Philosophy final Exam IV complete solution correct answer key

Question: #6321

1.) What is the basic difference between a game and a contest? Why is Watts’s adaptation of the traditional Indian view put in terms of the one instead of the other?

2.) In chapter one (but it is also found in chapter three), what does Watts suggest has become the “opposite” but equally devastating viewpoint of that which takes God to be the benevolent overseer of our lives? (In some ways, he hints, this viewpoint is just the inevitable flip-side to the belief in a benevolent Father who is a discrete and separate power from us.)

a. That God is a malevolent overseer who has deliberately put us in a lifeless and lonely cosmos.

b. That the wrath of a hot God has died away to give us the cold chill of a blind, fragmented, lonely world.

c. That the world is more alive than we are.

d. That the universe is an illusion.

3.) Briefly describe—without using Watts’s words or examples—Watts’s account as to how cause and effect is more a way we are trained to perceive things than it is the way things occur.

4.) Give two of Watts’s examples of the ironic consequences in turning black-and-white into black-vs.white.

5.) Explain the nature of the double bind or self-contradictory command Watts discusses in chapter three.

6.) Why is it, according to Watts, that it is still too much to say that the ants’ behavior is conditioned by or is a result of their greater context/environment?

7.) Briefly give the basic argument Watts makes in chapter four for considering intelligence to be a cosmic rather than merely human quality.

8.) How does Watts argue, near the end of chapter four, that we produce the universe just as much as it produces us? (Hint: look at end of the part dealing with rainbows and rocks.)

9.) In chapter five, Watts goes through a series of steps wherein the self seems more and more to become zombie-like until at last it breaks. Can you recount this series of steps (without simply borrowing Watts’s words)?

10.) What is Watts’s point in chapter five about contemplation and action?

EXTRA CREDIT:

11.) Watts makes a point about practices such as meditation, regression therapy, etc. that may seem rather surprising. What is it he says about these and why does he say he regards them in this way?

12.) At the end of chapter four, right after talking about rainbows and rocks, Watts shyly alludes to a notion of time (and one, it might be mentioned, that has been considered by a couple of quantum physicists as well) that he quickly draws back from so as not to startle the reader too much. What is this notion of time?

Solution: #6330

Philosophy final Exam IV complete solution correct answer key

Exam IV 1.) What is the basic difference between a game and a contest? Why is Watts’s adaptation of the traditional Indian view put in terms of the one instead of the other? The difference between a game and a contest can be understood on the basis of competition. A game can simply consist of rules and pre-determined means with which to reach favorable ends. On the other hand, a contest could include the characteristics of the game and, additionally, it presupposes the existence of a winner and a loser. A game could also imply a form of cooperative play but a contest is almost always in the sense of competition where one becomes the victor over another. The concept used by Watts is that of a game as a myth or a type of large-scale playful exercise which helps to create an image of the world or a likeness of it. The myth or the concept of a game does not describe the world in terms of scientific validity. In Watts view, the Vedanta philosophy consists of a belief in a deity who ‘plays’ with the world while being a part of it so things are not separate from this deity. The universe only seems to consist of disparate things because it is part of the game that the deity plays. Watts adapts the Vedantic game concept because he is trying to explain that the world can be conceived likewise, i.e. with opposites and interconnectedness. He may also like the terminology of a game rather than a contest because he seeks to emphasize that the world cannot exist in a state of competition with the self opposed to others as this will simply lead to more massive conflicts or wars and environmental degradation. 2.) In chapter one (but it is also found in chapter three), what does Watts suggest has become the “opposite” but equally devastating viewpoint of that which takes God to be the benevolent overseer of our lives? (In some ways, he hints, this viewpoint is just the inevitable flip-side to the belief in a benevolent Father who is a discrete and separate power from us.) a. That God is a malevolent overseer who has deliberately put us in a lifeless and lonely cosmos. b. That the wrath of a hot God has died away to give us the cold chill of a blind, fragmented, lonely world. c. That the world is more alive than we are. d. That the universe is an illusion. 3.) Briefly describe—without using Watts’s words or examples—Watts’s account as to how cause and effect is more a way we are trained to perceive things than it is the way things occur. Watts explains that conscious attention, i.e. the way we see the world in disjointed bits, is narrow; in other words, it cannot provide a complete picture of the reality of the world which is comprised of interconnections. By focusing on ostensibly sharp features, attention becomes too selective. People begin to choose things which will be beneficial for survival or social status and they magnify those things which have been conditioned in them as significant by society. In Watts’ view, it follows that the principle of cause and effect is a way things appear ...