Revision for Post-Kantian collections - Hilary 01

Greg Detre

Thursday, 19 April, 2001

Michael Rosen/Dr Tasioulas

 

Exam analysis

Hegel

History

Why, for Hegel, does history matter to philosophy? (2001)

Why, for Hegel, does history matter to philosophy? (1998)

Critique of Kant

Are Hegel's criticisms of Kant's ethics persuasive? (2001)

Does Hegel have good arguments against the view that reality is unknowable to us? (2000)

Dialectic

What is dialectic? (2000)

Freedom

'Philosophy teaches that all the qualities of Spirit exist only through freedom; that all are but means for attaining freedom; that all seek and produce this end and this alone' (HEGEL). Discuss. (2001)

Does Hegel give a coherent account of the relationship between reason and freedom? (2000)

Does Hegel have a plausible account of freedom? (1998)

Ethics

Are Hegel's criticisms of Kant's ethics persuasive? (2001)

Why do we need ethical life (Sittlichkeit) as well as morality (Moralit�? (1999)

Hegel is crap

'The word Geist ('spirit, mind') is too confused and ambiguous to serve any useful philosophical purpose.' Is this fair? (2000)

Is there anything defensible about Absolute Idealism? (1998)

Does Hegel have good arguments against the view that reality is unknowable to us? (2000)

Unknown

Do the arguments of the Phenomenology of Spirit show that selves are essentially social in nature? (2001)

'The fundamental epistemology problem is equipollence, the possibility that someone else will deny what you assert. Hegel's solution is to take on board his opponent's view and integrate it into his system.' Do you agree? (1999)

Was Hegel an atheist? (1999)

Does self-consciousness require conflict? (1999)

Explain the role of the concept of recognition in the dialectic of lordship and bondage. (1998)

Nietzsche

Will + Ubermensch

If existence is, in itself, nothing other than will, how could a person effect a total resignation of all willing? (2001) Nietzsche???

'To demand of strength that it should not express itself as strength, that it should not be a desire to overcome, a desire to throw down, a desire to become master, a thirst for enemies and resistances and triumphs, is just as absurd as to demand of weakness that it should express itself as strength' (NIETZSCHE). Discuss. (2001)

What would the �ermensch overcome, and how? (2001)

Could a Christian be a superman? (2000)

Art, compassion, ascetism: is there anything to choose between these liberations from the will? (1999)

Will supermen restore master morality? (1999)

What, if any, is the connection between will to power and eternal recurrence? (1999)

How far is Nietzsche's account of the self a consequence of his theory of the will to power? (1998)

Truth

Does Nietzsche have a cogent conception of truth? (2001)

If perspectivism were true, would the claim 'all knowledge is perspectival' be perspectival? (1998)

Art

Is art really a 'metaphysical activity', as Nietzsche claims? (2001)

Do the post Kantian philosophers have anything to contribute to the understanding of the role of art in contemporary society? (2001)

Does art require Platonic ideas? (2000)

'Nietzsche is less interested in art as such than in his own artistic vision of life.' Discuss. (2000)

Should Nietzsche have been an artist rather than a philosopher? (1999)

Ethics

Is justice based on compassion? (2000) Nietzsche???

'Egalitarianism cannot be true, since even an egalitarian does not think that inegalitarians are equal to the proponents, let alone the originators, of egalitarianism.' Should Nietzsche accept this argument? (2000)

Will supermen restore master morality? (1999)

Is Nietzsche's account of the genealogy of morals to be assessed by the standard of empirical history? (1998)

Religion + God

Could a Christian be a superman? (2000)

Was Nietzsche an atheist? (1999)

Unknown

Is Nietzsche a pessimist? (2000)

Can feminists learn anything from Nietzsche? (1998)

Combined

Art

Do the post Kantian philosophers have anything to contribute to the understanding of the role of art in contemporary society? (2001)

Reality/truth

'The doctrine that reality is supersensible ... takes swift plunges into unintelligibility' (STRAWSON). Is that doctrine rendered intelligible by any post Kantian philosophers? If so, how? If not, why not? (2001)

Does any of the philosophers you have studied for this paper give a satisfactory account of truth? (2000)

Misc

Does any post-Kantian philosopher give a coherent account of nothingness? (1999)

Is the issue of how probable it is that someone will do something relevant to the question of how free he is to do it or not do it? (1998)

In what sense(s) are the authors you have studied for this paper appropriately described as 'post-Kantian'? (1998)

What, in your view, could analytical philosophy learn from any of the authors you have studied for this paper? (1998)

 

Schopenhauer

Schopenhauer compares our experience of phenomena to our dream experiences. Is the analogy a good one? (2001)

'We are not merely the knowing subject, but ... we ourselves are also among those realities or entities we require to know ... we ourselves are the thing in itself' (SCHOPENHAUER). Are we? (2001)

'According to the true nature of things, everyone has all the sufferings of the world as his own'. (SCHOPENHAUER). Does Schopenhauer's claim provide a good justification for why we should act morally? (2001)

If existence is, in itself, nothing other than will, how could a person effect a total resignation of all willing? (2001)

'Schopenhauer's idealism is an empty gesture. It excludes nothing that a materialist would want to accept.' Discuss. (2000)

Does Schopenhauer have good reason to believe that there is a thing-in-itself? (2000)

Does art require Platonic ideas? (2000)

Is justice based on compassion? (2000)

'No subject without an object, no object without a subject' (SCHOPENHAUER) Discuss. (1999)

What, if anything, makes Schopenhauer a transcendental idealist rather than some other sort of idealist? (1999)

Do we objectify the will or does it do it on its own? (1999)

'No subject without an object, no object without a subject' (SCHOPENHAUER) Discuss. (1999)

What arguments, if any, does Schopenhauer have in favour of his claim that the thing in itself is will? Are they sufficient? (1998)

'Spinoza says that if a stone projected through the air had consciousness, it would imagine it was flying of its own will. I add merely that the stone would be right' (SCHOPENHAUER). Discuss. (1998)

Why does Schopenhauer treat music differently from the other arts? (1998)

What, if anything, does Schopenhauer succeed in explaining by the notion of the Ideas in nature? (1998)

 

Nietzsche

Planned topics

? Nietzsche on truth

? Nietzsche on ethics

? Nietzsche on ER, OM, WTP etc.

 

Past papers 2001

Does art require Platonic ideas?

Is Nietzsche a pessimist?

'Egalitarianism cannot be true, since even an egalitarian does not think that inegalitarians are equal to the proponents, let alone the originators, of egalitarianism.' Should Nietzsche accept this argument?

Could a Christian be a superman?

'Nietzsche is less interested in art as such than in his own artistic vision of life.' Discuss.

Does any of the philosophers you have studied for this paper give a satisfactory account of truth?

Questions

what does morality in this sense mean: �Morality is not the only possible form of ethical life, however, but a particular form that has been brought about by the ascetic ideal�? (Routledge)

Hegel

Planned topics

Hegel on ethics

Hegel vs Kant

Discussion with John Filling

dialectic/historicisation

freedom, ethics

defensibility of Absolute Idealism, critiques of Kant

 

Past papers 2001

What is dialectic?

Does Hegel have good arguments against the view that reality is unknowable to us?

'The word Geist ('spirit, mind') is too confused and ambiguous to serve any useful philosophical purpose.' Is this fair?

Does Hegel give a coherent account of the relationship between reason and freedom?