Midterm Exam (Take Home Portion) NAME: __________________________Introduction to Philosophy Fall 2016

Instructions: In a few (4 – 5) sentences, answer any 4 of the following questions (3 points each). Careful to note that some questions have sub-questions (a, b, c, etc.), so make sure to answer all the sub-questions in each question. IMPORTANT: this is open book, open note, etc., but just make sure that all your answers are in your own words. The only (only? Yea, problably!) way you can do poorly on this is if you yank something word for word from the lectures or a website or something (*cough* plagiarizing *cough*). So don’t do that. Just be creative, put everything in your own, naturally brilliant words, and you’ll do great).

(1) Gadflies of Music.

We talked a lot about the “gadfly” motif in both Plato’s Apology and King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.” With that motif in mind, answer the following:

a. What is the definition of “gadfly” (in your own words)?b. Can you think of any musician (band, etc.) who can be called a “gadfly”? Don’t

worry about whether or not they’re as important as King or Socrates, but just in general, has there ever been, in your mind, a musician who has attempted to perform the “gadfly” role in society through music rather than through rhetoric/politics/etc.? Explain why you think this person’s (band’s) music fulfills this function.

(2) The Nameless Horror!

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”

– H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu

H.P. Lovecraft is considered one of the greatest American horror novelists of all time. He was the primary inspiration for contemporary authors of the genre including Stephen King and Neil Gaiman. His macabre imagery of Nameless Horrors, madness, and metamorphosis was the prime inspiration for countless aspects of modern popular culture: from the techno-organic horrors of H.R. Giger’s Alien designs to the weird world of occult terrors in Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth, and Pacific Rim. Lovecraft likewise piqued the intellectual curiosity of Gilles Deleuze, one of the most radical and influential philosophers of the 20th century. Read that quote above and answer the following:

(a) What was the relationship between “Truth,” “learning,” and “the Good,”according to Augustine?

(b) How might you compare what Augustinesays about that relationship (what youanswered in “a” there) and what Lovecraft describes in the quote above?

(c) What’s your own take on this? Will philosophy, science, theology, etc., push us towards a glorious Truth that will enlighten and inspire the human race? Or is it more likely that Lovecraft was right, namely, that the more we learn, one day, we may learn too much, and discover things about ourselves, about the universe, and about our place in that universe, that we would have rather never known? Or perhaps some third option? Not wrong answer for “c” here, just your thoughts on where “learning” as a human process might be taking us down the road.

(3) As Above, So Below

One of the most mysterious pieces of writing of the last few thousand years is a short tract known as the Emerald Tablet (reputedly because it was carved into a tablet of pure emerald). The author is a mysterious sage known as Hermes Trismegistus (the thrice-blessed), who may (or may not) have really existed. The Tablet has many interpretations: some say it’s a great example of Plato’s philosophy; some say it’s the great “riddle” of the universe; and some, like Isaac Newton himself, thought that it was really a secret formula for the creation of the so-called “Philosopher’s Stone,” the artifact reputedly capable of transmuting base metal into pure gold. Whatever else it might be, for some mysteries may never be solved, it does seem to have a lot of resonance with the readings we’ve done this semester so far.

Perhaps the most famous line of the Tablet is one you’re already familiar with: “as above, so below.” That is, as it is in the heavens, so, too, is it here down on earth: a kind of “correspondence,” if you will, between the higher, divine realm, and the mortal, human realm down here. Consider some of the readings we’ve done so far, specifically, Plato’s “Euthyphro,” King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” and Augustine’s On Free Choice of the Will. In each of those three, the author describes just such a relationship: where something human/mortal is ideally meant to be a reflection of something divine/eternal. See if you can find two examples of this, from two different authors of those three mentioned above (for example: one from Plato, one from King, etc.). If you can find an example in all three of those philosophers, I’ll add bonus points to your overall exam score.

(4) Contemporary Significance

There are quite a few phenomenal and incredibly important parts of King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” that applied to many different aspects of the Civil Rights Movement. It’s been said (and I would agree) that many aspects of his “Letter” are still applicable today, and can be applied to any number of current social issues we face in 2016. For this, do the following:

(a) Identify some passage or idea from King’s “Letter” than you feel has relevance to some contemporary issue (“contemporary” as in, “right now,” literally, something important happening in the world today).

(b) Then describe the social issue (current politics, race issues, gender issues, etc.) you want to deal with.

(c) Finally, apply whatever idea you found in King directly to the contemporary social issue we’re facing today and analyze how his work in the “Letter” can be productively used to deal with that social issue.

(5) The Good Life

It’s not uncommon in America today to hear tell of “the good life” as that which entails something like: laying on a yacht, drinking foofy beverages, surrounded by super models, which bathing in money (preferably on your way to your own private island populated exclusively by super models). From TV to film, music videos to advertisements, “the good life” definitely seems to have a monetary/commercial component to it. What would Augustine think of this contemporary idea of “the good life” and why might he suggest we’re all going to totally fail at being happy if we don’t rethink what “the good life” means today?