RADICAL HOPE
• Know Part 1: After This, Nothing Happened. Be able to explain why Chief Plenty Coups said this, and
why it is significant, and how Lear uses this claim as a way to uncover the true extent of the
tragedy of the Crow.
• What is the history of the Crow given by Lear? Who were their traditional enemies? Know how
fighting/warfare permeated their lives.
• Know the two central features of Crow warfare: planting a coup-sticks and counting coups. What
are they? Why are they significance? How do they relate to the main issue Lear discusses in this section, that “after this, nothing happened”? What is the the nature of the “boundary” set when a warrior would plant his coup-stick?
• How could we understand counting coups as a manifestation of virtue? (compare with Aristotle)
• In terms of possibilities, explain the nature of the cultural devastation that happened to the Crow.
• What does Lear suggest to be the symbolism of Plenty Coups’ act at the Tomb of the Unknown
Solider?
• According to Lear, what are the three features of a vibrant culture? How do these relate to the
collapse of the “Crow subject” (and what does he mean by a “Crow subject”?).
• Why is a “new Crow poet” needed, according to Lear?
TOLSTOY
• Why does Tolstoy come to the conclusion that life has no meaning? What experiences in his life
brought him to this experience? And what reasoning led him to this conclusion?
• How does Tolstoy see the relationship between having a good life, a happy life, and with having a
meaningful life?
• What does he say changed his mind — even though he still holds that the “rational” conclusion is
that life has no meaning?
• What does he say that faith is, and how does it relate to meaning?
CAMUS
• Does Camus place meaning or happiness as the central question?
• What is the only really serious question in philosophy (“why not suicide?”)? Why does he think this? How does he answer this question?
• What does he learn from the myth of Sisyphus? How does he imagine Sisyphus triumphing over his task?
• What is his view of religious hope? How does he say we can avoid despair? What does he say about the future?
• what is the absurd for Camus?
• He says existence is meaningless, yet he still thinks we can be happy—what does he say happiness
is? What does he say about God?
FRANKL
• Does Frankl focus on meaning or happiness as the central question?
• How does Frankl deal with Camus’ question (suicide)? How does he say that we can find meaning
in our lives?
• What does he say about the ethical life in a concentration camp?
• What does he say about the importance of hope and the future? How does this compare with
Camus?
• What is the last thing, the last freedom left to a person, when everything else is taken away? How
does this compare with Epictetus?
• Understand his notion of “provisional existence”
• How must a person in a concentration camp deal with suffering, if one is to survive? (you must
make it your task in life, accept it)
• How do we find meaning, a reason to live?
• What is the greatest courage? — to suffer.
• At the end of the section, what does he say is the “crowning experience” of the survivor?
KIERKEGAARD
• Who is the pseudonym that wrote Fear and Trembling? Does this pseudonym claim to have faith or
not? What is the main story from scripture that is the focus of Fear and Trembling, and why?
• What is faith? What is not enough for faith? Why is faith the most important thing for
Kierkegaard? How does it relate to meaning? What is the double movement? What is involved in each of these movements? What are “infinite resignation” and the “absurd”? How is infinite resignation compared to a “shirt”? What is the great accomplishment of infinite resignation? what is the even greater accomplishment of faith? Be ready to explain, compare and contrast the knight of infinite resignation and the knight of faith. Understand the boy and the princess in terms of each knight. How might Epictetus and Camus be similar to the knight of infinite resignation?
• What is the suspension of the ethical?
• Abraham: why does Kierkegaard think that the ethical was Abraham’s temptation? How does this seem to differ with Kant’s view of the role and importance of ethical life? How does Kierkegaard talk about the tension between the ethical life and faith? How might meaning and happiness relate to faith for Abraham?
• According to Kierkegaard, is Abraham’s faith in this story for this world or for the next? Why?
Sample Solution