CVSP 203 Final, Fall 2008

CS 203, Section 8 Final Exam February 5, 2009 Dr. Clary Please answer on the supplied paper. Please write your name at the top of every page. Any student seen talking during the exam will receive a score of 0 and be asked to leave. All exams must be completed within two hours, so budget your time accordingly. Successful exams will: 1. use quotes from the text to support—not replace—your own ideas. 2. put quotes in quotation marks and attribute paraphrases to the correct author. 3. contain your own analyses of the course texts, not simply repeat what we discussed in class. Impressive exams will also: 1. correctly incorporate quotes that were not discussed in class or in the lectures. 2. address as many different course texts as possible. In other words, try not to write about the same two or three texts in all your answers. Section I. Identifications. (worth 60 points—15 per answer). Choose FOUR passages from the list below. Fully successful responses will show evidence of independent thinking. Please do the following with each passage, using complete sentences: a. Identify it. Give the name of the author and the title of the work b. Contextualize it. Describe the passage’s context within the text. What is happening at this point in the text? What is the author trying to accomplish with this term or passage? c. Discuss its significance. What is important about this passage in the great scheme of things? What big ideas are suggested by the passage? Passages (choose FOUR): 1. “…there is only one categorical imperative and it is this: Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.” 2. “He who attempts to get another man into his absolute power does thereby put himself into a state of war with him” 3. “…during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war, and such a war as is of every man against every man.” 4. “The greatest improvement in the productive powers of labour, and the greater part of the skill, dexterity, and judgment with which it is anywhere directed, or applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labor.” 5. “Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other…” 6. “How uselessly I’ve laboured to collect/the treasures of the human intellect…” 7. “By the principle of utility is meant that principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever, according to…” 8. “Nature to be commanded must be obeyed” 9. “Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.” 10. “I think, therefore I am.” 11. “Idols of the Tribe” 12. “You taught me language, and my profit on’t is I know how to curse.” Section II. Short answer (worth 40 points). Answer ONE of the following questions. Your answer should take the form of a short essay (i.e., use complete sentences and paragraphs, not bullet points). Make sure you address at least THREE course texts in your answer, and make sure you clearly state which three texts you are addressing. Your answer should include as many specific details from the texts as possible. Successful answers will show evidence of independent thinking. 1. A town is weighing the pros and cons of allowing a new textile factory to open downtown. Imagine that Karl Marx, Adam Smith, and one other course author of your choosing are taking part in the town’s discussion. How would they each feel about the factory? What would they say about it in the town meeting? On what would they base their opinions? 2. A motorist swerves to avoid hitting a group of children who are crossing the street. He misses the children but strikes and kills a motorcyclist in the oncoming lane. A jury composed of Immanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill, and one other course author of your choosing is arguing about the motorist’s guilt or innocence. What would each of the three jurors say, and why? Note: the three jurors have no more information about the case than you have in this question. 3. Bacon, Descartes, and Hobbes advocate different methods for attaining knowledge and/or truth, and identify different obstacles to its attainment. Compare and contrast their methods and identify the obstacles to knowledge and/or truth identified by each.