INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY Exam 01 Study Guide Exam Date 17 October 2012 For Exam 01 you will be given questions from the following sets of prompts An adequate answer for each set of questions should require only a couple of moderately long paragraphs PLEASE NOTE For the exam you will need to bring at least one blue book to class If you fail to bring a blue book and no one has brought an extra then you will need to go get a blue book before you take the exam LOGIC 1 What is an argument A set of sentences one of which is the conclusion others are the premises where the premise supports the conclusion What is validity An argument is valid if it is impossible for the premise to be true and the conclusion false What is soundness When an argument is valid and all of its premises conclusion are true What are three ways a deductive argument might fail Being invalid having false premise having its conclusion as a premise begging the question Give an example of a valid argument All tigers are mammals No mammals are creatures with scales Therefore no tigers are creatures with scales THE EXISTENCE OF GOD 1 Briefly describe the ontological argument First given by st anselm in 11th century it is a priori argument does not appeal to anything known through experience What according to the ontological argument is God God is the greatest possible thing nothing can be greater more valuable than god How is this significant for the ontological argument A greater being than humans exist because it is necessary Briefly explain Kant s objection to the ontological argument Existence isn t a property therefore god existing isn t a great making property 2 Briefly explain the cosmological argument Origins to plato and Aristotle in 4th BC history in both medieval christain and Islamic philosophy it is a posteriori argument relies on things known through experience some things depend on other things for existence Explain the difference between dependent and self existent beings and what significance this has for the argument Dependent beings rely on something other than itself to exist while self existen beings depend only on itself the argument is all about something relying on another things experience to exist What is the Principle of Sufficient Reason and why is it important to the cosmological argument That nothing is without a ground reason on why it is basically the cosmological argument relies on something to exist and this would be the GROUND REASON to the principle of sufficient reasons 3 Briefly explain the teleological argument Digenes of apollonian in 5th century bc zenephon claims Socrates discussed it and plato gave something similar Aquinas then gave an abbreviated version in the 13th century but its recent study is the 18th century It is a posteriori argument relies on things known through experience some things seem too designed Explain why there is the threat of an infinite regress of designers A designer cant have properties that indicate the design because then we would need to make a designer for the designer Explain why the argument seems to fall short of establishing the existence of God as traditionally understood If we are Gods design and we are made in Gods image that means God has a designer however God is the highest being and therefore cant have a designer which means the argument falls short in establishing the existence of God 4 Briefly explain the problem of evil Attributed to Epcurus lived in 4th century BC evil is a posterior argument that relies on things known through experience that evil exists Distinguish moral and natural evil Moral evil is evil done by persons rape murder etc natural evil is evil that occurs from natural processes disease natural disaster etc Explain how the free will defense is supposed to solve the problem of evil Not that god causes evil but that humans cause evil and how it might not solve the entire problem Free will defense is not intended to solve the problem of natural evil only moral evil EPISTEMOLOGY 1 What is skepticism Is the thesis that no one knows anything Briefly explain the problem of the criterion and how it is supposed to support skepticism Issue regarding the starting point of knowledge what do we know and how do we know Skepticism would make the problem of criterion that we know nothing 2 Explain the difference between direct and indirect realism Direct thesis that the objects we perceive are objects in the external world indirect the thesis that the objects we perceive are not objects in the external world but representations of them The things we actually see are called sense data Briefly explain the argument from illusion for indirect realism An illusion is indirect realism because we perceive it but it is not an actual object in the external world just an illusion 3 Claim The sun will rise tomorrow Explain why many people think we are justified in believing this but Hume does not In other words why does Hume think we are not justified in using induction Induction is where we take knowledge gained in certain cases and apply it to other cases outside our experience like the sun rising one day so it should rise again tomorrow Hume believes we use our knowledge and experience to make an inductive inference of cause and effect our experiences only tell us what has caused what not what WILL cause what or what went on outside our observation THE MIND BODY PROBLEM 1 What are qualia Explain Jackson s Mary example and the knowledge argument that qualia are not physical Qualia is what it is like to be in a certain mental state like being in love or feeling pain Mary knows the physical facts about red but does not know what it is actually like since she cant see color which means there are non physical facts about red that you can only understand with your mind 2 Explain the difference between mind body identity theory and eliminative materialism The mind body theory thinks that anything mental is identical to something physical in the body while eliminative materialism thinks we have developed concepts about minds and mental states psychology Explain Churchland s argument for eliminative materialism based on other folk sciences Churchland states neuroscience will win every time and that science shows all our concepts of psychology are too confused that there aren t even minds at all To say that something has meaning and that it must be mental is circular reasoning PERSONAL IDENTITY 1 Explain the argument discussed in class that we are