EXAM II
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The exam on April 1 will consist of 4 of the 5 questions below. Of those 4, you will
be required to answer any 3. In addition, we will have a true-false reading quiz on
Nietzsche. You will have 60-75 minutes to finish the exam and quiz.

I will be expecting higher quality exams because you do have the questions. Answer
the questions fully and precisely, but with an awareness of the time constraints. Stick
to relevant material.
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It’s OK to study together, but there’s no substitute for doing your own reading,
thinking, and planning. Make good use of the “minutes” and other materials on the
class webpage. Be sure you’ve done all the readings! Email me general questions. I
can’t directly answer the exam questions.
(1) Explain the desire fulfillment view of the good life, making it clear how it differs
from relativism and the simple happiness view. State three distinct and serious objections
to it. Do you think these are “knock down” objections?
(2) What is the basic idea of the objective list view in chapter 5 of my book? Drawing
on my list of basic goods and Finnis’s list, create your own list. Defend the decisions you
make about what to include and exclude. Why think of these basic goods as necessities,
instead of as interchangeable contributors of good? You should cover the three views on
this issue in chapter 6, and explain their pros and cons.
(3) Peter Singer and Harriet Johnson have very different views on whether disabilities
reduce a person’s chances of living a good life. Explain each view and what account of
the good life it’s based on (if any). Then explain the repercussions of each view for the
question of infanticide. Be sure to explain the conditions under which Singer thinks
infanticide is permissible. Identify one weak, under-supported idea on each side of this
debate.
(4) Sartre argues that an ultimate choice ought to be made with anguish, abandonment,
and despair. Explain what he means by these terms. Then discuss whether Sartre’s
counsel really makes any sense, making use of an assortment of examples from Sartre’s
essay and my chapter 7.
(5) A young man comes to Sartre asking him for advice about whether to join the
resistance or stay home with his ailing mother. Explain all the ways of resolving the
dilemma that Sartre mentions in his discussion of this example, but deems inadequate.
What are his objections to? What does Sartre mean by this advice: “You are free,
therefore choose, that is to say, invent”? Is that good advice?
QUIZ. This is going to be very basic—nothing but a “check up” to see if you did the
Nietzsche reading. It will help you follow Nietzsche’s disjointed writing if you aim to
discover what he has to say about these four topics: (a) traditional, selfless morality, (b)
God, (c) how best to approach living, and (d) “higher” vs. “lower” people. It may help if
you keep track of these topics in the margins of your book.
Philosophy 3375
The Meaning of Life
Professor Jean Kazez
Spring 2009
HANDOUT 3
Hard Choices/Sartre
(A) Sartre says that the very core of existentialism is the idea that EXISTENCE PRECEDES
ESSENCE.
1. What does this mean? (p. 3)
2. What are the implications for the way we should live? (p. 4)
3. He says there are Christian existentialists. Is that puzzling? Can you explain
how a Christian could believe that EXISTENCE PRECEDES ESSENCE? (p. 17)
(B) The awareness that EXISTENCE PRECEDES ESSENCE leads to ANGUISH, ABANDONMENT,
AND DESPAIR, says Sartre. ANGUISH is what we feel when we recognize that we must
choose for everyone, not just for ourselves, but cannot have any proof of being right.
1. Expand on the meaning of ANGUISH. (pp. 4, 5)
2. Explain in terms of some of Sartre’s examples (marriage, Abraham, the
military leader).
3. Does it make sense to you that we ought to feel ANGUISH?
(C) To explain, Sartre talks about the dilemma of the young man who is choosing
between staying home with his mother and joining the French resistance.
1. What is ABANDONMENT? (pp. 6-7)
2. What does it have to do with the quote from Dostoevsky: “If God does not
exist, everything is permitted”? (p. 6) Do you think that sentence is true?
3. How could the young man really be in a state of abandonment if there are
moral standards, scriptures, and religious leaders he could consult? What does
Sartre say about all these options? (pp. 6-8)
(D) The young man (see C) comes to Sartre, and says “In the end, it is feeling that
counts; the direction in which it is really pushing me is the one I ought to choose.” Sartre
does not approve of this attitude.
1. Explain in detail why not. (pp. 7-8)
2. When the young man asked for Sartre’s advice, what did he say to him? (p. 8)
3. Explain and assess this advice.
(E) What is DESPAIR?
1. Explain, using Sartre’s examples. (p. 9)
2. How is DESPAIR related to the idea that EXISTENCE PRECEDES ESSENCE?
3. Does it make sense to feel DESPAIR?