Existentialism and Contemporary Philosophy
Final Exam Study Sheet
Exam time: December 8 (Thursday), 8-10:00am.
Short Answer Section. The following is a list of most of the key terms and concepts we
have covered. This is to help you in preparing for the short answer section of the exam.
There will be 12 short answer questions, of which you are to answer 10 (4 points each).
Absurd
Problem of suicide
Playing games
Judgment (part 2 of Stranger)
Priest as half-dead
Myth of Sisyphus
Anti-science
Confessional
Regimes of truth
Problematizing history
Genealogy/archaeology
confinement
productivity/efficiency (value)
normalization
observation-examination-judgment
discipline
transcendental field
singularities/events
a life
passwords
Society of control
Essay Question. Two of the following three will be on the final. You are to write an essay
on one of the two (60 points):
1. Camus’ thought and writings were greatly influenced by Nietzsche. Pick two
themes (you can do more) where you find Camus’ thought to be most similar to
Nietzsche’s. Be sure to give specific detail and examples from the texts of
Nietzsche and Camus. After having shown where you believe Nietzsche and
Camus are most similar, discuss what you take to be the greatest differences
between them, again drawing from examples from the texts.
2. A central claim of Foucault’s is that traditional understandings of power simply
view it as the power to limit, or as the power to say no, whereas the power that is
most effective in supporting and maintaining social and cultural institutions is the
power that constitutes our desires; a positive power rather than a negative power.
Drawing on the readings, our classroom discussions, and your own insights and
examples, elaborate what Foucault means.
3. Deleuze’s form of philosophy is what he calls transcendental empiricism. By
extending Sartre’s critique of the idea of the subject, Deleuze attempts to account
for the emergence of the subject/object distinction. Key to this process is the
notion of process/individuation where singularities/events come to be drawn into
a systemic relation with one another (think of the example of an infant becoming
an individual, or Dickens’ character). Discuss Deleuze’s arguments and bring in
other examples to clarify, in your own words, what you take to be the main thrust
of Deleuze’s philosophy.