Question 1

Sartre argued that freedom cannot be limited.

Select one:

True

False

Question 2

Briefly explain, in 1-2 sentences, why the previous statement is either true or false.

Sartre believe all human born free and freedom is not about the number of our choices. You are human you are free.

Question 3

Plato argued that knowledge of the sensible realm is impossible.

Select one:

True

False

Question 4

Briefly explain, in 1-2 sentences, why the previous statement is either true or false.

Question 5

Aquinas argued that you do not need faith or belief, but only reason, to come to the truth that God exists.

Select one:

True

False

Question 6

Briefly explain, in 1-2 sentences, why the previous statement is either true or false.

Question 7

After questioning others who appeared to be wise, Socrates realizes that he is in fact the wisest because he knows that he does not know everything.

Select one:

True

False

Question 8

Briefly explain, in 1-2 sentences, why the previous statement is either true or false.

Question 9

Young would agree with Sartre that for humans, existence precedes essence.

Select one:

True

False

Question 10

Briefly explain, in 1-2 sentences, why the previous statement is either true or false.

Answer each of the following questions as clearly and concisely as you can. Aim to demonstrate your understanding of the central concept. Your answer should aim to be no more than 125 words (but you will not be penalized for going over or under).

Question 11

What, according to Plato, is so special about math?

Question 12

Throughout the semester we have come across the notion of ‘essence’ multiple times. What is the meaning and the significance of the concept of ‘essence’ for each Socrates, Plato, Sartre, and Young?

Question 13

Sartre claims that “in wanting freedom we discover that it depends entirely on the freedom of others, and that the freedom of others depends on ours” (pg 48). What could this ‘dependence’ mean given that Sartre argues that each individual is radically free and thus entirely responsible for him/herself? 

[You need to go think with Sartre in the reading to be able to answer this question well.]

Question 14

In “Throwing Like a Girl” Young claims that feminine bodily behaviors have their source not in some ‘feminine essence’ but rather in “the particular situation of women” in a sexist society (Young, 152). Why are these behaviors rooted in ‘situation’ (and not essence) and why is this ‘situation’, according to Young, oppressive?

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Answer the following question in a short essay that should be no more than 300 words each (you will not be penalized for going over or under). Your aim should be to demonstrate both understanding of concepts, your capacity to analyze claims, and your capacity to synthesize (connect) ideas.

Question 15

One of the problematic fields we mapped out during the course of the semester is that of ‘caring for truth’: both how to care for truth and why we should care for truth. In what ways do you see this problem at work in each of the philosophies/philosophers we engaged this semester? (Socrates, Sophists, Plato, Aquinas, Sartre, Young)

Question 16 extra

(100 words) In the last reading of the semester, “The Culture Industry,” Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer argue that “culture now impresses the same stamp on everything” (pg 1), and that when culture becomes produced according to the logic of industry, “the result is the constant reproduction of the same thing” (pg 4). The result, they argue, is that we consume the same formulas over and over again (in movies, TV shows, music, etc) because cultural objects are made according to the logic of profit (low risk, repeat what works, target demographics). Thus we tend to see the same images of how we ought to live, who we ought to want to be, repeated over and over, in very formulaic depictions. The consequence, they argue, of the mass production of entertainment for a profit, is the following:

“Pleasure [to be entertained] always means not to think about anything, to forget suffering even where it is shown. Basically it is helplessness. It is flight; not, as it is asserted, flight from a