Exam 9: Postscript: the Meaning of Life

For Kierkegaard, the move to the religious stage requires a(n) ____________________ ____________________ ____________________.

Richard Taylor argues for the view that

The view that there is no larger whole or part to which we can contribute is

Schopenhauer believed that everything passes away.

R. M. Hare has argued that the ____________________ response to the question of whether life has meaning is mistaken.

Sartre was

Kierkegaard held that life could only have meaning if we commit ourselves to a cause or ideal that we know is worth pursuing.

Do you believe that the question of whether our lives have meaning can be settled merely by appealing to events that occur during them¾or could events that occur after our lives affect their meaning? For example, suppose that a person spent her life writing a novel that her friend promised to publish posthumously, but as soon as she died her friend destroyed it. Would the posthumous destruction of her work affect the meaning of the novelist's life in any way? Argue for your view here.

Sartre was a theist.

Hegel believed that history showed progress.

For Marx, the perfect future world would be a(n) ____________________ society.

Should we endorse the nihilist response to the question of whether life has any meaning? If we should, does this undercut any reason that we might have for living? Explain your answer here. If we should not, explain why.

For Kierkegaard, the meaning of life is objective.

Who claimed that "the one serious question in philosophy" is that of whether life has meaning?

Kierkegaard described three lifestyles, which he called ethical, religious, and ____________________.