Final Exam, Philosophy of Sex and Love

OBJECTIVE, MULTIPLE-CHOICE
FINAL EXAM
PHILOSOPHY OF SEX AND LOVE

1. Why are there no good movies about sexy, exciting, friendly and durable relationships?

a. Forget the movies--why are there no such relationships?
b. See Bergman's Scenes From a Marriage--that's why.
c. There have been plenty, but no one's seen them.
d. The question betrays a confusion and lack of understanding on the part of the questioner.
e. none of the above.

2. Is love a lie?

a. Freud: love is projection onto the beloved of our own desires, so yes.
b. Firestone: love is a trick played on susceptible women by patriarchal systems to keep women submissive, so yes.
c. Jung: love is projection onto the beloved of our own next desired stage of development, so yes and no.
d. Probably yes, but so what?
e. None of the above.

3. Using the definitional method of genus and differentium in answering the philosophical question, What is love, really? which is the genus?

4. Using the same definitional method, genus and differentium, what is the differentium?

5. How are men and women different?

a. Men are stupider; more rational; more direct; more interested in sex and less interested in love; more worried about control, power, competition; less manipulative in covert ways, less affected by relationships, more desperate for justification for their existence.
b. Men are always mooning around because of love while women just want sex.
c. There are no differences that make a difference except those systems and cultures construct.
d. Women just know and men try to know.
e. None of the above.

6. How are your experiences of sex and love ("mine," for short) different from other peoples' ("your," for short) experiences of sex and love?

a. Weelllllll, yours are yours and mine are mine.
b. Language gets in the way of my understanding your experiences but does not get in the way with mine.
c. "Experiences" are mythological beasts--all that's real is just nerve endings and friction.
d. The names of my experiences (e.g. "orgasm") are also the names of your experiences, so they aren't.
e. None of the above.

7. Why won't love stay? (Tom Robbins' question)

a. We screw up.
b. All too often, lover and beloved spend time together and find out about each other.
c. Time keeps mucking things up with changes.
d. It was a mistake at the beginning.
e. None of the above.

8. What is the relation between sex and violence?

a. I mis-heard during the review session and thought it was sex and violins. I'm not equipped for this question. (apologies to Gilda Radner)
b. It's love, not sex--lack of love, especially from parents, leaves us wounded and morally numb--perpetrators are victims of lack of love and often worse, with the most atrocious perpetrators those most atrociously abused, and for them violence is a sick substitute for sex and love, but all they have available to cope with this universal need.
c. Pathological violence and pathology in sexual matters are two sides of the same coin.
d. Whatever it is, it is all men's fault.
e. None of the above.

9. Upon what are moral judgements in matters of sex and love properly based?

a. "There's no right or wrong; what's right's what's right for you" (Oscar Wilde)
b. "Is that right?" (Socrates)
c. There have to be standards which apply to all everywhere, rules or ethical sytems or commands, or else morality is just chaos.
d. Every example justifies the moral judgements it justifies, regardless of cultural acceptances or absolutist rules.
e. None of the above.

10. What is the most important thing you have learned from this course?