Philosophy 4: A Story of Harvard UniversityWister, Owen
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Philosophy 4: A Story of Harvard University
Wister, Owen
College stories; Harvard University -- Fiction
“I see a whole lot more,” said Bertie, with excitement. “I had to tell
you about your singing.” And the two burst into a flare of talk. To hear
such words as cognition, attention, retention, entity, and identity,
freely mingled with such other words as silver-fizz and false
hair, brought John, the egg-and-coffee man, as near surprise as his
impregnable nature permitted. Thus they finished their large breakfast,
and hastened to their notes for a last good bout at memorizing
Epicharmos of Kos and his various brethren. The appointed hour found
them crossing the college yard toward a door inside which Philosophy 4
awaited them: three hours of written examination! But they looked more
roseate and healthy than most of the anxious band whose steps were
converging to that same gate of judgment. Oscar, meeting them on the
way, gave them his deferential “Good morning,” and trusted that the
gentlemen felt easy. Quite so, they told him, and bade him feel easy
about his pay, for which they were, of course, responsible. Oscar wished
them good luck and watched them go to their desks with his little eyes,
smiling in his particular manner. Then he dismissed them from his
mind, and sat with a faint remnant of his smile, fluently writing his
perfectly accurate answer to the first question upon the examination
paper.
Here is that paper. You will not be able to answer all the questions,
probably, but you may be glad to know what such things are like.
PHILOSOPHY 4
1. Thales, Zeno, Parmenides, Heracleitos, Anaxagoras. State briefly the
doctrine of each.
2. Phenomenon, noumenon. Discuss these terms. Name their modern
descendants.
3. Thought=Being. Assuming this, state the difference, if any, between
(1) memory and anticipation; (2) sleep and waking.
4. Democritus, Pythagoras, Bacon. State the relation between them. In
what terms must the objective world ultimately be stated? Why?
5. Experience is the result of time and space being included in the
nature of mind. Discuss this.
6. Nihil est in intellectu quod non prius fuerit in sensibus. Whose
doctrine? Discuss it.
7. What is the inherent limitation in all ancient philosophy? Who first
removed it?
8. Mind is expressed through what? Matter through what? Is speech the
result or the cause of thought?
9. Discuss the nature of the ego.
10. According to Plato, Locke, Berkeley, where would the sweetness of a
honeycomb reside? Where would its shape? its weight? Where do you think
these properties reside?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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