Introduction to Philosophy
Final Exam
The final exam is to be completed at home and turned in no later than Thursday, December 17th.
The exam consists of 8 questions. You must answer 4 of the questions. Each answer must be
no shorter than 1 page, double spaced, 12 point font, 1-inch margins.
1. In the first chapter of the New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander refers to the “Southern
Strategy.” Explain the “Southern Strategy.” How was it like the backlash against the
populist movement in the 1890s? (Your answer must demonstrate that you understand
how the Southern Strategy changed the republican and democratic parties in the Southern
United States.)
2. Angela Davis (pgs. 16-17) and Michelle Alexander (50-51) touch on the impact of
globalization and de-industrialization on the prison boom in the 1980s. What does
“globalization” and “deindustrialization” mean and, according to Davis and Alexander,
how do they relate to the dramatic increase in incarceration rates?
3. Contrast John Locke and Girard Winstanley’s arguments concerning private property.
4. Drawing on Sylvia Federici, define “primitive accumulation” and describe the
consequences of the Enclosure Acts on women in the late Middle Ages.
5. What does Nietzsche mean by the “Death of God” and why does the Madman—in the
“parable of the madman”—preach the death of God to Atheists?
6. In the selected readings from Creditocracy (by Andrew Ross) Debt Rules Everything
Around Me (from the Debt Resistors Manual) and The Democracy Project (by David
Graeber) the authors argue that changing economic trends that have led to a proliferation
of personal indebtedness. How do each of these texts understand DEBT in relationship to
the de-industrialization of the American economy?
7. Briefly summarize Hard Determinism and Soft Determinism according to Steven Cahn’s
essay Freedom or Determinism.
8. Describe William James’ position on whether free will can be proven or disproven, and
describe his defense of the belief in free will (this answer must touch on the question of
“determinisms’ moral implications.)