Intro to Philosophy exam 2

"Drive responsibly: do your part to keep other motorists out of harm's way." This most closely approximates to

Christ's Golden Rule

The social contract is the mechanism whereby human beings can achieve comfortable self-preservation.

True

The ultimate goal of Epicurean hedonism is serenity, friendship, freedom, good health, and independence.

True

According to St. Thomas' Natural Law teaching,

i, iv, vii.

2 out of 2 points Which of the following arguments against vulgar hedonism does Epicurus NOT make?

Vulgar hedonism estranges one from the ethical norms and values of society.

Death, according to Epicurus,

is deprivation of sensation.

According to Epicurus' atomistic cosmology,

matter can neither be created nor destroyed.

According to Epicurus, when we die

we lose consciousness forever

According to Epicurus, the human soul is a spiritual essence that pervades, and survives the death of, the atomistic body.

False

Death, for Epicurus, is the greatest of evils that can befall a human being.

False

For St. Thomas, "good" and "evil" have nothing to do with following our natural inclinations, but are rather purely a matter of personal, subjective preference, so that what's "good" for you may not be "good" for me.

False

Hobbes champions every subject's inalienable right to abide by his private conscience, even when it conflicts with what the law demands.

False

Hobbes' state of nature is an paradise full of comfort, security, and material abundance

False

In order to live well, one must engage in political and commercial activity, earning for oneself great wealth and influence in the community.

False

The divine law is necessary because no human being could ever have access to the natural law without receiving the divine law first.

False

The truth about man's ultimate end, salvation and eternal life, can be discovered by man's unassisted reason, fully independent of divine revelation.

False

Each of the following statements is consistent with St. Thomas' natural law theory EXCEPT:

Good and bad, right and wrong, are entirely matters of personal opinion.

A law that is not the product of reason is a perversion of law.

True

According to Epicurus, atoms are the irreducibly simplest constituents of the natural world.

True

According to St. Thomas, God built into mankind a determinate nature which exhibits four basic inclinations: self-preservation, procreation and rearing of offspring, living in society, and knowing the truth about God.

True

Appetite/desire and aversion are the irreducible causes of all acts of choice and avoidance.

True

Besides atoms and void, nothing else exists. Thus, the term "incorporeal substance" is a complete absurdity.

True

Justice is nothing more than an agreement that citizens make with one another not to harm each other or be harmed.

True

Law is an ordinance of reason, made by him who has care of the community, for the sake of the common good, and promulgated.

True

Why, according to Hobbes, do human beings enter into a commonwealth?

All of the above

Each of the following is a natural human inclination enumerated by Thomas Aquinas EXCEPT:

All of the above are natural human inclinations.

Which of the following BEST describes the logical connection(s) between atomism and hedonism in Epicurus' thought? Read each answer option very carefully!

Atomism denies the existence of incorporeal beings, such as immortal souls. If the human soul—the organ of perception and thought—is made up of atoms which disperse back into nature at life's end, then death would be nothing more than a dreamless, eternal sleep and not a journey into another, potentially wretched, world. The Epicurean, knowing this, thereby achieves a reassuring calmness of mind, a tranquility of soul.

According to St. Thomas Aquinas, each of the following is an essential feature of law EXCEPT:

It can be authored by anyone in the community

"But though the benefits of this life may be much furthered by mutual help; since yet those may be better attained to by dominion, than by the society of others, I hope no body will doubt, but that men would much more greedily be carried by nature, if all fear were removed, to obtain dominion, than to gain society." What is Hobbes' main argument in this passage?

It's better to be an all-powerful dictator than a mere citizen who must obey the laws and play by the rules

St. Thomas Aquinas and Thomas Hobbes would agree on which of the following?

None of the above

According to Hobbes' Leviathan, human life without government would be characterized by each of the following EXCEPT:

People would still be able to turn to St. Thomas' Natural Law as a universal standard of morality

According to Hobbes, which two needs drive human action?

Personal gain and survival

According to Thomas Aquinas' concept of Natural Law, all of the following would be deemed immoral EXCEPT:

Reading Aristotle's Metaphysics

Each of the following is, according to Epicurus, an essential ingredient to living well EXCEPT:

Respect

A man brutally murders an innocent victim. According to Epicurus, in what way would this act rightly be considered "evil"?

Such an act creates a feeling of hysteria and apprehension in the criminal.

Each of the following is a characteristic of the state of nature EXCEPT:

There are abundant resources available for human consumption

The natural law is man's participation, through the exercise of his reason, in God's providential ordering of the universe.

True

For Hobbes, the greatest good and the greatest evil, respectively, for a human being are:

comfortable self-preservation and being the victim of murder