The
Exam will consist of 25 Multiple Choice questions and 5 short answer
questions. The Multiple Choice are pulled from the lectures and
readings on the topics below.
Shamanism: “One
who knows”, common world culture of early tribal society, forms that
appear in world religions, ecstatic experience as ‘standing outside’,
initiation rites and ‘rebirth’, investigating problems and seeking
visions of solutions, the All-Tree, the problem of the One and the Many,
the problem of destiny after death, stories as transmission of
knowledge
City State Priests & Egypt: Societies
gather into larger societies and settle, authorities become
traditional, specialization of experts and scholars, eternal stars of
fire as order above, water as chaos below, air as ordering breath or
communication, Egyptian wisdom texts show criticism of society and human
behaviors, heart centered individual, warring state periods good for
thought, polytheism to monotheism to abstract solar monotheism
Hinduism, Jainism & Buddhism: Three
paths of worship (Bhakti devotion, Raja asceticism, Jnana scholarship),
trinity of Brahma, Vishnu (salvation) and Shiva (destruction),
multitude of gods who are yet are not these three, two types of
afterlife (reincarnation and release of Nirvana), Vedas as multiple
origin stories, Upanishads as philosophical ‘that is you’ inner meaning,
Jain influence on Buddhism and Hinduism, Mahavira and the
Tirthankaras, two principles of skepticism (non-one-endedness and
postulation), practice of asceticism and austerities (fasting, postures,
meditation), Jain all karma as negative and total release as joining
the order of the cosmos, the Jain metaphor of the leaky boat (plugging
and bailing), Buddhism concepts of Impermanence, Doctrine of the Mean,
Codependent Arising
Heraclitus: All
is One/Fire/Cosmic Mind, all particular things are impermanent (even
gods/planets), experts do not know much more than the common people, we
are all apes to the gods, can’t step in the same river twice,
perspective changing how things are
Plato: Parmenides
over Heraclitus, Forms/Ideas as eternal models of things, the three
parts of the soul (appetite, spirit and reason) corresponding to the
three classes of the city (workers, police and philosophers), allegory
of the cave
Confucianism: Mandate
of Heaven as abstract monotheism, social order and rites as strength of
society, study and civil service over meditation and nature of Daoism,
criticism of the individual and equating others with oneself, right
mind/intention over right body/action, love as center of human and
system, recognition of the lowest as oneself and self criticism,
Neo-Confucianism as blend with Daoism and Buddhism
Daoism: Return
to nature and stillness, seeing both sides, Yin-Yang symbol, influence
on Chinese Buddhism and Zen, the great One/Way as nameless above all
named 10,000 things, water-like in fluidity and getting everywhere, the
wheel as both solid and empty together, Zhuangzi and perspective, Cook
Ting, humans ugly to minnows and deer, Peng bird vs. dove and cicada
For
the short answers, pick five topics from the list below. For each of
your choices, write a half page in each of the spaces provided. You
should demonstrate that you 1) understand the meaning of the concept, 2)
that you can connect it to other material from the class, and 3) that
you can apply it to examples from your own experience or outside
material (print or video, fictional or nonfictional). If you
demonstrate each of these three things and complete the required page
length, you will get full points for your answer.
Topics:
The Jain metaphor of the Leaky Boat
Jain negative view of karma vs. the Buddha’s middle way
Buddhist Codependent Arising
Heraclitus and Zhuangzi on animals and perspective
Heraclitus and the river ‘never twice’
Plato’s assent out of the cave
Plato’s three parts of the soul and city
Confucius’ right intention over right act
Laozi’s wheel as both solid and empty
Confucian study in the city vs. Daoist meditation in nature
Absolute truth vs. relative truth
