Philosophy Quizzes

Indicate the option that lists only empiricists.

Aristotle, Locke, and Hume.

Which one of the classical empiricists used language to explain how we apprehend reality?

Berkeley.

The notion that the mind is a blank slate (tabula rasa) void of all characters, without any ideas, is representative of:

Empiricism.

The theory that defends that everyone ought always and only to serve his or her own self-interest is called:

Ethical egoism.

Involuntary female circumcision has been practiced for centuries in some places, and has included virtually all females. If someone from one of these places tells us that we Westerners have no business passing judgment on what his people do, and we should stop trying to interfere in this practice, he is urging us to embrace what ethical system?

Ethical relativism

All are correct regarding indeterminism, except:

Indeterminism and hard determinism advocate the same philosophical positions.

Usually freedom is associated with ___________ and necessity is associated with _____________.

Indeterminism; Determinism.

In Gilbert Ryle's behaviorism, we can say that there are things like minds and intentional states, as long as we recognize that the distinction between mental and physical is only a logical (not an ontological) distinction. Without this distinction (he claims) we could not differentiate between:

Intentional and accidental behaviors.

Indicate the correct option regarding soft determinism:

It tries to reach a compromise between freedom and necessity.

The view that equates mental states with neurological events is called:

Mind-Brain Identity Theory.

All these are branches of philosophy, except:

Mythology.

The philosophical argument according with which we cannot go from "is statements" to "ought statements" is usually called:

Naturalistic fallacy.

Ethical judgments are usually distinguished from judgments of personal preference, taste, or prejudice by means of showing that ethical judgments:

Need to be supported by reasons that should be universally intelligible or acceptable.

"What can be done with fewer terms is done in vain with more" or "do not multiply entities beyond necessity," are both descriptions of what principle?

Ockham's Razor.

Descartes' wax example is intended to show that the wax is the same substance before and after it is melted, and this observation indicates how:

Our knowledge of sensible objects is based on what reason (not sense) identifies as wax.

Indicate the option that lists only rationalists

Plato and Descartes.

Hume radical empiricism eliminated causality from reality. This position led to:

Skepticism.

Whereas the social sciences (e.g., psychology, sociology, economics) ask questions about how people think and act, philosophy is the study of:

What beliefs mean and whether people with different beliefs are justified in having them.

In Descartes' philosophy the "Methodological Doubt" is:

all are correct

The Socratic method of doing philosophy is called:

dialectic method

Social philosophy deals mainly with the problem of:

social justice

For Berkeley's empiricist philosophy:

All are correct.

Given the following conditions which one(s) are necessary to indicate that an individual P knows something X?Condition 1: P needs to believe in X.Condition 2: X needs to be true.Condition 3: P is able to explain X.

All conditions above are necessary.

According to Carol Gilligan, most women make moral decisions based on:

Care and relationships.

According to which ethical system does the rightness or wrongness of an act depend on the act itself and not on its consequences?

Deontological system.

According to Marx, religion is "the opium of the masses" insofar as religious beliefs:

Desensitize us to the human misery caused by social structures we should change.

You are the captain of a boat smuggling a family of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. A German naval boat comes alongside your boat and an officer asks if you have any Jews aboard. if you say "yes" he will come aboard and shoot them. If you say "no" he will, in all likelihood, continue on his way and leave you alone. What would a rule-utilitarian most likely suggest that you do?

Don't lie to the naval officer because lying, as a rule causes more harm than good.

The ethical theory that denies that there can be any absolute or objective moral values on the grounds that moral values are the products of individual cultures is called:

Ethical relativism.

"The cosmological argument for the existence of God is an a priori argument because it is based on premises that can be known only by means of experience of the world." The previous statement is:

False.

Indicate the incorrect option. According to rationalits:

Feeling is a good substitute for thinking, because it is notoriously reliable.

All are true of Plato's political views, except:

Humans are not social beings, because they are self-sufficient.

Berkeley, with Locke, believed that it is impossible for us to know something that is not an idea. This belief led him to:

Idealism.

Somewhat between communism and minimal state theories, we can find the idea of the "liberal state" that recently has been defended by:

John Rawls.

The concept of "legal positivism" as described by Hobbes is the notion that:

Justice is whatever the legal system calls just.

"Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law," is an ethical principle advocated by:

Kant's deontologism.

Which philosopher has defended the development of a communist society in order to reach a just distribution of goods and services to its citizens?

Karl Marx.

According to the empiricism all are correct, except:

Knowledge is innate.

For the pre-Socratic philosophers:

Knowledge of reality must be obtained through reason.

According to Freud, art is a means by which the irrational and anti-social drives of infantile sexuality and aggression are sublimated in socially acceptable forms of creativity. In this regard, art is:

Like other aspects of "higher culture" such as religion, philosophy, law, science, and morality.

The American political system is greatly based on:

Locke's political philosophy.

According to psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg.

People at the postconventional stage of moral development base their moral decisions on universal moral principles.

Glaucon's story of Gyges's ring is used to support which of the following conclusions?

People behave morally only because they lack the power to get away with being immoral.

"What is the reason for the legitimacy of government?" is a question studied under:

Political philosophy.

The Ontological Proof, Cosmological Proof, and Teleological Proof are all arguments set forth to:

Prove the existence of God.

Descartes argues that the cogito is the necessary foundation for all subsequent knowledge insofar it:

Provides an indubitable principle on which all other claims of knowledge can be based.

To say that "knowledge cannot be grasped by the senses; it can only be grasped by the reason, which has transcended the senses" is to subscribe to which epistemological theory?

Rationalism.

You see a laptop computer on a table in the library. No one is around. You would love to have a laptop but can't afford one. If you were a cultural relativist you would most likely:

Refrain from stealing it because it's against the law.

The version of realism that assumes that the mind does not give us direct access to reality, rather it represents reality much in the way a photograph does, is called:

Representative realism.

You and your visually-impaired mother, whom you love dearly, are attending a lecture by a scientist who is conducting groundbreaking research on a vaccine for AIDS when a fire breaks out in the lecture hall. A beam falls, trapping your mother, her seeing-eye dog, and the scientist. You have time to save only one of them. Care ethicist would most likely advise you to:

Save you mother; your relationship with her creates a special obligation to her.

All are correct of Descartes' philosophy, except:

The proposition: I think, therefore I am, is not necessarily true.

Philosophy is interested in:

The study of questions of general character, such as, time, space, existence, knowledge, etc.

All the following are proofs for the nonexistence of God, except:

The theory of Gestalt that says that the whole is greater that the sum of its parts.

All are correct of analytic prepositions, except:

They are derived from the sense-data.

According to determinism, human choices and actions are like all other events in the universe, insofar as:

They are determined by specific causes to occur in exactly the way they do

According to Aristotle, art is an expression of universal ideals, not an imitation of particular things or events.

True

"Darwin's criticism of the teleological argument claims that order in the universe does not prove that there is any design or purpose in the universe." The previous statement is:

True.

According to utilitarianism the:

Wrongness or rightness of an action depends upon the consequence of the action.

According to Thomas Hobbes's political views:

a). All humans are motivated by self-interest. b). All people are equal, physically speaking. c). Life in a "state of nature," would be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short."

How do we call Descartes' ontological theory?

dualism

Every Saturday Mary volunteers a few hours helping in a shelter for homeless people. When asked why she does that Mary answers that she feels sorry for the homeless. According to her answer, Mary's moral behavior is based on which of the following ethical theories:

emotivism

"What is knowledge, and how does it differ from opinion?" is a question studied under:

epistemology

"Are moral values absolute, or are they relative to time and place?" is a question studied under:

ethics

"What is the good life," and "What is the good" are questions studied in:

ethics

"According to Kierkegaard, our existence is meaningful only to the extent that we can give an objective, rational justification for believing in God's promise of salvation." The previous statement is:

false

"Metaphysical dualists (e.g., Descartes) argue in favor of their position by pointing out that both materialists and idealists are unable to explain how physical bodies and spiritual minds interact." The previous statement is:

false

"Since the ontological argument for the existence of God relies on experiencing the reality of God in one's life, it is an a posteriori argument." The previous statement is:

false

Because of its purgative or cathartic ability, art (for Aristotle) causes human beings to engage either in violent, antisocial behavior or neurotic attempts to deny reality.

false

In Freudian psychoanalysis, impulses, memories, desires, and fears may determine our unconscious behavior, but on the level of consciousness (the ego) we are free to act any way we want.

false

Though ontological dualists claim that only two kinds of things are real, they admit that mental and physical things can ultimately be reduced to one kind of reality.

false

If, as Sartre's existentialism claims, "man is responsible for his passion," then no matter what we as human beings do, we do it:

freely

The view that there are no such things as minds or mental events, mental states, or mental processes, is called:

hard behaviorism

The view according to which every event is determined by the state of the world preceding the event is called:

hard determinism

Religious belief is sometimes grounded in certain kinds of extraordinary personal experiences. Because these experiences are extra-rational they are often called:

mystical experiences

The view that there is a multiplicity of real things is called

ontological pluralism

"What is the difference between appearance and reality?" is a question studied under:

ontology

The question "What does it mean for something to exist?" is different from the question "What does it mean for us to know that something exists?" The difference between the two questions highlights the difference between two branches of philosophy, namely:

ontology and epistemology

All of the following are examples of metaphysical freedoms, except:

political freedom

"According to Freud, religion avoids dealing with the harsh reality of life by promoting a self-deluding and infantile belief in an omnipotent figure who will save us from feelings of helplessness and fear." The previous statement is:

true

"According to Kant, the cosmological argument fails because it assumes that existence is a predicate that adds something to our understanding of the concept of 'God'." The previous statement is:

true

"According to Plato, the Form of the Good is the ultimate cause or rationale for every meaningful or intelligible thing." This statement is:

true

"According to Rousseau, in a true democracy all citizens must vote on all issues of public interest." The previous statement is:

true

"Ethics is the branch of philosophy that studies the moral values of human beings." This statement is:

true

"Hedonism is the view that human conduct is or ought to be motivated by the pursuit of pleasure." The previous statement is:

true

"Materialism is the view that, because only physical matter and its properties exist, minds are merely manifestations of matter and are reducible to physical features." The previous statement is:

true

"The philosophy of Socrates was a kind of social activity, a kind of discourse between two or more people who were looking for the truth." This statement is:

true

"With his "principle of liberty," John Stuart Mill rejects the notion of "victimless crime," where the state has no right to criminalize behavior it deems harmful to the agent but to no one else." The previous statement is:

true

According to the soft determinist, a "free" action is caused by one's will or choice rather than by external forces, influences, or constraints.

true

Freud claims that irrational, antisocial drives (e.g., sexuality and aggression) can be sublimated in socially acceptable forms of creativity like science, art, religion, philosophy, or morality.

true

In calling the world an art object, existentialists want to highlight the fact that the world in which we live is open to human (creative) definition and characterization.

true

In hard determinism, freedom and determinism are incompatible because freedom would require that an action be uncaused.

true

The basic philosophical question for the first philosophers was: "If there is change, then there must be something behind change that itself does not change. What is this unchangeable thing?" This statement is:

true

Suppose that an anti-abortionist assassinates an abortionist, claiming that, "The end justifies the means: It is better to kill one human now, than to allow that person to kill many humans (perform abortions) in the future." This assassin's reasoning adheres to which ethical system.

utilitarian