Wednesday

The essay questions will be selected from the 7 questions that appear below. We may make some changes, but these are substantially the essay questions you'll see on the Final. We may ask you to write brief essays on four specific questions that we'll select from these seven, or give you room for choice.

All of the essay questions below draw very heavily on the review questions we posed during the last week of class. Much of the content of the short answer section of the test will be linked to issues raised in these brief essay questions -- if you prepare well for the essay section you should be generally prepared for the test. We will discuss these questions in Friday's section meeting and in the review session next Wednesday.

Although the exam covers the entire term, we do not intend to touch on every issue or every thinker. In preparing for the essays, pay particular attention to readings and lecture materials from the last three weeks of class -- these were all framed as review, and brought together many of the ideas of the course.

1. What role does the "mean" (middle) play in Aristotle's account of virtue? List a few of the virtues important for Aristotle and indicate how his doctrine of the mean enters into his characterization of those virtues in relation to the corresponding vices (which you should list as well). Does Aristotle see human excellence only as a collection of such virtues?

2. How does Confucius think that li can transform a person? How does this help create an ideal society? In what way would a society pervaded by li be Humane (ren), or "ethical?"

3. In Plato's discussion of the Divided Line and the Allegory of the Cave, what different kinds of knowledge does he envision people as capable of having? How did Plato think perfect wisdom was to be attained, and what special role does he see the person with perfect wisdom playing in relation to ordinary people.

4. How does Lao-zi describe the dao? How does Zhuang-zi describe the dao? What aspects of nature and natural action do these two thinkers stress, and what different strategies do they offer for achieving wu-wei?

5. The goals of life for Epicureans and Stoics like Epictetus seem very similar in many ways. What is the Epicurean goal and what is the Stoic goal, and in what respects do they differ? What specific strategies do Epicurus and Epictetus offer for achieving their respective goals?

6. How does Mencius draw a line between things that are or aren't under our control? What does he say we should do to perfect the things that are under our control, and how should we approach dealing with the world outside our control?

7. When we look at Analects passage #28 and Parmenides passage #7/8 we see extreme formulations of the ritualistic commitment of Confucian thinkers and the rationalistic commitment of Greek thinkers. What forms of wisdom is each of these two passages committed to? What different forms of wisdom do other Confucian and Greek thinkers and texts incorporate to create a more balanced approach to wisdom seeking?