CVSP 201 Final, Fall 2002

fast Et NTVERS! LIBRARY OF SERUT CVSP 201 Fall 2002 Final Exam (2 hours) Dr Wrisley This exam is in three parts. No books or notes are to be used in answering the questions. Absolute silence is required in the room. Eyes on your own paper. Note the point values assigned to each section. PartI: Identifications (15 minutes, 20 points). Choose two (2) of the following six (6) quotations below. As best as you can in about 5 sentences, identify (a) from what text it comes and the author (b) its context within the work or in what argument it is found (c) its significance to the work as a whole, that is, what are some of the major themes of the author’s work reflected in it. Do not recopy the passage. 1. “Virtue, then, is of two kinds, intellectual and moral. Intellectual virtue owes both its inception and its growth chiefly to instruction, and for this reason needs time and experience. Moral goodness, on the other hand, is the result of habit, from which it has actually got its name, being a slight modification of the word ethos. This fact makes it obvious that none of the moral virtues is engendered in us by nature.” “As children in blank darkness tremble and start at everything, so we in broad daylight are oppressed at times by fears as baseless as those horrors which children imagine coming upon them in the dark. This dread and darkness of the mind cannot be dispelled by the sunbeams, the shining shafts of day, but only by an understanding of the outward form and inner workings of nature.” “Have no fear, men of Troy. Put every anxious thought out of your hearts. This is anew kingdom, and it is harsh necessity that forces me to take these precautions and to post guards on all our frontiers. But who could fail to know about the people of Aeneas and his ancestry, or the city of Troy, the valour of its men and the flames of war that engulfed it? We here in Carthage are not so dull in mind as that ... Do you wish to settle with me on an equal footing, even here in this kingdom of Carthage? The city which I am founding is yours. Draw your ships on the beach. Trojan and Tyrian shall be as one in my eyes. I wish only that your king Aeneas had been driven by the same south wind, and were here with you now.” “For contemplation is the highest form of activity (since the intellect is the highest thing in us, and the objects that it apprehends are the highest things that can be known), and also it is the most continuous, because we are more capable of continuous contemplation than we are of any practical activity. Also we assume that happiness must contain an admixture of pleasure; now activity in accordance with (philosophic) wisdom is admittedly the most pleasant of the virtuous activities; at any rate philosophy is held to entail pleasures that are marvelous in purity and permanence; and it stands to reason that those who possess knowledge pass their time more pleasantly than those who are still in pursuit of it.” “Do not move away. Do not leave my sight. Who are you running from?” “Let us now consider why reverence for the gods is widespread among the nations. What has crowded their cities with altars and inaugurated those solemn rites that are in vogue today in great and powerful states? What has implanted in mortal hearts that chill of dread which even now rears new temples of the gods the wide world over and packs them on holy days with pious multitudes? The explanation is not far to seek. Already in those early days men had visions when their minds were awake, and more clearly in sleep, of divine figures, outstanding in beauty and impressive in stature... They pictured their lot as far superior to that of mortals and in dreams they saw them perform all sorts of miracles without the slightest effort.” Part III: Essay. (1 hour, 40 points). Choose one (1) of the three (3) essay topics below. In writing your response, be sure to give specific examples where you can taken from the passages we read in the course. Be sure to give yourself enough time to answer this question thoroughly. NB: This essay is your opportunity to show me that you have thought about the material of the course and that you understand the arguments of the authors involved. You are being given twice as much time as the midterms for this essay. Pick the one that you can answer the best and show me what you have learned this term. Discuss the function and significance of prophecy in three (3) of the following works: Thucydides’ History, Plato’s Apology, Homer’s Odyssey, Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, Virgil’s Aeneid. Compare and contrast the points of view shared by three of the following authors or characters on the ethical role of the individual in society (Plato/Socrates, Aristotle, Pericles, Lucretius, Tiresias). Discuss the how three (3) of the following works handle the question of human fear. (Song of Gilgamesh, History of the Peloponnesian Wars, Oedipus the King, Aristotle’s Ethics, Lucretius’ On the Nature of the Universe).