PHIL-230 Final Study Set
Q4: Suppose you had your brain transplanted into another human's body. Gretchen Weirob thinks that its being your brain is irrelevant to whether the person after the brain transplant is you. What is her reason for thinking that?
Although your brain is part of your body, your brain plays no role in your self-concept involving your body.
Q5: Which of the following examples would all three of the philosophers we studied (John Locke, David Hume, and Thomas Reid) agree is not an example of free action?
As an effect of Tourette syndrome, Bob's elbow involuntarily knocks his friend into the path of an oncoming bus.
Q2: According to Plato's Phaedo, what does Cebes say humans believe about death?
At death, the soul escapes the body with its last breath and disperses like breath or smoke; thus, death is the end of consciousness.
Q4: What is Thomas Reid's explanation of why we say that a ship is the same ship across time even after a change in anchors, sails, and masts?
Because our language cannot afford a different name for every different material state of what we call the ship, we do it for the convenience of speech.
Q3: In class we noted that an "unsubstantiated type" is a type of thing for which there are no instances (such as "unicorn"). The theory that has the problem of unsubstantiated types is
Class Nominalism about sameness.
Q3: The theory that says that set membership is what makes true our true talk about sameness is
Class Nominalism about sameness.
Q5: Which philosopher said the following: "... the relation of motives to voluntary actions is as regular and uniform as that of cause to effect in any part of nature".
David Hume
Q5: Which philosopher said the following: "So according to the principle that denies necessity, and consequently denies causes in human behaviour, a man who has committed the most dreadful crime is as pure and untainted as a newborn baby. His character is in no way involved in his actions, since they are not caused by it".
David Hume
Q5: Thomas Reid believed that determinism is true.
False
Q5: Thomas Reid claimed that one's motives always cause one's free actions.
False
Q5: Which of the following conditions does David Hume think is not required for one to perform a free action?
Holding fixed all past events and the natural laws up until time t, one can at t do an act A, and one can at t do not-A.
Q2: In class we discussed Socrates' views about how we can attain the real, complete, ultimate goods. Suppose someone responded to Socrates' views as follows: "If we can get the real, complete, ultimate goods only at death, why don't we kill ourselves right now?" How would Socrates answer the person's question?
It would be foolish to kill ourselves now, because we can't be sure we've practiced philosophy sufficiently to escape the cycle of reincarnation.
Q4: We have noted that whether it is possible for there to be life after death depends on what constitutes personal identity across time. Of the theorists about personal identity across time that we have studied, which one of the following correctly identifies proponents of theories that, according to their own conditions, allow in principle for a human to live in a meaningful way as a person (e.g., to continue through time having personal experiences) after that human's death?
John Locke and Thomas Reid
Q4: In A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality, Gretchen Weirob tells the following story:Julia North's body was badly mangled in a streetcar accident, but her brain was undamaged. At about the same time, Mary Frances suffered a massive stroke, which vitiated her brain but left the rest of her body undamaged. Surgeons replaced Mary Frances' brain with Julia North's brain, which carried with it Julia North's mental states (including her memories, values, dispositions, etc.). Who would John Locke say woke up from the surgery?
Julia North
Q3: Which of the following does John Locke say confirms his theory of personal identity across time?
Legal courts don't punish a sane man for an insane man's crime (even when they are the same man), because the sane man's consciousness is disconnected from the insane man's consciousness.
Q4: Objecting to John Locke's theory of personal identity across time, Thomas Reid claimed that
Locke confused the evidence we have for our personal identity across time with what constitutes our personal identity across time.
Q4: Thomas Reid's "brave officer objection", to John Locke's theory of personal identity across time, concludes that
Locke's theory is faulty, because it implies that the old man made a general is, and is not, the same person as the boy who was flogged for stealing.
Q2: Which of the following does Socrates explicitly rely on in explaining how humans gain opinions about physical objects?
Our senses, which produce opinions about physical objects, are akin to physical objects.
Q3: The following theory (T1) is an analysis of knowledge. T1. Person S knows that proposition p if and only if (i) S believes p, (ii) p is true, and (iii) S gives an account of the reason why p is true. T1 best describes the theory of knowledge endorsed by which philosopher?
Socrates in Meno
Q1: Suppose you know that a deductive argument is invalid and that all its premises are false. What can you reasonably conclude on the basis of your knowledge that the argument is invalid and that all its premises are false?
The argument fails to prove to you that its conclusion is true.
Q2: In class we evaluated the following conceptual analysis (or philosophical theory) of a person, by considering whether there are any counter-examples to the theory: An object S is a person if, and only if, (i) S is an earth organism, and (ii) S has green skin. Which of the following expresses the truth about whether you have the epistemic right to claim to know that this theory of a person is wrong?
The concept of "person" is a concept in ordinary use; as a competent user of the concept, you are well-suited to tell that green lizards are not persons and that most humans are persons.
Q3: John Locke considers the following objection to his theory of personal identity across time: "But isn't a man drunk and sober the same person? Why else is he punished for what he does when drunk, even if he is never afterwards conscious of it? He is just as much a single person as a man who walks in his sleep and is answerable, while awake, for any harm he did in his sleep." Locke responds to the objection embedded in the quotation above, by arguing that
The courts can justly punish a man who cannot remember what he did while drunk, because his bad actions can be proved against the man, whereas his lack of consciousness of his bad actions cannot be proved for the man.
Q2: In Meno, Socrates uses the example of the slave-boy in arguing for the conclusion that Socrates' theory of recollection is true. Which of the following is a reason Socrates gives for his conclusion?
The slave-boy had never been taught geometry since he was born.
Q4: In class we considered the following thought experiment: Suppose that today you die suddenly and unexpectedly. One-thousand years after your death, a person comes into existence who both has the same mental states you have (i.e., has the same memories, values, preferences, etc., that you have) and whose bodily states are indistinguishable from yours the instant before your sudden, unexpected death. Given his theory of personal identity across time, how would Thomas Reid respond to the following question: is the person described in the thought experiment the same person as you, or not?
The thought experiment does not provide enough information to be able to tell whether or not that person one-thousand years from now is you.
Q4: According to John Perry's A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality, which of the following expresses Gretchen Weirob's own view about life after death?
There is no personal life after death, because at death a person goes out of existence, never to exist again.
Q3: Whose theory best fits with our common-sense belief that a clock maintains its identity across time despite changes in its substance?
Thomas Reid
Q5: Which philosopher said the following: "To be subject to necessity is to have no power at all; for power and necessity are opposites. We grant, therefore, that motives have influence, like the influence of advice or persuasion; but this influence is perfectly consistent with liberty".
Thomas Reid
Q2: According to Socrates in Phaedo, what is the purpose of living a life of philosophy?
To gain the ultimate perfect and unchanging goods, which can be obtained only through the psuche (mind).
Q5: It is impossible for a person to change the future.
True
Q3: In explaining what makes our true claims about sameness true, the theory that best corresponds to Plato's theory of the forms is
Universalism about sameness.
Q1: In class we noted that we can test an argument for validity even if we do not know what some of its words mean, so long as we know what grammatical role each word has in the argument's sentences. Is the following argument valid or invalid? 1. If Casey is an abigucki, then rankflies can dootify. 2. Casey is an abigucki. C. Rankflies can dootify. [1, 2] Valid or invalid?
Valid
Q3: How does Pure Nominalism explain what makes S true? S: This tree is the same as that tree; that is, both are wooden.
We apply the word "wooden" to this tree and to that tree.
Q2: What was the problem we found in class with the following argument by Socrates? 1. All living souls come from the world of the dead. 2. If (1), then it is not impossible for souls in the world of the dead to come to the world of the living. 3. It is not impossible for souls in the world of the dead to come to the world of the living. {1, 2} 4. If souls do not pre-exist in the world of the dead, then it is impossible for souls in the world of the dead to come to the world of the living. 5. Souls pre-exist in the world of the dead. {3, 4}
We have reason to be in doubt about Premise 1, because it is derived from an unsupported ancient theory that Socrates' had heard of.
Q2: Of the following lines of reasoning about Equality itself, which one best expresses Socrates' view in Phaedo?
We sometimes think of Equality itself; if we're thinking of Equality itself, then we're thinking of something; so, Equality itself exists even though we have never experienced two perfectly equal physical objects.
Q4: In John Perry's A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality, Gretchen Weirob claims that a proponent of the immaterial soul view of personal identity has no more reason to believe hypothesis H1 than to believe H2 or H3. H1: a single soul has been associated with this body I call "mine" since birth. H2: a single soul was associated with this body I call "mine" until 5 years ago, and then another soul, introspectively indistinguishable from the first, has been associated with this body I call "mine" ever since. H3: every 5 years a new, introspectively indistinguishable soul takes over this body I call "mine". In class we evaluated Weirob's claim as follows:
Weirob is incorrect: H1 is the simplest hypothesis among its rivals; thus, it is the most reasonable explanation among its rivals.
Q4: In A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality, Gretchen Weirob tells the following story: Julia North's body was badly mangled in a streetcar accident, but her brain was undamaged. At about the same time, Mary Frances suffered a massive stroke, which vitiated her brain but left the rest of her body undamaged. Surgeons replaced Mary Frances' brain with Julia North's brain, which carried with it Julia North's mental states (including her memories, values, dispositions, etc.). Weirob says that she was offered the same surgery that Julia North had. Why did Weirob reject the offer?
Weirob thought the person who survived the surgery was not Julia North but rather Mary Frances.
Q4: David Hume says that some philosophers make the mistake of thinking that there is an enduring, simple self that we are intimately conscious of. What is Hume's reason for thinking that such philosophers are mistaken?
When we consider our own conscious states, we become aware of perceptions, but we never observe an enduring, simple self in addition to the perceptions.
Q2: According to what Socrates says in Phaedo, the Beautiful itself is
a knowable form
Q2: Applied to a philosophical theory (i.e., a conceptual analysis), a philosophical counter-example is
a possible instance of something that shows either that (i) one of the theory's necessary conditions is not actually necessary for the concept to apply, or (ii) the theory's necessary conditions are not jointly sufficient for the concept to apply.
Q5: According to John Locke, the human will is
a power the human mind has to order an action.
Q3: John Locke says that human identity across time consists in
a relation of 1st person consciousness via memory across time.
Q2: Which one of the following would Socrates in Phaedo say has the least reality?
a representational painting of a horse
Q4: The theory of personal identity that we associated with David Hume implies that a person is
a set of perceptions at a time.
Q5: The traditional puzzle of freedom and determinism concerns the following three theses: 1. Some human actions are performed freely, and their agents are morally responsible for them. 2. All events, including all human actions, are causally determined. 3. (1) and (2) are logically incompatible. All soft determinists solve the traditional puzzle of freedom and determinism by
accepting (1) and (2) but rejecting (3).
Q5: The traditional puzzle of freedom and determinism concerns the following three theses: 1. Some human actions are performed freely, and their agents are morally responsible for them. 2. All events, including all human actions, are causally determined. 3. (1) and (2) are logically incompatible. All libertarians solve the traditional puzzle of freedom and determinism by
accepting (1) and (3) but rejecting (2).
Q5: The traditional puzzle of freedom and determinism concerns the following three theses: 1. Some human actions are performed freely, and their agents are morally responsible for them. 2. All events, including all human actions, are causally determined. 3. (1) and (2) are logically incompatible. All hard determinists solve the traditional puzzle of freedom and determinism by
accepting (2) and (3) but rejecting (1).
Q2: According to what we called "Plato's Divided Line", a painting of someone's pet pig is
an imperfect representation of an imperfect representation of the form of pig.
Q4: I have a clear, vivid memory experience of being on a fishing trip with my father when a pair of water moccasins (poisonous snakes) rose up out of the water in an attempt to eat some fish my father and I had recently caught. Several years after my remembered fishing trip, during a conversation with my parents, I mentioned this episode in my life. My father then said: "Son, you didn't go on that fishing trip: that was your brother", a claim that was later confirmed by my brother. My memory experience was
an instance of seeming memory but not an instance of veridical memory.
Q1: The question "why is there something rather than nothing?" cannot be answered by a scientific explanation, for the reason that
any scientific explanation will make use of something (e.g., a natural law) the existence of which is not explained by that scientific explanation.
Q1: Verbal signals that a writer intends what follows to be a premise in an argument include the following:
because; given that; since.
Q4: In class we noted that some Lockeans about personal identity across time have responded to Reid's brave officer objection, by
broadening the first-person consciousness relation to include not only direct memory of past experiences but also indirect memory of past experiences.
Q3: Suppose Jane is considering the set of happy things. Jane thinks: "The reason that all the things in the set of happy things are members of that set is that each thing in that set shares something with each other thing in that set." Jane is a
class nominalist about sameness.
Q2: According to what Socrates says in Phaedo, the forms are
eternal and perfect.
Q3: If Thomas Reid's account of personal identity across time is correct, then person A at time1 is the same person as person B at a later time10 only if B has a memory of A's first-person conscious experience.
false
Q3: John Locke claimed that substance identity across time consists in a relation of first-person consciousness via memory across time.
false
Q3: John Locke's theory of personal identity across time implies, and therefore requires, that you are a conscious, immaterial soul.
false
Q2: According to the dominant scholarly view, the correct rule of thumb to solve an instance of "the Socratic problem" is:
if the character Socrates says something in one of Plato's middle or late dialogues that conflicts with what Socrates says in one of Plato's early dialogues, then what Socrates says in that middle or late dialogue is actually Plato's view.
Q5: The self-as-the-source view, of the control necessary for one to be morally responsible for an action, requires that
in every possible situation, the agent can do anything the agent desires to do.
Q1: What is true of the following argument? 1. If Tiger wins this round, then Tiger wins the Master's Tournament. 2. If Tiger wins the Master's Tournament, then Tiger regains the #1 ranking. C. Tiger regains the #1 ranking. [1, 2] Invalid or valid?
invalid
Q1: A necessary truth is a proposition that
is true under all possible conditions.
Q5: The kind of agency that Thomas Reid endorsed is mysterious in the following way:
it fails to explain how a person can act freely for a reason.
Q1: Something counts as a philosophical argument (or an "academic argument") only if
it includes at least one conclusion and one reason to believe that conclusion.
Q1: An argument is sound if, and only if,
it is valid and all its premises are true.
Q3: According to Socrates in Phaedo, "the philosophical attitude" with respect to arguments is characterized by one's goal of
knowing the truth about a matter.
Q2: In Meno, Socrates uses a slave boy explicitly to support his philosophical theory that
knowledge is recollection.
Q1: the study/account/theory of knowledge
no
Q3: Thomas Reid says that one's best evidence for believing that one is the same person now as a person who existed in the past is
one's belief that one has an immaterial soul.
Q5: David Hume's view of the liberty of a moral agent implies that
one's free actions are necessitated by one's motives.
Q5: As we noted in class, Thomas Reid accepted agency theory. Which of the following best expresses the main idea of agency theory?
persons have a special power to make decisions; when a person uses that power, the decision the person makes is not caused by prior events.
In the following argument, the sentence labeled "2" is a 1. All apples are composed of organic molecules. 2. Red Delicious Apples are apples. 3. Red Delicious Apples are composed of organic molecules. [1, 2]
premise
Q1: A deductive argument (deduction) is the only kind of argument that could in principle
prove (in the strongest sense of "prove"; establish) the truth of its conclusion, and therefore make its conclusion reasonable to believe.
Q4: Which slogan best expresses Gretchen Weirob's theory of personal identity across time?
same slowly changing personal body, same person
Q5: David Hume was a
soft determinist.
Q2: Conceptual analysis is one of the two main methods of philosophy. To analyze a concept just is to
state the necessary conditions that are jointly sufficient for the concept to apply.
Q3: According to Thomas Reid, the only kind of identity is the kind defined by John Locke as
substance identity
Q5: Causal determinism is inconsistent with
the claim that all past events and the natural laws causally necessitate all future events.
Q3: John Locke says that the identity of a substance across time consists in
the continuous, uninterrupted existence of that substance across time.
Q3: Thomas Reid says that personal identity across time consists in
the continuous, uninterrupted existence of the indivisible self across time.
Q5: Theorists about metaphysical free will agree that the relevant kind of freedom pertains to
the kind of control required for a person to be morally responsible for that person's decisions and actions.
Q1: "Philosophy" is an English word derived from two ancient Greek words, which mean
the love of wisdom.
Q1: An argument passes the conclusive premises test for a person only if
the person has a reason to believe each of the argument's premises, and the person has no reason to disbelieve any of its premises.
Q1: "Epistemology" is an English word derived from two ancient Greek words, which mean
the study/account/theory of knowledge
Q2: The Socratic method of teaching is a method by which
the teacher asks questions of students to prompt their thought about the question, and the students then ask questions of the teacher in order prompt the teacher's thought about the question.
Q3: John Locke defines "person" as he does, because he considers
the term "person" to be a forensic term having to do with the justice of praise/blame or reward/punishment.
Q1: An argument is valid if, and only if,
the truth of its premises logically guarantees the truth of its conclusion
Q2: In Plato's Phaedo, Socrates says, "the one aim of those who practice philosophy in the proper manner is
to practice for dying and death".
Q2: In Phaedo, Socrates claimed that forms are ideas, which exist in our minds.
true
Q2: In Phaedo, Socrates claims that all knowledge is obtained via the mind, not the senses.
true
Q3: In Meno, Socrates says that true belief is just as good a guide to action as is knowledge.
true
Q3: In Meno, Socrates says that true belief is prized just as highly as knowledge is prized.
true
Q3: In Phaedo, Socrates claimed that forms are ideas, which exist in our minds.
true
Q5: John Locke said that the man in Locke's locked room example does not freely stay in the locked room.
true
Q1: What is true of the following argument? 1. If Honey Boo Boo wins the contest, then Honey Boo Boo gets $5,000. 2. Honey Boo Boo does not get $5,000. 3. Honey Boo Boo does not win the contest. [1, 2] valid or invalid?
valid
Q1: 1. All trains are trucks. 2. Donald Trump is a train. C. Donald Trump is a truck. [1, 2] The argument above is
valid, because its conclusion logically follows from its premises.
Q1: In philosophy a proposition is
whatever is expressed by a declarative sentence.
Q2: "The Socratic Problem" is the problem of figuring out
which speeches by the character Socrates represent the historical Socrates' views and which represent Plato's views.
Q1: Can a valid argument have a false conclusion?
yes
Q1: Can a valid argument's premises all be false?
yes
