Deck 2: The Meaning of Life

Question 1

The sixteenth-century Dutch philosopher Erasmus wrote a book called In Praise of Folly, which was a celebration of human foolishness.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

If life is a game, then like a game its significance is located entirely in the end or goal, which is winning.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

T he question "What is the meaning of life?" is hard to answer because the word meaning is itself ambiguous.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

The belief that the meaning of your life is a "calling" is one expression of the idea of "Life as a Mission."

Question 5

The images we use to talk about life define the meaning we find, or don't find, in it.

Question 6

People who think that children are the basis for a meaningful life tend to project abstractly into the future to a utopia, a place of total peace and happiness.

Question 7

Sometimes the meaning of something (a sign, a word)is what it refers to. If the meaning of one's life refers to something, then what would give one's life meaning would be contextual, as in a linguistic reference.

Question 8

German philosophers in the nineteenth century talked about life being a Bildungsroman, a story of personal development.

Question 9

Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and Faust are comedies.

Question 10

Living one's life as a work of art suggests that what counts is found more in the results than in the activities that produce it.

Question 11

The word nirvana is a Sanskrit word for "suffering."

Question 12

Someone who views life as a disease presupposes some conception of health.

Question 13

Believing that the meaning of one's life is found in an afterlife implies that one views this life as the basis of one's significance.

Question 14

For the Greek heroes, honor was less important than other values, like compassion.

Question 15

Religious believers like Saint Augustine and Martin Luther asked questions about the meaning of life less persistently than atheists.

Question 16

Strictly speaking, the question of the meaning of life is purely theoretical, and there is no connection between your vision of the meaning of life and the life you will actually lead.

Question 17

Someone who devotes his life to climbing mountains, taking risks, and even risking his life, is likely to see his life as an adventure.

Question 18

Nihilism is the belief that life has no meaning.

Question 19

Altruism is acting for the benefit of oneself, even to the exclusion of others' benefit.

Question 20

The question about the meaning of life most typically arises during happy times, when we have the luxury of time to reflect.

Question 21

The author of Ecclesiastes wrote:

A)"Live your life as a work of art."
B)"All is vanity and vexation of spirit."
C)"At any street corner, the feeling of absurdity can strike any man in the face."
D)"We are put on this earth to help others, but what the others are here for I cannot say."

Question 22

The German philosopher Friedrich von Schelling saw the whole of life

A)as God's work of art, in which humans played no role.
B)as tragic, since we all must die.
C)as a comedy of human foolishness.
D)as God's work of art, with us as God's apprentices.

Question 23

German philosophers in the nineteenth century who embraced the idea that life is a Bildungsroman would be inclined to think that the meaning of life is learning.

Question 24

Camus expresses the view that life is a tragedy when one of his characters declares ,

A)"Life is suffering."
B)"Life imitates art."
C)"All men are brothers and the same end awaits them all-death."
D)"The character Polonius did not consider himself a minor character in Hamlet ."

Question 25

To say that "life is a game" is to

A)say that life has a plot and characters in a story that unfolds in a certain way.
B)put it into a certain perspective, in order not to take it too seriously.
C)put it into a certain perspective, in order to take it very seriously.
D)say that life is absurd.

Question 26

Your vision of the meaning of life

A)sets up expectations for how to live, determining in many ways the kind of life you will lead.
B)is directly related to your temperament-pessimists always have pessimistic visions of meaning, while optimists have optimistic visions.
C)is something you are born with that gradually unfolds.
D)should be formulated precisely, in a mathematical formula.

Question 27

"Life as tragedy" and "Life as comedy" both share the assumption that

A)art imitates life.
B)neither art nor life can determine the shape of who we are.
C)life is some kind of story.
D)life is an adventure.

Question 28

Children, God, and afterlife

A)are all forms of meaning equated with "life as an investment."
B)are all forms of meaning created within ourselves, like stories.
C)are all meaningful because they create happiness.
D)are all forms of meaning located outside of ourselves, to which our lives refer.

Question 29

The writer John Barth suggested that

A)only writers can make sense of their lives as stories.
B)life is a Bildungsroman.
C)"life imitates art."
D)each of us is the hero of his or her own story.

Question 30

Which of the following would be an all-important question for someone who sees life as a disease ?

A)"Can desire be extinguished?"
B)"Who on this earth can one help?"
C)"What would a healthy life look like?"
D)"What kind of story is being developed?"

Question 31

To say that "life is absurd" is to say

A)that you have to work to create meaning.
B)that the meaning of life is found in the context of our lives.
C)that it has no meaning.
D)that the meaning of life is like the meaning of a game.

Question 32

If the word meaning in the question "What is the meaning of life?" refers to something beyond ourselves, then

A)we are probably nihilists.
B)our lives, like words, make sense only in a   context.
C)our lives, like words, will have set predetermined meanings found in the dictionary.
D)our lives will probably be defined by a single goal.

Question 33

Aristotle argues that one need not have friendships to live a good life.

Question 34

Material acquisitions are a dependable test of success in life.

Question 35

According to Camus, "one must imagine Sisyphus happy" because

A)he will soon be executed and so his suffering will end.
B)the struggle to live is itself enough to make his life meaningful.
C)a life of pure reason is impossible.
D)Sisyphus believes he is doing God's will.

Question 36

The vision of Sisyphus pushing his rock up the mountain only to have it fall back again is a good image for the conviction that life is suffering.

Question 37

Much of our language of "relationships" conjures up a picture of two lonely souls trying to "get through" to one another.

Question 38

If you think that believing in God by itself answers the question of the meaning of life, then

A)God must exist.
B)you are probably a nihilist.
C)you've only pushed the question back one step further, and need to answer other questions like "Why did God create us?"
D)all of your questions about the meaning of life are answered.

Question 39

Someone who devotes her life to rock climbing probably has a vision of life centered on

A)desire.
B)adventure.
C)the absurd.
D)nirvana.

Question 40

Believing that life's meaning lies in children has the odd consequence

A)that you never know how many children you might have.
B)that from this perspective, the meaning of one's children's lives are found not in their lives but in their children's lives.
C)that one should oppose contraception.
D)that the meaning of one's life depends on your opinion about abortion.

Question 41

According to Nietzsche in "The Thought of 'Eternal Recurrence,'" what question would gain possession of you after you were visited by the demon?

Question 42

One of the main tenets of Buddhism says that ​

A)life is happiness.
B)one must ​ live free or die.
C)virtue is knowledge.
D)desire can be eliminated.

Question 43

Calvin Coolidge apparently embraced the view that life is an investment when he said

A)"Time is money."
B)"A penny saved is a penny earned."
C)"Buy low, sell high."
D)  "The business of America is business."

Question 44

Define altruism.

Question 45

Concerning relationships, the German philosopher Hegel believed that

A)we are all already deeply connected in one all-embracing Spirit.
B)each of us is born alone and dies alone.
C)t he normal human condition is isolation and distance.
D)only weak people seek connections with others.

Question 46

What is the meaning of the word nirvana ?

Question 47

What is the similarity between the question of the meaning of life and the question of the meaning of a word?

Question 48

Tantalus, a Greek mythological hero,

A)was forced to push a rock up a mountain for eternity.
B)was condemned by the gods to be tied just out of reach of a bunch of grapes.
C)was condemned to live the same life over and over.
D)was a great biblical prophet who said, "Life is vanity and vexation."

Question 49

When Nietzsche writes that Socrates and other Western philosophers have turned "reason into a tyrant," he

A)shares the author of Ecclesiastes' s belief that "all is vanity."
B)agrees with the idea that the meaning of life should be based on the pursuit of wisdom.
C)means that a life single-mindedly devoted to reason is a fanatical life.
D)agrees with Buddhists, who look to nirvana as the extinction of all desires that lead to suffering.

Question 50

Sisyphus is a good illustration of what image of the meaning of life?

Question 51

The thinker who argued that the clarity of self-knowledge may be an illusion because most of our ideas are the product of the unconscious was

A)Sigmund Freud.
B)Goethe.
C)Camus.
D)Socrates.

Question 52

The person who said his mission in life was to create poetry to give the German people a sense of cultural identity was

A)Hegel.
B)Goethe.
C)Camus.
D)Nietzsche.

Question 53

In Homer's Iliad , the ancient Greeks found the meaning of life in honor and

A)sought to live up to the expectations of the community by proving themselves in battle and not disgracing themselves.
B)sought to pursue wisdom as the greatest of goods.
C)sought to live a life of duty.
D)sought to free themselves from all desires.

Question 54

Solomon says that some answers to the question of the meaning of life "only postpone the answer" by raising new questions. Suppose a friend were to tell you, "The meaning of my life is God." Give one example of a new question that this answer raises that you could ask your friend.

Question 55

What sort of story would you be likely to tell if you viewed your life as a Bildungsroman ?

Question 56

Define nihilism.

Question 57

According to Camus, the only serious philosophical question is:

A)What is the meaning of life?
B)How can we extinguish desire in order to be free of suffering?
C)Does God exist?
D)Should one commit suicide?

Question 58

The legend of Faust, dramatized by Christopher Marlowe and Goethe, is the story of a man who lived for his

A)relationships.
B)God.
C)desires.
D)investments.

Question 59

When Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, "Live your life as a work of art," what did he mean?

Question 60

What did the Stoics believe about human desires and emotions?

Question 61

Social scientists tell us that people tend to be happiest when they have meaningful relationships in which they are actively engaged. This confirms the "Life as Relationships" viewpoint.   Aristotle writes that "friendship seems to be one of the features of the good life."   Explain what Aristotle means by this, and then describe your own experience of friendship. Be specific: focus on one or two examples. What makes them important to your life? How have friendships contributed to your sense of meaning?

Question 62

How do you answer the question "What is the meaning of life?"   Your essay can draw on any of the options in the text, but can also develop a different image. In either case, be sure to explain the vision of meaning, and explain why this image is compelling to you. Solomon and Higgins say that the way one answers the question of the meaning of life indicates one's "general view of life."    What does your answer reveal about your general view of life?

Question 63

Solomon and Higgins say that some answers to the question "What is the meaning of life?" really assume that our lives have meaning only because they refer to someone or something outside ourselves.    Write an essay explaining this way of answering the question, and then develop three detailed concepts of meaning that illustrate it. What are the shortcomings of this way of answering the question?

Question 64

Assume that your life is a story.   Who are the major characters, and how does the plot unfold? How does the hero of the story (you)personally develop and grow as the plot unfolds?   Is your story a tragedy, a comedy, or something else?   What are the major conflicts that the characters have to confront?    What do you anticipate the next chapter in the story will be? How does viewing your life as a story alter your sense of your life's meaning?

Question 65

Write a dialogue in which two characters discuss their competing images of the meaning of life. One of the characters can represent your preferences, and the other can represent a viewpoint on meaning that you do not prefer.   Your dialogue should bring out and explain each image in some detail; it should discuss the relative strengths and weaknesses of each. Finally, it should provide a reasoned argument or explanation why, given their strengths and weaknesses, the images are compelling to the characters.   Be creative in writing your dialogue, and have fun, but stay focused on the issues. You might also stage this dialogue as an oral presentation in front of your class, or make a video of it.