PHL 302: World Philosophy

Fall 2005

Review for the second in-class exam

The exam will have two parts, each worth 50%.  You will be asked to write all your answers in a blue exam book.

Part I.

A. Identification.  You will be asked to identify by author six of seven quotations (5% each = 30%).

Author pool:  Confucius,  J.S. Mill (On Liberty, for this work the title has to be given too), Zera Jacob, Isaiah Berlin, J.S. Mill (Utilitarianism, for this work the title is again required), Anselm, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Albert Camus, and Keiji Nishitani.

B. Contextualization.  For any two of the six quotes identified (your choice), you will be asked to explain how the ideas expressed in the passage fit in with the author's views overall.  If a quote chosen expresses an argument, you should try to restate the premises and the conclusion.  (10% each = 20%)

Samples:

1. A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but also by his inaction . . . .

Answer: J.S. Mill, On Liberty.  The principal thesis defended by Mill in this work is the harm principle, which is that the State should not exercise power over a member of society except to prevent harm to others.  Mill distinguishes self-regarding from other-regarding action, with only other-regarding action subject to State interference.  However, as the quote says, other-regarding action is to include inaction so long as it can produce harm, for example, a good swimmer's not diving into a lake to save a child who has fallen in.

2. God does not order absurdities, nor does he say: "Eat this, do not eat that; today eat, tomorrow do not eat; do not eat meat today, eat it tomorrow."

Answer: Zera Jacob.  The central idea, and standard for the determination of right and wrong action, is harmony, according to the Ethiopian philosopher.  The notion has theological punch and is used both to establish the goodness of God and the natural order, including human desires, and to criticize religious teachings that enjoin fasting in the face of natural hunger, multiple spouses in the face of an even distribution of the male and female sexes, and so on, including (apparently) the Christian practice of not eating meat on Fridays in the quote above.

3. One must imagine Sisyphus happy.

Answer: Albert Camus.  Although condemned to the futile task of pushing a rock up a hill only to have it roll back again and again, Sisyphus achieves authenticity in the recognition of the meaninglessness of it all and chooses to be happy.  This symbolizes several existentialist themes, principally absurdity (and making meaning for oneself), choice, and responsibility.

Part II.  A philosophic essay on an ecological problem as seen from the perspective of the theory of justice as fairness due to John Rawls.

In addition to Rawls' theory, be prepared to discuss global warming, species extinction, or another environmental problem of international dimension from the point of view of at least two of the following:

1.                Mainstream liberals, e.g., McKibben, Guha

2.                 Mainstream conservatives, “free marketers,” e.g., President Bush

3.                 The local-empowerment, anti-development, “small is beautiful” faction of “Greens,” e.g., the editors of the Ecologist and authors of Whose Common Future (also called “pluralist communitarians” and “devolutionists”)

4.                 “Deep ecologists,” e.g, Callicut and Overholt’s Amerindian ethic, or Ruether’s eco-feminism

5.                 Socialists, e.g., Cohen

6.                 Progressives (the “capabilities approach”), e.g., Sen.

Also be prepared to discuss a principal weakness or deficiency in each of the views you choose.