaska?


Answer: $3.50

Question: How much does it cost to transport a gallon of milk in some rural areas of Alaska?


Answer: Juneau, is not accessible by road

Context: Alaska has few road connections compared to the rest of the U.S. The state's road system covers a relatively small area of the state, linking the central population centers and the Alaska Highway, the principal route out of the state through Canada. The state capital, Juneau, is not accessible by road, only a car ferry, which has spurred several debates over the decades about moving the capital to a city on the road system, or building a road connection from Haines. The western part of Alaska has no road system connecting the communities with the rest of Alaska.

Question: Why is there a debate about moving the capital of Alaska to another town?


Answer: western part

Question: Which part of Alaska has no road system connecting it to other areas?


Answer: few

Question: Compared to the rest of the US, does Alaska has many or few road connections?


Answer: around 1915

Context: Built around 1915, the Alaska Railroad (ARR) played a key role in the development of Alaska through the 20th century. It links north Pacific shipping through providing critical infrastructure with tracks that run from Seward to Interior Alaska by way of South Central Alaska, passing through Anchorage, Eklutna, Wasilla, Talkeetna, Denali, and Fairbanks, with spurs to Whittier, Palmer and North Pole. The cities, towns, villages, and region served by ARR tracks are known statewide as "The Railbelt". In recent years, the ever-improving paved highway system began to eclipse the railroad's importance in Alaska's economy.

Question: What year was the Alaska Railroad built?


Answer: region served by ARR tracks

Question: To what does "The Railbelt" refer?


Answer: Alaska Railroad (ARR)

Question: Which development in 1915 played a key role in developing Alaska?


Answer: cabooses

Context: The Alaska Railroad was one of the last railroads in North America to use cabooses in regular service and still uses them on some gravel trains. It continues to offer one of the last flag stop routes in the country. A stretch of about 60 miles (100 km) of track along an area north of Talkeetna remains inaccessible by road; the railroad provides the only transportation to rural homes and cabins in the area. Until construction of the Parks Highway in the 1970s, the railroad provided the only land access to most of the region along its entire route.

Question: The ARR was one of the last railroads in the US to use what?


Answer: some gravel trains

Question: When are cabooses still used occasionally?


Answer: 1970s

Question: When was the Parks Highway constructed?


Answer: the Alaska Marine Highway

Context: Alaska's well-developed state-owned ferry system (known as the Alaska Marine Highway) serves the cities of southeast, the Gulf Coast and the Alaska Peninsula. The ferries transport vehicles as well as passengers. The system also operates a ferry service from Bellingham, Washington and Prince Rupert, British Columbia in Canada through the Inside Passage to Skagway. The Inter-Island Ferry Authority also serves as an important marine link for many communities in the Prince of Wales Island region of Southeast and works in concert with the Alaska Marine Highway.

Question: What is the name of Alaska's ferry system?


Answer: The Inter-Island Ferry Authority

Question: Which other Ferry group works alongside the Alaska Marine Highway to coordinate travel?


Answer: southeast, the Gulf Coast and the Alaska Peninsula

Question: Which areas does the Alaska Marine Highway serve?


Answer: Anchorage and, to a lesser extent Fairbanks

Context: Cities not served by road, sea, or river can be reached only by air, foot, dogsled, or snowmachine, accounting for Alaska's extremely well developed bush air services—an Alaskan novelty. Anchorage and, to a lesser extent Fairbanks, is served by many major airlines. Because of limited highway access, air travel remains the most efficient form of transportation in and out of the state. Anchorage recently completed extensive remodeling and construction at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport to help accommodate the upsurge in tourism (in 2012-2013, Alaska received almost 2 million visitors).

Question: Which two cities are served by major airlines?


Answer: air travel

Question: What is the most efficient means of transportation into and out of Alaska?


Answer: almost 2 million

Question: How many visitors came to Alaska between 2012-2013?


Answer: Essential Air Service program

Context: Regular flights to most villages and towns within the state that are commercially viable are challenging to provide, so they are heavily subsidized by the federal government through the Essential Air Service program. Alaska Airlines is the only major airline offering in-state travel with jet service (sometimes in combination cargo and passenger Boeing 737-400s) from Anchorage and Fairbanks to regional hubs like Bethel, Nome, Kotzebue, Dillingham, Kodiak, and other larger communities as well as to major Southeast and Alaska Peninsula communities.

Question: Which service allows government to subsidise regular air travel in Alaska?


Answer: Alaska Airlines

Question: Which airline offers in-state travel with jet-service?


Answer: Bethel, Nome, Kotzebue, Dillingham, Kodiak

Question: What are some Alaskan regional hubs?


Answer: Ravn Alaska, PenAir, and Frontier Flying Service

Context: The bulk of remaining commercial flight offerings come from small regional commuter airlines such as Ravn Alaska, PenAir, and Frontier Flying Service. The smallest towns and villages must rely on scheduled or chartered bush flying services using general aviation aircraft such as the Cessna Caravan, the most popular aircraft in use in the state. Much of this service can be attributed to the Alaska bypass mail program which subsidizes bulk mail delivery to Alaskan rural communities. The program requires 70% of that subsidy to go to carriers who offer passenger service to the communities.

Question: What are the names of a few regional Alaskan airlines?


Answer: Cessna Caravan

Question: What model is the most popular aicraft in Alaska?


Answer: 70%

Question: How much of the subsidized bulk mail delivery program goes to carriers who offer passenger service?


Answer: bush seaplane

Context: Many communities have small air taxi services. These operations originated from the demand for customized transport to remote areas. Perhaps the most quintessentially Alaskan plane is the bush seaplane. The world's busiest seaplane base is Lake Hood, located next to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, where flights bound for remote villages without an airstrip carry passengers, cargo, and many items from stores and warehouse clubs. In 2006 Alaska had the highest number of pilots per capita of any U.S. state.

Question: Which plane is considered quintessentially Alaskan?


Answer: Lake Hood

Question: Where is the busiest seaplane base in the world?


Answer: Alaska

Question: Which state had the most pilots per capita than any other US state?


Answer: Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport

Question: Lake Hood is located next to what International Airport?


Answer: dogsled

Context: Another Alaskan transportation method is the dogsled. In modern times (that is, any time after the mid-late 1920s), dog mushing is more of a sport than a true means of transportation. Various races are held around the state, but the best known is the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, a 1,150-mile (1,850 km) trail from Anchorage to Nome (although the distance varies from year to year, the official distance is set at 1,049 miles or 1,688 km). The race commemorates the famous 1925 serum run to Nome in which mushers and dogs like Togo and Balto took much-needed medicine to the diphtheria-stricken community of Nome when all other means of transportation had failed. Mushers from all over the world come to Anchorage each March to compete for cash, prizes, and prestige. The "Serum Run" is another sled dog race that more accurately follows the route of the famous 1925 relay, leaving from the community of Nenana (southwest of Fairbanks) to Nome.

Question: Which Alaskan way of transport is more for sport than for transportation?


Answer: Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race

Question: Which dog-sled race in Alaska is the most famous?


Answer: the famous 1925 serum run to Nome

Question: What does the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race commemorate in Alaskan history?


Answer: all other means of transportation had failed

Question: Why were sled-dogs used to deliver medicine to Nome in 1925?


Answer: "Serum Run"

Question: Which dogsled race most accurately follows the route of the 1925 serum run?


Answer: GCI and Alaska Communications

Context: Alaska's internet and other data transport systems are provided largely through the two major telecommunications companies: GCI and Alaska Communications. GCI owns and operates what it calls the Alaska United Fiber Optic system and as of late 2011 Alaska Communications advertised that it has "two fiber optic paths to the lower 48 and two more across Alaska. In January 2011, it was reported that a $1 billion project to run connect Asia and rural Alaska was being planned, aided in part by $350 million in stimulus from the federal government.

Question: Which two companies provide internet and data transport to Alaska?


Answer: 2011

Question: In what year was a project to connect Asia and rural Alaska announced?


Answer: $350 million

Question: How much money did the federal government contribute via stimulus to the connectvitiy between Asia and Alaska?


Answer: GCI

Question: Which company owns and operates the Alaska United Fiber Optic System?


Answer: petroleum revenues and federal subsidies

Context: To finance state government operations, Alaska depends primarily on petroleum revenues and federal subsidies. This allows it to have the lowest individual tax burden in the United States. It is one of five states with no state sales tax, one of seven states that do not levy an individual income tax, and one of the two states that has neither. The Department of Revenue Tax Division reports regularly on the state's revenue sources. The Department also issues an annual summary of its operations, including new state laws that directly affect the tax division.

Question: How does Alaska finance its state government operations?


Answer: five

Question: How many states in the US do not have sales tax?


Answer: seven

Question: How many US states do not collect an individual income tax?


Answer: Alaska

Question: Which state has the lowest tax burden of the entire US?


Answer: Republicans

Context: Alaska regularly supports Republicans in presidential elections and has done so since statehood. Republicans have won the state's electoral college votes in all but one election that it has participated in (1964). No state has voted for a Democratic presidential candidate fewer times. Alaska was carried by Democratic nominee Lyndon B. Johnson during his landslide election in 1964, while the 1960 and 1968 elections were close. Since 1972, however, Republicans have carried the state by large margins. In 2008, Republican John McCain defeated Democrat Barack Obama in Alaska, 59.49% to 37.83%. McCain's running mate was Sarah Palin, the state's governor and the first Alaskan on a major party ticket. Obama lost Alaska again in 2012, but he captured 40% of the state's vote in that election, making him the first Democrat to do so since 1968.

Question: Which political party does Alaska generally support?


Answer: one

Question: How many elections have Democrats won in Alaska?


Answer: Lyndon B. Johnson

Question: Which candidate was the only Democrat to win Alaska in a landslide election in 1964?


Answer: Barack Obama

Question: Which Democratic candidate was the first to win 40% of the vote in Alaska since 1964?


Answer: University of Alaska Fairbanks

Context: The Alaska Bush, central Juneau, midtown and downtown Anchorage, and the areas surrounding the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus and Ester have been strongholds of the Democratic Party. The Matanuska-Susitna Borough, the majority of Fairbanks (including North Pole and the military base), and South Anchorage typically have the strongest Republican showing. As of 2004[update], well over half of all registered voters have chosen "Non-Partisan" or "Undeclared" as their affiliation, despite recent attempts to close primaries to unaffiliated voters.

Question: The areas surrounding which university has been historically a Democratic stronghold?


Answer: The Matanuska-Susitna Borough, the majority of Fairbanks (including North Pole and the military base), and South Anchorage

Question: Which areas of Alaska have the highest Republican concentrations?


Answer: well over half

Question: As of 2004, how many Alaskan residents refuse to select a political party?


Answer: 34

Context: The Unorganized Borough has no government of its own, but the U.S. Census Bureau in cooperation with the state divided the Unorganized Borough into 11 census areas solely for the purposes of statistical analysis and presentation. A recording district is a mechanism for administration of the public record in Alaska. The state is divided into 34 recording districts which are centrally administered under a State Recorder. All recording districts use the same acceptance criteria, fee schedule, etc., for accepting documents into the public record.

Question: Into how many recording districts is Alaska divided?


Answer: a mechanism for administration of the public record in Alaska

Question: What is the function of an Alaskan recording district?


Answer: acceptance criteria, fee schedule, etc.

Question: Which documents do recording districts universally use between areas?


Answer: census-designated places

Context: As reflected in the 2010 United States Census, Alaska has a total of 355 incorporated cities and census-designated places (CDPs). The tally of cities includes four unified municipalities, essentially the equivalent of a consolidated city–county. The majority of these communities are located in the rural expanse of Alaska known as "The Bush" and are unconnected to the contiguous North American road network. The table at the bottom of this section lists the 100 largest cities and census-designated places in Alaska, in population order.

Question: What are CDPs?


Answer: 355

Question: How many incorporated cities and CDPs does Alaska have, according to the 2010 Census?


Answer: unconnected

Question: Are the majority of CDPs connected or disconnected from the North American road network?


Answer: "The Bush"

Question: In what area are the majority of cities and CDPS located in Alaska?


Answer: 2.88%

Context: Of Alaska's 2010 Census population figure of 710,231, 20,429 people, or 2.88% of the population, did not live in an incorporated city or census-designated place. Approximately three-quarters of that figure were people who live in urban and suburban neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city limits of Ketchikan, Kodiak, Palmer and Wasilla. CDPs have not been established for these areas by the United States Census Bureau, except that seven CDPs were established for the Ketchikan-area neighborhoods in the 1980 Census (Clover Pass, Herring Cove, Ketchikan East, Mountain Point, North Tongass Highway, Pennock Island and Saxman East), but have not been used since. The remaining population was scattered throughout Alaska, both within organized boroughs and in the Unorganized Borough, in largely remote areas.

Question: In 2010, what percent of Alaska's population did not live in a city or CDP?


Answer: Ketchikan, Kodiak, Palmer and Wasilla

Question: What four areas have not been established as CDPs by the Census Bureau?


Answer: Clover Pass, Herring Cove, Ketchikan East, Mountain Point, North Tongass Highway, Pennock Island and Saxman East

Question: Which seven CDPs were incorporated as part of the 1980 Census?


Answer: 1941

Context: The Alaska State Troopers are Alaska's statewide police force. They have a long and storied history, but were not an official organization until 1941. Before the force was officially organized, law enforcement in Alaska was handled by various federal agencies. Larger towns usually have their own local police and some villages rely on "Public Safety Officers" who have police training but do not carry firearms. In much of the state, the troopers serve as the only police force available. In addition to enforcing traffic and criminal law, wildlife Troopers enforce hunting and fishing regulations. Due to the varied terrain and wide scope of the Troopers' duties, they employ a wide variety of land, air, and water patrol vehicles.

Question: In what year did Alaskan State Troopers become an official organization?


Answer: have police training but do not carry firearms

Question: What is different about a "Public Safety Officer" that distiguishes the position from a policeman?


Answer: hunting and fishing regulations

Question: What do wildlife enforcers regulate?


Answer: a wide variety of land, air, and water patrol vehicles

Question: What type of vehicles do Troopers operate?


Answer: Anchorage Symphony Orchestra

Context: There are many established music festivals in Alaska, including the Alaska Folk Festival, the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, the Anchorage Folk Festival, the Athabascan Old-Time Fiddling Festival, the Sitka Jazz Festival, and the Sitka Summer Music Festival. The most prominent orchestra in Alaska is the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra, though the Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra and Juneau Symphony are also notable. The Anchorage Opera is currently the state's only professional opera company, though there are several volunteer and semi-professional organizations in the state as well.

Question: What is Alaska's most prominent orchestra?


Answer: The Anchorage Opera

Question: Which company is Alaska's only professional opera?


Answer: Alaska Folk Festival, the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, the Anchorage Folk Festival

Question: What are a few of Alaska's noteworthy music festivals?


Answer: Ray Mala

Context: One of the most prominent movies filmed in Alaska is MGM's Eskimo/Mala The Magnificent, starring Alaska Native Ray Mala. In 1932 an expedition set out from MGM's studios in Hollywood to Alaska to film what was then billed as "The Biggest Picture Ever Made." Upon arriving in Alaska, they set up "Camp Hollywood" in Northwest Alaska, where they lived during the duration of the filming. Louis B. Mayer spared no expense in spite of the remote location, going so far as to hire the chef from the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood to prepare meals.

Question: Which Alaskan native starred in a film also set in Alaska?


Answer: "Camp Hollywood"

Question: Where did actors on the set of The Magnificent live during their stay in Alaska?


Answer: Northwest

Question: In what area of Alaska was Camp Hollywood located?


Answer: from the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood

Question: Which chef was hired to prepare meals for the actors in The Magnificent?


Answer: inductivist

Context: Popper is known for his rejection of the classical inductivist views on the scientific method, in favour of empirical falsification: A theory in the empirical sciences can never be proven, but it can be falsified, meaning that it can and should be scrutinized by decisive experiments. He used the black swan fallacy to discuss falsification. If the outcome of an experiment contradicts the theory, one should refrain from ad hoc manoeuvres that evade the contradiction merely by making it less falsifiable. Popper is also known for his opposition to the classical justificationist account of knowledge, which he replaced with critical rationalism, "the first non-justificational philosophy of criticism in the history of philosophy."

Question: Which classical views about the method of science did Popper reject?


Answer: Popper

Question: Who proposed empirical falsification as the central principle of the scientific method?


Answer: decisive experiments

Question: What is necessary for a scientific theory to be falsified?


Answer: classical justificationist

Question: Which account of knowledge did Popper contest?


Answer: critical rationalism

Question: What is the term for Popper's non-justificational theory of criticism?


Answer: Vienna

Context: Karl Popper was born in Vienna (then in Austria-Hungary) in 1902, to upper middle-class parents. All of Karl Popper's grandparents were Jewish, but the Popper family converted to Lutheranism before Karl was born, and so he received Lutheran baptism. They understood this as part of their cultural assimilation, not as an expression of devout belief. Karl's father Simon Siegmund Carl Popper was a lawyer from Bohemia and a doctor of law at the Vienna University, and mother Jenny Schiff was of Silesian and Hungarian descent. After establishing themselves in Vienna, the Poppers made a rapid social climb in Viennese society: Simon Siegmund Carl became a partner in the law firm of Vienna's liberal Burgomaster Herr Grübl and, after Grübl's death in 1898, Simon took over the business. (Malachi Hacohen records that Herr Grübl's first name was Raimund, after which Karl received his middle name. Popper himself, in his autobiography, erroneously recalls that Herr Grübl's first name was Carl.) His father was a bibliophile who had 12,000–14,000 volumes in his personal library. Popper inherited both the library and the disposition from him.

Question: In which city was Karl Popper born?


Answer: Lutheranism

Question: What religion did Popper's family observe during his youth?


Answer: Burgomaster Herr Grübl

Question: Whose law firm did Popper's father join in Vienna?


Answer: 12,000–14,000

Question: What numerical range of volumes did Popper's father keep in his library?


Answer: bibliophile

Question: What disposition regarding books did Popper inherit from his father?


Answer: 16

Context: Popper left school at the age of 16 and attended lectures in mathematics, physics, philosophy, psychology and the history of music as a guest student at the University of Vienna. In 1919, Popper became attracted by Marxism and subsequently joined the Association of Socialist School Students. He also became a member of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria, which was at that time a party that fully adopted the Marxist ideology. After the street battle in the Hörlgasse on 15 June 1919, when police shot eight of his unarmed party comrades, he became disillusioned by what he saw to be the "pseudo-scientific" historical materialism of Marx, abandoned the ideology, and remained a supporter of social liberalism throughout his life.

Question: At which age did Popper first attend university?


Answer: Marxism

Question: What political doctrine interested Popper in 1919?


Answer: Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria

Question: Which Austrian political party did Popper join as a youth?


Answer: street battle in the Hörlgasse

Question: What incident killed several of Poppers Marxist political comrades?


Answer: social liberalism

Question: To which political philosophy did Popper continue to adhere after moving away from Marxism?


Answer: cabinetmaker

Context: He worked in street construction for a short amount of time, but was unable to cope with the heavy labour. Continuing to attend university as a guest student, he started an apprenticeship as cabinetmaker, which he completed as a journeyman. He was dreaming at that time of starting a daycare facility for children, for which he assumed the ability to make furniture might be useful. After that he did voluntary service in one of psychoanalyst Alfred Adler's clinics for children. In 1922, he did his matura by way of a second chance education and finally joined the University as an ordinary student. He completed his examination as an elementary teacher in 1924 and started working at an after-school care club for socially endangered children. In 1925, he went to the newly founded Pädagogisches Institut and continued studying philosophy and psychology. Around that time he started courting Josefine Anna Henninger, who later became his wife.

Question: What trade did Popper enter as an apprentice?


Answer: daycare

Question: What type of facility did Popper plan to open that would benefit from his furniture-making skills?


Answer: Alfred Adler

Question: In which psychoanalysts clinics did Popper volunteer?


Answer: 1922

Question: When did Popper become an ordinary student rather than a guest at university?


Answer: elementary teacher

Question: For which vocation did Popper complete his university examinations?


Answer: Karl Bühler

Context: In 1928, he earned a doctorate in psychology, under the supervision of Karl Bühler. His dissertation was entitled "Die Methodenfrage der Denkpsychologie" (The question of method in cognitive psychology). In 1929, he obtained the authorisation to teach mathematics and physics in secondary school, which he started doing. He married his colleague Josefine Anna Henninger (1906–1985) in 1930. Fearing the rise of Nazism and the threat of the Anschluss, he started to use the evenings and the nights to write his first book Die beiden Grundprobleme der Erkenntnistheorie (The Two Fundamental Problems of the Theory of Knowledge). He needed to publish one to get some academic position in a country that was safe for people of Jewish descent. However, he ended up not publishing the two-volume work, but a condensed version of it with some new material, Logik der Forschung (The Logic of Scientific Discovery), in 1934. Here, he criticised psychologism, naturalism, inductionism, and logical positivism, and put forth his theory of potential falsifiability as the criterion demarcating science from non-science. In 1935 and 1936, he took unpaid leave to go to the United Kingdom for a study visit.

Question: Who supervised Popper's doctorate?


Answer: The question of method in cognitive psychology

Question: What is an English translation of the title of Popper's doctoral thesis?


Answer: mathematics and physics

Question: What subjects was Popper authorized to teach in secondary school in 1929?


Answer: Nazism

Question: Whose rise to power motivated Popper to publish his work in hopes of obtaining an academic position abroad?


Answer: The Logic of Scientific Discovery

Question: In which work published in 1934 did Popper introduce his theories centered around falsifiability?


Answer: New Zealand

Context: In 1937, Popper finally managed to get a position that allowed him to emigrate to New Zealand, where he became lecturer in philosophy at Canterbury University College of the University of New Zealand in Christchurch. It was here that he wrote his influential work The Open Society and its Enemies. In Dunedin he met the Professor of Physiology John Carew Eccles and formed a lifelong friendship with him. In 1946, after the Second World War, he moved to the United Kingdom to become reader in logic and scientific method at the London School of Economics. Three years later, in 1949, he was appointed professor of logic and scientific method at the University of London. Popper was president of the Aristotelian Society from 1958 to 1959. He retired from academic life in 1969, though he remained intellectually active for the rest of his life. In 1985, he returned to Austria so that his wife could have her relatives around her during the last months of her life; she died in November that year. After the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft failed to establish him as the director of a newly founded branch researching the philosophy of science, he went back again to the United Kingdom in 1986, settling in Kenley, Surrey.

Question: Where did Popper move in 1937?


Answer: Canterbury University College of the University of New Zealand

Question: Where was Popper's academic appointment in New Zealand?


Answer: John Carew Eccles

Question: Which lifelong friend did Popper make in Dunedin?


Answer: logic and scientific method

Question: What philosophical fields did Popper teach at the London School of Economics?


Answer: Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft

Question: Which Austrian school's failure to give Popper a directorship prompted him to return to the United Kingdom at the end of his life?


Answer: 92

Context: Popper died of "complications of cancer, pneumonia and kidney failure" in Kenley at the age of 92 on 17 September 1994. He had been working continuously on his philosophy until two weeks before, when he suddenly fell terminally ill. After cremation, his ashes were taken to Vienna and buried at Lainzer cemetery adjacent to the ORF Centre, where his wife Josefine Anna Popper (called ‘Hennie’) had already been buried. Popper's estate is managed by his secretary and personal assistant Melitta Mew and her husband Raymond. Popper's manuscripts went to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, partly during his lifetime and partly as supplementary material after his death. Klagenfurt University possesses Popper's library, including his precious bibliophilia, as well as hard copies of the original Hoover material and microfilms of the supplementary material. The remaining parts of the estate were mostly transferred to The Karl Popper Charitable Trust. In October 2008 Klagenfurt University acquired the copyrights from the estate.

Question: How old was Popper when he died?


Answer: Lainzer

Question: Which cemetery in Vienna received Popper's ashes?


Answer: Hoover Institution at Stanford University

Question: Where are Popper's manuscripts kept now?


Answer: Klagenfurt University

Question: Which university has the contents of Popper's library?


Answer: Josefine Anna Popper

Question: What was Popper's wife's name?


Answer: Lippincott Award

Context: Popper won many awards and honours in his field, including the Lippincott Award of the American Political Science Association, the Sonning Prize, the Otto Hahn Peace Medal of the United Nations Association of Germany in Berlin and fellowships in the Royal Society, British Academy, London School of Economics, King's College London, Darwin College, Cambridge, and Charles University, Prague. Austria awarded him the Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold for Services to the Republic of Austria in 1986, and the Federal Republic of Germany its Grand Cross with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit, and the peace class of the Order Pour le Mérite. He received the Humanist Laureate Award from the International Academy of Humanism. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1965, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1976. He was invested with the Insignia of a Companion of Honour in 1982.

Question: Which award did Popper receive from the American Political Science Association?


Answer: Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold for Services to the Republic of Austria

Question: What recognition did Austria bestow on Popper in 1986?


Answer: International Academy of Humanism

Question: Who gave Popper its Humanist Laureate Award?


Answer: Queen Elizabeth II

Question: Which English monarch knighted Popper?


Answer: Charles University, Prague

Question: Which central European university made Popper a fellow?


Answer: 1978

Context: Other awards and recognition for Popper included the City of Vienna Prize for the Humanities (1965), Karl Renner Prize (1978), Austrian Decoration for Science and Art (1980), Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize (1981), Ring of Honour of the City of Vienna (1983) and the Premio Internazionale of the Italian Federico Nietzsche Society (1988). In 1992, he was awarded the Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy for "symbolising the open spirit of the 20th century" and for his "enormous influence on the formation of the modern intellectual climate".

Question: In which year did Popper win the Karl Renner Prize?


Answer: Vienna

Question: Which city made Popper part of its Ring of Honour in 1983?


Answer: Kyoto Prize in Arts and Philosophy

Question: What award given by a Japanese foundation did Popper win in 1992?


Answer: 1981

Question: Popper won the Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize in which year?


Answer: Marxism

Context: Karl Popper's rejection of Marxism during his teenage years left a profound mark on his thought. He had at one point joined a socialist association, and for a few months in 1919 considered himself a communist. During this time he became familiar with the Marxist view of economics, class-war, and history. Although he quickly became disillusioned with the views expounded by Marxism, his flirtation with the ideology led him to distance himself from those who believed that spilling blood for the sake of a revolution was necessary. He came to realise that when it came to sacrificing human lives, one was to think and act with extreme prudence.

Question: What political philosophy that attracted Popper as a teenager had a profound influence on his thinking going forward?


Answer: 1919

Question: For a time during which year did Popper consider himself a communist?


Answer: teenage years

Question: At which stage of life was Popper most strongly influenced by Marxist thinking?


Answer: disillusioned

Question: How did Popper feel about Marxism after only a short time associating with other Marxists?


Answer: fascism

Context: The failure of democratic parties to prevent fascism from taking over Austrian politics in the 1920s and 1930s traumatised Popper. He suffered from the direct consequences of this failure, since events after the Anschluss, the annexation of Austria by the German Reich in 1938, forced him into permanent exile. His most important works in the field of social science—The Poverty of Historicism (1944) and The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945)—were inspired by his reflection on the events of his time and represented, in a sense, a reaction to the prevalent totalitarian ideologies that then dominated Central European politics. His books defended democratic liberalism as a social and political philosophy. They also represented extensive critiques of the philosophical presuppositions underpinning all forms of totalitarianism.

Question: What political ideology dominated Austrian politics in the decades before the second world war?


Answer: the Anschluss

Question: What key event in 1938 pushed Popper into exile from Austria?


Answer: democratic liberalism

Question: What political ideology do Popper's major works defend?


Answer: totalitarianism

Question: What form of political organization do Popper's works mainly critique?


Answer: the annexation of Austria by the German Reich

Question: What was the Anschluss?


Answer: Freud and Adler

Context: Popper puzzled over the stark contrast between the non-scientific character of Freud and Adler's theories in the field of psychology and the revolution set off by Einstein's theory of relativity in physics in the early 20th century. Popper thought that Einstein's theory, as a theory properly grounded in scientific thought and method, was highly "risky", in the sense that it was possible to deduce consequences from it which were, in the light of the then-dominant Newtonian physics, highly improbable (e.g., that light is deflected towards solid bodies—confirmed by Eddington's experiments in 1919), and which would, if they turned out to be false, falsify the whole theory. In contrast, nothing could, even in principle, falsify psychoanalytic theories. He thus came to the conclusion that psychoanalytic theories had more in common with primitive myths than with genuine science.

Question: Which two important psychologists did Popper view as advancing non-scientific theories?


Answer: Einstein

Question: Whose recent breakthrough in physics did Popper view as paradigmatic science?


Answer: risky

Question: What quality of the theory of relativity did Popper believe made it proper science?


Answer: primitive myths

Question: What did Popper think psychoanalytic theory shared more feature with than real science ?


Answer: falsify

Question: What could you not do to psychoanalytic theory that Popper believed crucial in genuine science?


Answer: falsification

Context: This led Popper to conclude that what were regarded[by whom?] as the remarkable strengths of psychoanalytical theories were actually their weaknesses. Psychoanalytical theories were crafted in a way that made them able to refute any criticism and to give an explanation for every possible form of human behaviour. The nature of such theories made it impossible for any criticism or experiment - even in principle - to show them to be false. This realisation had an important consequence when Popper later tackled the problem of demarcation in the philosophy of science, as it led him to posit that the strength of a scientific theory lies in its both being susceptible to falsification, and not actually being falsified by criticism made of it. He considered that if a theory cannot, in principle, be falsified by criticism, it is not a scientific theory.

Question: According to Popper, a theory is scientific only is it is susceptible to what?


Answer: criticism or experiment

Question: What key components of science are ineffective when brought to bear on non-scientific theories?


Answer: weaknesses

Question: How did Popper characterize the wide applicability and immunity to criticism of psychoanalytic theory?


Answer: critical rationalism

Context: Popper coined the term "critical rationalism" to describe his philosophy. Concerning the method of science, the term indicates his rejection of classical empiricism, and the classical observationalist-inductivist account of science that had grown out of it. Popper argued strongly against the latter, holding that scientific theories are abstract in nature, and can be tested only indirectly, by reference to their implications. He also held that scientific theory, and human knowledge generally, is irreducibly conjectural or hypothetical, and is generated by the creative imagination to solve problems that have arisen in specific historico-cultural settings.

Question: What term did Popper use for his philosophy?


Answer: the classical observationalist-inductivist account

Question: Which account of scientific method did Popper's repudiate?


Answer: rejection

Question: What was Popper's position on classical empiricism?


Answer: indirectly

Question: According to Popper, what is the only way one can test scientific theories because they are necessarily abstract?


Answer: verification and falsifiability

Context: Logically, no number of positive outcomes at the level of experimental testing can confirm a scientific theory, but a single counterexample is logically decisive: it shows the theory, from which the implication is derived, to be false. To say that a given statement (e.g., the statement of a law of some scientific theory) -- [call it "T"] -- is "falsifiable" does not mean that "T" is false. Rather, it means that, if "T" is false, then (in principle), "T" could be shown to be false, by observation or by experiment. Popper's account of the logical asymmetry between verification and falsifiability lies at the heart of his philosophy of science. It also inspired him to take falsifiability as his criterion of demarcation between what is, and is not, genuinely scientific: a theory should be considered scientific if, and only if, it is falsifiable. This led him to attack the claims of both psychoanalysis and contemporary Marxism to scientific status, on the basis that their theories are not falsifiable.

Question: Popper pointed out an important logical asymmetry between what two concepts?


Answer: falsifiability

Question: What does Popper say demarcates scientific theory from non-science?


Answer: Marxism

Question: What political theory did Popper say did not meet his falsifiability criterion?


Answer: psychoanalysis

Question: What branch of psychology was Popper critical of for not producing falsifiable theory?


Answer: All Life is Problem Solving

Context: In All Life is Problem Solving, Popper sought to explain the apparent progress of scientific knowledge – that is, how it is that our understanding of the universe seems to improve over time. This problem arises from his position that the truth content of our theories, even the best of them, cannot be verified by scientific testing, but can only be falsified. Again, in this context the word "falsified" does not refer to something being "fake"; rather, that something can be (i.e., is capable of being) shown to be false by observation or experiment. Some things simply do not lend themselves to being shown to be false, and therefore, are not falsifiable. If so, then how is it that the growth of science appears to result in a growth in knowledge? In Popper's view, the advance of scientific knowledge is an evolutionary process characterised by his formula:

Question: Which of Popper's works addresses the improvement of scientific understanding of the world over time?


Answer: evolutionary

Question: Popper described the growth of scientific understanding as what kind of process?


Answer: truth content

Question: What aspect of a scientific theory can never be fully verified, according to Popper?


Answer: error elimination

Context: In response to a given problem situation (), a number of competing conjectures, or tentative theories (), are systematically subjected to the most rigorous attempts at falsification possible. This process, error elimination (), performs a similar function for science that natural selection performs for biological evolution. Theories that better survive the process of refutation are not more true, but rather, more "fit"—in other words, more applicable to the problem situation at hand (). Consequently, just as a species' biological fitness does not ensure continued survival, neither does rigorous testing protect a scientific theory from refutation in the future. Yet, as it appears that the engine of biological evolution has, over many generations, produced adaptive traits equipped to deal with more and more complex problems of survival, likewise, the evolution of theories through the scientific method may, in Popper's view, reflect a certain type of progress: toward more and more interesting problems (). For Popper, it is in the interplay between the tentative theories (conjectures) and error elimination (refutation) that scientific knowledge advances toward greater and greater problems; in a process very much akin to the interplay between genetic variation and natural selection.

Question: What process in science is like the process of natural selection in nature?


Answer: more "fit"

Question: What is a better description for theories that survive scientific scrutiny than "more true?"


Answer: conjectures

Question: What is another term for the tentative theories enter the process of error elimination in science?


Answer: more and more interesting problems

Question: Toward what does Popper believe scientific understandings progress?


Answer: induction

Context: Among his contributions to philosophy is his claim to have solved the philosophical problem of induction. He states that while there is no way to prove that the sun will rise, it is possible to formulate the theory that every day the sun will rise; if it does not rise on some particular day, the theory will be falsified and will have to be replaced by a different one. Until that day, there is no need to reject the assumption that the theory is true. Nor is it rational according to Popper to make instead the more complex assumption that the sun will rise until a given day, but will stop doing so the day after, or similar statements with additional conditions.

Question: Popper's thoughts on falsification present a solution to the philosophical problem concerning what type of scientific reasoning?


Answer: additional conditions

Question: What parts of a theory are unnecessary before the simple theory is falsified?


Answer: Popper

Question: Who presented a solution to the philosophical problem of induction centered around falsifiability?


Answer: ad-hoc-measures

Context: Popper held that rationality is not restricted to the realm of empirical or scientific theories, but that it is merely a special case of the general method of criticism, the method of finding and eliminating contradictions in knowledge without ad-hoc-measures. According to this view, rational discussion about metaphysical ideas, about moral values and even about purposes is possible. Popper's student W.W. Bartley III tried to radicalise this idea and made the controversial claim that not only can criticism go beyond empirical knowledge, but that everything can be rationally criticised.

Question: Popper's rational approach opposes what technique sometimes used to remove contradictions in knowledge?


Answer: W.W. Bartley III

Question: Which of Popper's students argued that rational criticism should be most widely applied?


Answer: empirical

Question: What type of knowledge is not the only sphere of rational criticism, according to Popper's student W.W. Bartley III?


Answer: lack of justification

Context: To Popper, who was an anti-justificationist, traditional philosophy is misled by the false principle of sufficient reason. He thinks that no assumption can ever be or needs ever to be justified, so a lack of justification is not a justification for doubt. Instead, theories should be tested and scrutinised. It is not the goal to bless theories with claims of certainty or justification, but to eliminate errors in them. He writes, "there are no such things as good positive reasons; nor do we need such things [...] But [philosophers] obviously cannot quite bring [themselves] to believe that this is my opinion, let alone that it is right" (The Philosophy of Karl Popper, p. 1043)

Question: According to Popper, what is not grounds for doubt?


Answer: principle of sufficient reason

Question: What principle of traditional philosophy did Popper take an anti-justificationist stance against?


Answer: eliminate errors

Question: What does Popper believe is essential to do to theories instead of justification?


Answer: good positive reasons

Question: What don't we need to look for about theories in Popper's view?


Answer: historicism

Context: In The Open Society and Its Enemies and The Poverty of Historicism, Popper developed a critique of historicism and a defence of the "Open Society". Popper considered historicism to be the theory that history develops inexorably and necessarily according to knowable general laws towards a determinate end. He argued that this view is the principal theoretical presupposition underpinning most forms of authoritarianism and totalitarianism. He argued that historicism is founded upon mistaken assumptions regarding the nature of scientific law and prediction. Since the growth of human knowledge is a causal factor in the evolution of human history, and since "no society can predict, scientifically, its own future states of knowledge", it follows, he argued, that there can be no predictive science of human history. For Popper, metaphysical and historical indeterminism go hand in hand.

Question: What is the term for the view that there are discoverable general laws constraining history's development?


Answer: authoritarianism and totalitarianism

Question: What political forms did Popper believe historicism supported?


Answer: the growth of human knowledge

Question: What unpredictable feature of the world did Popper say refuted historicism?


Answer: The Poverty of Historicism

Question: Which of Popper's works criticized the idea that history has an inexorable developmental path?


Answer: Alfred Tarski

Context: As early as 1934, Popper wrote of the search for truth as "one of the strongest motives for scientific discovery." Still, he describes in Objective Knowledge (1972) early concerns about the much-criticised notion of truth as correspondence. Then came the semantic theory of truth formulated by the logician Alfred Tarski and published in 1933. Popper writes of learning in 1935 of the consequences of Tarski's theory, to his intense joy. The theory met critical objections to truth as correspondence and thereby rehabilitated it. The theory also seemed, in Popper's eyes, to support metaphysical realism and the regulative idea of a search for truth.

Question: Whose theory of truth did Popper read with intense interest in 1935?


Answer: semantic theory of truth

Question: What theory of interest to Popper did Alfred Tarski publish in 1933?


Answer: truth as correspondence

Question: Tarski's theory overcame certain objections to what conception of truth?


Answer: metaphysical

Question: What kind of realism did Popper believe Tarski's theory supported?


Answer: deflationary

Context: According to this theory, the conditions for the truth of a sentence as well as the sentences themselves are part of a metalanguage. So, for example, the sentence "Snow is white" is true if and only if snow is white. Although many philosophers have interpreted, and continue to interpret, Tarski's theory as a deflationary theory, Popper refers to it as a theory in which "is true" is replaced with "corresponds to the facts". He bases this interpretation on the fact that examples such as the one described above refer to two things: assertions and the facts to which they refer. He identifies Tarski's formulation of the truth conditions of sentences as the introduction of a "metalinguistic predicate" and distinguishes the following cases:

Question: What term do philosophers give to the kind of theory Tarski proposed about truth?


Answer: "corresponds to the facts"

Question: With what does Popper say Tarski's theory replaces the predicate "is true?"


Answer: metalanguage

Question: What concept did Tarski introduce to discuss the conditions for the truth of statements?


Answer: assertions and the facts to which they refer

Question: What two things does Popper argue Tarski's theory involves in an evaluation of truth?


Answer: truthlikeness

Context: Upon this basis, along with that of the logical content of assertions (where logical content is inversely proportional to probability), Popper went on to develop his important notion of verisimilitude or "truthlikeness". The intuitive idea behind verisimilitude is that the assertions or hypotheses of scientific theories can be objectively measured with respect to the amount of truth and falsity that they imply. And, in this way, one theory can be evaluated as more or less true than another on a quantitative basis which, Popper emphasises forcefully, has nothing to do with "subjective probabilities" or other merely "epistemic" considerations.

Question: What term does Popper use that roughly means verisimilitude?


Answer: subjective

Question: Poppers notion of verisimilitude leaves no place for which kind of probabilities in the evaluation of scientific hypotheses?


Answer: epistemic

Question: What class of considerations did Popper believe were not important in scientific measurement?


Answer: probability

Question: What is the logical content of hypotheses inversely proportional to in Popper's reasoning?


Answer: knowledge

Context: Knowledge, for Popper, was objective, both in the sense that it is objectively true (or truthlike), and also in the sense that knowledge has an ontological status (i.e., knowledge as object) independent of the knowing subject (Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach, 1972). He proposed three worlds: World One, being the physical world, or physical states; World Two, being the world of mind, or mental states, ideas, and perceptions; and World Three, being the body of human knowledge expressed in its manifold forms, or the products of the second world made manifest in the materials of the first world (i.e., books, papers, paintings, symphonies, and all the products of the human mind). World Three, he argued, was the product of individual human beings in exactly the same sense that an animal path is the product of individual animals, and that, as such, has an existence and evolution independent of any individual knowing subjects. The influence of World Three, in his view, on the individual human mind (World Two) is at least as strong as the influence of World One. In other words, the knowledge held by a given individual mind owes at least as much to the total accumulated wealth of human knowledge, made manifest, as to the world of direct experience. As such, the growth of human knowledge could be said to be a function of the independent evolution of World Three. Many contemporary philosophers, such as Daniel Dennett, have not embraced Popper's Three World conjecture, due mostly, it seems, to its resemblance to mind-body dualism.

Question: What did Popper argue was objective and independent of its subject?


Answer: three

Question: How many different worlds or realities did Popper differentiate in Objective Knowledge?


Answer: the physical world

Question: What constituted World One in Popper's theory?


Answer: individual human beings

Question: Who produced the contents of World Three?


Answer: World Three

Question: Which world's evolution corresponds to the growth of human knowledge?


Answer: criterion of falsifiability

Context: The creation–evolution controversy in the United States raises the issue of whether creationistic ideas may be legitimately called science and whether evolution itself may be legitimately called science. In the debate, both sides and even courts in their decisions have frequently invoked Popper's criterion of falsifiability (see Daubert standard). In this context, passages written by Popper are frequently quoted in which he speaks about such issues himself. For example, he famously stated "Darwinism is not a testable scientific theory, but a metaphysical research program—a possible framework for testable scientific theories." He continued:

Question: Which of Popper's notions is often invoked in creation-evolution debates?


Answer: metaphysical

Question: What kind of research program did Popper call Darwinism?


Answer: possible framework

Question: What phrase did Popper use to describe Darwinism's relation to proper falsifiable theories?


Answer: creation–evolution

Question: Popper's philosophy is often applied in what political debate concerning biological science?


Answer: goal-directed

Context: Popper had his own sophisticated views on evolution that go much beyond what the frequently-quoted passages say. In effect, Popper agreed with some of the points of both creationists and naturalists, but also disagreed with both views on crucial aspects. Popper understood the universe as a creative entity that invents new things, including life, but without the necessity of something like a god, especially not one who is pulling strings from behind the curtain. He said that evolution must, as the creationists say, work in a goal-directed way but disagreed with their view that it must necessarily be the hand of god that imposes these goals onto the stage of life.

Question: Along with some creationists, Popper believed that evolution must have what quality to its progress?


Answer: god

Question: Popper disagreed with creationists that whose hand must be directing evolution?


Answer: creative

Question: What kind of an entity did Popper believe the universe to be?


Answer: spearhead

Context: Instead, he formulated the spearhead model of evolution, a version of genetic pluralism. According to this model, living organisms themselves have goals, and act according to these goals, each guided by a central control. In its most sophisticated form, this is the brain of humans, but controls also exist in much less sophisticated ways for species of lower complexity, such as the amoeba. This control organ plays a special role in evolution—it is the "spearhead of evolution". The goals bring the purpose into the world. Mutations in the genes that determine the structure of the control may then cause drastic changes in behaviour, preferences and goals, without having an impact on the organism's phenotype. Popper postulates that such purely behavioural changes are less likely to be lethal for the organism compared to drastic changes of the phenotype.

Question: What is the name of Popper's model of evolution?


Answer: genetic pluralism

Question: Popper's model of evolution is part of what family of models?


Answer: goals

Question: What directs the actions of organisms in Popper's biological model?


Answer: Mutations

Question: Organisms' goals shift along with which notable genetic process?


Answer: hopeful monster

Context: Popper contrasts his views with the notion of the "hopeful monster" that has large phenotype mutations and calls it the "hopeful behavioural monster". After behaviour has changed radically, small but quick changes of the phenotype follow to make the organism fitter to its changed goals. This way it looks as if the phenotype were changing guided by some invisible hand, while it is merely natural selection working in combination with the new behaviour. For example, according to this hypothesis, the eating habits of the giraffe must have changed before its elongated neck evolved. Popper contrasted this view as "evolution from within" or "active Darwinism" (the organism actively trying to discover new ways of life and being on a quest for conquering new ecological niches), with the naturalistic "evolution from without" (which has the picture of a hostile environment only trying to kill the mostly passive organism, or perhaps segregate some of its groups).

Question: Which view of evolution emphasizing large changes in organisms' phenotypes does Popper oppose to his own?


Answer: behaviour

Question: Which aspect of organisms changes most radically in the process of evolution Popper envisions?


Answer: hopeful behavioural monster

Question: How does Popper describe the "monsters" that evolve in his view of evolutionary processes?


Answer: active

Question: What kind of Darwinism does Popper subscribe to in contrast to the naturalistic kind?


Answer: C.E. Raven

Context: About the creation-evolution controversy, Popper wrote that he considered it "a somewhat sensational clash between a brilliant scientific hypothesis concerning the history of the various species of animals and plants on earth, and an older metaphysical theory which, incidentally, happened to be part of an established religious belief" with a footnote to the effect that "[he] agree[s] with Professor C.E. Raven when, in his Science, Religion, and the Future, 1943, he calls this conflict "a storm in a Victorian tea-cup"; though the force of this remark is perhaps a little impaired by the attention he pays to the vapours still emerging from the cup—to the Great Systems of Evolutionist Philosophy, produced by Bergson, Whitehead, Smuts, and others."

Question: Which professor cited by Popper described the creation-evolution debate as "a storm in a Victorian tea-cup?"


Answer: creation-evolution

Question: What controversy involving science did Popper believe was sensationalized because of its connection with religion?


Answer: 1943

Question: In which year did C.E. Raven publish the remarks on creation-evolution quoted by Popper?


Answer: metaphysical

Question: What term does Popper use when describing creationism as a type of theory?


Answer: 1969

Context: In an interview that Popper gave in 1969 with the condition that it shall be kept secret until after his death, he summarised his position on God as follows: "I don't know whether God exists or not. ... Some forms of atheism are arrogant and ignorant and should be rejected, but agnosticism—to admit that we don't know and to search—is all right. ... When I look at what I call the gift of life, I feel a gratitude which is in tune with some religious ideas of God. However, the moment I even speak of it, I am embarrassed that I may do something wrong to God in talking about God." He objected to organised religion, saying "it tends to use the name of God in vain", noting the danger of fanaticism because of religious conflicts: "The whole thing goes back to myths which, though they may have a kernel of truth, are untrue. Why then should the Jewish myth be true and the Indian and Egyptian myths not be true?" In a letter unrelated to the interview, he stressed his tolerant attitude: "Although I am not for religion, I do think that we should show respect for anybody who believes honestly."

Question: In which year did Popper give a secret interview concerning his views about God?


Answer: agnosticism

Question: Which term for his religious outlook did Popper prefer?


Answer: myths

Question: What did Popper believe were at the heart of religious disagreements, and should not be the cause of as much conflict as they are?


Answer: tolerant

Question: Although he opposed organized religion, what attitude did Popper think should be taken toward it:


Answer: philosophy of science

Context: Popper played a vital role in establishing the philosophy of science as a vigorous, autonomous discipline within philosophy, through his own prolific and influential works, and also through his influence on his own contemporaries and students. Popper founded in 1946 the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at the London School of Economics and there lectured and influenced both Imre Lakatos and Paul Feyerabend, two of the foremost philosophers of science in the next generation of philosophy of science. (Lakatos significantly modified Popper's position,:1 and Feyerabend repudiated it entirely, but the work of both is deeply influenced by Popper and engaged with many of the problems that Popper set.)

Question: What branch of philosophy did Popper advance the most?


Answer: Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method

Question: Which department did Popper found at the London School of Economics?


Answer: Imre Lakatos and Paul Feyerabend

Question: Which two major philosophers of science learned a great deal from Popper at the London School Economics?


Answer: repudiated it entirely

Question: What did Paul Feyerabend ultimate do to Popper's philosophy of science?


Answer: London School of Economics

Question: Where did Popper establish a university department for the philosophy of science in 1946?


Answer: Friedrich Hayek

Context: While there is some dispute as to the matter of influence, Popper had a long-standing and close friendship with economist Friedrich Hayek, who was also brought to the London School of Economics from Vienna. Each found support and similarities in the other's work, citing each other often, though not without qualification. In a letter to Hayek in 1944, Popper stated, "I think I have learnt more from you than from any other living thinker, except perhaps Alfred Tarski." Popper dedicated his Conjectures and Refutations to Hayek. For his part, Hayek dedicated a collection of papers, Studies in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, to Popper, and in 1982 said, "...ever since his Logik der Forschung first came out in 1934, I have been a complete adherent to his general theory of methodology."

Question: Which other Austrian scholar and friend of Popper also worked near him at the London School of Economics?


Answer: Economics

Question: What was Hayek's academic field?


Answer: 1944

Question: In which year did Popper write Hayek a letter expressing his intellectual debt to him?


Answer: Alfred Tarski

Question: Who did Popper say was the only thinker who might have had a greater influence on him than Hayek?


Answer: Studies in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics

Question: Which of Hayek's publications was dedicated to Popper?


Answer: logical positivism

Context: He does not argue that any such conclusions are therefore true, or that this describes the actual methods of any particular scientist.[citation needed] Rather, it is recommended as an essential principle of methodology that, if enacted by a system or community, will lead to slow but steady progress of a sort (relative to how well the system or community enacts the method). It has been suggested that Popper's ideas are often mistaken for a hard logical account of truth because of the historical co-incidence of their appearing at the same time as logical positivism, the followers of which mistook his aims for their own.

Question: What other contemporaneous school of thought is often confused with Popper's own contributions?


Answer: any particular scientist

Question: Popper has stressed that his description of scientific methodology should not be mistaken to apply to whom?


Answer: system or community

Question: At what level does Popper indicate his view of scientific methodology applies?


Answer: slow but steady

Question: What kind of progress does science make given the methodology Popper describes?


Answer: Quine-Duhem

Context: The Quine-Duhem thesis argues that it's impossible to test a single hypothesis on its own, since each one comes as part of an environment of theories. Thus we can only say that the whole package of relevant theories has been collectively falsified, but cannot conclusively say which element of the package must be replaced. An example of this is given by the discovery of the planet Neptune: when the motion of Uranus was found not to match the predictions of Newton's laws, the theory "There are seven planets in the solar system" was rejected, and not Newton's laws themselves. Popper discussed this critique of naïve falsificationism in Chapters 3 and 4 of The Logic of Scientific Discovery. For Popper, theories are accepted or rejected via a sort of selection process. Theories that say more about the way things appear are to be preferred over those that do not; the more generally applicable a theory is, the greater its value. Thus Newton's laws, with their wide general application, are to be preferred over the much more specific "the solar system has seven planets".[dubious – discuss]

Question: What thesis says a scientific hypothesis is not testable in isolation from its system of theories?


Answer: The Logic of Scientific Discovery

Question: Which of Popper's works responds to critiques of naive falsificationism?


Answer: Neptune

Question: The planet Uranus' apparent failure to follow Newton's laws led to the discovery of which planet?


Answer: more generally applicable

Question: According to Popper, the scientific selection process favors which type of theory?


Answer: Logic of Discovery

Context: Popper claimed to have recognised already in the 1934 version of his Logic of Discovery a fact later stressed by Kuhn, "that scientists necessarily develop their ideas within a definite theoretical framework", and to that extent to have anticipated Kuhn's central point about "normal science". (But Popper criticised what he saw as Kuhn's relativism.) Also, in his collection Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (Harper & Row, 1963), Popper writes, "Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths; neither with the collection of observations, nor with the invention of experiments, but with the critical discussion of myths, and of magical techniques and practices. The scientific tradition is distinguished from the pre-scientific tradition in having two layers. Like the latter, it passes on its theories; but it also passes on a critical attitude towards them. The theories are passed on, not as dogmas, but rather with the challenge to discuss them and improve upon them."

Question: Popper believed he had already discussed similar ideas to Kuhn's about scientific communities in what work?


Answer: relativism

Question: What aspect of Kuhn's thinking did Popper criticize?


Answer: the critical discussion of myths

Question: What did Popper say must be the beginning phase of science?


Answer: a critical attitude

Question: According to Popper, what second layer does scientific inquiry have that pre-scientific inquiry does not?


Answer: statistical

Context: Another objection is that it is not always possible to demonstrate falsehood definitively, especially if one is using statistical criteria to evaluate a null hypothesis. More generally it is not always clear, if evidence contradicts a hypothesis, that this is a sign of flaws in the hypothesis rather than of flaws in the evidence. However, this is a misunderstanding of what Popper's philosophy of science sets out to do. Rather than offering a set of instructions that merely need to be followed diligently to achieve science, Popper makes it clear in The Logic of Scientific Discovery that his belief is that the resolution of conflicts between hypotheses and observations can only be a matter of the collective judgment of scientists, in each individual case.

Question: What kind of criteria frequently used in science complicates the definitiveness of some hypotheses' falsification?


Answer: flaws in the evidence

Question: What other flaws complicate the problem of identifying faulty scientific hypotheses?


Answer: the collective judgment of scientists

Question: According to Popper, what resolves conflicting hypotheses and observations in the long run?


Answer: Science Versus Crime

Context: In a book called Science Versus Crime, Houck writes that Popper's falsificationism can be questioned logically: it is not clear how Popper would deal with a statement like "for every metal, there is a temperature at which it will melt." The hypothesis cannot be falsified by any possible observation, for there will always be a higher temperature than tested at which the metal may in fact melt, yet it seems to be a valid scientific hypothesis. These examples were pointed out by Carl Gustav Hempel. Hempel came to acknowledge that Logical Positivism's verificationism was untenable, but argued that falsificationism was equally untenable on logical grounds alone. The simplest response to this is that, because Popper describes how theories attain, maintain and lose scientific status, individual consequences of currently accepted scientific theories are scientific in the sense of being part of tentative scientific knowledge, and both of Hempel's examples fall under this category. For instance, atomic theory implies that all metals melt at some temperature.

Question: Which book by Houck points out logical flaws in Popper's falsificationism?


Answer: Carl Gustav Hempel

Question: Who argued that Popper's falsificationism was just as logically untenable as Logical Positivism's verificationism?


Answer: Houck

Question: Who wrote the book Science Versus Crime which challenged the logic of falsificationism?


Answer: Otto Selz

Context: In 2004, philosopher and psychologist Michel ter Hark (Groningen, The Netherlands) published a book, called Popper, Otto Selz and the rise of evolutionary epistemology, in which he claimed that Popper took some of his ideas from his tutor, the German psychologist Otto Selz. Selz never published his ideas, partly because of the rise of Nazism, which forced him to quit his work in 1933, and the prohibition of referring to Selz' work. Popper, the historian of ideas and his scholarship, is criticised in some academic quarters for his rejection of Plato, Hegel and Marx.

Question: Which German psychologist and tutor of Popper may have originated some of Popper's ideas?


Answer: Michel ter Hark

Question: Who claimed Otto Selz deserved credit for ideas published by Popper?


Answer: the rise of Nazism

Question: What contributed to Otto Selz's cessation of work in 1933?


Answer: Popper, Otto Selz and the rise of evolutionary epistemology

Question: What is the name of the 2004 paper that links Popper's work to that of his tutor Otto Selz?


Answer: Plato, Hegel and Marx

Question: Popper is criticized for dismissing which major philosophers in his work?


Answer: Darwin and Einstein

Context: According to John N. Gray, Popper held that "a theory is scientific only in so far as it is falsifiable, and should be given up as soon as it is falsified." By applying Popper's account of scientific method, Gray's Straw Dogs states that this would have "killed the theories of Darwin and Einstein at birth." When they were first advanced, Gray claims, each of them was "at odds with some available evidence; only later did evidence become available that gave them crucial support." Against this, Gray seeks to establish the irrationalist thesis that "the progress of science comes from acting against reason."

Question: Which two prominent scientists advanced theories that John N. Gray claims would never have survived the scientific method Popper describes?


Answer: Straw Dogs

Question: Which work by John Gray challenges Popper's falsificationism?


Answer: available evidence

Question: According to Gray, what should have falsified Einstein and Darwin's theories when first proposed?


Answer: irrationalist

Question: What kind of thesis does Gray advance about scientific progress?


Answer: inductivist

Context: Gray does not, however, give any indication of what available evidence these theories were at odds with, and his appeal to "crucial support" illustrates the very inductivist approach to science that Popper sought to show was logically illegitimate. For, according to Popper, Einstein's theory was at least equally as well corroborated as Newton's upon its initial conception; they both equally well accounted for all the hitherto available evidence. Moreover, since Einstein also explained the empirical refutations of Newton's theory, general relativity was immediately deemed suitable for tentative acceptance on the Popperian account. Indeed, Popper wrote, several decades before Gray's criticism, in reply to a critical essay by Imre Lakatos:

Question: Gray's approach aligns with which approach that Popper himself considered untenable?


Answer: Imre Lakatos

Question: A possible rebuttal to Gray's argument appears in Popper's reply to which philosopher?


Answer: explained the empirical refutations of Newton's theory

Question: What did general relativity do that made it tentatively acceptable when it was proposed?


Answer: Einstein's theory

Question: In contrast to Gray, which theory did Popper argue was at least equally consistent with Newton's on the available evidence?


Answer: simplest

Context: Such a theory would be true with higher probability, because it cannot be attacked so easily: to falsify the first one, it is sufficient to find that the sun has stopped rising; to falsify the second one, one additionally needs the assumption that the given day has not yet been reached. Popper held that it is the least likely, or most easily falsifiable, or simplest theory (attributes which he identified as all the same thing) that explains known facts that one should rationally prefer. His opposition to positivism, which held that it is the theory most likely to be true that one should prefer, here becomes very apparent. It is impossible, Popper argues, to ensure a theory to be true; it is more important that its falsity can be detected as easily as possible.

Question: Which type of theory is most falsifiable?


Answer: positivism

Question: What school of philosophy does Popper's thinking on induction oppose?


Answer: impossible

Question: For Popper, knowing that a theory is true is what?


Answer: its falsity

Question: What quality of a useful theory must be easily detectable?


Answer: Communists

Context: In his early years Popper was impressed by Marxism, whether of Communists or socialists. An event that happened in 1919 had a profound effect on him: During a riot, caused by the Communists, the police shot several unarmed people, including some of Popper's friends, when they tried to free party comrades from prison. The riot had, in fact, been part of a plan by which leaders of the Communist party with connections to Béla Kun tried to take power by a coup; Popper did not know about this at that time. However, he knew that the riot instigators were swayed by the Marxist doctrine that class struggle would produce vastly more dead men than the inevitable revolution brought about as quickly as possible, and so had no scruples to put the life of the rioters at risk to achieve their selfish goal of becoming the future leaders of the working class. This was the start of his later criticism of historicism. Popper began to reject Marxist historicism, which he associated with questionable means, and later socialism, which he associated with placing equality before freedom (to the possible disadvantage of equality).

Question: Who instigated the 1919 riot that reshaped Popper's political views?


Answer: a coup

Question: The 1919 riot involving Popper's comrades was part of what larger political move?


Answer: historicism

Question: Popper's critique of which doctrine has its origins in first-hand observation of communist agitation?


Answer: Béla Kun

Question: Which historically significant communist activist was associated with the 1919 riots in which some of Popper's friends were killed?


Answer: class struggle

Question: What did the Marxist rioters believe would cause more death and suffering than their own agitation?


Answer: Italian

Context: A mandolin (Italian: mandolino pronounced [mandoˈliːno]; literally "small mandola") is a musical instrument in the lute family and is usually plucked with a plectrum or "pick". It commonly has four courses of doubled metal strings tuned in unison (8 strings), although five (10 strings) and six (12 strings) course versions also exist. The courses are normally tuned in a succession of perfect fifths. It is the soprano member of a family that includes the mandola, octave mandolin, mandocello and mandobass.

Question: What country did the mandolin originate from?


Answer: small mandola

Question: What does mandolin translate to?


Answer: lute family

Question: What musical family does the mandolin come from?


Answer: usually plucked with a plectrum or "pick"

Question: How is the mandolin usually played?


Answer: four

Question: How many courses does a mandolin commonly have?


Answer: the Neapolitan or round-backed mandolin, the carved-top mandolin and the flat-backed mandolin.

Context: There are many styles of mandolin, but four are common, the Neapolitan or round-backed mandolin, the carved-top mandolin and the flat-backed mandolin. The round-back has a deep bottom, constructed of strips of wood, glued together into a bowl. The carved-top or arch-top mandolin has a much shallower, arched back, and an arched top—both carved out of wood. The flat-backed mandolin uses thin sheets of wood for the body, braced on the inside for strength in a similar manner to a guitar. Each style of instrument has its own sound quality and is associated with particular forms of music. Neapolitan mandolins feature prominently in European classical music and traditional music. Carved-top instruments are common in American folk music and bluegrass music. Flat-backed instruments are commonly used in Irish, British and Brazilian folk music. Some modern Brazilian instruments feature an extra fifth course tuned a fifth lower than the standard fourth course.

Question: What are the four common styles of mandolins?


Answer: strips of wood, glued together into a bowl

Question: What is the round-back mandolin made of?


Answer: round-back

Question: Which style of mandolin has a shallower, arched back, and arched top?


Answer: European classical music and traditional music.

Question: Which form of music do Neapolitan mandolins feature?


Answer: Carved-top instruments

Question: Which mandolin is commin in American Folk music and blue grass music?


Answer: soundboard (the top)

Context: Much of mandolin development revolved around the soundboard (the top). Pre-mandolin instruments were quiet instruments, strung with as many as six courses of gut strings, and were plucked with the fingers or with a quill. However, modern instruments are louder—using four courses of metal strings, which exert more pressure than the gut strings. The modern soundboard is designed to withstand the pressure of metal strings that would break earlier instruments. The soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. There is usually one or more sound holes in the soundboard, either round, oval, or shaped like a calligraphic F (f-hole). A round or oval sound hole may be covered or bordered with decorative rosettes or purfling.

Question: What did most of the development of the mandolin revolve around?


Answer: quiet instruments

Question: Were premandolins quiet or loud instruments?


Answer: four courses of metal strings,

Question: What are modern mandolins' strings made of?


Answer: generally round or teardrop-shaped

Question: What is the most common soundboard shape?


Answer: bordered with decorative rosettes or purfling

Question: What are the sound holes covered with?


Answer: the Moors

Context: Beside the introduction of the lute to Spain (Andalusia) by the Moors, another important point of transfer of the lute from Arabian to European culture was Sicily, where it was brought either by Byzantine or later by Muslim musicians. There were singer-lutenists at the court in Palermo following the Norman conquest of the island from the Muslims, and the lute is depicted extensively in the ceiling paintings in the Palermo’s royal Cappella Palatina, dedicated by the Norman King Roger II of Sicily in 1140. His Hohenstaufen grandson Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor (1194 - 1250) continued integrating Muslims into his court, including Moorish musicians. By the 14th century, lutes had disseminated throughout Italy and, probably because of the cultural influence of the Hohenstaufen kings and emperor, based in Palermo, the lute had also made significant inroads into the German-speaking lands.

Question: Who introduced the lute to Spain?


Answer: Sicily

Question: What country helped transfer the lute from Arabian to European culture?


Answer: Byzantine or later by Muslim musicians

Question: Who brought the lute to Sicily?


Answer: Palermo

Question: What court held singer-lutenists after the Norman conquest?


Answer: Palermo’s royal Cappella Palatina,

Question: What building has ceeiling painting dedicated to the lutenists?


Answer: eldest Vinaccia luthier who first ran the shop

Context: There is confusion currently as to the name of the eldest Vinaccia luthier who first ran the shop. His name has been put forth as Gennaro Vinaccia (active c. 1710 to c. 1788) and Nic. Vinaccia. His son Antonio Vinaccia was active c. 1734 to c. 1796. An early extant example of a mandolin is one built by Antonio Vinaccia in 1759, which resides at the University of Edinburgh. Another is by Giuseppe Vinaccia, built in 1893, is also at the University of Edinburgh. The earliest extant mandolin was built in 1744 by Antonio's son, Gaetano Vinaccia. It resides in the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Brussels, Belgium.

Question: What is there currently confusion over?


Answer: Gennaro Vinaccia (active c. 1710 to c. 1788) and Nic

Question: Who is said to have ran the first shop?


Answer: University of Edinburgh

Question: Where does the mandolin built by Antonio Vinaccia reside?


Answer: University of Edinburgh

Question: Where does the mandolin built by Giuseppe Vinaccia reside?


Answer: Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Brussels, Belgium.

Question: Where does the mandolin that Gaetano Vinaccia reside?