Deck 9: Postscript: The Meaning of Life

Question 1

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

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

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Which of the following philosophers is an advocate of nihilism?

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

Answer 2

D

Question 3

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.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

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 5

For Kierkegaard,the meaning of life is

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

Question 6

What did Hegel argue?

A) That history was bunk
B) That history was irrelevant to philosophy
C) That history shows progress
D) That those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it.

Question 7

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 8

What philosopher wrote,"The history of the world is none other than the progress of the consciousness of freedom"?

A) Karl Marx
B) Leo Tolstoy
C) Georg Hegel
D) Buddha

Question 9

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 10

Soren Kierkegaard described three lifestyles,which he called aesthetic,ethical and

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

Question 11

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 12

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 13

Sartre was

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

Question 14

Rudolf Carnap endorsed:

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

Question 15

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

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

Question 16

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 17

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

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

Question 18

Marx held that progress was

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

Question 19

For Francis Fukuyama,

A) History of progressing more rapidly
B) The price if progress has risen
C) History is no longer progressing
D) The end of the world is near

Question 20

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 21

Hegel called the modern nations the ____________________ nations.

Question 22

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

Question 23

Sartre was a theist.

Question 24

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

Question 25

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

Question 26

Oswald Spengler believed that the West was in decline.

Question 27

For Kierkegaard,the meaning of life is objective.

Question 28

Kierkegaard described three lifestyles.

Question 29

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

Question 30

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

Question 31

Karl Marx denied that history showed progress.

Question 32

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

Question 33

Schopenhauer held that all good things are ____________________.

Question 34

R.M.Hare argues that nihilism is mistaken.

Question 35

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

Question 36

Schopenhauer believed that everything passes away.

Question 37

Hegel believed that history showed progress.

Question 38

____________________ has argued that history is no longer progressing towards any goal.

Question 39

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

Question 40

Richard Taylor believes that life has no meaning.

Question 41

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.

Question 42

Do you believe that the question of whether our lives have meaning can be settled merely by appealing to events that occur during them¾or 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 43

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 44

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 45

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?