Deck 9: Postscript: the Meaning of Life

Question 1

Kurt Baier argued that the theist response to the question of whether life has meaning is morally repugnant.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Oswald Spengler believed that the West was in decline.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Tolstoy believed that if death was simply annihilation then life had no meaning.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Carnap attempted to answer the question of whether life had meaning.

Question 5

Sartre was a theist.

Question 6

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

Question 7

Tolstoy was a theist.

Question 8

Rudolf Carnap endorsed:

A) Pragmatism
B) Idealism
C) Antirealism
D) Logical positivism

Question 9

Hegel believed that history showed progress.

Question 10

R. M. Hare argues that nihilism is mistaken.

Question 11

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

A) Camus
B) Sartre
C) Heidegger
D) Plato

Question 12

For Kierkegaard, the meaning of life is objective.

Question 13

One proponent of the theistic response to the question of whether life has meaning is

A) Sartre
B) Heidegger
C) Aquinas
D) Aristotle

Question 14

Most philosophers today endorse logical positivism.

Question 15

Kierkegaard described three lifestyles.

Question 16

Kai Nielsen claims that

A) The theistic response makes an illogical jump.
B) The theistic response is correct
C) The theistic responses affirms the consequent
D) The theistic response needs modification only

Question 17

Richard Taylor believes that life has no meaning.

Question 18

Karl Marx denied that history showed progress.

Question 19

Schopenhauer believed that everything passes away.

Question 20

Ayer believed that the question of whether life has meaning was meaningless.

Question 21

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

Question 22

For Kierkegaard, the commitment to the ethical stage of life involves

A) a "leap of faith".
B) restraining one's desire for pleasure.
C) embracing pleasure as the meaning of life.
D) embracing the fear as the meaning of life.

Question 23

Marx held that progress was

A) Illusory
B) Necessary
C) Economic
D) Social

Question 24

Hegel called the modern nations the nations.

Question 25

Aquinas' view can be called the response to the question of meaning.

Question 26

For Kierkegaard, the meaning of life is

A) subjective.
B) meaningless.
C) objective.
D) found in studying art.

Question 27

Who said, "So the ultimate purpose of human beings is to know God"?

A) Leo Tolstoy
B) Thomas Aquinas
C) Albert Camus
D) Georg W. F. Hegel

Question 28

Nihilism is the claim that

A) the meaning of life can be found in a relationship to God.
B) life has no meaning.
C) pleasure is the only thing that gives life meaning.
D) the meaning of life can be found in different ways for different people.

Question 29

Sartre was

A) A theist
B) An agnostic
C) An atheist
D) A monotheist

Question 30

In this chapter, which of the following philosophers argues that nothing can give life meaning unless we choose it and make it our own?

A) Jean-Paul Sartre
B) Oswald Spengler
C) Arthur Schopenhauer
D) R. M. Hare

Question 31

In this chapter, which of the following philosophers argued that the nihilist response is mistaken?

A) R. M. Hare
B) Karl Marx
C) Georg Hegel
D) Albert Camus

Question 32

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

Question 33

For Marx, the more perfect world would be a world without

A) racial divisions.
B) slavery.
C) economic classes.
D) division of labor.

Question 34

Richard Taylor argues for the view that

A) Life has no meaning
B) History is progressing
C) History is over
D) Life has meaning

Question 35

Which of the following philosophers is an advocate of nihilism?

A) Oswald Spengler
B) Karl Marx
C) Francis Fukuyama
D) Arthur Schopenhauer

Question 36

What type of meaning could our lives have, according to Taylor?

A) Religious
B) Subjective
C) Objective
D) Universal

Question 37

What did Hegel say was free?

A) German nations
B) Spirit
C) The will
D) Liberty

Question 38

Who believed that all good things are vanity?

A) Marx
B) Mill
C) Camus
D) Schopenhauer

Question 39

The lifestyles that Kierkegaard described included one he termed

A) political.
B) nihilistic.
C) religious.
D) ontological.

Question 40

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

A) Communism
B) Virtue ethics
C) Socialism
D) Nihilism

Question 41

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

Question 42

Do you believe that we can find the meaning of life in human progress? What does your answer to this question tell you about (a) your views on the question of whether morality is objective or subjective, or (b) your views on the question of whether we can know anything about the external world.

Question 43

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

Question 44

R.M. Hare argued that life has meaning.

Question 45

Do you believe that there are limits on subjective meaning? Are there certain activities that are objectively pointless, even if someone values them highly? If you believe that there are such limits on subjective meaning, explain how we can determine them. If you believe that there are not, would you say that a person who was delusional could have a meaningful life?

Question 46

The response to the question of what the meaning of life is led Tolstoy out of his depression.

Question 47

Do you believe that the question of whether our lives have meaning can be settled merely by appealing to events that occur during the--or 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.

Question 48

The , such as Ayer and Carnap, held that the question of
whether life has any meaning was itself meaningless.

Question 49

How can we understand the question "What is the meaning of life?"? Which way of understanding this question do you think is the most defensible, and why?

Question 50

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.