LEH 353 Frenemies in Literature & Film
Prof Smith
Midterm Exam
Grading Rubric:
11. Answers are graded on substance and writing quality.
Substance includes:
12. issues of factual accuracy and support for claims through textual evidence and interpretation, or reasoned conclusions from the text.
13. Questions asked will demand both facts and interpretations.
14. You must quote, paraphrase and cite relevant passages by page with a parenthetical notation in order to support your answer.
15. Citation Examples: Harari says xyz (Harari, 65). Aristotle says happiness is “activity in accord with virtue.” (Aristotle, 77).
Writing Quality includes the following:
16. Answer in complete sentence and paragraph form.
17. You are writing complete essays that must be proofread for spelling, grammar, meaning and intelligibility, focus on the question and its scope, and the logical flow of ideas from one point to the next, one sentence to the next.
18. Length is no proof of a good answer.
19. Scope: stay within the parameters of the question and include all relevant elements you can, and exclude any topic that is not pertinent to the question being asked.
20. Stay on point and say what you feel you need to say to answer the specific questions asked as thoroughly as possible. The goal is to provide a complete answer within 1.5pages.
21. Lastly, this exam is based on the facts of the text and your understanding of the text. Under no circumstances are you to use secondary sources whether books or online resources other than those I have provided. The text is designed to reflect your analytic thinking skills not someone else’s.
22. The only textual sources you should be citing are the assigned class reading connected with the question.
23. Plagiarism from another student or from some other source is forbidden and will result in a failing grade.
24. Failure to comply with these instructions will the result in a reduction of your final exam grade.
Midterm Exam Questions:
(100points/50points each)
Question 1:
Sapiens
In Sapiens, the author argues that at the center of human relationships and human community is language and the ideas that it allows us to communicate. Language and ideas are part of the realm of human culture made possible by what is called the “Cognitive Revolution.”
a. What is the Cognitive Revolution and how did it give rise to human language and symbolic thinking?
b. What distinguishes human language and our ability to think symbolically from other animals and their ability to communicate with sounds? (What is symbolic thinking and human language?)
c. What are the two central functions of language as described by the author of Sapiens? (Note: Gossip and Threat Theories are part of the same single function)
d. Explain how each of these two functions help to create two different types of human communities. Explain the two different types of communities they are able to create.
e. Lastly, what does the author mean by “An Imagined Order” and how does this concept relate to the functions of language? Provide an example from the text to illustrate what an imagined order is. Explain this example including why it is an example of an Imagined Order.
Question 2:
Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics Books 8 & 9
Explain Aristotle’s understanding of Friendship and its various facets.
a. First, explain generally what Aristotle has in mind when he talks about his idea of friendship or philia. What does he mean? What kinds of relationships does he include as examples of it?
b. Explain the three types of friendship and include the following characteristics in your answer:
Issues of the good or object of exchange; whether the friend is treated as a means or an end; a true friend or not, the degree of completeness or incompleteness; the issue duration; and issues of equality/inequality and like/unlike.
i. What does it mean that a true friend is treated as an “end in themselves” whereas someone less than a true friend is treated merely as a “means”?
ii. What makes “complete friendship” complete? (Also answer: What does it mean to be complete?)
iii. What is the relationship between friendship and happiness? How does friendship make happiness possible? Will all three types of friendship produce happiness? If not, which one and why?
