Exam 3 (Final)

INSTRUCTIONS

Follow the instructions for each of part of the exam. In your answers, please don't quote verbatim from the texts and/or paraphrase them (unless instructed to do so).  This demonstrates little beyond your secretarial skills and ability to read.

The exam must be given to me (or placed in my department mailbox) by 4:00 p.m. on Monday, May 9.

Don't forget to turn in your journal too!

PART I [Bondurant / Gandhi ]

Answer any one of the following three questions:

1. According to Bondurant's exegesis of Gandhi's thought, "non-violence is truth-creating" (193/2/2).   Explain what Gandhi (or at least Bondurant) meant by that.  (You may find it necessary to define "non-violence" and/or "truth" and/or "truth-creating" in the process, particularly since Gandhi's use of "truth" is an unusual one — surely he isn't saying that gravity exists only because we believe it does!)  [500 words max]
   
2. What is the Gandhian dialectic, as presented in Chapter VI of the Bondurant text?  (A dialectic involves a relationship between two mutually correcting perspectives, neither having priority over the other, with the result being something greater than what we had before.  So in answering this question you will want to name the two perspectives and/or what "greater" and "what we had before" means.)   [500 words max]
   
3. Assess the following statement:  "Gandhi's and Habermas's political philosophies are closely similar and fundamentally compatible."  (Note that "assess" means that you can have both agreements and disagreements with it.)  [650 words max]

PART II [Habermas]

Answer any two of the following four questions:

1. Explicate the passage that runs from 118/3/-5 (starting, "My sense is") through 119/1 (ending, "preferred forms of life").  [700 words max]
   
2. Explicate the last four lines of 124/1.  (Note that the word "break" is a misspelling of "brake" on line 124/1/-2.)  [650 words max]
   
3. In the title of Section VI of Chapter 4 (p.124), Habermas refers to the "overcoming", "abolition", and/or "transformation" of the nation-state.   Why does he believe the nation-state needs to be "overcome"?  In other words, why are we faced with the necessity of either "abolishing" or "transforming" it?  [650 words max]
   
4. Explicate the passage in Chapter 8 running from 225/3 (starting, "At the same time") through 226/1.  [650 words max]

PART III [Overall]

Answer the following question:

1. The various theories we've studied relate to each other:  building on each other, commenting on each other, criticizing each other, but, overall, connected to each other.  This is not surprising, of course, since they are all concerned with similar, deeply important issues (and also, naturally, because they're all favorites of mine).  Which two theories do you find most dissimilar at root?  Explain what you see as their most important dissimilarities.  You should also acknowledge any important points of similarity between them.  [650 words max]