Midterm Exam Preparation Guide

These pages are designed to give you a preview of the midterm exam (which will be given Wednesday, March 3, in our usual classroom).  The exam will be in two parts -- you'll first write short paragraphs in answer to three questions, and then comment at somewhat greater length on three passages, selected from the Coursepack readings.  In this study sheet, you'll find a series of practice questions and passages.  At least 50% of the exam will be taken from the materials on this sheet.

There will also be a midterm review session, in our usual classroom, Tuesday, March 2, 5:45-6:35 p.m.

Part I:  Questions (5 minutes each): Be prepared to give very brief answers (a short paragraph, requiring about 5 minutes of writing) to these questions, making sure that in your answers you include those ideas that are most important to an accurate characterization of the positions of the philosophers. The midterm exam will include two questions from this group, plus one additional one.

Study questions on Greek thought:

1. According to Heraclitus (in fragment #112), in what does human wisdom consist? What is the connection, if any, between his view of wisdom and his view about the use of reason?

2. Parmenides has much to say about what is real, but the "moral" of his account insofar as it pertains to human wisdom is left implicit. What, according to Parmenides, is real? Given that view, in what does or would human wisdom principally consist?

3. According to Socrates in the Apology, in what does his own wisdom consist? By what method or methods did he establish, at least to his satisfaction, that he possessed that wisdom?

4. According to Plato, what kind of object can be known with certainty? How is such an object characterized by Plato? What reason is there to think that there is any such object?

Study questions on Chinese thought:

1. In Confucius's philosophy, how does the practice of ritual lead to the virtue of Humanity (ren); what sort of knowledge or wisdom does this process produce?

2. How might Confucius and Mo-zi differently answer the question of whether, when we pursue wisdom, it is more productive to look to the power of our minds or to lessons taught us by authority?

3. What sort of concept does the story of the Peng bird and the animals who laugh at him illustrate in the Zhuang-zi, and how does this relate to the problem of gaining knowledge?

Comparative study question:

1. Heraclitus's concept of the logos and Lao-zi's concept of the dao have some features in common, but differ sharply in some key ways. What are the major similarities and contrasts?

Part II:  Passages (10 minutes each): Be prepared to comment on the passages below (using about 10 minutes for your response). In your response, clarify the meaning of the main statement, as you understand it, and describe how it 'fits into' the thought of the relevant philosopher. If you have a comment you wish to add concerning your own view, you may place it at the close of your answer. The midterm exam will include at least one of the passages from this group, and at least one that is not among these.

Greece passages for preparation:

1. "Those things of which there is sight, hearing, knowledge [mathesis]: these are what I honour most." (Heraclitus, fr. #55)

2. "You must debar your thought from this way of search [that is, from serious consideration of the view that That Which Is Not does nonetheless exist], nor let ordinary experience in its variety force you along this way, (namely, that of allowing) the eye, sightless as it is, and the ear, full of sound, and the tongue, to rule; but (you must) judge by means of the Reason (Logos) the much-contested proof which is expounded by me." (Parmenides, 7,8)

3. "I still go about seeking and searching in obedience to the divine command, if I think that anyone is wise, whether citizen or stranger; and when I decide that he is not wise, I try to assist the god by proving that he is not." (Apology, 23b)

4. "Perhaps these people who have established religious initiations are not so far from the mark, and all the time there has been a hidden meaning beneath their claim that he who enters the next world uninitiated and unenlightened shall lie in the mire, but he who arrives there purified and enlightened shall dwell among the gods....Well, in my opinion these devotees are simply those who have lived the philosophic life...." (Phaedo, 69c)

China passages for preparation:

1. The Master addressed the disciple Zi-gong Si: "Si, do you take me for one who has studied a great deal and remembered it all?" "Yes," replied Zi-gong. "Is it not so?" "No," said the Master. "I simply link all on a single thread."  [Analects, #53]

2. Cut off sagehood! Cast out wisdom! The people will benefit a hundredfold.  Cut off Humanity! Cast out right! The people will return to filiality and parental kindness.   Cut off cleverness! Cast out profit! Brigands and thieves will nowhere be found. [Lao-zi, Dao de jing, #22]

3. Just ride on affairs with a mind roaming freely. Nothing is better than to rely in action on necessity while you nurture what lies within you. Why must you strive in fulfilling your mission? The best path is to let fate take its course as you follow your orders -- that's all the difficulty there is to it! [Zhuang-zi, ch. 4]

4. Broadly love the things of the world; heaven and earth are one body. [Hui-zi's 10th paradox]