Optional (Group) Questions

Introduction to Philosophy

Instructions: Each of the following questions is worth one point of extra-credit. This mini-comprehensive exam can be completed in groups of up to four, but does not have to be (you may work individually if you prefer). If students elect group submission, all parties must sign the statement at the end that they concur the work is original (not done in consultation with other groups), and that each member of the group made an equal contribution.

1. True or False: Nietzsche argues that we should return to the valuation pairing of good/bad.

2. According to Anselm, the definition of God is that than which nothing greater can be . This makes God both the greatness and the limit of the thinkable.

3. For West, which of the following contribute to the nihilistic threat:

a) market forces

b) the erasure of the past through concentration on pleasure alone

c) the collapse of cultural armor

d) a, b & c

e) a & b only

4. According to Descartes, what is the difference between things that are learned “by nature” and those that are “clear and distinct in the natural light?

5. The term genealogy can etymologically be broken down into two components:

, meaning , and logos, meaning the study of.

***For one additional point: Nietzsche deploys the genealogical method because he wants to understand how we became who we are, i.e., how affect

.

6. Which of the following is an argument used by Descartes to prove the existence of God?

a) The idea of God is adventitious

b) The idea of God is clear and distinct

c) The nature of the infinite is such that it cannot be comprehended by a finite being

d) The idea of God is innate

e) a, b, & c

f) b, c, & d

7. In Socrates’ speech in the Symposium, he sets up a correspondence between himself and another character, who he seeks to teach. In this scenario, who plays the role of Socrates the teacher? And to whom is the young Socrates meant to correspond?

8. In Book VI of the Republic, Socrates uses an image of ascent to teach his interlocutors how to understand the Good. He argues that the Good cannot be described directly but can be spoken of in another way. He offers the image of the because by understanding the we may better understand the parent.

9. According to Descartes, what makes the body so untrustworthy and, correspondingly, what is better known than the body?

10. Which of the following does Lugones associate with agonistic play (analogous to Western civilization)?

a) it involves rules

b) it is focused on winning (and the risk of losing)

c) it goes hand in hand with the kind travel between worlds that seeks to identify (as an act of

love)

d) the players take themselves seriously

e) all of the above

f) a, b, & c only

11. According to Lorde, as members of a society governed by a profit economy, we tend not to speak of difference, but of from the mythical .

12. In 2-3 sentences, explain the role of Aristotle in the historical trajectory that leads from Plato to neo-Platonism.

13. According to West, what are the two significant reasons why the nihilist threat is more powerful now than ever before?

● reason one:

● reason two:

14. In contrast to the image of ascent that characterizes the history of philosophy prior, what happens on Nietzsche’s account when God is dead and the earth is unchained from the sun?

*** for one additional point: how does this fit together with the parable of the little ship that set sail (GS, section 124)?

15. Name two ways in which the entrapments used to neutralize Black women and white women are, for Lorde, not the same.

● way one:

● way two:

*** for one additional point: how does this difference in entrapment relate to Kimberlé Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality?

16. Anselm’s inheritance of the neo-Platonic legacy is evident in the correspondence between God and the Platonic Form of the . Also, like Plato’s Socrates, he believes the transition between the visible and worlds is negotiated by thinking through mathematics.

17.The young Socrates recognizes the error of his binary logic when he learns that correct opinion lies between knowledge and ignorance. Likewise, Eros is not a god, but between god and mortal, a spirit of the threshold, or in Greek: a daimon. Name one other way that Eros is an intermediary between extremes.

18. What, according to Lorde, is the true focus of revolutionary change?

19. Match the “camp” (numbers) to the descriptors (corresponding letters):

1. structuralist A. liberal

2. behaviorist B. conservative

C. involve sociological and historical analysis of constraints on the life chances of Black people.

D. support vigorous free market strategies that depend on fundamental changes in how Black people act and live

***For one additional point: What does West import from each of the two camps into his politics of conversion? Put another way, how is his politics of conversion like the position taken by each camp?

20. Revisiting the allegory of the cave, what is the released prisoner ethically compelled to do, and at what risk?