A note of explanation: There is no guarantee that all the questions on the examination will be taken from this study guide. However, any student who knows, understands, and is able to formulate clearly the answers to all the questions on this study guide should do quite well on the examination. A student who can give answers to practically none of the questions on this study guide will very likely do rather poorly on the examination.
This examination counts as fifteen percent (15%) of your course grade.
This is a closed-book, in-class examination on the scheduled date.
There will be two parts.
As always, cheating will not be tolerated. No help in answering the questions may be received from anyone (except yourself) during the examination. You may not use books or notes during the examination.
What is philosophy?
Explain the etymology of the word "philosophy."
Name the main branches of philosophy (according to Lee) and explain what sorts of questions each asks.
Define "metaphysics," "epistemology," and "axiology."
Louis Pojman offers a different set of "major areas of philosophy" from those Lee presented. What are the major areas of philosophy according to Pojman? How, if at all, can each of these areas be accommodated into Lee's list of major areas of philosophy?
Give examples of fundamental concepts. Give examples of fundamental beliefs
Who is the author of the "Socratic Wisdom" selection?
What were the charges being brought against Socrates?
Why, according to Socrates, does he go around questioning people who are reported to be wise?
What did the Delphic oracle say? What did it mean? Explain (giving various interpretations).
In what sense does Socrates think he is wise? Explain.
Explain the Socratic method.
How does Socrates defend himself against the charge that he corrupts the youth? Explore Socrates's argument.
Socrates was charged with corrupting the youth. Does any argument he offers in his defense on this point establish that no one willingly corrupts the youth? Critically discuss.
How does Socrates defend himself against the charge that he does not believe in the gods?
Carefully explain the argument Socrates gives to the conclusion that he believes in the existence of gods.
What "voice" does Socrates speak of hearing? What role does it play in his decision making? Explain.
What is the first alternative proposal Socrates suggests to the jury for his punishment? Why does he suggest this?
How does Socrates defend himself against the charge of not believing in the gods of the city?
Discuss Socrates' attitude toward death.
Socrates claims in the Apology that one should not fear death. What argument or arguments does he give for this? Critically discuss.
How did Socrates die?
Be prepared to distinguish arguments from non-arguments (e.g., from explanations, descriptions, conditional statements, and from unsupported statements of opinion or belief).
Be able to list, identify, and appropriately use premise indicators and conclusion indicators.
Be prepared to be able to make explicit the implicit premises or links in a given argument.
Be able to define and correctly use the following terms: argument, conclusion, premise, valid argument, invalid argument, sound argument, unsound argument, deductive argument, inductive argument.
Socrates offered an argument that death is a blessing. Explicate and critically discuss this argument.
Be able to give examples of conditional statements, to put conditional statements in standard form, to identify the antecedent and consequent of a conditional statement, and to explain what a conditional statement is claiming.
Be able to give examples of conditional statements and to identify the antecedent and consequent of a conditional statement.
Be able to make explicit the form of a given argument.
Why is it important to be able to uncover the form of an argument?
Be able to identify and give examples of arguments which have the following forms: modus ponens, modus tollens, disjunctive syllogism, pure hypothetical syllogism.
State a valid argument for the conclusion that Aristotle lived before Socrates, or explain why this cannot be done.
Atheists, skeptics, and fideists all say that the existence of God cannot be proved. Explain why.
What are Aquinas's "five ways" ways of? (E.g. Getting to heaven? Going to Rome? Proving that we can be certain of empirical knowledge? Approaching philosophy?)
How does one argue by reductio ad absurdum? Explain how a reductio ad absurdum argument works by explaining an example.
Some ask the question "If everything requires a cause, what caused God?" What would Aquinas answer to this question? Explain.
Explicate Aquinas's argument for the conclusion that there must be a first cause.
In Aquinas's "second way" of proving the existence of God he says "But if we remove a cause the effect is removed." Explain the role of this premise in his argument. That is, how is this premise used to prove the conclusion? What problem is there is Aquinas's use of this premise? Explain.
What does it mean to say something is a "contingent" being?
Explain and critique the argument from contingency for the existence of God.
What is the "quantifier shift fallacy" and what role does it play in Aquinas's third way of proving the existence of God?
Explain argument by analogy. Give an example of an argument by analogy other than one involving God, and show how the argument fits into the form of an analogy.
Explain what natural theology is and what positions the various characters in Hume's Dialogues take on the possibility of success in natural theology.
What does David Hume mean by "productions of human contrivance?"
Explain what Hume means by "the curious adapting of means to ends."
Explain the "Look round the world ..." argument concerning the existence and nature of God offered by Cleanthes in Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.
Explain the difference between "a priori" and "a posteriori" reasoning.
What is anthropomorphism?
Explain what makes an analogy a weak one.
Explain as clearly as you can and in some detail the objections Philo raises to the main argument Cleanthes offered to prove for the existence of God and to establish what God is like.
Name several traits commonly attributed to God which Philo argues cannot be established by the argument Cleanthes has offered to establish the nature of God. Why does Philo think these cannot be established by the argument?
Explain the argument based on wagering that Pascal offers in regard to belief in God. Be sure to make clear what the conclusion of the argument is.
How is Pascal's wager argument similar to an argument that one should send in a sweepstakes entry one receives in the mail instead of throwing it in the trash? What important differences are there between Pascal's argument and an analogous argument concerning sending in the sweepstakes entry? Explain.
What does James mean by an "hypothesis?"
Be able to explain and give examples of what James means by living options, dead options, forced options, avoidable options, momentous options, trivial, and genuine options.
What does William James mean by a "genuine option?"
State the rule which William Clifford put forward concerning the conditions under which we morally may believe a claim. Give examples of someone following and of someone not following that rule. Explain.
Is "Clifford's rule" a rule we should follow? Explain.
According to James, are there circumstances where it is all right to believe a proposition for which there is not good evidence? Explain. What does James think is the fundamental difference between his view and Clifford's?
What does James mean by our "passional nature?" What does this have to do with his argument in "The Will to Believe?"
State the overall thesis that James attempts to defend in "The Will to Believe?" Explain what the thesis means.
Under what conditions does William James believe it is permissible to believe something on the basis of our passional nature instead of our intellectual nature? Explain.
James speaks of two "commandments" or "laws" for would-be knowers. What are these and how are they related? What would happen if we were to follow one of these to the exclusion of the other? Critically discuss.
Under what circumstances, if any, does James think it is reasonable to follow Clifford's rule? Under what circumstances, if any, does James think it is not reasonable to follow Clifford's rule? Explain.
William James writes in "The Will to Believe" that there are situations in which "faith in a fact can help create the fact." Explain this using an example or two. Is belief without sufficient evidence justified in such cases? Critically discuss.
James speaks of cases where "faith creates its own verification." What does he mean by this? Explain. What does James suggest we do in such cases? Explain.
What, according to William James, is the "religious hypothesis?" Do all and only religious people believe the religious hypothesis? Critically discuss.
Is the choice of whether to believe in the existence of God a genuine option? Why or why not? Explain.
James claims that "a rule of thinking which would absolutely prevent me from acknowledging certain kinds of truth if those kinds of truth were really there, would be an irrational rule." Explain what James has in mind here. Is he right about this? Critically discuss.
In "The Will to Believe" William James writes: "There are, then, cases where a fact cannot come at all unless a preliminary faith exists in its coming. And where faith in a fact can help create the fact, that would be an insane logic which should say that faith running ahead of scientific evidence is the `lowest kind of immorality' into which a thinking being can fall." Explain what James is saying. (Examples may help.) Is James right about this? Critically discuss.