General Philosophical Background1. What are the five traditional subject matters of philosophy? For each of these subject matters, give an example of a question that is investigated by philosophy.2. Who were Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle?3. Is there difference between lexical ambiguity and lexical vaguenessArgumentation4. What is an argument and what is the point of argumentation?An argument is a list of two or more true/false sentences. The point of argumentation is to convince someone else that the conclusion of an argument is true.5. Name and describe the different kinds of good arguments and the different kinds of bad arguments. What is the difference between validity and soundness?Good Arguments:• Deductively sound: valid argument with true premises (best kind)o Validity: conclusion is indubitable given the premises • Inductively strong: cogent argument with true premiseso Cogent: conclusion is more probable than before the argument, but not indubitableBad Arguments• Non-starter: one or more of the premises are not plausibly true• Circular: one or more of the premises are plausibly true only if the conclusion is plausibly true before the argument is madeo Basically assuming conclusion is true before making argument• Weak: even assuming all premises are true still doesn’t make the conclusion more plausible than before the argument6. Explain why the following fallacies are bad argument forms: Begging the question, Affirming the Consequent, Tu quoque, and the Gambler’s Fallacy• Begging the question: you are assuming that the conclusion is true before you are even making the argument• Tu quoque: just because he is being a hypocrite, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t listen to him. The premises do not make the conclusion true. Weak argument.• Gambler’s Fallacy: just because a fair coin has flipped heads three times, does not mean it will flip tails next time. There is a 50% chance it will be either. 7. How does argument reconstruction proceed?Number the premises and put the conclusion at the bottom. Make the argument as clear as possible.Ethics, Basic Questions about8. Define “ethics” as philosophers use the termIt is the branch of philosophy dealing with morality, where moral claims are those that state what people should do and/or be.9. What is the difference between objective and subjective truths? Which major ethical theories are moral objectivist and which are moral subjectivist?• Subjective truths depend on what certain people believe. o Cultural relativism and ethical subjectivism• Objective truths are true no matter what certain people believe. o Divine Command Theory, Consequentialism, Deontology, and Virtue Theory10. What is the difference between a descriptive claim and a normative claim?Descriptive: says how the world isNormative: says how the world ought to beCultural Relativism and Ethical Subjectivism11. What is cultural relativism and what are the two most common motivations for it? What are some problems for these two motivations?• Cultural Relativism says that what is right and wrong depends on what people in your culture believe.Motivations1. The desire for all people to respect others by being tolerant of all beliefs and behaviors2. Different groups of people have held different beliefs about what people should doProblems1. Since different cultures have also had different scientific beliefs, this theory implies that there are no objective truths in science, which is false. 2. Different cultures do have different moral beliefs, but it is easy to overestimate these differences. Some societies have moral rules in common in order to have a civilized life. 12. What is problematic about the implications of cultural relativism? What crucial concept is typically left unclear in discussions of cultural relativism?1. How does one determine what the members of a culture believe? What if they don’t have any beliefs about the issue?2. We could decide whether or not actions were morally right just by consulting the standards of our society3. The idea of moral progress is called into doubt4. How do you know what culture you belong to?5. We could no longer say that practices of other cultures are morally inferior to ours6. Some ethical dilemmas are completely new. At what point does something become right or wrong?13. Contrast cultural relativism with ethical subjectivism. What is a problem for ethical subjectivism that isn’t a problem for cultural relativism• Ethical subjectivism says that moral truths depend on and are relative to each individuals approval/disapprovalo This is different from CR because it is up to the individual to decide if something is right, not the culture as a whole• Problem: When one person says "x is always morally wrong" and another says "No, x is sometimes morally right" they are NOT disagreeing, even though they appear to be disagreeingReligion and Morality14. What is Divine Command theory? If Divine Command Theory is true, are atheists morally obligated to follow God’s commands?• Divine Command Theory: what people should do is whatever God commands, because God commands it. People should not do whatever God forbids because God forbids it• Atheists are still morally obligated to follow this theory, since it is an objective theory15. What is the Euthyphro Argument? What is the problem of religious epistemology?It is an argument that Plato makes in his publication the Euthyphro. It says:Does God command us to do actions because they are morally right, or are actions morally right because God commands them?Let’s say God commands us not to abuse children. He could just as easily command us to abuse them. This sounds arbitrary and whimsical.16. Why have some theists thought that religious belief is needed for moral motivation? Is this argument a good one?They believe that religion motivates people to act morally because they want to avoid punishment and be rewarded for acting morally. They argue that atheists do not believe in punishment for acting immorally, so therefore they are more likely to act immorally. This is a weak argument• Don’t some people do what is right because they think it is right?• If this is true, theists only do things because god offers the worst punishments and the best bribes• Haven’t many religious people acted immorally in spite of these since God offers forgiveness?Psychological Egoism17. What is psychological egoism and why is it relevant to ethics?PE says:
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