Exam 10: Epicurus in Waking or in Dream

Trisel says, "a distinction should be made between whether human life has a purpose and whether one's individual life is purposeful." Explain the distinction that Trisel mentions.

According to Schopenhauer, "Time is that in which all things pass away; it is merely the form under which the ______________, the thing-in-itself and therefore imperishable, has revealed to it that its efforts are in vain; it is that agent by which at every moment all things in our hands become as nothing, and lose any real value they possess."

Trisel says, "If there is no superior being to provide us with this affirmation, it does not mean that our lives are bad or not truly meaningful. Rather, it simply means that our judgments about our lives cannot be condoned. However, if we conclude, using objective criteria, that our lives are good and that one's life can be meaningful, the lack of a confirmation from a superior being does not, in any way, undermine or invalidate this judgment."

According to Schopenhauer, "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 what Schopenhauer means when he says, "Hence most people, if they glance back when they come to the end of life, will find that all along they have been living temporarily: they will be surprised to find that the very thing they disregarded and let slip by unenjoyed, was just the life in the expectation of which they passed all their time."

Wolf says, "We should be careful, however, not to equate objective goodness with _______ goodness."

Explain Taylor's point when he asks us to imagine the worms in certain caves in New Zealand. "Each dot of light identifies an ugly worm, whose luminous tail is meant to attract insects from the surrounding darkness. As from time to time one of these insects draws near it becomes entangled in a sticky thread lowered by the worm, and is eaten. This goes on month after month, the blind worm lying there in the barren stillness waiting to entrap an occasional bit of nourishment that will only sustain it to another hit of nourishment until .... Until what?"

Explain what Schopenhauer means when he says, "In the first place, no man is ever happy; he spends his entire life striving after something which he thinks will make him happy; he seldom attains his goal, and when he does, it is only to be disappointed; he is mostly shipwrecked in the end, and comes into harbor with masts and rigging gone."

According to Epicurus, "death is nothing to us, because good and evil imply social norms, and death is the privation of all behavior."

Nagel says, "Why is the life of a mouse not absurd? The orbit of the moon is not absurd either, but that involves no strivings or aims at all. A mouse, however, has to work to stay alive. Yet he is not absurd, because he lacks the capacities for personal relations and social transactions that would enable him to see that he is only a mouse."

According to Nagel, "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 ..."

Explain Taylor's point when he says, "Activity, and even long, drawn out and repetitive activity, has a meaning if it has some significant culmination, some more or less lasting end that can be considered to have been the direction and purpose of the activity." Do you agree with Taylor? Explain your answer.

Wolf says, "We should be careful, however, not to equate objective goodness with moral goodness."

According to Taylor, "Meaninglessness is essentially endless _____________, and meaningfulness is therefore the opposite."

Explain what Schopenhauer means when he says, "For all that, it must rouse our sympathy to think how very little the Will, this lord of the world, really gets when it takes the form of an individual; usually only just enough to keep the body together. This is why man is so very miserable."

What is Nagel's point when he says, "What we say to convey the absurdity 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"?

Explain what Schopenhauer means when he says, "that man is a compound of needs and necessities hard to satisfy; and that even when they are satisfied, all he obtains is a state of painlessness, where nothing remains to him but abandonment to boredom. This is direct proof that existence has no real value in itself; for what is boredom but the feeling of the emptiness of life?"

Wolf says, "Some people do undoubtedly get very upset, even despondent when they start to think about their cosmic insignificance. They want to be important, to have an impact on the world, to make a mark that will last forever. When they realize that they cannot achieve this, they are very disappointed. The only advice one can give to such people is: Get Over It." Do you agree with Wolf?

According to Schopenhauer, "Time is that in which all things pass away; it is merely the form under which the will to live, the thing-in-itself and therefore imperishable, has revealed to it that its efforts are in vain; it is that agent by which at every moment all things in our hands become as nothing, and lose any real value they possess."

Explain what Epicurus means when he says that happiness can be achieved by pleasure, but only if it is sought in moderation. What does Epicurus say about seeking excessive pleasure? Do you agree with Epicurus? Explain your answer.