Deck 11: Non-Western Philosophy

Question 1

Native Americans tended to view nature as

A)a resource that they had a right to use.
B)something over which the Great Spirit had granted them dominion.
C)something that should be treated with reverence and respect.
D)a source of aesthetic pleasure and recreation.

Answer 1

C

Question 2

For Daoism, wuwei involves acting nonassertively, taking one's cues from one's situation and going with the flow.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Traditional beliefs in Africa tend to favor a highly individualistic way of life, free of the limits of tribalism.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Carefully preserved written documents provide much information on the nature of the beliefs of peoples in North America and Africa.

Question 5

In Hindu tradition, an avatar is a god incarnating in human form. For example, Krishna is an avatar of the god Vishnu.

Question 6

According to the Indian idea of karma, every action bears fruit, leaving residues in the mind, especially the unconscious mind.

Question 7

It is challenging to understand the Chinese philosophical tradition because

A)there is no tradition of philosophy in China.
B)you have to take part in Chinese religious rituals to grasp it.
C)we've had access to the texts for so long that we tend to read them unimaginatively.
D)even if we read Chinese texts, it's hard to enter into the context within which those texts are comprehensible.

Question 8

Unlike Ibn-Rushd (Averroes), al-Farabi considered reason to be more important than revelation as a way of attaining knowledge.

Question 9

Philosophers have a long history of openness to the ideas of individuals who are not male, white, and of European descent.

Question 10

Confucius's concept of "the attunement of names" implies that using euphemisms like "collateral damage" is an attempt to avoid moral responsibility for the consequences of our actions.

Question 11

The project of inserting non-Western philosophy into the curriculum is challenging because the mainstream Western tradition may already have pervaded or transformed every other tradition that we might try to read.

Question 12

Confucius believed that true nobility and excellence in personal character depended on personal merit, not noble birth.

Question 13

Unlike Buddhists, Jains are committed to belief in the individual self or soul, and not only in human beings but in every living thing.

Question 14

Like Confucians, Daoists emphasize the importance of ritual actions.

Question 15

For Confucius, interpersonal relationships, such as those between parent and child, are hierarchical but involve reciprocal obligations.

Question 16

Buddhism is focused on achieving liberation from suffering and misery by experiencing an inner transformation.

Question 17

Ancestors play a distinctive role in religious traditions in Africa and China and many islands of the South Pacific and Southeast Asia.

Question 18

The Mayan and Aztec tradition of human sacrifice is probably linked to their beliefs that blood was the fundamental life force.

Question 19

Western philosophers have tended to dismiss

A)thought articulated in literalist explanations and arguments.
B)nonliteral, nonscientific explanations of life and the universe through myth, heroic legends, and nonmonotheistic religions.
C)ideas that draw on monotheistic religions.
D)ethical reflection.

Question 20

According to the Vedas , the self that we recognize within ourselves is ultimately atman, and atman is not separate from Brahman, the fundamental reality.

Question 21

The Buddhist doctrine of anatman implies that

A)self, atman, and Buddha nature are one.
B)there is a permanent, eternal atman or self.
C)there is no permanent, eternal atman or self.
D)"You are that."

Question 22

According to Confucius, the virtue of practicing rituals is important because

A)rituals enable people to harmonize without coercion.
B)rituals enable people to avoid difficult social encounters.
C)rituals can create mystical states of consciousness.
D)God mandated such actions.

Question 23

Indicate three senses in which what is most real and important is best symbolized, for Native Americans, by the circle.

Question 24

The belief that created beings flow forth from God's activity as pure thinking is attributed to

A)Zoroaster.
B)Ibn-Rushd (or "Averroes").
C)al-Farabi.
D)Ibn-Sina (or "Avicenna").

Question 25

In Daoism, how is water a symbol for the Dao?

Question 26

Arjuna was advised by Krishna to employ the attitude of karma yoga . What is karma yoga ?

Question 27

Which of the following is not one of the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism?

A)Suffering arises from selfish craving.
B)Life is full of suffering.
C)Humans should act boldly to satisfy their cravings, however selfish they are.
D)One can eliminate selfish craving by following the right way.

Question 28

The Confucian "attunement of names" means that

A)the names we give to our children are an important factor in their character formation.
B)names don't really matter.
C)the name we give to something should match the reality.
D)what counts the most is who you know.

Question 29

In traditional African tribes, a newly born baby is not yet a full person, whereas a deceased person who lives on in the memory of his or her descendents is a person still, despite physical death. This implies that

A)animism is false.
B)there are no funeral rites.
C)abortion is never justified.
D)birth and death do not mark the person's beginning and end.

Question 30

Explain Confucius's "attunement of names."

Question 31

To act naturally in the Daoist sense requires that you

A)act in a way that is free of social conditioning.
B)do anything that occurs to you.
C)act in a way that is prescribed by the most basic rituals.
D)refrain from acting.

Question 32

The Mexican philosopher who rejected positivism because it did not acknowledge the importance of emotions in music and the arts was

A)Augusto Salazar Bondy.
B)José Vasconcelos.
C)Octavio Paz.
D)Auguste Comte.

Question 33

Hinduism is

A)polytheistic; there are many gods.
B)henotheistic; there is one divine nature that takes many forms.
C)monotheistic; there is one god.
D)nontheistic; there are no gods.

Question 34

Confucius's view of interpersonal relationships can best be described as

A)egalitarian.
B)egalitarian, but with the focus on merit.
C)hierarchical.
D)hierarchical, but with a focus on reciprocity and empathy.

Question 35

What are the Four Noble Truths in Buddhism?

Question 36

When the Daoist Chuang-Tzu said that words are like fishing nets, he meant that

A)if they are to work, they must be mended constantly.
B)they catch the most essential realities.
C)they catch some things, but they allow much to slip through.
D)they provide us with our daily sustenance.

Question 37

The oldest philosophical text is the

A)Rig-Veda.
B)Old Testament.
C)Upanishads.
D)Bhagavad-Gita.

Question 38

People in Mexico and South America shared the belief that time and reality had three levels:

A)ordinary, mythical, and divine.
B)monistic, dualistic, and pluralistic.
C)unrelational, reciprocal, and multirelational.
D)material, psychological, and spiritual.

Question 39

In Mahayana Buddhism, a Bodhisattva

A)achieves enlightenment and then passes into nirvana.
B)achieves enlightenment and renounces nirvana, choosing to remain in the world and help others extinguish suffering.
C)leaves behind this world for the next world.
D)is unconcerned with fellow beings.

Question 40

By advising Arjuna to approach the battle using karma yoga, Krishna is recommending that Arjuna

A)adopt an attitude of detachment toward the consequences of his actions.
B)passionately commit himself to fighting.
C)use meditation and not weapons to defeat the enemy.
D)employ the Golden Rule.

Question 41

Confucianism and Daoism are two of the oldest philosophies in the world. What are the essential insights of these two philosophies regarding the Dao (the way), the jen (virtue), li (ritual), he (harmony), and yi (appropriateness)? Focus in particular on each tradition's conception of what it means to live together-in terms of both intimate, interpersonal experience and the social order in general (including leadership). On what points do these traditions intersect, and on what points do they diverge? Discuss two lessons that Western philosophers could draw from these two traditions concerning the nature of social existence.

Question 42

Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism are three Indian religious and philosophical traditions. Write an essay on these three traditions, focusing on their ontologies (their conceptions of what is fundamentally real), their concepts of the self, and their notions of liberation and how to live well. Look for similarities and differences between them. Draw out two insights that one or more of these traditions could bring to Western philosophy.

Question 43

Octavio Paz wrote that "modern man likes to pretend that his thinking is wide-awake. But this wide-awake thinking has led us into the mazes of a nightmare in which the torture chambers are endlessly repeated in the mirrors of reason" (p. 342). Do you agree with Paz? What sort of nightmares has modern, Western reason created? Think especially of our attitudes toward time, death, social existence, and our relationship to nature. Could the indigenous philosophies of Latin America and Mexico, Native Americans, and Africa provide perspective on how we live in society and nature? Focus on three of these philosophical perspectives. After briefly explaining them, identify any common themes they share. Then focus on how these philosophies might offer lenses through which we can look at, evaluate, and transform our attitudes toward time, death, society, and nature. Be specific: identify three alternatives ways of being these philosophies might suggest to you.

Question 44

Write a fictional dialogue between two students, one from India or China, and one from America, exploring Eastern and Western perspectives on the nature of reality, of God (or ultimate religious reality), of self, and the nature of a good life. The American student can speak from two or more of the Western points of view that have been explored in this book (including Descartes, Spinoza, Locke, Kant, etc.). The Eastern student should focus on two or more of the following: Indian philosophies of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Confucianism, or Daoism. Your goal should be to clarify what the differences actually are and to look for areas of common ground.

Question 45

Describe the Persian philosopher/theologian Mulla Sadra's understanding of God's relationship to the world.

Question 46

The aim of this chapter has been to make us more aware "of the peculiarities and limitations of our own ways of thinking and, especially, of how that thinking has been shaped and perhaps even distorted by the particular features of our tradition" (p. 346). These peculiarities and limitations are traced back to differences in culture, race, and ethnicity. Write an essay looking at how the nondominant traditions explored in this chapter challenge three or more of these "limited" assumptions made by Western philosophers regarding two or more of the big questions addressed in this text, including the meaning of life, the Good Life, and the nature of God, reality, self, and freedom. Be specific: how do the nondominant traditions explored in this chapter challenge assumptions that philosophers have made regarding these questions? Could the Western philosopher(s)answer any of these challenges, either by defending his assumptions or by revising them in light of the non-Western views developed in this chapter? In other words, is it possible to revise Western philosophy to eliminate its cultural, racial, and ethnic biases? How? Again, be specific.