material cause
formal cause
final cause
moving (or efficient) cause
questions corresponding to these types of causes
causes of something deliberately made, e.g., a doorknob, a spelled word
Aristotle's three-level (potency, 1st act, 2nd act) analysis of living organisms
The ultimate cause of changes in the universe
How Aristotelian formal causes differ from Platonic forms
How does the human soul relate to the human body?
How are souls of plants similar to, and different from, souls of animals, in A's theory?
How rational souls differ from sensitive souls.
Theoretical reason
Practical reason
eudaimonia (a good translation)
Aristotle's own description of eudaimonia?
(Can we be passively eudaimon?
Can we be morally bad while eudaimon?
Can we have lived a eudaimon life if we slept through most of it?)
What are the two basic kinds of excellence (aretê)?
The intellectual virtues sophia, technê, phronêsis?
What Aristotle understands by "moral virtue":
Concepts related to that: Habituation (repeated practice), aiming at the "mean,"
avoiding excessive and deficient actions, causing us to feel the passions appropriately (i.e., when appropriate,
where appropriate, to the appropriate extent, toward the appropriate persons/objects, etc.)
What is the life of theoria like? Superior to life of virtuous public service?
Why does Aristotle think it superior to the life of virtuous public service?
Essays (Tentative List)
60 points out of a possible 100 on the test. The test itself will
be weighted 45 points out of the semester's 200 possible.
You should do one essay under two of the three capital letters at 30 points each or
one essay under each of the three capital letters at 20 points each. A 20 point essay
should be about 200-250 words, a 30-point essay about 250-350 words.
People who write
clearly, concisely, and with a good grasp of the subject matter can sometimes do better with fewer words.
The point is for you to demonstrate understanding. A mix of general and specific points
is desirable. If you answer the main subquestions satisfactority, it may not be necessary to
address all the subquestions. For some topics, I have made what I consider the "main subquestions"
bold to help you focus.
A. 1. In Plato's Republic, the Sophist Thrasymachus claims that the strong person who is
able to rule unjustly will be happier than a just or virtuous person. What is Plato's
theory of the soul? (How do the parts differ?) How does he understand the connection between virtue (or justice) and the "political"
arrangement within the soul? How does this enable him to "refute" Thrasymachus' claim?
A. 2. When will the problems of society (the polis) finally be solved, according to
Plato? What kind of person will constitute the ruling group in this society? How will he
or she be produced, trained, educated? What sort of order will his soul be in? What
things will he know? Time permitting, you may answer: Describe the way of life of this ruling group.
What kind of person is in the ruling group of a timarchy, an oligarchy, a tyranny?
(What is the ruling element of his soul?)
A3 or B3. Theologically influential teachings. How does Plato's Timaeus describe the creation of the universe? (He mentions
three basic beings or kinds of being.) How does Aristotle
introduce an ultimate cause of movement into his account of the universe? Is it divine? Does it move in space?
(Concentrate on either Plato or Aristotle, one of these but write a sentence or two about the other; A3 if you concentrate on
Plato; B3 if you concentrate on Aristotle. If you do the latter, you may also describe Aristotle's distinction between
celestial and terrestrial physical forms, linking the former to the ultimate cause(s).)
B. 1. What, according to Aristotle, is moral virtue?
Explain how human beings become morally virtuous? How does Aristotle characterize the moral
virtues in general? Explain the relation of virtue and
vice to the "mean" and the "extremes." Discuss two specific virtues (e.g. "open-handedness" and "mildness") and the vices that
correspond to them, in terms of the mean and the extremes. Does possessing a virtue affect what one does or how one feels? Explain briefly or give examples.
Does any intellectual virtue play an important role in excellent moral activity? (If so, which one? how?)
B. 2a. Distinguish, as Aristotle does, between temperance (=moderation), being self-controlled but not strictly
speaking temperate, lacking self-control, and being self-indulgent or intemperate. Which of these would
Aristotle describe as "lying in a mean" and which would he describe as an extreme, on the side of excess. Which
of the four conditions would he describe as morally excellent and not needing improvement, blameworthy
but not vicious, praiseworthy but subject to improvement, resistant to reform. He thinks the threat of
punishment is needed to keep which type of person from violating the most basic social guidelines.
B. 2b. (New) How does Aristotle understand eudaimonia ("happiness") or the good life? Can
we be happy without moral or intellectual excellence? With moral or intellectual excellence but not much use of it?
How does he distinguish the happiness of the practical life from "theoretical" happiness based on wisdom?
C. 1. What is the doctrine of the three bodies associated with Mahayana Buddhism? How
does it most dramatically differ from the attitude of Theravada Buddhism toward
metaphysical questions? How does the Mahayana tradition understand its ideal person and his or her
orientation toward other beings? How is
the teaching that all things are "empty of own-being" related to the Mahayana
ideal. (What does this term really mean, according to Haberman?)
C. 2. The heart of Theravada Buddhism is arguably its relationship to the notion of the
enduring self. How is that related, positively or negatively, to craving, to the
unsatisfactoriness of life,
being reincarnated, to Nirvana? How does the teaching about the skandhas help the Theravada
Buddhists do to overcome the set of interlocked problems (most of) these terms try to
identify?
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