Deck 10: Epicurus in Waking or in Dream

Question 1

Epicurus argues that life should be directed to ___________ "since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be absent, all our actions are directed toward attaining it."

A) faith in God
B) morality
C) happiness
D) our children

Answer 1

C

Question 2

According to Epicurus, happiness can be achieved by pleasure, but only if it is sought in ...

A) others.
B) moderation.
C) inner feelings.
D) outside sources.

Answer 2

B

Question 3

According to Epicurus, "pleasure" means ...

A) never having to say you are sorry.
B) maximizing sensory stimulation.
C) losing yourself (your ego) in the invisible fabric of the universe.
D) the absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the soul.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

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

A) awareness; awareness
B) morality; moral actions
C) social norms; behavior
D) a God; temptation

Question 5

Epicurus wants us to realize that an awareness of our mortality allows us to enjoy life as long as we have it, and that "a right understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not by adding to life an unlimited time, but by taking away the yearning after ..."

A) our loved ones.
B) material goods.
C) immortality.
D) fame and fortune.

Question 6

According to Epicurus, "He who has a clear and certain understanding of these things will direct every preference and aversion toward securing health of body and tranquility of mind, seeing that this is the sum and end of a ..."

A) moral being.
B) living organism.
C) happy life.
D) monastic existence.

Question 7

According to Epicurus, "necessity destroys responsibility, and chance or fortune is inconstant; whereas our own actions are ________, and it is to them that praise and blame naturally attach."

A) guided
B) opaque
C) mystical
D) free

Question 8

Epicurus argues that life should be directed to faith in God, "since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be absent, all our actions are directed toward attaining it."

Question 9

According to Epicurus, happiness can be achieved by pleasure, but only if it is sought in moderation.

Question 10

According to Epicurus, "pleasure" means "losing yourself (your ego) in the invisible fabric of the universe."

Question 11

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

Question 12

Epicurus wants us to realize that an awareness of our mortality allows us to enjoy life as long as we have it, and that "a right understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not by adding to life an unlimited time, but by taking away the yearning after fame and fortune."

Question 13

According to Epicurus, "He who has a clear and certain understanding of these things will direct every preference and aversion toward securing health of body and tranquility of mind, seeing that this is the sum and end of a happy life."

Question 14

According to Epicurus, "necessity destroys responsibility, and chance or fortune is inconstant; whereas our own actions are opaque, and it is to them that praise and blame naturally attach."

Question 15

Explain what Epicurus means when he argues that life should be directed to happiness "since, if that be present, we have everything, and, if that be absent, all our actions are directed toward attaining it." Do you agree with Epicurus? Explain your answer.

Question 16

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.

Question 17

Explain what Epicurus means when he says that "pleasure" means the absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the soul. Is Epicurus's definition of "pleasure" typical of what most people believe? Do you agree with Epicurus? Explain your answer.

Question 18

Explain what Epicurus means when he says, "death is nothing to us, because good and evil imply awareness, and death is the privation of all awareness." Do you agree with Epicurus? Explain your answer.

Question 19

Epicurus wants us to realize that an awareness of our mortality allows us to enjoy life as long as we have it, and that "a right understanding that death is nothing to us makes the mortality of life enjoyable, not by adding to life an unlimited time, but by taking away the yearning after immortality." Do you agree with Epicurus views on immortality? Explain your answer.

Question 20

According to Epicurus, "He who has a clear and certain understanding of these things will direct every preference and aversion toward securing health of body and tranquility of mind, seeing that this is the sum and end of a happy life." Do you agree with Epicurus? Explain your answer.

Question 21

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.

Question 22

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."

A) universal being
B) will to live
C) cogito ergo sum
D) immortal soul

Question 23

According to Schopenhauer, "The whole foundation on which our existence rests is the _________ ." 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."

A) base ego
B) mystery
C) present
D) spiritual

Question 24

According to Schopenhauer, "In a world where all is unstable, and nothing can endure, but is swept onwards at once in the hurrying whirlpool of change; where a man, if he is to keep erect at all, must always be advancing and moving, like an acrobat on a rope-in such a world ..."

A) God is our only hope.
B) dualism is impossible.
C) materialism is triumphant.
D) happiness in inconceivable.

Question 25

Schopenhauer says, "On looking a little closer, we find that inorganic matter presents a constant conflict between chemical forces, which eventually annihilates it; and on the other hand, that organic life is impossible without continual change of matter, and cannot exist if it does not receive perpetual help from without. This is the realm of _________________, and its opposite would be an _________________, exposed to no attack from without, and needing nothing to support it."

A) finite existence; infinite existence
B) moral norms; immoral being
C) mere sensation; organic thought
D) dialectical egos; invisible ego

Question 26

Schopenhauer 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 ____________: 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."

A) a mere lie
B) fallaciously
C) temporarily
D) permanently

Question 27

Schopenhauer says, "For all that, it must rouse our sympathy to think how very little the _______, 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."

A) Brain
B) Will
C) Soul
D) Devil

Question 28

Schopenhauer says, "Life presents itself chiefly as a task-the task, I mean, of subsisting at all. If this is accomplished, life is a burden, and then there comes the second task of doing something with that which has been won-of warding off __________, which, like a bird of prey, hovers over us, ready to fall wherever it sees a life secure from need."

A) temptation
B) passions
C) morality
D) boredom

Question 29

Schopenhauer 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 ..."

A) eternal life force?
B) wholeness of existence?
C) emptiness of life?
D) dread of dying?

Question 30

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."

Question 31

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."

Question 32

According to Schopenhauer, "In a world where all is unstable, and nothing can endure, but is swept onwards at once in the hurrying whirlpool of change; where a man, if he is to keep erect at all, must always be advancing and moving, like an acrobat on a rope-in such a world God is our only hope."

Question 33

Schopenhauer says, "On looking a little closer, we find that inorganic matter presents a constant conflict between chemical forces, which eventually annihilates it; and on the other hand, that organic life is impossible without continual change of matter, and cannot exist if it does not receive perpetual help from without. This is the realm of moral norms, and its opposite would be an immoral being, exposed to no attack from without, and needing nothing to support it."

Question 34

Schopenhauer 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 fallaciously: 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."

Question 35

Schopenhauer 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."

Question 36

Schopenhauer says, "Life presents itself chiefly as a task-the task, I mean, of subsisting at all. If this is accomplished, life is a burden, and then there comes the second task of doing something with that which has been won-of warding off temptation, which, like a bird of prey, hovers over us, ready to fall wherever it sees a life secure from need."

Question 37

Schopenhauer 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?"

Question 38

Explain what Schopenhauer means when he says, "A man finds himself, to his great astonishment, suddenly existing, after thousands and thousands of years of non-existence: he lives for a little while; and then, again, comes an equally long period when he must exist no more. The heart rebels against this, and feels that it cannot be true."

Question 39

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."

Question 40

Explain what Schopenhauer means when he says, "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."

Question 41

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."

Question 42

Explain what Schopenhauer means when he says, "In a world where all is unstable, and nothing can endure, but is swept onwards at once in the hurrying whirlpool of change; where a man, if he is to keep erect at all, must always be advancing and moving, like an acrobat on a rope-in such a world happiness in inconceivable."

Question 43

Explain what Schopenhauer means when he says, "On looking a little closer, we find that inorganic matter presents a constant conflict between chemical forces, which eventually annihilates it; and on the other hand, that organic life is impossible without continual change of matter, and cannot exist if it does not receive perpetual help from without. This is the realm of finite existence, and its opposite would be an infinite existence, exposed to no attack from without, and needing nothing to support it."

Question 44

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."

Question 45

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."

Question 46

Explain what Schopenhauer means when he says, "Life presents itself chiefly as a task-the task, I mean, of subsisting at all. If this is accomplished, life is a burden, and then there comes the second task of doing something with that which has been won-of warding off boredom, which, like a bird of prey, hovers over us, ready to fall wherever it sees a life secure from need."

Question 47

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?"

Question 48

According to Kierkegaard, "If there were no eternal consciousness in a man, if at the foundation of all there lay only a wildly seething power which writhing with obscure passions produced everything that is great and everything that is insignificant, if a bottomless void never satiated lay hidden beneath all-what then would life be but ...?"

A) activity
B) beatitude
C) custom
D) despair

Question 49

According to Kierkegaard, "if there were no sacred bond which united mankind, if one generation arose after another like the leafage in the forest, if the one generation replaced the other like the song of birds in the forest, if the human race passed through the world as the ship goes through the sea, like the wind through the desert, a thoughtless and fruitless activity, if an eternal oblivion were always lurking hungrily for its prey and there was no power strong enough to wrest it from its maw" then life would be ...

A) useful.
B) empty.
C) fruitful.
D) timeless.

Question 50

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."

A) past; past
B) void; void
C) hero; hero
D) ego; ego

Question 51

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."

A) God
B) being
C) ideas
D) music

Question 52

According to Kierkegaard, "If there were no eternal consciousness in a man, if at the foundation of all there lay only a wildly seething power which writhing with obscure passions produced everything that is great and everything that is insignificant, if a bottomless void never satiated lay hidden beneath all-what then would life be but despair?"

Question 53

According to Kierkegaard, "if there were no sacred bond which united mankind, if one generation arose after another like the leafage in the forest, if the one generation replaced the other like the song of birds in the forest, if the human race passed through the world as the ship goes through the sea, like the wind through the desert, a thoughtless and fruitless activity, if an eternal oblivion were always lurking hungrily for its prey and there was no power strong enough to wrest it from its maw" then life would be timeless.

Question 54

According to Kierkegaard, "The poet cannot do what that other does, he can only admire, love and rejoice in the ego. Yet he too is happy, and not less so, for the ego 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."

Question 55

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."

Question 56

Explain the meaning of Kierkegaard's claim: "If there were no eternal consciousness in a man, if at the foundation of all there lay only a wildly seething power which writhing with obscure passions produced everything that is great and everything that is insignificant, if a bottomless void never satiated lay hidden beneath all-what then would life be but despair?"

Question 57

Explain the meaning of Kierkegaard's claim: "if there were no sacred bond which united mankind, if one generation arose after another like the leafage in the forest, if the one generation replaced the other like the song of birds in the forest, if the human race passed through the world as the ship goes through the sea, like the wind through the desert, a thoughtless and fruitless activity, if an eternal oblivion were always lurking hungrily for its prey and there was no power strong enough to wrest it from its maw" then life would be empty.

Question 58

Explain the meaning of Kierkegaard's claim: "The poet cannot do what that other does, he can only admire, love and rejoice in the hero. Yet he too is happy, and not less so, for the hero 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."

Question 59

Explain the meaning of Kierkegaard's extended discussion of the poet and the hero. Can anyone be a poet? Can anyone be a hero?

Question 60

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."

Question 61

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."

A) absurdity
B) meaning
C) honesty
D) trajectory

Question 62

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 ..."

A) to heaven.
B) nowhere.
C) in a circle.
D) to reincarnation.

Question 63

Nagel says, "No further justification is needed to make it reasonable to take aspirin for a headache, attend an exhibit of the work of a painter one admires, or stop a child from putting his hand on a hot stove. No larger context or further purpose is needed to prevent these acts from being ..."

A) moral.
B) transcendent.
C) pointless.
D) meaningful.

Question 64

Nagel says, "Since justifications must come to an end somewhere, nothing is gained by denying that they end where they appear to, ____________, or by trying to subsume the multiple, often trivial ordinary justifications of action under a single, controlling life scheme."

A) in tragedy
B) with hope
C) outside life
D) within life

Question 65

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."

A) absurd
B) static
C) variable
D) reliable

Question 66

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 _______."

A) thinking; death
B) seriousness; doubt
C) relationships; pain
D) perceptions; ideas

Question 67

According to Nagel, "There does not appear to be any conceivable world (containing us) about which unsettlable doubts could not arise. Consequently the absurdity of our situation derives not from a collision between our expectations and the world, but from a collision within ..."

A) societies.
B) universes.
C) ourselves.
D) faiths.

Question 68

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."

A) metaphysical dualism
B) dialectical materialism
C) aspirational humanism
D) epistemological skepticism

Question 69

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 __________________ and __________________ that would enable him to see that he is only a mouse."

A) self-consciousness; self-transcendence
B) meaningful actions; meaningful doubts
C) personal relations; social transactions
D) abstract thinking; relations with God

Question 70

Nagel says, "I would argue that absurdity is one of the most human things about us: a manifestation of our most advanced and interesting characteristics. Like skepticism in epistemology, it is possible only because we possess a certain kind of insight-the capacity to ..."

A) form meaningful relationships.
B) transcend ourselves in thought.
C) believe in a loving God.
D) reshape the physical world.

Question 71

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."

A) faith
B) doubt
C) irony
D) belief

Question 72

According to Nagel, "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."

Question 73

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 nowhere."

Question 74

Nagel says, "No further justification is needed to make it reasonable to take aspirin for a headache, attend an exhibit of the work of a painter one admires, or stop a child from putting his hand on a hot stove. No larger context or further purpose is needed to prevent these acts from being transcendent."

Question 75

Nagel says, "Since justifications must come to an end somewhere, nothing is gained by denying that they end where they appear to, within life, or by trying to subsume the multiple, often trivial ordinary justifications of action under a single, controlling life scheme."

Question 76

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."

Question 77

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."

Question 78

According to Nagel, "There does not appear to be any conceivable world (containing us) about which unsettlable doubts could not arise. Consequently the absurdity of our situation derives not from a collision between our expectations and the world, but from a collision within societies."

Question 79

Nagel says, "In this respect, as in others, philosophical perception of the absurd resembles epistemological skepticism. 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."

Question 80

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."