PHIL 255

Midterm Study Guide

Logistics: 

• WHEN: the midterm exam is on Thursday, November 13th, from 2pm-3:20pm

• WHERE: MHP101 (lecture venue)

• HOW: on your own laptop, which must support Lockdown Browser. Or there will be an exam sheet if you don’t have access to a Lockdown Browser.

• The exam will last 80 mins.

• If caught cheating, you shall be immediately removed from the exam and assigned a failing grade. 

If you already know you cannot make it on the 13th, reach out to your TA (Irene or Shishir) ASAP.

Structure of exam:

• Five multiple-choice questions (10 points total)

• One essay-style question (90 points total) 

  • You can choose the prompt among three alternatives

  • You need to first explain all the relevant concepts. Elaborate on them and give examples. 

  • Then you start answering the questions of the essay. 

  • You will need to come up with objections. 

  • You will need to talk about how they would respond to the objections. 

Examinable material: Topics from Week 7 to Week 11. 

Topics 

Beckett

• Waiting for Godot

Sartre

• No Exit

• Being and Nothingness

  • Consciousness; intentionality; nothingness; freedom; transcendence; existentialism

  • Being-for-itself; Being-in-itself

  • Being-for-others; the Other; the Look; Love; Sexual Desire; Masochism; Sadism

• Existentialism is a Humanism

  • Young man example

  • Existence precedes essence

  • condemned to be free. 

De ​​Beauvoir

• The Second Sex

  • Relation between women’s biology and oppression

  • The Subject and The Other

  • One is not born a woman