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END OF SEMESTER EXAMINATION
HED 1201: PHILOSOPHICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
[Examiner: J. Eleda]
th
DATE: Monday 7 December 2020 Time: 09:30 – 11:30

Instructions
1. Answer Question ONE (COMPULSORY) [30 marks] and any other TWO questions [2 x
15 marks each = 30 marks].
2. The exam is worth 60% of the final grade for the unit and will be marked over 60.
Question One (30 marks):
A. The definition of the human person provided to us by Boethius and Aquinas presented us an
objective view of the reality of the person. However, it can still be developed to give us a
more complete picture of man’s nature, i.e., what a man / woman truly is. Outline and briefly
discuss five phenomenological characteristics of the person from the personalist perspective.
(10 marks)

B. Read the excerpt of the interview with Michelle Singletary and answer the questions below.
(15 marks)

Michelle Singletary is a nationally syndicated columnist for The Washington Post and an award-
winning author of three books. She shares her own experience of growing up, how she went to
college and became successful.
The article with the full interview is entitled “Living a life of purpose: an African American
woman’s success story” and can be found on this link: https://mercatornet.com/living-a-life-of-
purpose-an-african-american-womans-success-story/65280/

Excerpt

Alysse ElHage: Even though you grew up in a lower-income family, where your parents were not
a part of your life, you ended up graduating college and later graduate school and went on to
become a successful journalist and author. You’re also happily married. You’ve talked about your

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grandmother’s influence on your life, but what other factors made a difference for you in terms of
upward mobility? And how did you avoid some of the obstacles that can derail success?

Michelle Singletary: I think the biggest difference was that I learned to live my life with purpose.
I never felt lost. I was always crystal clear on what I wanted out of my life. I knew I didn’t want a
husband who would abandon me. I didn’t want someone who I couldn’t rely on. So, I started to
make a personal list of what I wanted in life and how could I get there. And along the way,
because I didn’t do this by myself, there were people who spoke into my life, even if they didn’t
know me personally. Obviously, there was my grandmother. She was an amazing person and an
amazing money manager. I had her as inspiration.
But I also had teachers and counselors who helped me. I won a full scholarship to the
University of Maryland, College Park, primarily because a counselor at my high school hounded
me and harassed me to apply for it. I got a full scholarship with a summer job at the Baltimore
Sunpapers for all four years of college. That scholarship changed the trajectory of my life….
Still, I had to find a part-time job and send money home to my grandmother to help with my other
siblings. That taught me another lesson: even as I was rising, I had to reach back and help my
siblings. It wasn’t all about me. It’s never been about me.
When I worked for the Baltimore Evening Sun, I had people who were there for me, and they
would counsel me and give me advice about different things. For example, I wanted to study
abroad, one of the reporters guided me on how to do it. I spent the spring semester of my junior
year in college studying in London.
I bought a car, and I overpaid for it. I was all excited about buying my first new car. But one of
the reporters said I paid too much for it and that I needed to go back to the dealership. And so I
took it back and got another, less expensive car.
In college, I’ll never forget this one professor, Dr. Joyce Joyce, who taught African American
Literature. She was just fantastic. When I got back a paper, it would have all these red marks on
it. And she’d say at the top, “I know you’re better than this.” She inspired me to excellence.

I think one way out of poverty is that you just have to have people helping you and you must have
a purpose. I remember the Reverend Jesse Jackson coming to my elementary school, and he gave
his “I Am Somebody” speech. He kept saying, “You are somebody. Don’t ever let anybody tell
you that you’re not.” He said, “You might have come from a broken home, your parents might
have abandoned you, you might have been abused, but you are still somebody.”
I kept that one phrase, “I Am Somebody,” as my personal mantra. So, when people try to say that
I can’t do something because I’m a woman, or that I got my job because I’m African American, I
say to myself, “I am somebody. I deserve to be here, and you’re not going to derail me from my
purpose by trying to attack me.” …
..…I dated in a way that helped keep me from having kids out of wedlock and marrying the wrong
person. I was very purposeful in who I chose as a mate. He couldn’t drink, he couldn’t smoke. I
wanted him to be good with his money. He had to be a churchgoer, and he had to go, not because
I was going, but because he wanted to go. He had to have his own belief in God and walk with
God. Those are the boxes I ticked off. I wanted to make sure we had similar values. I always
thought about my future children. I wanted to find a good father for them. It sounds so weird, but
even in my 20s, I was looking at guys like, “What kind of father are you going to be?”

…The only thing I would add is that whenever you do things like this, people feel like their
lifestyle is being indicted. We talk about the importance of marriage and church and personal
agency, and when you bring up these things, people feel judged. I would never want people to feel
bad about their choices based on things that I have said. What I say is that we do know that
certain paths are better. They are better for you, and they are better for your children… “I’m not
here to judge you. But I can tell you that based on my experience, based on the research, there is a
path that creates less drama. And for me, I’d like to take that road.”

Questions (Total 15 marks)

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 1. Define moral freedom (2 marks)
2. Identify four instances in the above article where moral freedom is demonstrated (1 mark
each, total 4 marks)
3. Identify two passages that indicate freedom of choice. (1m each, total 2 marks)
4. Identify a passage in the text that denotes ontological dignity. (1 mark)
5. Distinguish between ontological dignity and moral dignity. (4 marks)
6. From the article what can you make out as key factors for success? (2 marks)

C. Briefly explain or define the following. (1 mark each, total 5 marks)

1. Character
2. Human soul
3. Immortality
4. Reasoning
5. Appetite

Question Two (15 marks)

A. Indicate which appetite these inclinations/emotions belong to (total 3 marks; 0.5 mark each):
1. Disappointment (sorrow)
2. Motivation
3. Delight (joy)
4. Courage
5. Love
6. Fear

B. At campus, in the workplace and in social life at times people allow themselves to become
involved in inappropriate intimate relationships with others. Outline how one can manage
his/her emotions in a situation like this. (steps 1-6 [0.5 m each], step 7 [1 mark] total 4 marks)

C. Distinguish between human love as a feeling [1 mark] and human love as an act of the will [1
mark] using examples [1 mark each] to illustrate your answer [Total: 4 marks].

D. How can harmony be achieved among one’s faculties, i.e., the intellect, will, and emotions
(affectivity)? (4 marks)

Question Three (15 marks)

A. Choose the best answer (1 mark)

1. Death for living beings is:
a. A transcendental change
b. An important accidental change
c. A substantial change
d. Just a simple change of form

B. Explain the role of conjugal love in marriage [3 marks].

C. Explain what C. Burke means by the expression ‘giving oneself or lending oneself’ [4 marks].

D. Distinguish between subjective truth and objective truth. (4 marks)

E. When one chooses to commit himself/herself to something or someone, he/she can attain true
personal fulfilment. Briefly explain how personal fulfilment can be realised. (3 marks)
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Question Four (15 marks)
A. Match the concepts in Column A with the appropriate concepts in Column B [1 x 15 = 15
marks]

Column A Column B
1. Concupiscible appetite Human Will
2. Sight Sense knowledge
3. Imagination Intellect
4. Abstraction Brain
5. Love Emotion
6. Immanence Boethius
7.Aversion Body
8. Self-determination To exist, be real
9. Person Perception and Imagination
10. Cogitative sense Sensitive life
11. Irascible appetite Biological, inherited
12. Dignity Nourishment, growth, reproduction
13. Temperament Freedom
14. Vegetative soul Body and soul
15. Act of being Memory, cogitative sense

Question Five (15 marks)

A. Choose the most correct answer. (1 x 10 = 10 marks)

1. Identify the elements of feminine and masculine identity.

a. Mutual attraction and reciprocal complementarities
b. Relational, diverse, complimentary, and creative
c. Interpersonal, complicated, unique, and attractive
d. Relational, creative, complementary, and diverse

2. Our sexual identity

a. Depends on our personal choice
b. Is rooted in our physicality
c. Embraces our whole being
d. Is limited by the soul
e. All of the above

3. In philosophical terms, death of the human person

a. Occurs when the heart stops beating
b. Requires death of the brain
c. Depends on a clinical decision
d. Involves the separation of body and soul
e. All of the above

4. Human affectivity
a. Involves the concupiscible appetite
b. Depends on our temperament
c. Includes the irascible appetite
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 d. Involves our emotions and passions
e. All of the above

5. To give us direct view of reality imagination needs to be linked to the:

a. Sensations
b. Stimulus
c. Estimative sense
d. Perception
e. None of the above

6. The object of philosophy is:

a. Wisdom
b. Knowledge
c. Being
d. Human
e. All of the above

7. That which is not the object of the will by nature:

a. Our human perfection
b. The universal good
c. What we want
d. Anything that is good
e. Happiness

8. Perception is
a. A preconceived idea about something
b. An act in which external sensations are unified and linked to the object that
produced them
c. An overall understanding of a concept we come across
d. Each person’s individual way of viewing the real world

9. That which does not describe grit:

a. Passion
b. Persistence
c. Effort
d. Interest and Know-how
e. Longevity

10. The willing process regarding the end of the human act includes:
a. Deliberation
b. Simple apprehension of the good
c. Consent
d. Active use of the will

B. True or False (0.5 mark) Explain your answer (2 marks each) [Total 5 marks]

1. The intellect needs to be developed and made strong to always choose the real, true,
and greatest good thing.

2. A newly conceived baby in its mother’s womb has fundamental freedom.

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