Philosophy short answer questions
What is the difference between an emerald that is green and an object that is "grue"?
- A grue emerald is an emerald that is indistinguishable from a green emerald until an arbitrary fixed point in time t, after which it is indistinguishable from a blue emerald.
Explain the distinction between determinism and indeterminism.
- Determinism: All events, including the choices and actions of agents, are completely caused by the prior state of the universe, and the laws of nature. - Indeterminism: Not all events.... negation of determinism.
What is Arntzenius' "simple argument" that time travel is unlikely to occur in our universe?
- From the grandfather paradox: - We know that if there are time travellers they will fail to kill their ancestors before they are born. This requires bizarre coincidences such as banana peels lying around in just the right spots. But it is implausible that our world is set up in such a conspiratorial way. - Further, the time traveller can't do anything that is inconsistent with what happened at the time. The constraints are so bizarre that TT seems implausible.
What is natural evil?
- Natural evil is evil which is not the result of the action of free agents. - This includes natural disasters, and injuries/deaths inflicted by animals.
What is the Lewis definition of time travel?
- (interesting) time travel occurs when our personal time, as measured by say a wristwatch I am wearing conflicts with external time of the rest of the world. - For instance if I go from 11AM GMT external time to 12PM GMT, in what takes me 5 minutes according to my personal time (measured by my wristwatch), then I have time travelled.
Explain the distinction between a fundamental moral norm and a derivative moral norm.
- A FMN is a moral standard that doesn't derive from any more fundamental moral standard (e.g., DCT takes "it is wrong to act as God forbids" to be a fundamental moral norm). - A DMN is a moral standard, which renders some verdict regarding the moral status of some act-type, that derives from a more fundamental moral norm (e.g. DCT forbids adultery, based on the FMN that "it is wrong to act as God forbids").
Explain Frankfurt's distinction between second-order desires and second-order volitions.
- A SOD is a desire for some first-order desire. S wants to desire to quit smoking. SOD's don't always align with FODs, my SOD to quit smoking may contradict with my FOD to continue smoking. - The SOD of my FOD which I want to be my will is a second order volition. I could have a SOD for a FOD which I did not want to be my will, e.g. a scientist might SOD to FOD heroin to feel what it is like to be a heroin addict, but he doesn't want the FOD to be his will, since he doesn't want to take heroin.
Explain Frankfurt's distinction between first-order desires and the will.
- A first-order desire is a want to perform a certain action. For example I might have a first-order desire to eat dinner. - The will is merely the FOD which is causally efficacious towards an agent's action. E.G. a first order desire to watch TV, and a first order desire to go to a party, if I decide to watch TV, it was that FOD that can be identified as the will.
Explain the moral reformer problem that moral relativism faces.
- A moral reformer is someone who stands against the cultural moral norms to attempt to impose a new moral norm, which many of us today view as superior, eg. MLK jr in the civil rights movement. - Because MR says that anything that goes against the established moral norms of a culture is wrong, MR says that moral reformers are technically acting immorally, which goes against our intuitions.
What is Occam's razor?
- A philosophical and scientific principle, aka principle of parsimony, says that among competing hypotheses to explain something, the explanation with fewer assumptions (entities) is preferred (i.e. the simplest). - The razor is used to shift burdens of proof, theories with more assumptions have higher burdens, so all things being equal, the simpler theory is taken to be correct.
Explain the difference between a priori and a posteriori knowledge, and why the former poses a challenge for empiricism.
- A priori: knowledge that is independent of experience, e.g. all bachelors are unmarried does not require you to scientifically examine bachelors. - A posteriori: knowledge dependent on experience, e.g. some bachelors are happy requires observation of at least one happy bachelor. - Challenge: empiricism suggest the only source of knowledge is experience, a priori knowledge questions that, the proof that root 2 is irrational could be worked out entirely in your head, and that knowledge was therefore acquired without experiencing the irrationality of root 2.
Explain the distinction between the theodicist and the anti-theodicist. Can an atheist be a theodicist?
- A theodicist is someone who believes that the existence of evil is compatible with the existence of the 3-O God. - An anti-theodicist is someone who does not believe that the existence of evil is compatible with the existence of the 3-O God. - Atheists can be theodicists if they believe the existence of evil is compatible with the existence of the 3-O God, but reject his existence for other reasons
What is a theodicy? What is its general structure?
- A theodicy is an explanation of how the existence of evil is compatible with the existence of the 3-O God. - General structure: even if God can do anything logically possible, he can't prevent the existence of evil without thereby sacrificing some greater good, G, for it is logically impossible for G to exist without evil, and a world with G and evil is better than a world without G and no evil. - (W1): G and no evil. (W2): G and evil. (W3): No G and no evil. (W4): No G and evil. A theodicy involves specifying some G such that W1 is logically impossible and W2 is better than both W3 and W4.
How does Salmon argue that Zeno's Paradox of the Arrow can be overcome?
- By describing the flight path of the arrow as a continuous function of time, we can give a specific continuous location for the arrow at any given moment in time. - By using differential calculus we can define an instantaneous velocity of the arrow at any of these times (the change in speed/time as time tends to 0), so the arrow is not ever defined as at rest.
Camus "cannot conceive that a skeptical metaphysics can be joined to an ethics of renunciation." What does he mean by this and why does he think so?
- Camus means that it does not follow from the fact we can find no transcendent meaning for our lives that we should abandon the notion there is any meaning in life and commit suicide. - This is because Camus believes we can find meaning in our lives through revolt (See card question 2 on Meaning of Life).
Explain the distinction between compatibilism and incompatibilism.
- Compatibilism: the truth of determinism is compatible with the existence of free will. This is based on an understanding of free will as acting in accordance with one's internal action causing desires. - Incompatibilism: the truth of determinism is incompatible with the existence of free will. Incompatibilists can therefore reject determinism (libertarians) or reject the existence of free will (determinists).
What, according to Frankfurt, is the relation between concern and importance?
- Conditional relation: If I am concerned about something, according to Frankfurt, then it is important. (Note: things can still be important if we don't care about them) - Concern contains three aspects: 1. Cognitive sensitivity - how we think 2. Affective sensitivity - how we feel 3. Volitional sensitivity - how we act - Concern makes you vulnerable, it matters what happens to the objects of your concern, and that is importance for Frankfurt
Define and explain the distinction between a criterion of rightness and a decision procedure.
- Criterion of rightness: a principle which determines precisely whether an action is right or wrong (e.g. DCT). - Decision procedure: a process by which rightness can be located, even if the criterion is not known. For instance, for theists who believe morality exists independently of God, God still commands right actions (EET), so we should use religious authority as a DP to find rightness.
Define and explain the Euthyphro Dilemma.
- Existential Equivalence Thesis: God commands what is morally right, and forbids what is morally wrong. Two possible ways this could be true: 1. Actions are right or wrong because God commands or forbids them respectively (DCT). God's commands are arbritary, he could command utmost cruelty and it would be right be definition. 2. There is a moral standard independent of God, from which God commands what is good. God is not the creator of all.
Explain the distinction between determinism and fatalism.
- Fatalism is the claim that no matter what happens, a certain event or series of events will necessarily occur. These events may not necessarily be due to causality, and it doesn't have to apply to all events. - Determinism is the claim that given what has already happened, a certain event or series of events will necessarily occur given the laws of nature. These events are all due to causality, and applies to all events.
What is gratuitous evil?
- Gratuitious evil: an evil, E, is gratuitous if and only if there is not some greater good G, such that the existence of E is logically necessary for the existence of G. - Therefore for any good, H, that does follow from E, a world with E + H will be worse than a world with neither E nor H. - For example children suffering examples in Dostoyevsky.
What is a hedged law?
- Hedged law is true except in a non-empty set of cases. Essentially creates ad hoc exceptions when the rule does not apply. - For example the law of supply and demand, generally true, but can cease to apply under certain conditions such as consumers being: ignorant, empathetic or irrational (an economist does not know the difference between the last two).
Explain the problem of formulation that moral relativism faces.
- If an individual is a member of multiple cultures with conflicting moral norms, e.g. a liberal pro-choice group and the Catholic Church. For this individual therefore, an action (abortion) is simultaneously morally right and morally wrong. - If one allows an individual to choose the culture they are basing their decision on, then this can collapse to subjectivism.
If we assume that the balls in the jar in Ross' Paradox have continuous worldlines, then how many balls are in the jar at the end of Ross' procedure?
- If the balls in Ross' paradox have continuous worldlines then for every ball numbered n, there is a t1 where that ball was moved into the originally empty jar, and a later time t2 where that ball was removed from the jar. - It therefore follows that if their worldline is continuous then at the end of the experiment the jar must contain 0 balls, as every single ball was removed from it at some point.
What roles do a 1km gold sphere and a 1km uranium sphere play in helping us describe laws?
- Illustrates the characteristic of modality of laws which distinguishes them from other mundane facts. - Gold sphere: there is no gold sphere with a 1km radius because there is not enough gold in the world, the reason it can't be done is purely circumstantial, if we gathered enough gold from other places in the universe we could make our 1km sphere. - Uranium sphere: a Uranium sphere of 1km cannot be made because of the physical properties of uranium. Uranium 235 has a critical mass of 52kg, above which it will begin a sustained fission reaction that destroys the mass. A 1km sphere would have a multi trillion kilogram mass, and it is a physical law that prevents it, regardless of how much uranium we have.
Explain why Arntzenius says that the Lewis definition of time travel (in terms of personal and external time) "ain't quite right." How does Arntzenius recommend we correct the definition?
- Lewis' definition of external time needs adjusting because there is no unique notion of external time. Whether an event occurs at one time or another depends on the frame of reference, and there is no objective fact about which is correct. But there is still an objective order to events that occur on an observer's worldline. For example, if I throw a rock at a tree, then have a beer, observers may disagree what time these events occured depending on the frame of reference, but they won't disagree which event occured first. - We therefore say that an observer time travels if the order of events in that observer's personal time disagrees with the order of events in (any) notion of external time.
Explain the distinction between a logical possibility and a logical impossibility.
- Logical possibility: any statement that does not imply a contradiction p & ¬p - Logical impossibility: obviously just the negation, a statement that does imply a contradiction. Example: married bachelors, square circles etc.
What is mathematical Platonism?
- Mathematical Platonism is the belief that mathematical statements are true because they refer to real extant immaterial mathematical objects in a mathematical reality (ontological component). - Platonism is also doxastic: i.e. mathematical reality determines what we ought to believe.
Explain the distinction between moral absolutism and moral non-absolutism.
- Moral absolutism is the view that certain types of acts are wrong no matter how valuable their consequences. Examples: Pacifists. - Moral non-absolutism is the view that there are no types of acts that are wrong no matter how valuable their consequences.
Explain the distinction between moral relativism and moral objectivism.
- Moral relativism says: an act, A, performed by a subject, S, who is a member of a culture, C, is morally permissible if and only if, and because, the fundamental moral norms of C permit S to perform A. - Moral objectivism: an act, A, performed by S is morally permissible, iff and because it is determined by universal moral facts (regardless of culture).
What is the difference between the ordinary and the "regressive" form of Zeno's Dichotomy Paradox? What did Zeno conclude from these arguments?
- Ordinary: Achilles is chasing a tortoise which he is 10 times faster than and is 100m ahead of him. Achilles runs to where the tortoise is, when he gets there the tortoise is 10m ahead of him, so he runs to where he is again, and the tortoise is then 10m ahead. He will never catch up because every-time he gets to where the tortoise was, it has moved ahead. - Regressive: to get to the tortoise Achilles has to cover half the distance first, before that he must do a 1/4, before that an 1/8... there is no first step Achilles can take such that there isn't one he has to take before, hence he can never start moving. achillles sucks at turtle hunting
What is the Principle of Alternate Possibilities (PAP)?
- PAP: a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for the freedom of actions. - An agent A is free to do action X only if A could have done otherwise.
How does Popper distinguish science from "pseudoscience"?
- Popper uses the principle of falsibility to demarcate science and pseudoscience. - Science provides hypotheses for which there is a test which could falsify them, e.g. light travels at 3x10^8 m/s. - Pseudoscience hypotheses can be true or false but have no test. E.G. There is an invisibile, silent ninja behind you who will dodge you if you attempt to touch him.
How does underdetermination undermine the No Miracles argument?
- Premise 2 of the No Miracles argument: the best explanation for the success of science is that the theories are (approximately) true. - Underdetermination suggests that in cases with 2 (or more) equal in explanatory power, but contradictory, success is not a good indicator of truth. - If we assume both are false, we have no theory to explain the phenomena, if we assume both are true we end up with a contradiction.
What is the "divide and conquer" reply to the pessimistic meta-induction? (Chang calls this view "Preservative Realism.")
- Preservative realism focusses only on the parts of the theory that are necessary for its successful predictions - Science is the process of taking the successful aspects of a theory and discarding the parts unnecessary for the theorists' success. - Example: Copernican astronomy, wrong in many ways (e.g. sun being centre of universe), but the successful part of the theory was based on the idea that the earth revolves around the sun, which is held as true and retained. copernicus you so cool you so cool i wish i was polish/cool
What is odd about Tolstoy's assumption that if he is unhappy and unlikely ever to be happy again he might as well kill himself?
- Rests on an assumption of hedonistic egoism i.e. the only value in life is our own self-pleasure - This assumption may not be warranted: e.g. Nozick's experience machine offers an artificial life full of happiness and pleasure, but most of us would not plug in. This is because we place value on other things like our life, relationships etc. being real.
What is scientific realism?
- Scientific realism is the belief that the world as described by science is the real world, including unobservable entities like electrons or neutrinos. - A position to answer the question of why science is so successful.
Wolf says that meaningful activity "occurs where subjective attraction meets objective attractiveness." What does she mean?
- She means that you should be fully engaged and have an affinity with one or several of the objectively more worthwhile projects of life. - Examples: engagement with something not worthwhile (art history), not being engaged with something worthwhile (my philosophy degree), being engaged with something worthwhile (other people doing this degree).
Give an example of a supertask, and explain how the example satisfies the definition.
- Supertask: a procedure during which an infinite number of tasks are completed in a finite amount of time. - Thompson's lamp, a lamp is switched off, it is flicked on after 1/2 a minute, then off 1/4 of a minute later, then on an 1/8 of the minute later, off 1/16 of a minute later... this sequence goes on forever, but has a sum of 1, so the procedure involves an infinite number of light switches in a finite amount of time, therefore it is a super-task.
What is the Moral Diversity Thesis?
- The Moral Diversity Thesis: People in different societies accept different fundamental moral norms. Argument for MDT: 1. People in different societies make different moral judgements regarding the same type of action. 2. If people in different societies make different moral judgements regarding the same type of action, they must accept different fundamental moral norms. 3. Therefore, people in different societies accept different fundamental moral norms.
What gives rise to the Absurd, according to Nagel?
- The absurd arises from the juxtaposition of two perspectives of our lives: 1. Subjectively my birth seems necessary, my life important, and my death significant and terrifying. A perspective characterised by my engagement with my own life. 2. Objectively (in relation to the rest of the universe), my birth is radically contingent, my life pointless, and my death insignificant. - This contradiction of these perspectives is how the Absurd arises. - Example of publishing a paper
How does one obtain knowledge, according to the empiricist view of epistemology?
- The only source of knowledge for empiricists is through sensory experience. - Knowledge is acquired using scientific experimentation, using induction, i.e. gaining general knowledge of the world by inferring general principles from past experience.
Give an example off enumerative induction.
- The principle that if we observe a large number of instances in which something has a property, then we can infer that property in general. - Raven 1 is black, raven 2 is black, raven 3 is black... raven n is black, where n is a large number. Therefore all ravens are black.
What is the Problem of Induction?
- The problem of induction, principally enumerated by Hume, put simply is that there is no good philosophical justification for thinking induction provides knowledge (except cyclically from induction) - One cannot justify inferring from a large group of things with property P that all of those things have property P (white and black swans example) - One cannot justify thinking the world will behave the same in the future as it did in the past, we assume natural laws were and always will be the same.
What is mathematical antirealism?
- There is no special, mind-independent aspect of reality corresponding to the mathematical realm. - There are several branches of MAR such as, idealism (there is no reality beyond human thought), formalism (mathematical statements are like the rules of a game), and fictionalism (all mathematical statements are untrue, maths is a fiction invented by humans).
Give an example of underdetermination of theory by evidence
- Underdetermination occurs when there are two (or more) theories that are equally good for predicting certain phenomena, but are contradictory. - Roomates and beer example.
Define and explain the Divine Command Theory's (DCT's) Theory of the Right.
- What's right and wrong for a person to do is ultimately determined by God's commands. More precisely: - An act is morally obligatory if and only if, and because, God commands it. - An act is morally wrong if and only if, and because, God forbids it. - An act is morally optional if and only if, and because, it is neither morally obligatory nor morally wrong.
Explain one way to "complete" the description of Thomson's lamp so as to avoid the paradox.
- [draw a circuit] - The circuit is connected and the lamp turns on when the conductive ball makes contact with the conductive plate, the ball is elastic so it has no internal bounces, and therefore leaves the ground after every bounce. The bounces decrease in height fractionally after every contact, and the time between each bounce decreases with every bounce. - The decreasing time between bounce causes there to be an infinite number of bounces occurring in a finite time, leaving the ball on the plate and the lamp finishes the experiment on.
Explain Weyl's "tile argument" that our space is note discrete. Draw diagram to illustrate.
- imagine the smallest unit of space as a square. Imagine a grid of these squares, and draw a right angled triangle in the squares. - Pythagoras' theorem, (and empirically) a RAT always has it's hypotenuse as the longest side. In the tiles however, the hypotenuse is the same length as one of the sides, violating this rule, therefore space is not discrete.
Describe two different responses to Hume's problem of induction.
1, The problem of induction is insolvable, but good science doesn't use induction; Popper's falsification: science is the process of making bold conjectures and attempting to falsify them. The problem is therefore a pseudo-problem for good science 2. The hypothetico-deductive method: - Propose a hypothesis. - Show that the hypothesis implies a testable prediction. - Check whether the data matches that prediction, see if it's confirmed or falsified.
Explain two ways that one can escape the contradiction of the grandfather paradox.
1. Accept that TT is impossible. 2. Argue that given the fact that my grandfather did not die before he conceived my parent, Lewis argues that our attempts to kill our grandfather will fail (banana peel theory). Two types of can: I can kill my grandfather in the same sense I can speak Finnish (I have the cognitive ability), but given facts, my grandfather didn't die and I haven't learnt Finnish, I can't.
Summarize John Roberts' argument that there are no laws in the social sciences.
1. If there are any social laws, then they are hedged laws. 2. There are no hedged laws. 3. Therefore, there are no social laws. - Hedged law is true except in a non-empty set of cases. - Social laws always hedged because the apocalypse could wipe out society so that the laws ceased to apply. - Hedged laws are tautological, with a large list of exceptions, they are true except when they're not. Can't be empirically tested. Not laws.
Life might be "meaningless" in two different ways. Explain.
1. Meaningless in the sense of being cosmically/transcendently purposeless. Life has no larger meaning or inherent purpose. 2. Meaningless in the sense of having no value or worth in any sense. - One's life can be meaningless in the former sense without being meaningless in the latter if worth/value can be found elsewhere e.g. from Camus' conception of revolt: refusing suicide and searching for meaning despite awareness of "the absurd" (the human inability to find inherent meaning in life).
How does the pessimistic meta-induction provide an argument against realism?
1. Suppose that if a scientific theory is successful, then it is true. 2. There are past scientific theories as well as current scientific theories that were successful. 3.The successful past and current theories contradict one another. 4. Since success implies truth, both past and current theories must be true, but since these theories are incompatible, this implies a contradiction. 5. Therefore, success does not imply truth, since to assume otherwise implies a contradiction. - Realists argue the success of science provides evidence of its truth, the PMI challenges this.
Formulate the grandfather paradox as a valid argument in premise-conclusion form, in which the conclusion is the contradictory statement, "you exist and you do not exist."
1. You exist. 2. You travel back in time and kill your grandfather. 3. If you exist then your grandfather was not killed before your parent's conception. 4. If you travel back in time and kill your grandfather, then your grandfather was killed before your parent's conception. 5. You do not exist [2,4,3] 6. You exist and you do not exist [1,5]