PHIL10003 Philosophy: Great Thinkers
Semester 2, 2024
Essay 2 Prompts
Released Friday, September 6, 11:59pm
Pick one of the below prompts and write a 1200 word essay in response.
The essay is due by Friday, September 27 at 11:59pm, and is to be submitted via Assignments
in Canvas.
1. Descartes’ meditator comes to the view that he can know for sure that he exists. Carefully
outline the steps he takes to get to this view. Does Descartes’ meditator succeed in
establishing that he can know for sure that he exists? Explain your reasons.
2. Descartes claims that the senses cannot serve as the foundation for all knowledge. Explain
why he believes this and critically examine two of his reasons.
3. Schopenhauer claims that bodily acts are constituted by the Will. Explain what this means,
and how Schopenhauer argues for it. Why does Schopenhauer think that this poses a
challenge to the Kantian Prohibition? (In your answer, you should explain what the Kantian
Prohibition is.) Raise one objection to Schopenhauer's claim that bodily acts are constituted
by the Will. Do you think this objection succeeds?
4. Schopenhauer thinks that suffering is essential to life. Explain why he thinks this,
addressing the following questions:
i. Why does Schopenhauer think we spend our lives veering between suffering and
boredom? (Hint: What does Schopenhauer take the nature of desire to be?)
ii. What does Schopenhauer mean by saying that happiness is 'negative'?
iii. Do you find Schopenhauer's argument that suffering is essential to life
convincing? If so, why, and if not, why not?
5. Evaluate Nietzsche's account of how art can help us to affirm life, covering all of the
following points in your essay.
i. What are the hallmarks of Apollonian art? How (in Nietzsche’s view) does it help us
to affirm life? Give examples of works of Apollonian art, explaining your choices.
ii. What are the hallmarks of Dionysian art? How (in Nietzsche’s view) does it help us
to affirm life? Give examples of works of Dionysian art, explaining your choices.
iii. Do you agree with Nietzsche when he says that art can help us to affirm life, in full
knowledge of the suffering it contains? Give reasons for your answer.
6. Wittgenstein, in the Tractatus, sets out a conception of language and the world and the
relationship between the two. Explain and critically discuss this conception.
7. According to Wittgenstein in the Tractatus, ethics cannot be put into words; the sorts of
ethical “statements” that philosophers propose and debate literally fail to make sense. Explain
how Wittgenstein’s view of language and the world leads him to this position. What do you
think?
8. Outline the later Wittgenstein’s “family resemblance” account of the meaning of words
like ‘game’. Then, answer one or both of the following questions:
i. Is the concept of a game really a family resemblance concept?
ii. How might the notion of a family resemblance concept be philosophically useful?
(Here you might wish to draw on some other material covered in this subject. But that
is a suggestion, not a requirement.)