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2) Found: All four of the main readings (Schumacher, Lewis,…

2) Found: All four of the main readings (Schumacher, Lewis, Percy, Pinckaers) offer solutions to the problems they diagnose in the human condition. Given your summary diagnosis to the condition of human lostness in question 1 above, do one of the following: Option A, B or C: Chart a course correction to lostness by using all the main authors to explain a unified solution to the condition of personal (and thus social) lostness; or if not a solution, because the human condition is insoluble, what resources do the authors we have read recommend for orienting ourselves in the Cosmos?  Option D. What do you prescribe to bring health to a professor (or indeed, his other students) whose sickness may not yet be unto death?

Objective: The readings this semester, each in their own way…

Objective: The readings this semester, each in their own way, have all sought to situate the question of what it means to be a human person in an “world” (in Walker Percy’s sense) which both assumes God’s existence (and thus God’s impact on that question), while recognizing that being a human person is also influenced by historical, cultural, and natural factors.  The goal of this exam will be to help you, in essay form, put together the pieces of the course into a coherent answer to the question: what does it mean to be a human person in our day according to the assumptions and readings of this class? Theme in answer: Lost and Found 1) Lost: Option A. (Post)Modern Man does not know who or where (s)he is. Use specific examples/ideas from Walker Percy, E.F. Schumacher, C. S Lewis, and Servais Pinckaers to explain the ‘Lost-ness’ of the (post)modern human person a) in general (i.e. as an aspect of human nature), and b) specifically in this moment in cultural or spiritual history, i.e. (post)modern, post-Cartesian, post-truth, post-communist, post-capitalist, post-Christian, post-Vatican II, post-…. etc.  Why are you/we lost? Option B. Thought Experiment 1: Mankind is contacted from beyond, and the first communication from Others reads (c.f. Percy, p.109) “Did it also happen to you? Do you have a self?…Did you suffer a catastrophe?”  How should you answer (remember: “should” is usage of language that depends on assumptions about the nature of morality)? Option C. Thought Experiment 2: You are lost in this class and on this exam and have been all semester. You struggle to see the point of any of it.  Treat your lostness as a function of the human condition and diagnose your condition using the readings of the class. Is your condition terminal?  Option D. Apocalypse Now: You know more than the professor (which may not be saying much), who is clearly lost and proven so throughout the semester (I mean, who writes an exam question this ludicrous?).  Now is your last chance to save him. Explain the professor’s lostness as a function of the human condition and the general condition of society today, using the main authors we have read to explain his ailments. Who knows, perhaps he may yet be saved! Simple essay answer to Option A above is sufficient, but imaginative answers (i.e. one’s which engage either thought experiment or the Apocalypse) are more than welcome.  Whichever you choose, your answer must demonstrate engagement with all 4 of the readings.