PHL/CNE
410: Stoicism
Review Guide for Final Exam
Tom Wolfe, A Man in Full
1. Using the framework of Epictetus' Stoic ethics, analyze the character and conduct of Charlie Croker. [ESSAY
CANDIDATE]
2. Using the framework of Epictetus' Stoic ethics, analyze the character and conduct of Conrad Hensley
prior to his receiving Epictetus' Discourses in prison.
3. Using the framework of Epictetus' Stoic ethics, analyze the character and conduct of Conrad Hensley
after he reads the Discourses. [ESSAY
CANDIDATE]
4. Given your study of Epictetus in this course, evaluate the accuracy of
Conrad's understanding of Epictetus' Stoicism as presented by Wolfe.
Epictetus, Discourses and Handbook
1. Explain in detail Epictetus' conception of freedom and how it relates to his concept of the prohairesis. [ESSAY CANDIDATE]
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
1. Explain in detail Marcus' view of time, change, the present, the
past, and the future. [ESSAY
CANDIDATE]
2. Explain in detail Marcus' view of wholes and parts. [ESSAY
CANDIDATE]
Heather Reid, "Was the Roman Gladiator an Athlete?"
1. What is the thesis Reid argues for?
2. Compare and contrast Reid's accounts of Olympic athletes and Roman gladiators.
[ESSAY
CANDIDATE]
3. Explain Reid's interpretation of freedom, choice, and slavery of gladiators
as it relates to the Stoic idea of virtue.
4. Explain Reid's understanding of gladiators' confrontation of life and death.
Lawrence Becker, A New Stoicism
1. What six doctrines (views) does Becker retain in his
neo-stoicism?
2. Explain what eudaimonism is (according to Becker).
3. Explain what intellectualism is (according to Becker).
4. Explain what naturalism is (according to Becker).
5. Explain the doctrine of the unity of the virtues (as presented by
Becker).
6. Explain what particularism is (according to Becker).
7. Explain the idea of self-mastery (as presented by Becker).
8. What doctrine of ancient Stoicism is abandoned in Becker's neo-stoicism?
Explain what that doctrine is.
9. Why does Becker reject the view that a stoic life is typically a bleak one?
10. According to Becker, what is relationship between ethics, science, and
logic?
11. According to Becker, where among the branches of human inquiry does ethics
stand?
12. What does Becker say are the methods of ethics? What does he think
ethics is?
13. How are ethics and empirical knowledge related, according to B.?
14. What picture of the universe is painted by contemporary cosmic science,
according to B.?
15. What does B. say are the objects within a deliberative field?
16. Briefly explain Becker's account of preferences.
17. Briefly explain Becker's account of categorical commitments.
18. Briefly explain Becker's account of projects.
19. Identify the three lemmas of stoic practical reasoning (pp.15–20).
20. What does B. say is the single unifying aim in the life of every rational
agent?
21. What does B. think is the only plausible candidate for an overarching, final
end?
22. Briefly explain what B. means by "following the facts."
23. Briefly explain (state) Becker's Axiom of Futility.
24. Briefly explain Becker's account of norms, individuals, and endeavors.
25. Briefly explain Becker's contrast between wisdom as practical intelligence (phronesis)
and wisdom as sophia.
26. Briefly explain Becker's account of virtue as ideal agency. How is
virtue the final end? How is virtue an activity?
27. In what two senses is virtue unified (according to Becker)?
28. Present in detail Becker's Argument for Virtue as the Perfection of
Agency (11 steps). [ESSAY
CANDIDATE]
29. Describe the case of the hapless pilgrim (p.146) and Becker's analysis of
it.
30. Briefly explain Becker's account of joy in stoic ethics.