Below is a list of questions designed to help you clarify the important points of the course readings and class discussions – and, to help you prepare for Exam III. While the exam questions will not necessarily be limited to the content covered below, by and large these questions will give you some idea of what sorts of things I might be asking come test time. So, I would definitely recommend that you use them in preparing for the exam. If there are questions about this, please do not hesitate in ask in class; or, feel free to contact me via email.

Study Questions for Exam III

1. Retell Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Make sure to explain what the components of the story are supposed to represent.

2. Retell Nietzsche’s Allegory of the Cave. Make sure to explain what the components of the story are supposed to represent.

3. What are the primary differences between Plato’s and Nietzsche’s versions of the Allegory?

4. Retell Nietzsche’s account of “the mad man,” making sure to discuss what message Nietzsche means to convey here.

5. Nietzsche opens his Genealogy by criticizing the efforts of “the English psychologists” (i.e., Hume and his followers). What does Nietzsche’s criticism consist of?

6. Discuss in detail what Nietzsche refers to as “the slave revolt in morality.”

7. How is the slave revolt carried out in society? How is the slave revolt carried out in imagination?

8. Paraphrase what inscription is above the door to Hell according to Dante. Paraphrase what inscription Dante should have suggested is above the door to Heaven according to Nietzsche. What is Nietzsche’s point, here?

9. Paraphrase the passage that Nietzsche attributes to St. Thomas Aquinas, and discuss what significance this has for Nietzsche’s position on the origins of morality.

10. Define the concept “guilt” as it was used in the ancient world. Define this concept as we use it in the modern world.

11. According to Nietzsche, how did this change in the meaning of “guilt” come about?

12. Discuss Nietzsche’s views on suffering. How doe God figure into Nietzsche’s thought, here?

13. Define “asceticism.”

14. Discuss what motivates the artist, the philosopher, and the priest to embrace asceticism. Which of these kinds of asceticism does Nietzsche praise, and why?

15. Discuss the two primary reasons that Nietzsche provides for why the “healthy” few should refrain from helping the “unhealthy” majority.

16. What are the three ways prescribed by the priest in which the “unhealthy” majority may alleviate some of the suffering that they endure during their lives.

17. Define “alienation.”

18. What are the three things in which the modern laborer is alienated from? Describe the different ways in which she is alienated from each of these three things.

19. Define “class.” What are the two classes central to Marx’s analysis of capitalism? What primary feature differentiates these two classes?

20. Briefly discuss Marx’s position on property ownership.