Intro to Philosophy ACC Exam 1

True or False? According to Rowe, if we grant to Anselm the premise that God is a possible being, the argument is sound.

False

True or False? Believing that God exists increases the probability that God does in fact exist.

False

True or False? Hick says that it is possible to show that each item of human pain serves the divine purpose.

False

According to Swinburne, the simplicity of a scientific theory is a matter of its having

few component laws.

Some design arguments are framed as

inferences to the best explanation.

Pascal believes that when it comes to the question of God's existence

reason can decide nothing.

Benefits of Philosophy

Practical Interpersonal Intrapersonal

Atheism

The denial of the existence of God

Pantheism

A Divine Whole

Teleological Argument

Arguments that try to show that God must exist because features of the universe show signs of purpose or design.

Cosmological Argument

Arguments that try to show that from the fact that the universe exists, God exists.

True or False? Hick concludes that this world is not well adapted to the purpose of soul-making.

False

True or False? If inductive arguments succeed in lending probable support to their conclusions, they are said to be valid.

False

True or False? If sound, Aquinas's arguments prove that the God of traditional religion (an all-knowing, all-good, all-powerful being) exists.

False

True or False? A statement can be valid or invalid.

True

Metaphysics

REALITY -Does the world consist only of matter?

True or False? A statement can be valid or invalid.

False

Epistomology

KNOWLEDGE -What is knowledge? What is truth?

Mackie says that religious experiences are

generally indistinguishable from experiences with a known psychological or physical cause.

According to Hick, a certain amount of evil in the world is

necessary.

Argument from religious experience

An argument of this form: A person seems to have experienced God; the experience must have actually been a genuine encounter with God; therefore, God probably exists.

Argument from Evil

An argument purporting to show that since there is unnecessary evil, an all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good God must not exist.

Ontological Argument

An argument that tries to demonstrate God's existence by logical analysis of the concept of God

A statement can be valid or invalid

False

Deism

Belief in one God who created the world but left it unattended to run on its own.

Behe says that an irreducibly complex biological system would be a powerful challenge to

Darwinian evolution.

Arguments intended to give logically conclusive support to their conclusions so that if the premises are true, the conclusion must be true are _____.

Deductive

Questions like "What is knowledge?" and "What is truth?" are mainstays in the branch of philosophy known as _____.

Epistemology

True or False? Craig thinks that the cause of the universe must be an accident.

False

True or False? Guanilo demonstrated that Anselm's argument was sound.

False

True or False? Paley says that the anthropic principle does not support the idea of intelligent design of the universe.

False

True or False? Paley's argument, if cogent, proves that the designer of the world was a single being.

False

True or False? Philo declares that this world is the perfect product of a perfect deity.

False

True or False? Socrates thought that the primary occupation of a good citizen should be the pursuit of wealth and prestige.

False

Arguments that are supposed to give probable support to their conclusions are _____.

Inductive

Greatest Practical Benefit

It gives us the intellectual wherewithal to improve our lives by improving our philosophy of life.

Straw Man Fallacy

Occurs when a speaker or writer attempts to dismiss a contention by distorting or misrepresenting it.

Atman

One's soul or self

Logic

REASONING -What are the rules for drawing correct inferences?

If you assume that a set of statements is true, and yet you can deduce a false or absurd statement from it, then the original set of statements as a whole must be false. This kind of argument is known as _____.

Reductio ad absurdum

According to Paley, we must conclude that a watch had an intelligent designer if the watch

Shows purposefullness

False Dilemma Fallacy

Someone tries to establish a conclusion by offering it as the only alternative to something we will find unacceptable, unattainable, or implausible.

Agnostic

Someone who neither accepts nor denies God's existence.

Hick says the idea of a person who can be infallibly guaranteed always to act rightly is

self-contradictory.

Panentheism

The view that although God and the world are distinct, the world is part of God.

True or False: In philosophy—and in any other kind of rational inquiry—accepting a conclusion (statement) without good reasons is an elementary mistake in reasoning.

True

True or False? For Hick, soul-making is an essential part of a plausible theodicy.

True

True or False? Paley says that if we found a watch and examined it closely, we would naturally infer that it had a maker, even if we had never seen a watch made.

True

True or False? Pascal believes that belief in God is a rational act.

True

True or False? Rowe believes that Anselm's argument fails as a proof of the existence of God.

True

A good argument must have (1) solid logic and (2) _____.

True Premises

Axiology

VALUE -Are my actions right or wrong?

Rowe argues that we can allow someone to define God anyway she wants, yet it will not follow from that definition that such a being

actually exists.

According to Behe, the gradual accumulation of mutations

cannot evolve a biological system.

Anselm assumes that a being that exists in reality is greater than a being that

exists only in the understanding.

James says that a genuine option is

forced, live, and momentous.

According to Kant, to say that something exists is to

not add any additional property to it.

Pascal says that if you bet that God exists, and he does in fact exist, you

win infinite happiness and lose nothing.

Paley

-Design Argument -Tele

argumentum ad hominem

-Most common argument -This fallacy is committed if a speaker or writer attempts to dismiss someone's position (idea, proposal, claim, argument, etc.) by dismissing him or her.

Aquinas

1. Everything in the observable world has a cause. 2. Nothing can be the cause of itself. 3. An infinite regress of causes is not possible. 4. If nothing can cause itself, and an infinite regress of causes is not possible, there must be a first cause. 5. Therefore, everything caused must have a first cause—which we call God.

Theodicy

A defense of the traditional conception of God in light of the existence of evil.

What is a fallacy?

A mistake in reasoning, an argument that does not support or prove the contention it is supposed to support or prove

Pascal's Wager

If we believe in God and he really does exist, we win infinite happiness; If we believe and he does NOT exist, we lose nothing.