Historical Development of Philosophy Assignment

General Instructions:

• Your paper should be no longer than 4 double spaced pages (standard font and size).

• All sources and quotations must be properly referenced according to APA rules - 1 point will be taken off for each missing or improper referencing! A reference page can be added (over the 4-page limit), or you may place your references list at the bottom of the last page.

• Add a cover page (5th page) with your name, course information and the following Honor Code Statement:

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• Specific instructions for online submission are detailed on the BlackBoard.

Assignment Instructions:

* The questions below pertain to Chapters 3, 4 & 7.
* Answer the questions fully and intelligently, while exhibiting fluency in the reading material and supplying examples when mentioned.

(1) According to John Hick the sorrows, tragedies, and disappointments of this world are necessary ingredients in "soul-making".
(a) Explain Hick's distinction between "soul-making" and "pleasure-making" views of worldly reality.
(b) Do you agree with this way of thinking? Explain.

[READING CRITICALLY, p. 377]

(2) Reflect in your mind and identify the contents that you are experiencing, as Hume would have described them: isolated and fleeting sounds images, tastes, smells, etc. Now reflect on the contents of your mind and identify the contents that you are experiencing, as Kant would describe them: an integrated world of objects, relationships, space, and time.

(a) Describe, concretely and in detail, a particular instance in your life in which your experience was very much as Hume describes it, and then how it changed into an experience that was more Kantian.

(b) Which analysis, Hume or Kant's, seems a more accurate description of your experience? Why?

[THINKING PHILOSOPHICALLY, p. 120]

(3) James returns to his initial epistemological foundation when he states, "The great point is that the possibilities are really here. Whether it be we who solve them or he working through us, at those soul-trying moments when fate's scales seem to quiver, and good snatches the victory from evil or shrinks nevertheless from the fight, is of small account, so long as we admit that the issue is decided nowhere else than here and now."

(a) Explain the significance of James grounding his conclusion on the "here and now."
(b) Do you agree with this analysis? Why or why not?

[READING CRITICALLY, p. 191]

(4) Sartre believes that many people (perhaps all people to some extant) seek to "escape" from their freedom and responsibility. One indication of such escape attempts is denying the experience of existential emotions such as anguish, abandonment, and despair.

(a) Have you ever experienced these emotions in the profound, existential sense that Sartre believes is part of the human condition? Give example/s and explain.

(b) Do you think experiencing or not experiencing these emotions is a useful barometer for measuring your efforts to escape from your freedom? Explain.

(c) What comfort do you think Sartre finds in this existential human condition? Explain in terms of your own personal life experience.

[READING CRITICALLY, p. 201]

(5) Both Frye and Bartky discuss the way that individuals adopt gendered social norms such that they appear to be natural facts rather than social decisions

(a) What are some examples from your own life of tacitly accepted social norms?

(b) Is it likely that rational reflection on some of these norms would lead you to act differently? Elaborate and give concrete example/s.