Unit 2 - Chapter 7 - Romanticism & Existentialism

Question 1

Enlightenment

Answer 1

age of reason

Question 2

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Answer 2

father of romanticism.

Question 3

Describe Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s views with respect to feelings versus reason

Answer 3

• distrusted reason
• best guide for human conduct is honest feelings

Question 4

Describe Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s views with respect to the noble savage

Answer 4

a noble savage is a human not contaminated by society

Question 5

Describe Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s views with respect to the general will

Answer 5

humans can be governed and still remain as free as possible through general will –> tendency to act in ways beneficial to the community.

Question 6

Describe Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s views with respect to education.

Answer 6

education should;

• take advantage of natural impulses.
• be responsive to each particular students needs.

Question 7

Describe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s philosophy regarding the role of opposite forces in one’s life

Answer 7

• humans torn by conflicts of opposing forces.
• goal of life = to embrace forces & transform from being unfulfilled to fulfilled.

Question 8

Describe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s philosophy regarding phenomenology.

Answer 8

the study of whole, meaningful experiences.

ex: color-contrast effect (Goethe’s shadow)

Question 9

Summarize Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s contributions to the development of psychology.

Answer 9

showed sensory experiences can be objectively studied using introspection

Question 10

Describe Arthur Schopenhauer’s views regarding will to survive

Answer 10

will to survive causes an unending cycle of needs

• fully satisfied needs = pleasure and boredeom.
• unsatisfied needs = pain, desire.

Question 11

Describe Arthur Schopenhauer’s views regarding the relationship between intelligence and happiness

Answer 11

• intelligent humans suffer the most & seek solitude
• plants suffer no pain, lower species animals suffer a bit.

Question 12

Why do highly intelligent people seek solitude?

Answer 12

1) allows them to be alone with thoughts.

2) prevents dealing with intellectually inferior people.

Question 13

Describe Arthur Schopenhauer’s views regarding the roles of sublimation and denial

Answer 13

can relieve the irrational force within us by doing activities that are not need-related.

Question 14

Describe Arthur Schopenhauer’s views regarding unconscious mind.

Answer 14

consciousness is surface of our mind, we do not know interior.

Question 15

Describe the following aspects of Søren Kierkegaard’s philosophy the nature of religious experience

Answer 15

“leap of faith” is ultimate state of being, which is embracing God solely on faith

Question 16

Describe the following aspects of Søren Kierkegaard’s philosophy: the subjective nature of truth

Answer 16

facts and logic create paradoxes

subjectivity is truth.

Question 17

Describe the following aspects of Søren Kierkegaard’s philosophy: love in religious experience

Answer 17

individual relationship with God is like a love affair; passionate, happy, and painful.

Question 18

Describe the following aspects of Søren Kierkegaard’s philosophy: the stages of personal freedom.

Answer 18

aesthetic stage –> ethical stage –> religious stage

Question 19

Aesthetic stage

Answer 19

people seek out many forms of pleasure and excitement –> leads to boredom and despair.

no recognition of freedom of choice.

Question 20

Ethical stage

Answer 20

people accept the responsibility of making choices & use ethical principles established by others.

Question 21

Religious stage

Answer 21

people accept their responsibility and enter into a personal relationship with God.

Highest level of existence.

Question 22

Describe Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche’s positions with respect to (a) the Apollonian and Dionysian sides of human nature

Answer 22

two major aspects of human nature;

1) Apollonian: rational side - tranquility, predictability, and orderliness.

2) Dionysian: irrational side - creative chaos, passionate, dynamic experiences.

Question 23

Describe Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche’s positions with respect to psychology

Answer 23

focus on helping individuals gain control of their powerful, irrational impulses

Question 24

Best art and literature represents a fusion of _______ tendencies.

Answer 24

Apollonian and Dionysian

Question 25

Major goal of Nietzche was to

Answer 25

resurrect the Dionysian spirit.

Question 26

Describe Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche’s positions with respect to the death of God.

Answer 26

announced that God was dead and that the philosophers and scientists of his day had killed him.

Question 27

Perspectivism

Answer 27

Nietzsche’s contention that there are no universal truths, only individual perspectives.

Question 28

Describe Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche’s positions with respect to opinions versus convictions

Answer 28

convictions: correspond to some absolute truth.
- reflect certainty.

opinions are challengeable and easily modified.
- reflect probability.
- perspectivism

Question 29

Describe Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche’s positions with respect to will to power

Answer 29

the basic human motive for behaviour.

Question 30

Describe Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche’s positions with respect to the concept of supermen.

Answer 30

supermen = people approaching their full potential

• involves self-improvement, risk, not governed by standard morality

Question 31

Describe the extent to which misinterpretations of Nietzsche’s concept of supermen have taken place

Answer 31

was embraced by the Nazis who claimed that the German people were the superior men.

Question 32

Compare Kierkegaard and Nietzsche’s existential philosophies.

Answer 32

both rejected what was conventionally accepted, preached reliance on direct experience, and alienated almost everyone.

Question 33

Contrast Kierkegaard and Nietzsche’s existential philosophies.

Answer 33

kierkegaard accepted the existence of God.

for Nietzsche God did not exist.

Question 34

Compare existentialism with romanticism.

Answer 34

emphasize human existence & free will

the importance of subjective experience & individuality

a distrust of the grandiose theories of human nature

Question 35

Contrast existentialism with romanticism.

Answer 35

existentialism
- stress uniqueness of each person

romanticism
- study total person