Paper details:
Short Essay Questions (one paragraph, 3-5 sentences, each). Answer each of the following questions as th3oroughly and clearly as possible. Be sure to
answer the whole question in your own words (although you may provide textual citations and quotes as well if you need to).
1. In discussing where God can and cannot be found, Augustine makes an argument that, as we discussed in Module 3, contains two premises and a
conclusion (Confessions, 212-213: “But what do I love when I love my God?”). Explain the basic steps and conclusion of this argument.
2. Pick out and explain two metaphors or images from the first section of Thus Spoke Zarathustra that show how Nietzsche is criticizing Plato’s metaphysics
by flipping it on its head or inverting it (121-122). Show how these images are connected to, but importantly different from, Plato’s use of these same images
or ideas.
3. Explain how King’s distinction between just and unjust laws is metaphysical (“Letter from Birmingham City Jail,” p. 6). This would involve explaining King’s
distinction and showing why it refers essentially to a realm of ideas that is beyond the physical universe.
4. Bertrand Russell claims that philosophy attempts to allow human beings to “see as God might see” (“The Value of Philosophy,” paragraph 11; Module 1).
What does Russell mean? Provide one example from any other author we have read this semester (besides Russell) of this ideal of perfect or divine
knowledge and understanding. Explain how the thinker you choose seeks to achieve Russell’s ambitious ideal of seeing as God might see.
5. Explain why you think that one specific topic or argument that you learned in this class will matter to you in your understanding of the world and in life.