REVIEW FOR THE FINAL EXAM

The final exam is Saturday 13 December, 2-5 pm, WAG 101.  Please bring a blue exam book.

The exam will consist of fifteen quotations, twelve of which you will be asked to identify by author and text (3% each = 36%, no more than twelve answers allowed).  For six of the twelve, you will be asked to write a paragraph on the quote, specifying the context and explaining the position, reasoning, or issue addressed (4% each = 24%).  Then for two of those you have contextualized, you should write a brief philosophic evaluation, supporting or refuting the central claim or argument (2 essays, 20% each = 40%).

Candidates for the quotations are restricted to classical readings which are all translations with a couple of exceptions (see below).  Secondary sources are not candidates, but translations embedded in required secondary sources are candidates.  The quotations will be drawn mainly from the second part of the course.  The second part begins with Vasubandhu.

Author and text pool (comprised only of ancient and classical texts or authors, not modern scholars or commentators, with the exception of two Neo-Vedantins, Vivekananda and Aurobindo):  Rg Veda, Upanishads, (Jaina) Acaranga Sutra, Bhagavad Gita, Nyaya-sutra and Vatsyayana's Commentary (several bits of reading from these two are scattered across the syllabus), Sermons of the Buddha, "The Questions of King Milinda," Buddhaghosa, "The Duration of Life,'' Shantideva's Bodhisattvacaryavatara, Nagarjuna's "Averting the Arguments," Nagarjuna's "Examination of Motion" in his  Mula-madhyamika-karika,  Ratnakirti's Kshana-bhanga-siddhi, Kumarila's Slokavartika, "Aphorism IV" (commentary on Mimamsa-sutra 1.1.4), Madhava's Philosophic Compendium: "Carvaka," Gangesa's Jewel of Reflection about the Truth of Epistemology, Vasubandhu, "A Treatise in Twenty Stanzas and its Explanation," Sankara's  "Introduction" to his Commentary on the Brahmasutra, Sankara's Commentary on the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad, Sankara's Commentary on the Brahma-sutra (from ch. 2 on rival darsana), Ramanuja's Sri-Bhasya, Udayana's "Proofs of the Existence of God," Yoga-sutra (sutras only), within B.N. Goswami, "Rasa: Delight of the Reason" two quotes from Abhinava Gupta, Vivekananda, "Speeches at the 1893 Congress of World Religions," Aurobindo's "Sri Aurobindo's Teaching and Method of Sadhana," and from Aurobindo's The Life Divine, "Philosophy of Rebirth."  This list will appear on the exam.