Philosophy exam 2
Who was a famous materialist?
Karl Marx (1800s) is a famous modern materialist. Thus, Marxist Communism is also called "dialectical materialism."
Why do they reject that step?
Materialists claim that this shows that ideas are physically contained in the brain. Ideas are just brain waves - that is, physical, electrical impulses in the brain, say the materialists.
Which thinker originated the argument for the spirituality and immortality of the human soul that we studied in this course?
Socrates
In "Sedeo Ergo Sum," Charles de Koninck claims that the sense of _____________ is more important than the sense of sight in some ways, for instance because it helps us to be more connected to reality. (FILL IN THE BLANK.)
Touch
(a) According to materialists, when addressing the origin of your soul according to its material cause (that is, the topic of what pre-existing stuff your soul was made out of), the stuff of your soul previously was the stuff of your parents' bodies and of whatever food you've eaten.
True
RUE or FALSE: Most of Socrates' ideas were made known to us by means of the writings of Plato. Socrates himself wrote nothing.
True
TRUE or FALSE: According to a dualist, strictly speaking, you cannot punch another person. You can only use your vehicle (also called your BODY) to punch someone else's vehicle. But punching the other person's vehicle still results in pain for the other person, even though, strictly speaking, you did not punch the other person - you only punched his vehicle. That's because the other person's soul, upon seeing the dent made in his vehicle, subconsciously creates a feeling of pain to go with it, and that feeling fools most people into thinking that the body is actually PART of themselves.
True
TRUE or FALSE: De Koninck (the author of the article that you read) was a hylomorphist.
True
TRUE or FALSE: Dualists and hylomorphists claim that the non-physical "stuff" that your soul is currently "made of" simply did not exist before it became the "stuff" of your soul. Nothing that your soul currently "consists of" existed back in the year 1850 (I mean, assuming you yourself did not exist back then (and, realistically, c'mon, nobody in my class looks that old )).
True
TRUE or FALSE: Materialists claim, when addressing the origin of your soul according to its efficient cause (that is, who/what made your soul), that whatever made your body is, by that very fact, the maker of your soul, since the soul is just a physical part of you. So the original maker of your soul was just your parents and their biology.
True
TRUE or FALSE: One meaning of the term "reason" is the same as "intellect."
True
TRUE or FALSE: The soul can be thought of as the life-force or life-principle inside a living thing.
True
TRUE or FALSE: This topic is known as the origin of your soul according to its material cause.
True
What definition of "BODY" did we learn?
the matter of a living thing
In a plant, the various parts of the plant are used to keep the whole plant alive and well. Thus the parts operate as parts of a larger whole. NOTICE THE FOLLOWING TWO POINTS DESCRIBED IN CLASS:
1) If the plant is essentially just a machine (as the famous 17th-century French philosopher Rene Descartes thought), then it is just a collection of tiny parts that are placed next each other in a way that merely IMITATES having a single substantial form spread throughout all its parts. It LOOKS at first glance as if it has a single substantial form coordinating all the parts and giving the whole a single overall intrinsic identity, but does not ACTUALLY HAVE such a form. Descartes himself was, incidentally, not a materialist with respect to humans, but as you can see he was a materialist with respect to the non-human portions of the physical world. 2) If, on the other hand, the plant really does have something inside it which permeates and coordinates all its parts, then that is the same as saying that it has a substantial form. This is what Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas and today's Classical Realists usually think about plants. That's because living plants and dead plants both have the same physical parts, but these parts cooperate with each other only in the living plant. This indicates that there is some aspect of the living plant, found in all parts of the plant, which is USING electrical impulses and INTERPRETING DNA and so on to organize all those parts together. Such an aspect, clearly, fulfills the definition of a substantial form. (*Personally, though whether you agree with me or not is irrelevant to your grade, I support this thesis, for the reasons stated!)
Why, basically, do dualists and hylomorphists (like St. Thomas Aquinas, who presented the argument below) claim that the human soul will in fact get a new method of transportation to ideas (namely, a method of reaching ideas that does not require the brain)?
1. If the human soul had to spend most of its existence - namely, an infinite amount of time after death - doing absolutely nothing because it couldn't reach ideas, then this would mean it was poorly constructed. 2. But the human soul can't be poorly constructed. (After all, even the human body is well constructed, and so is the rest of the universe, in terms of following rationally knowable laws of physics, chemistry, logic, etc.) 3. Therefore, after death, the human soul must get a new way of reaching abstract ideas without the brain.
MULTIPLE CHOICE: According to what we learned in this class, which of the following can connect an input with a reasonably appropriate output, without consciously understanding what they are doing since they are just "pre-programmed" this way? a. plants and computers, b. animals c. humans
A
Then what does a dualist say about the fact that your body FEELS like part of you?
A dualist admits that your body FEELS like part of you. But he says that this feeling is an illusion. You are "wired" to a body so that you are fooled into THINKING that what happens to that body is happening to you - like if we wired you up to a car tire so that you felt pain whenever the car tire was kicked. The real you is a non-physical consciousness, called a soul.
What does a "dualist" say about human nature?
A dualist claims that your body is not really part of you. The real you is only your soul.
(b) What is the connection between the LITERAL meaning of the word "hylomorphism" and the philosophical definition of hylomorphism?
A hylomorphist says that both your matter (since you are a living thing, this is also called your body) and your form (since you are a living thing, this is also called your soul) are aspects of the one thing which is YOU. After death, when only your soul exists, it is still only part of you - you are still missing part of yourself (namely, you are missing the part called the body). The conscious part of you, the more important part of you, is your soul - but it's still only one PART of you.
How does that affect their acceptance or rejection of the other two steps in the argument?
ANSWER The 2nd step depends on the 1st step. And the 3rd step depends on the 2nd step. Therefore, rejecting the 1st step leads to a rejection of the 2nd and 3rd steps, too.
In what centuries did Socrates and Plato live?
ANSWER: 400s B.C. to the 300s B.C.
Why do the dualists and hylomorphists accept Steps 2 and 3?
ANSWER: Because Step 3 is implied by Step 2, and Step 2 is implied by Step 1, which you just explained they accept as self-evident.
Here is a fact that everyone agrees on: Different parts of the brain are active when we are having different kinds of thoughts. For example, when we are thinking about math, the left side of our brain is more active. When we are thinking about artistic topics, the right side of our brain is more active.Well, then, why don't hylomorphists agree with the materialists' claim that our thoughts are just brain waves?
ANSWER: Because hylomorphists point out that the materialists confuse the vehicle by which we reach abstract thoughts with the abstract thoughts themselves. Big-time blunder, dudes!It's like claiming that your car IS the University of St. Thomas, merely because your car is what BRINGS YOU TO the University of St. Thomas!!!
(g) How do we know that (a) and (b) are both false, according to dualists and hylomorphists?
ANSWER: Because non-physical things (like your parents' souls, angels, and God) are non-physical. Therefore, they don't have "pieces" (like 2 ounces here and 3 inches there). As a result, your souls could not have been made out of combinations of "pieces" of these things.
(d) How do we know that (a) and (b) are both false, according to dualists and hylomorphists?
ANSWER: Because your soul is non-physical. Putting together physical things (like your parents' reproductive cells and food) makes a bigger physical thing - but not a non-physical thing. In other words, your parents' reproductive cells and the food that you've eaten became the stuff of your BODY (which is physical) - but could not have become the stuff of your soul (since it's non-physical).
c. TRUE or FALSE: According to dualists and hylomorphists, the "stuff" that currently makes up your soul used to be the stuff that made up your parents' reproductive cells plus the stuff of the food that you've eaten since then.
ANSWER: FALSE, since (c) is simply a more specific way of expressing the very same claim stated in (b) above (which was also FALSE).
TRUE or FALSE: All abstract ideas are imaginary.
ANSWER: FALSE. Fairness and generosity and algebra are aspects of reality! They are not fictional.
TRUE or FALSE: The argument that we studied concluded that every atom is alive.
ANSWER: FALSE. It just concluded that each atom has a substantial form. Not all substantial forms produce life functions. There is no evidence that, for example, an atom of tin is internally organized to produce life functions. It is organized only to produce non-life functions (like a synchronized spin for each of its electrons).
TRUE or FALSE: The argument that we studied concluded that snowflakes are alive.
ANSWER: FALSE. It just concluded that each snowflake has a substantial form. Not all substantial forms produce life functions. There is no evidence that the snowflake is internally organized to produce life functions. It is organized only to produce non-life functions (like a unique shape on each of its arms).
According to what we learned in this class, animals have reason.
ANSWER: FALSE. Notice that this is simply another way of asking question (a) above.
(a) TRUE or FALSE: Suppose you've never actually seen a purple glass bottle shaped like a moose. In that case, one example of an abstract idea would be what you're thinking of when you are IMAGINING what a particular purple glass bottle shaped like a moose would look like to your sense of sight and IMAGINING what it would feel like to your sense of touch.
ANSWER: FALSE. Remember, an abstract idea is an idea which, if it were the object of thought, would have NO physical characteristics (no mass, no color, no smoothness, no hardness, etc.). So imagining a particular purple bottle shaped like a moose is not the same as thinking about a genuinely ABSTRACT idea.
According to what we learned in this class, animals have abstract ideas.
ANSWER: FALSE. That was the point of comparing their way of doing things to ours - that was the one thing that they lacked, and it is an important thing!
Here is a fact that everyone agrees on: Different parts of the brain are active when we are having different kinds of thoughts. For example, when we are thinking about math, the left side of our brain is more active. When we are thinking about artistic topics, the right side of our brain is more active. Based on this fact, what conclusion do materialists draw about the relationship of the brain to the objects of thought?
ANSWER: Materialists claim that this shows that ideas are physically contained in the brain. Ideas are just brain waves - that is, physical, electrical impulses in the brain, say the materialists.
What about the souls of plants and animals, according to dualists and hylomorphists? Are those souls spiritual and immortal, too?
ANSWER: No. Plants and animals apparently do not naturally have the ability to enter that 4th dimension (the dimension of reality that is beyond length, width, and height). We know that because plants and animals show no evidence of an ability to think about truly abstract concepts as part of the structure of their various species. So plants' and animals' souls are by their very nature confined to the organization of the first 3 dimensions. When these 3 physical dimensions of them are removed by death, their souls, whose existence was entirely bound up with the activity of organizing those 1st three dimensions, also cease to exist. After death there is nothing left of a plant or animal soul, because it was entirely found in the activity of nothing but organizing the 1st three dimensions, and now those first three dimensions have been taken away from it.)
Then, ACCORDING TO WHAT WE LEARNED IN THIS CLASS, what DOES, most fundamentally, set us above the animals in the order of perfection, so that the WAY we do these sometimes similar behaviors is in fact radically different from the WAY the animals do them?
ANSWER: Reason (and will, too, by the way)!
Why are the dualists and hylomorphists not convinced by the materialist argument that claims that what appear to be abstract thoughts in us are actually just nothing but physical brain waves? In other words, how do the dualists and hylomorphists explain why various parts of the brain are always electro-chemically active whenever we think about abstract ideas?!?
ANSWER: Repeat your answer to # 145. - To help remind you of # 145, here it is, in summary: The materialists are confusing the vehicle that brings us to abstract ideas with the ideas themselves. The fact that brain waves help to bring you TO an abstract thought like justice does not imply that the brain waves ARE the thought, just as the fact that a bus brings you TO the St. Thomas campus does not imply that the bus IS the St. Thomas campus. And, furthermore, abstract ideas, unlike your brain waves, are self-evidently ABSTRACT (that is, non-physical), as you can see by looking at them inside your own mind. For instance, justice is not green or blue, nor does it weigh 7 pounds or 2 pounds. So your abstract ideas are non-physical and are not brain waves, even though brain waves help you to reach them.
(a) TRUE or FALSE: Charles de Koninck (who delivered the lecture that you read online entitled "Sedeo Ergo Sum") was a prominent 20th-century Classical Realist philosopher.
ANSWER: TRUE. (Specifically, he was a Thomist -- the type of Classical Realist who supports the ideas of St. Thomas Aquinas.)
According to what we learned in this class, animals can figure things out by thinking about them in terms of memories of physical objects, features, and feelings, and imagining how those physical objects could look or feel different.
ANSWER: TRUE. That's still a way of thinking of things in terms of physical objects, physical features, and physical feelings, and animals definitely do that kind of thing all the time!
According to what we learned in this class, animals have consciousness.
ANSWER: TRUE. Yes, contrary to Rene Descartes (whose view of animals is not accepted by most philosophers, nor by our book, nor by our course), our book and class lecture clearly accepted that animals are not just robots programmed to fool us into thinking they are conscious! They REALLY ARE CONSCIOUS!
(c) According to what we learned in this class, animals have emotions/ feelings.
ANSWER: TRUE. Yes, just watch their behavior - your dog loves you and hates the cat next door!
According to what we learned in this class, animals have memory.
ANSWER: TRUE. Yes, they definitely remember physical things, physical features, and physical feelings! Just watch how they behave. For example, that's why we can train them - they can remember what they were taught!
According to what we learned in this class, animals have sensations.
ANSWER: TRUE. Yes, they have eyes and ears and noses that apparently work very well!
Do dualists and hylomorphists typically accept or reject Socrates' proof for the spirituality and immortality of the human soul?
Accept
State the arguments which we studied which hylomorphists present against dualism.
Against dualism:(1) The experience of your body being part of you is too strong to be a lifelong illusion. (2) The mere fact that you can abstractly IMAGINE yourself existing without a body at some point does not mean that you in fact do not currently have a body as part of yourself. That's because what can be imagined does not determine what is real. Your body is obviously part of you right now, as your sense of touch above all demonstrates. In the future (after death) you will lose the bodily part of yourself, but that does not mean that it is not currently part of yourself!
State the arguments which we studied which hylomorphists present against materialism.
Against materialism: (1) The fact that some of your ideas are not abstract helps you to see all the more clearly, by contrast, that some of them (like "perfect straight-line triangle" or "justice") ARE abstract! That's why people bothered to come up with the term "abstract" - some ideas so clearly stand out from others as not being ideas of concrete physical objects/feelings.For example, there are no perfectly straight lines with neither width nor color in the physical world, but there are obviously such concepts in your consciousness when you do geometry. Also, physical acts involving guns and dollar bills can have a standard of justice applied to them, but the ideal of justice itself is not a gun or a dollar bill. 2) See the next set of questions about the explanation of brain waves' relationship to thought.
MULTIPLE CHOICE: According to what we learned in this class, which of the following can connect an input with a reasonably appropriate output, AND can consciously understand the PHYSICAL meanings of what they are doing? a. plants and computers b. animals c. humans
B
MULTIPLE CHOICE: Which way of speaking is more accurate? a. An oak tree IS a substantial form. b. An oak tree HAS a substantial form.
B. The oak tree has a substantial form in it. But the oak tree also has physical stuff (a material cause) in it. BOTH material causes AND formal causes are INTRINSIC causes (remember?). So the oak tree is more than its substantial form. The substantial form is the internal organizing force that is organizing the stuff which the tree is made of. Both that force and the stuff are in the tree.
MULTIPLE CHOICE: Which of the following is/are a type(s) of reductionism with respect to the explanation of what it means to be human? a. dualism b. materialism c. hylomorphism d. BOTH and ONLY A and B
D
MULTIPLE CHOICE: According to what we learned in this class, which of the following can connect an input with a reasonably appropriate output, AND can consciously understand both the PHYSICAL and ABSTRACT meanings of what they are doing? a. plants and computers b. animals c. humans
C
What is an example (FROM CLASS) of a justification that has been given for dualism?
Descartes says: Imagine a scenario where your consciousness exists and is hallucinating your entire body. In that thought experiment, wouldn't you still be you, even though you would be just a soul with no body? Therefore, the dualist concludes, the real you, even right now, is just the thinking part of you - that is the only part of you. It's just like the definition of TRIANGLE: Even if you've only seen red triangles, you can still IMAGINE a blue triangle. This shows that RED is not part of the definition of triangle. So also, you can IMAGINE yourself as an entity that hallucinates the body. This shows that BODY is not part of the definition of YOU, according to Descartes. He is using a mathematical method of defining things in order to define YOU. In math, you ask what can be IMAGINED differently and you exclude those features from your definition. Descartes was a great mathematician and thought that philosophy would benefit from using the methods of math on all topics, since math tends to convince everyone who encounters it, whereas philosophers are so often unable to convince each other with their arguments.
TRUE or FALSE: When we say that "mice have souls," that statement, taken by itself, NECESSARILY means that the person who said it thinks that the life-principle of a mouse is spiritual (that is, totally non-physical) and will survive death.
FALSE. (All it literally means is that we think mice have an ultimate internal source of life-activities inside them. Whether or not any particular thing's soul is SPIRITUAL and IMMORTAL is a different question and is not decided one way or the other by just using the term "soul.")
TRUE or FALSE: When we say that "mice have souls," that statement, taken by itself, NECESSARILY means that the person who said it thinks that the life-principle of a mouse is NOT spiritual and will NOT survive death.
FALSE. (All it means is that we think mice have an ultimate internal source of life-activities inside them. Whether or not any particular thing's soul is SPIRITUAL and IMMORTAL is a different question and is not decided one way or the other by just using the term "soul.")
TRUE or FALSE: All substantial forms produce life functions.
FALSE. A substantial form is an internal organizing force. In the case of a non-living thing like a snowflake or an atom of tin, the substantial form organizes only non-living functions. Such entities are not alive.
TRUE or FALSE: An abstract idea is the same as an emotion or a feeling.
FALSE. An emotion or a feeling is something that you feel inside yourself in at least a partly physical way. You feel the rage or the sadness in your body, not only in your mind. But an abstract idea, like JUSTICE, is not merely a feeling. Even if you do not FEEL like repaying what you owe, you know in the abstract that repaying what you owe is an act of justice. Justice is not about how I feel; it's an abstract ideal. Whatever justice is, it is not "how I feel this morning" or "how I felt yesterday." You don't really say "I FEEL just today, so I must be just," because justice is not about how you FEEL! It's an ideal - an abstract idea that is supposed to guide your conduct, no matter how you FEEL. That makes it different from rage or sadness, which ordinarily DO denote "how I feel this morning" ("Enraged!") or "how I felt yesterday" ("Sad!"). So emotions are not abstract ideas.
a) TRUE or FALSE: The substantial form of a non-living natural thing is nothing more than its shape and numerical features.
FALSE. There's an inner organizing force which PRODUCES its shape and its other properties from the inside. FURTHER EXPLANATION TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND IN CASE YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE WITH THIS: Think of examples from earlier in the term like the snowflake -- it has an inner unifying force which PRODUCES its shape the same way simultaneously on every arm as water particles are frozen onto it. The snowflake's shape is an EFFECT of a deeper aspect of itself - namely, an internal organizing force. Thus that force, not the shape, is the snowflake's most fundamental formal cause.) That inner organizing force is what we call its substantial form.
(b) TRUE or FALSE: According to dualists and hylomorphists, your soul was made out of pre-existing physical stuff.
False
(e) TRUE or FALSE: According to dualists and hylomorphists, your soul was made out of pre-existing non-physical stuff
False
(f) TRUE or FALSE: According to dualists and hylomorphists, the "stuff" that currently makes up your soul used to be the non-physical stuff that made up your parents' souls and/or pieces of angels and/or pieces of God.
False
TRUE or FALSE: All thoughts are abstract.
False
Who must have made your soul and united it to your body by a special, direct act of creation?
God
What are some other, more informal ways of describing what the term "soul" means in philosophy, according to what we learned in class?
Greek- Psyche: soul Latin- Anima: soul -Not all souls are conscious -Not all souls are spiritual -Not all souls are immortal
In an animal, the various parts of the animal are used to keep the whole animal alive and well. Thus the parts operate as parts of a larger whole. The animal also acts as if it has consciousness, unifying not only its body parts but also its past, present, and anticipated future experiences. THUS, NOTICE THE FOLLOWING TWO POINTS DESCRIBED IN CLASS:
IF the animal is essentially just a machine (as the famous 17th-century French philosopher Rene Descartes thought), then it is just a collection of tiny parts that are placed next each other in a way that merely IMITATES having a single substantial form spread throughout all its parts. It LOOKS at first glance as if it has a single substantial form coordinating all the parts and giving the whole a single overall intrinsic identity, but does not ACTUALLY HAVE such a form. It ACTS AS IF it has consciousness uniting its experiences from different parts of itself and making a single plan for its whole self, but (like a simple robotic toy at Wal-Mart), it does not ACTUALLY have consciousness. It feels no pain and has no desires or thoughts at all. It is as unconscious as a fork or a copper pipe, but just deceptively APPEARS to be a conscious thing. Descartes himself was not a materialist with respect to humans, but (as you can see) he was a materialist with respect to the non-human portions of the physical world.
(a) So, based on # 178, only a being that has ____________________ power could make a human soul.
Infinite
(c) This means that, according to dualists and hylomorphists, a Being Who deserves to be called an infinitely powerful God bothered to do a special, direct act of creation to call forth your soul from absolute non-existence into being at the moment when you were conceived in your mother's womb.
NOTICE THE FOLLOWING POINTS MADE IN CLASS: This means that you and I are in a very direct way God's property, not the property of our family or our government. Your parents made your body and help to raise you, and the government helps you in many ways, too. But the invisible yet real life-force inside you was made directly and immediately by God. So YOU ARE SPECIAL in the eyes of Him Who made you, even if your parents are crummy and even if your government persecutes you.
(a) Do materialists accept or reject Socrates' proof for the spirituality and immortality of the human soul?
Reject
Do they typically accept or reject the first step of the argument?
Reject
(a) What famous thinker that we learned about who lived in the 1600s denied the reality of substantial forms in non-human physical things?
Rene Descartes
What do philosophers call the aspect inside a living thing that most basically makes it different from a dead thing?
Substantial Form
(a) TRUE or FALSE: Dualists and hylomorphists claim that your soul was not made out of pre-existing physical stuff and was also not made out of pre-existing non-physical stuff. Therefore, they conclude that your soul was not made out of ANY pre-existing stuff.
TRUE.
The word "hylomorphism" comes from two Greek words. What do those Greek words literally mean?
The Greek words are "hyle" (matter) and "morphe" (form).
What is meant by the term "intellect" or "reason," as defined in class? (By the way, NOTICE that it's not the same as the phrase "the natural light of reason," which includes more than just "reason," in a way. So here in this part of the course we are using just the term "reason," which has a more restricted meaning.)
The ability to think in terms of Abstract ideas
(a) What does a hylomorphist say about human nature?
This is simply classical realism as applied to human nature -claims that the real you is the one thing with two aspects - a body (your matter) - and a soul (your substantial form, which is not a physical body part)
TRUE or FALSE: Today's Materialists typically claim that your soul simply IS your brain (or brain waves). With respect to the timing of your soul's origin, this would typically imply that your soul began to exist whenever your brain reached a certain level of development in your mother's womb - and not before that time.
True
Reason and will are - most fundamentally - what sets humans above animals in terms of our level of existence, showing that our souls (unlike animals' souls) have spiritual (that is, real but non-physical) existence. What are some SPECIFIC examples of human behaviors that are affected by reason and will, so that even if sometimes some animals do something similar, we do not do them in exactly the same WAY as animals?
We have the ability to think in terms of ideas and animals only thing in terms of physical ideas not abstract -humans are different because we reflect in forms of government
Did Descartes deny the reality of substantial forms in humans?
Yes
(a) What does a materialist say about human nature?
Your body is all of you and your soul is just a physical body part -100% physical
(a) What is the name of the dialogue that we read from, where Socrates talked with his friends just before he was executed? (b) Who wrote the Phaedo? Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle?
a) b) Plato c) Socrates
(a) Who else was mentioned in this class as having endorsed materialism? (b) In what centuries did they live?
a) ANSWER: most of the pre-Socratic philosophers b) 500s B.C. - 400s B.C.
a) TRUE or FALSE: Any philosopher who claims that an oak tree has a substantial form necessarily thinks that oak trees are conscious. (b) TRUE or FALSE: The formal cause of a worm is merely its shape and numerical features (that is, its quantitative forms).
a) FALSE. b) FALSE. A worm is a natural thing. Thus, it has a more fundamental level of identity than its shape and numerical features. The shape and numerical features can change, but the worm remains the same worm. So the worm's formal cause (that is, the internal aspect that gives it its overall identity) is a substantial form.
(a) TRUE or FALSE: By definition, all natural things are living things. (b) TRUE or FALSE: All natural things have souls. (c) TRUE or FALSE: The form of a natural thing is called its SUBSTANTIAL FORM. ANSWER: TRUE.
a) FALSE. (Copper atoms and quartz crystals are not alive, but they are natural things.) b) FALSE. Not all of them are alive! c) TRUE
(a) TRUE or FALSE: By definition, all souls are necessarily conscious. (b) TRUE or FALSE: By definition, all souls are necessarily spiritual (c) TRUE or FALSE: By definition, all souls are necessarily immortal.
a) FALSE. There's no evidence that the soul of a blade of grass is conscious, for example. b) ANSWER: FALSE. There's no evidence that the soul of a blade of grass is spiritual, for example c) ANSWER: FALSE. There's no evidence that the soul of a blade of grass is immortal, for example.
(a) TRUE or FALSE: The formal cause of an artificial thing is called the substantial form of the thing. (b) TRUE or FALSE: The substantial form of an artificial thing is called its soul. (c) TRUE or FALSE: In philosophy-talk, the word "soul" refers to "the substantial form of a living thing." ANSWER: TRUE(d) TRUE or FALSE The soul of an artificial thing is called its substantial form. (e) TRUE or FALSE: The substantial form of a non-living natural thing is called the soul of the non-living natural thing. (f) TRUE or FALSE The substantial form of a living natural thing is called its soul. (g) TRUE or FALSE: The formal cause of a non-living natural thing is simply its shape and numerical features, and there is no substantial form "behind" its shape and numerical features. (h) TRUE or FALSE: A living natural thing has a substantial form. (i) TRUE or FALSE: The shape and numerical features of a natural thing are called its substantial form. .(j) TRUE or FALSE: An artificial thing has a formal cause. (k) TRUE or FALSE An artificial thing has a form. (l) TRUE or FALSE: A natural thing has a form.
a) False b) False c) ANSWER: FALSE, because by definition truly "artificial" things do not have souls or substantial forms!!! d) False e)False f) True g) False h) True i) False j) True k)True l) True
(a) TRUE or FALSE: The form of an artificial thing is called its SUBSTANTIAL FORM. (b) TRUE or FALSE: All artificial things have substantial forms. (c) TRUE or FALSE: All artificial things have souls. ANSWER: FALSE. They are not alive! (d) TRUE or FALSE: All artificial things have forms.
a) False b) False c) False. They are not alive d) True
(a) TRUE or FALSE: Some non-living things have souls.! (b) TRUE or FALSE: Bacteria have souls. (c) TRUE or FALSE: Lice have souls.
a) False b) True (they are alive) c) True
(a) Will every human soul be happy after death, according to dualists and hylomorphists (like Socrates and Thomas Aquinas)? (b) Why not?
a) No b) ANSWER: Some souls might enjoy the afterlife, while others might not, according to whether they learned to love non-physical things (like God and ideals) more than bodily things before they died, according to thinkers like Socrates and St. Thomas Aquinas. Those who did learn to love non-physical realities will of course enjoy their encounter with them when they are in the non-physical dimension of reality. But those who disrespected such entities will not enjoy spending time with them; they never learned to love such things.
Suppose you accidentally step on a toad's left hind leg. The toad acts scared, croaks, and hops away fast with all four legs coordinating at the same time as his vocal cords let out the loud "CROOOAAKK!!" sound. (a) How does Descartes explain what just happened? Did the toad feel pain? (b) How does a Classical Realist explain what just happened? Did the toad feel pain?
a) No, what happened is the toad is a robot and does not have feelings, brain is programmed for that reaction b) brain is programmed
a) What is another, more specific name for the substantial form of a frog? (b) What is another, more specific name for the substantial form of a dandelion? (c) What is another, more specific name for the substantial form of a human?
a) The soul of the frog b) The soul of dandelion c) the soul of human
(a) TRUE or FALSE: Dualists claim that the soul is ALL of a person. (b) TRUE or FALSE: Dualists claim that the soul is one part of a person and the body is the other part. (c) TRUE or FALSE: Dualists claim that your body is part of you.
a) True b) False c) False
(a) TRUE or FALSE: Plato was a dualist. (b) TRUE or FALSE: Descartes was a dualist.
a) True b) true
(a) In the language of philosophy, what do we call something that is real but non-physical? (b) In the language of philosophy, what kind of existence are we attributing to something if we claim it is real but non-physical?ANSWER: spiritual existence
a) a spirit b) spiritual existence
(a) What is a "universal," in the language of philosophy? (b) Why is it called a "universal," in terms of the words roots of "universal"?
a) an abstract idea b) uni- one vers- turned towards every abstract idea is one idea is turned toward and applied to many ideas
(a) The definition of "reason" or "intellect" includes the term "abstract idea." What is meant by the term "abstract idea," as defined in class?(b) Give an example of an abstract idea. (c) Be able to recognize an example of an abstract idea. (d) NOTICE that the idea of a white unicorn prancing outside your window is NOT an abstract idea. That's because you are imagining one particular unicorn with a particular color, location, size, etc.
a) an idea which it were the objects of thought would have no physical characteristics b) justice or mercy
a) TRUE or FALSE: Hylomorphists claim that your body is the entirety of you. (b) TRUE or FALSE: Hylomorphists claim that your soul is the entirety of you. (c) TRUE or FALSE: Hylomorphists claim that YOU are one person who is composed of two truly different aspects: (i) a body and (ii) a soul which is not a body part.
a) false b) false c) true
(a) TRUE or FALSE: The substantial form of a non-living natural thing is called its soul. (b) TRUE or FALSE: The substantial form of a living natural thing is called its soul.
a) false b) true
a) TRUE or FALSE: The formal cause of a chair is a substantial form. Chairs, as such, are artificial. What gives a chair its overall identity as a chair is merely its shape and numerical features (a kind of quantitative formal cause, not a substantial form). (b) TRUE or FALSE: The formal cause of a worm is a substantial form.
a) false b) true
(a) What is USUALLY OR ALWAYS the formal cause of an artificial thing? b) What is ALWAYS the formal cause of a natural thing? (c) TRUE or FALSE: The formal cause of an artificial thing is a unifying, organizing force which has been placed inside the artificial thing.
a) its quantitative forms (i.e., shape and/or numerical features) b) a substantial form c) FALSE. Tables don't grow and organize themselves into tables, for example. The legs of a table are not internally coordinated from a single internal source that permeates all the table's parts, to give another example.
(a) Consider a human like yourself, sitting in a chair. TRUE or FALSE: Dualists claim that the "thing" that appears to be ONE ENTITY (the thing sitting in the chair) is actually TWO THINGS, not one thing. They say there's one entity called the body (which is NOT you) and there's a separate entity called the soul (which IS you). The soul is just using the body as a vehicle, but the vehicle and its "driver" are not two different parts of the same entity. They are entirely different entities..(b) Consider the student sitting in the chair next to you. TRUE or FALSE: Dualists say that the thing sitting in the chair next to you is only ONE entity but it has TWO aspects or components: a physical body and a non-physical soul (c) Explain the answer to part (b).
a) true b) false c) ANSWER: Dualists say that the thing in the chair next to you is actually two separate entities, not one entity with two aspects. It's a body (which is not part of the person, though the person is using it as a means to move around) and a soul (which is the whole of the person).
(a) TRUE or FALSE: Mushrooms have souls. b) TRUE or FALSE: Oak trees have souls. (c) TRUE or FALSE: Televisions have souls. d) TRUE or FALSE: Humans have souls.
a) true b) true c) false d) true
(a) Do materialists try to explain all human life in such a way as to exclude the need to say that any truly non-physical, spiritual, immortal souls exist? .(b) When materialists agree to use the term "soul," what do they say the soul is?
a) yes b) a body part (like the brain, or brain waves, for instance)
a) What two famous hylomorphists were named in class? (b) In what century did Aristotle live? (c) In what century did St. Thomas Aquinas live? (d) What university in Minnesota is named after St. Thomas Aquinas?
a)ANSWER: Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas b) 300 BC c) 1200 AD d) University of St. Thomas
(a) TRUE or FALSE: All substantial forms produce consciousness (b) TRUE or FALSE: The argument that we studied concluded that snowflakes are conscious. (c) TRUE or FALSE: The argument that we studied concluded that every atom is conscious. (d) TRUE or FALSE: The argument that we studied concluded that plants are conscious.
a)ANSWER: FALSE. A substantial form is an internal organizing force. In the case of a non-conscious thing like a snowflake or an atom of tin or an oak tree, the substantial form organizes only non-conscious functions. Such entities are not conscious B) ANSWER: FALSE. It just concluded that each snowflake has a substantial form. Not all substantial forms produce conscious functions. There is no evidence that the snowflake is internally organized to produce consciousness. It is organized only to produce non-conscious functions (like a unique shape on each of its arms). c) ANSWER: FALSE. It just concluded that each atom has a substantial form. Not all substantial forms produce consciousness. There is no evidence that, for example, an atom of tin is internally organized to produce consciousness. It is organized only to produce non-conscious functions (like a synchronized spin for each of its electrons). d) ANSWER: FALSE. It just concluded that each plant has a substantial form. Not all substantial forms produce consciousness. There is no evidence that, for example, an oak tree is internally organized to produce consciousness. It is organized only to produce non-conscious functions (like growth and the healing of wounds).
(a) TRUE or FALSE: Materialists claim that you are 100% physical. Your body is the entirety of you, they say .(b) TRUE or FALSE: Materialists claim that your body is only part of you, and your soul is a separate part of you.
a)true b)false
In what format are most of Plato's writings found - poems, prose, letters to friends, or dialogues (conversations) between Socrates and someone else?
dialogues (conversations) between Socrates and someone else
Why is dualism called "dualism"?
dual means two
What was the main topic of Socrates' last conversation, as reported in the Phaedo, which we read from?
evidence for the spirituality and immortality of the human soul
When Classical Realism is applied to human nature, it is given a special name. What is that name?
hylomorphism
What is meant by the term "will," as defined in this course?
the ability to choose in a way that can involve abstract ideas
In the language of philosophy, what do we call the material cause of a living thing?
the body
In the language of philosophy, what do we call the matter of a living thing?
the body
What is the official, most precise, philosophical definition of the word "soul"?
the substantial form of a living thing
Give an example that shows that explains why abstract ideas are not all thoughts
the thought of eraser, if you make this idea the object for your thought it would have height, odor, color and abstract ideas do not have those
What pre-existing stuff was your soul made out of?
what pre-existing stuff was my soul made out of Materialists- The stuff of my soul was previously the stuff of my parents reproductive cells the stuff of the food that i've eaten since Dualist and Hy'list- since your soul is not a body part, but instead is non-physical the stuff that your soul is made out of is not physical
