Exam 10: Epicurus in Waking or in Dream

According to Wolf, "For me, the idea of a ________________ is most clearly and effectively embodied in the image of a person who spends day after day, or night after night, in front of a television set, drinking beer and watching situation comedies."

According to Kierkegaard, "The poet cannot do what that other does, he can only admire, love and rejoice in the _____. Yet he too is happy, and not less so, for the _____ is as it were his better nature, with which he is in love, rejoicing in the fact that this after all is not himself, that his love can be admiration."

Nagel says, "In ordinary life a situation is static when it includes a conspicuous discrepancy between pretension or aspiration and reality: someone gives a complicated speech in support of a motion that has already been passed; a notorious criminal is made president of a major philanthropic foundation; you declare your love over the telephone to a recorded announcement; as you are being knighted, your pants fall down."

According to Trisel, many people believe that "If chance was involved in the emergence of life, this suggests that life was unintended and that it was not inevitable that life would develop." What is Trisel's position regarding this claim?

According to Kierkegaard, there are levels of greatness: "For he who loved himself became great by himself, and he who loved other men became great by his selfless devotion, but he who loved _____ became greater than all."

Wolf asserts that the "cases of the idle rich, the corporate executive and the pig farmer are in some ways very different, but they all share at least this feature: they can all be characterized as lives whose dominant activities seem ..."

Nagel says that life is absurd "because we ignore the doubts that we know cannot be settled, continuing to live with nearly undiminished seriousness in spite of them. This analysis requires defense in two respects: first as regards the unavoidability of ___________; second as regards the inescapability of _______."

According to Kierkegaard, there are levels of greatness: "For he who loved himself became great by himself, and he who loved other men became great by his selfless devotion, but he who loved ideas became greater than all."

Nagel says that life is absurd "because we ignore the doubts that we know cannot be settled, continuing to live with nearly undiminished seriousness in spite of them. This analysis requires defense in two respects: first as regards the unavoidability of seriousness; second as regards the inescapability of doubt."

Nagel says, "Another inadequate argument is that because we are going to die, all chains of justification must leave off in mid-air: one studies and works to earn money to pay for clothing, housing, entertainment, food, to sustain oneself from year to year, perhaps to support a family and pursue a career-but to what final end? All of it is an elaborate journey leading nowhere." Why does Nagel think that the argument is inadequate?

Nagel says, "In this respect, as in others, philosophical perception of the absurd resembles ___________________________. In both cases the final, philosophical doubt is not contrasted with any unchallenged certainties, though it is arrived at by extrapolation from examples of doubt within the system of evidence or justification, where a contrast with other certainties is implied."

Nagel says, "In ordinary life a situation is _______ when it includes a conspicuous discrepancy between pretension or aspiration and reality: someone gives a complicated speech in support of a motion that has already been passed; a notorious criminal is made president of a major philanthropic foundation; you declare your love over the telephone to a recorded announcement; as you are being knighted, your pants fall down."

Explain what Schopenhauer means when he says, "The whole foundation on which our existence rests is the present." Furthermore, "It lies, then, in the very nature of our existence to take the form of constant motion, and to offer no possibility of our ever attaining the rest for which we are always striving."

Explain Taylor's point when he asks us to "suppose that the gods, while condemning Sisyphus to the fate just described, at the same time, as an afterthought, waxed perversely merciful by implanting in him a strange and irrational impulse; namely, a compulsive impulse to roll stones." Furthermore, "suppose that is Sisyphus' condition. He has but one obsession, which is to roll stones, and it is an obsession that is only for the moment appeased by his rolling them-he no sooner gets a stone rolled to the top of the hill than he is restless to roll up another."

According to Nagel, "What we say to convey the __________ of our lives often has to do with space or time: we are tiny specks in the infinite vastness of the universe; our lives are mere instants even on a geological time scale, let alone a cosmic one; we will all be dead any minute."

Nagel says, "If sub specie aeternitatis there is no reason to believe that anything matters, then that doesn't matter either, and we can approach our absurd lives with ______ instead of heroism or despair."

According to Taylor, "Activity, and even long, drawn out and repetitive activity, has a meaning if it has some significant causal nexus, some more or less lasting end that can be considered to have been the direction and purpose of the activity."

According to Epicurus, "necessity destroys responsibility, and chance or fortune is inconstant; whereas our own actions are free, and it is to them that praise and blame naturally attach." Do you agree with Epicurus? Explain your answer.

Explain the meaning of Kierkegaard's claim about levels of greatness: "For he who loved himself became great by himself, and he who loved other men became great by his selfless devotion, but he who loved God became greater than all."

Explain in detail Wolf's offer of a "proposal for what it is to live a meaningful life: viz., a meaningful life is one that is actively and at least somewhat successfully engaged in a project (or projects) of positive value."