philosophy final review

explain both versions of the categorical imperative

-Version 1 You should always act so that the maxim which describes your action that could be willed to a universal law (is it possible and desirable for everyone to do?) ex: loans and lending system -Version 2 don't treat human beings as a means to an end

explain two similarities between time and space according to ted sider

1. (in terms of reality): objects that are far away in space are just as real as objects that are close in space. the same is true of events in time. 2. (in terms of parts): objects take up space by having spatial parts, and objects take up time by having temporal parts

explain two reasons that clifford gives why it is wrong to maintain a "credulous character"

1. SHIPOWNERPerson who believes things that aren't supported by sufficient evidence 2. Can cause self harm and social harm because of weak powers of judgement (gullible) and ignoring possibilities of harm (influence other people who follow your example)

explain pascal's wager

God's existence is an unavoidable wager. Safer bet to believe in God because it has a great reward with little risk (loss of some time and energy) vs. terrible potential loss (risking purgatory immortal soul) and low gain.

why does kant say that only a good will is good in itself?

Good will is when one acts from the motive of duty, not always of self-interest, to uphold moral law. Kant says that the only thing in the world that is unconditionally good is good will because people may have good qualities such as respect, honestly, wealth, and power but if the wrong person has these good qualities, it can be used with bad will or for evil. If a bad person has intelligence, it's used for the wrong reason (person is more dangerous)

explain hardin's lifeboat example

Hardin uses the metaphor of a lifeboat to argue that the time may have to come to refuse to give aid in the form of food to needy countries that don't accept the responsibility for limiting their population growth. Needy countries will continue their irresponsible policies in regard to food production and population growth with our aid. The food we supply will enable these populations to continue to increase. This will eventually jeopardize the survival of the human species.

how is the actual world not appropriate as an expression of god's intentions according to everitt?

If the universe was created by God for the sake of man. we would appear earlier in the universe. we would appear not long after nonhuman animals. we should be in the center of the universe. the universe wouldn't be so vastly larger than earth

explain clifford's example of the ship owner

Owner has evidence that the ship won't sail because of damage 1. he sails the ship but the ship sinks and passenger dies 2. he sails the ship and they get back safely even though it was likely to sink In both vases it is wrong because he made a risk to expose people to danger; just because the ship owner was lucky doesn't mean it wasn't a wrong decision

explain sartre's example of the student who asked him for advice during ww2

There's a student that is conflicted between going to fight in the war or staying back to help his mother-each action has different consequences and there's no right action-he believes that his morals will tell him what choice is better, but his essence (morals) is only created by his decisions

what is existentialism?

There's no goal in life, instead everyone has the ability to create the life they want-Existence proceeds essence-We are the only ones who create our essence through free will and decisions

explain parfit's view about what makes a human life go best

with parfit's view, what makes a human life go best is having hedonistic theories such as the desire fulfillment theories and objective list theories.

explain singer's argument that we have a moral obligation to assist the global poor

- If you have absolute affluence (enough money to meet the basic human needs) - If you can prevent a bad thing without making a comparable sacrifice, then you should - Drowning child example: all you have to do is put your hand in to save a life

explain the trolley problem by explaining "bystander at the switch" and "transplant"

- In the trolley problem the driver has to make a decision to switch the trolley and kill one person to save five lives; or, if the trolley is not switched then the driver will kill five people - In the transplant problem there are five sickly people who need new organs and a doctor finds someone with all the right organs. The question is whether it is right to kill the perfectly healthy person to save the 5 sick people. (we shouldn't use people as a means to an end)

explain two possible differences between killing and failing to assist

- difference in motivation - it's not hard to avoid killing but it is hard to save all the lives you could

provide three reasons that god's hiddenness is a disadvantage according to mckim?

- harder for people to believe in god - harder to have a close, personal relationship with god - Allows for con artists and frauds to operate (promote own self interest to financial advantage)

explain descartes argument that the mind and body are really distinct

- mind: all feelings and thoughts are known only to the person who is experiencing them. The mind is a substance "whose whole essence is to think" and takes up no space. - body: performs all physical activities observable to all.mind and body interact - mind can affect the body or vise versa

Explain the qualities often associated with God

- omniscience (all knowing): the property of having complete or maximal knowledge. - omnipotence (all-powerful): maximal power, god is maximally great (or perfect), and therefore is omnipotent - omnibenevolence (supremely good): god is kind and generous towards everyone and everything

Explain what three positions are on the question of God's existence

- theism: the belief in the existence of god or gods, but most commonly the monotheistic view of one creator god. theism proposes four arguments which include ontological, cosmological, theological, and moral. - atheism: the lack of belief in any proposed god or gods based on rationalism and empericism. one must be able to prove with scientific evidence that a deity exists but this position concludes by claiming that there is no god. - agnoticism: a denial of ultimate knowledge of the existence of god. in this position, it is not possible to know if god really exists.

explain the argument from methodological naturalism with respect to physicalism

1. it is reasonable to believe what is believed by natural science. 2. physicalism is believed by science, therefore it is reasonable to believe in physicalism whatever scientists believe is reasonable

Describe three factors that Paley thinks WOULD NOT undermine the judgment that a watch sitting in the forest must have been made by a watchmaker.

1. you have never seen a watch being made 2. the watch has a flaw 3. you do not understand how the watch works

describe plato's analogy between the soul and the state

3 main parts of the republic: 1. merchants: produces goods and and services to be traded or sold for a profit - merchant's virtue is temperance - temperance: having self control and moderation about your desires and appetites 2. warriors: provide defense against external threats or internal instability - warrior's virtue is courage - courage: willingly to face danger when it is right and necessary 3. kings: those who preside over and rule over the republic. they determine policy and control the warriors - kings virtue is wisdom

describe an action that is morally obligatory according to one ethical theory and morally impermissible according to another

A homeless man with 2 kids steals food for his family (Morally obligatory) according to utilitarianism because it strives for the greatest amount of happiness. But it is morally impermissible

explain plato's metaphor of the many-headed creature

A large head with many gargoyle heads representing appetitive part (the part of you that has appetites and desires that you want to fill), and how it can be very demanding and dangerous if you don't have TEMPERANCE (having self-control and moderation about your desires or appetites)-The lion head represents the spirited part, how it can get too aggressive with COURAGE (willingness to face danger when it is right and necessary) if not kept in check-The human head represents the rational part, we want this head to be in charge and make your decisions

explain the objection to physicalism which involves the idea that "a man may know nothing about brain processes"

An average person can easily talk about their sensations, but not what is going on in their brain. therefore, the mind and the body must be two separate things

explain supervenience physicalism

Answers completeness question with supervenience dot-matrix picture. If 2 sets of dots are identical, then they would have all the same global features. global features are the bigger picture aspect of a scene, setting or picture. for example, dr. vulich is a global feature of the classroom. Dot-matrix ink dots is correlated to a physical universe composed out of a bunch of little atoms. If there was another physical universe atomically arranged identically to us, they would have to be identical in every atom to a higher level to us. Analogy to a dot matrix picture and a physical universe; the dots are to the global features of a dot matrix as the atoms are to the global features of a physical universe. To say everything is physical means it supervenes on atoms.

explain nagel's critique of "religious experience" as a source of evidence for god's existence

Argument isn't strong enough because there are other secular ways to explain the "mystical experience" and experience is evidence that cannot be shared (cannot be independently evaluated)

explain an objection to pascal's wager

Believing in the manner suggested by Pascual doesn't guarantee the great reward because of your not believing for the right reasons. God's hiddenness-has no interest in whether people believe or not, then it undermines the reward of heaven or punishment in being denied heaven

explain nagel's "problem of evil"

If God existed he wouldn't allow there to be evil because he is all powerful and all good, so why would he allow evil in the world?

describe a possible closed loop of causation involving time travel

If time travel was possible, then it seems that it would be possible for there to be reverses in causation. Normally, we observe thhe casue coming before the effect, for example, a punch coming before a black eye. However in the case of a time-traveller, it could be seen that someone goes forward in time, gets punched, goes back in time, and the black eye appears. This is a reversal of causation, where the effect comes before the cause.From reversed causation, it seems that we could also observe closed causal loops. A closed causal loop is when there are two events, Event A and Event B. Event A is the cause of Event B, which is in turn the cause of Event A. For example, let's imagine a young person talking to their older self who has travelled back in time. In that conversation, the older self tells the younger self how to build a time machine. The younger self grows up, builds a time machine, and goes back in time to tell their younger self how to build the machine. So where did the information on how to build the time machine come from? The younger self knew from the older self, but the older self knew from being told when they were young by their older self. Both events when taken separately seem plausible, however when taken as a whole, it seems uncaused and inexplicable.Many people believe closed causal loops to be a serious problem to time travel. This is because closed causal loops are unexplainable and implausible, seemingly impossible. If time travel was possible, then closed causal loops wold be possible. Closed causal loops are not possible, therefore time travel is not possible.

explain turing's views on whether machines can think

Turing believes that at some point they will be able to think. They just have to be able to function properly on the Turing test

explain a reply to the objection to physicalism that a "man may know nothing about brain processes"

Just because there are two different terms for something (brain processes and sensations) doesn't mean they're not referring to the same object. ex: MORNING STAR AND EVENING STAR, even though they're different words, they are still the same thing.

explain the "grandfather paradox"

Paradox that says if someone time travels back in time and decides to kill their grandfather before he has his kids (the time traveller's parents). ultimately, eliminating from the universe their own birth. This cannot happen because it creates a contradiction with the universe that a person was born, but also not born- this becomes impossible in the same set of facts. In the same universe in which we exist, it is now impossible for us to have never existed. DAVID LEWIS BELIEVES this time traveler will end up failing.

explain the test that everitt suggests for gaining evidence that a certain type of being does NOT exist

Person on island stranded looking for another person, looked for tracks or evidence of person. Failure to see the signs of another person shows that the person does not exist (Person=God, analogy)

explain mill's claim that happiness is the only thing that we pursue as an end and not as a means

we pursue happiness as an end but that's our end goal or objective. we don't pursue it as a means because we don't take advantage of happiness, we are trying to gain happiness.

explain kant's shopkeeper example

Shopkeeper knows they can short change a child, but gives correct change because it is morally right (motivation behind a moral action is from duty(morally right), not inclination (done from desire/pleasure, lacks moral worth)

describe the "imitation game"

TURING poses the scenario that there's a man, woman, and interrogator. Interrogator asks questions to the man and women in separate rooms, then the woman is replaced by a computer. If the computer confuses the interrogator then it is successful in thinking. If the computer is so reliable in answering questions right, it confuses the interrogator more than 50% overall then it has consciousness. If the interrogator cannot distinguish between the two the behavior of the computer is of a human. Supports physicalism because if machines could think then that proofs that physical objects can think/be conscious

explain thomson's discussion of the fat man on the bridge

There is a man and a larger man in which if the other man pushed the other man off the bridge he would stop the train. It is wrong to push the fat man off the bridge to stop the train from killing the five people who are on the tract. This is because you are using him as a means to an end. You wouldn't want to be pushed or attacked randomly, so why should you push the fat man. Also, if the man suddenly disappears then no one wins and the five people on the track still die.The oncoming threat is the train for the man if you push the man of the bridge. Pushing a person is assault, but pushing a button to switch it is fine. The reason it's wrong is because the way that the treat is diverted is wrong. The act of forcing him into danger's way is wrong

explain thomson's example of the "looping track"

Trolley situation is now a course with 2 ways and they both get into a loop. One side with a large person that could stop the trolley from looping back and killing the 5 people. Whereas, the 5 people are another way and heavy enough by mass to stop the trolley from hitting the larger man. Who wins? People don't change their minds- the bystandered should still switch the trolley to the way of the fat man to end his live for the cause of others.

explain turing's response to the idea that a machine unlike a human can only do what it has been programmed to do

Turing replies by saying computers and people are both programed by outside influences. - We are not different from computers, just as computers we can only act on what is acted on why other outside sources ex: babies don't know how to speak but they are taught by caretakers how to function and speak in society ex: students did not know about Turing until Vulich taught us/"programmed us" in giving us information; we cannot do things without the programming from outside sources like computers

what does sartre mean when he says each individual man is responsible for creating all of humanity?

When we create our essence through our actions and free will, we are approving of this path of life and would agree with others that choose to follow in our footsteps-While creating our essence, we're modeling what we believe is the perfect life is and how all humanity should live

explain parfit's example of the stranger who reveals his cancer diagnosis to you

You have a conversation with a random person and become fond of them- ending that they tell you that they have cancer.-You then have a desire that they beat it and they eventually do.-However, this doesn't make your life better as it isn't a desire/goal for your own being-Actual desires must be relevant and pertain to our life goals and projects

explain o'neill's account of what it is to treat someone as a mere means

You treat someone as a means when (your intentions are to use them to obtain a goal)

Explain Rowe's example about the 'magican' and the 'magico'.

a magician is defined as an existing magician. a magico is defined as a nonexisting magician. just because we have a concept of something and define something as existing, it does not necessarily mean that it exists.

explain why according to the space-time theory, nothing changes

according to the space-time theory, nothing changes because to sider, time is like space, in which he means that there is no particular direction time can move whether it is forward or backward

explain the theory of utilitarianism

actions are right if they're useful and benefit the majority. the idea of right to mill is promoting happiness and pleasure but wrong if one produces the reverse of happiness.

Explain Gaunilo's example of the 'lost island'

an island which because of how difficult it is to find is called the "lost island" that is blessed with all manner of priceless riches and delights in abundance. you cannot any more doubt that this island that is more excellent than all the islands truly exists somewhere in reality that you can doubt is in your mind; and since it is more excellent to exist not only in the mind alone but in reality, therefore it must needs be that it exists.

explain descartes method of doubt. what is known for certain even when the method is being applied and why?

assume something is false if anything could possibly be doubted. even if the whole world around you is fake, the only thing that could not be doubted is your existence. "The knowledge that I exist because I am thinking, therefore, I am".

Explain the method of argument known as 'reductio ad absurdum'

assume the opposite of what you would like to prove, and then show or present that this would imply something absurd/impossible. god can either exist or not. if someone says that god doesn't exist, they wouldn't be thinking about god because god is asserted to exist as the greatest conceivable being

explain how descartes establishes that you have a body

descartes establishes that we have bodies by emphasizing that its a clear distinct fact that we can control our bodies with out minds and thought's, but not with another person's body. we can experience sensations with the body given and we cannot separate ourselves from our bodies.

explain why belief's derived from sense perception are not certain, and why even beliefs about mathematics are not certain according to descartes

descartes says: 1. We can't be certain about perception because we think we can see, touch, smell, hear, & taste our surroundings, but if everything was all a DREAM, none of this would be real and your senses would be failing you; PERCEPTION COULD BE WRONG BC OF A DREAM 2.We can't be certain about math because a DECEIVER, God at first, but then Descartes believes God wouldn't do such a thing (since he is all good and would not want to deceive us) gets switched to an evil demon, could manipulate our beliefs; MATH COULD BE WRONG BC OF EXTERNAL DECEIVER

explain the reason that descartes uses the method of doubt

descartes uses the method of doubt to try and discover what things he can't doubt. if something could be false, this method is used and is realized that you exist because you are contemplating your own existence.

explain the difference between desire fulfillment theories and objective list theories

desire fulfillment theories are desires for things we want, fulfilling our desires. objective list theories is that there are objectively good things that we should get, but not always satisfying our simple desires.

explain einstein's example of the moving train

einstein uses the example of the moving train and the two lightning strikes, in which he poses the question to the readers "what does it mean for the two lightning strikes to be simultaneous?" he first used a motionless observer that was positioned at midpoint M to simultaneously gauge the distances between lightning strikes A and B. we could state that they went an qual distance and that the speed of light was the same between two sites if the motionless observer at point M had simultaneously observed the lightning strikes from points A and B. einstein then used a second observer who travelled through the moving train with a constant speed as it passed the midpoint. the motionless observer passed the midpoint with velocity V, and because they were moving closer to point B than point A, the second viewer saw point B before point A. if there was no velocity, the lightning from points A and B would strike the observer at point M at the same time. The second observer eventually travels from point A to b, where lightning will strike in the future.

explain the idea that death is a misfortune but not pre-natal non-existence

moving on from non-existence to existence is better than vice versa

Describe Anselm's Ontological argument.

god is the greatest conceivable being. in order to be the greatest conceivable being, God can't solely exist in the mind only, but must exist in reality as well because if god only existed in the mind, then he would not be the greatest conceivable being. if god didn't exist, there could be a greater conceivable being existing.

explain mill's response to the claim that "utilitarianism is a theory fit for swine"

humans only seek pleasure, which consist of higher pleasures while animals have lower pleasures. lower pleasures that both humans and animals can enjoy include food, sleep, sex, and exercise. high pleasures would include art, reading, reason, fashion, language, music, marriage, technology, and education.

explain stoliar's distinction between the "interpretation" and the "truth" question

interpretation question: what does it mean for everything to be physical? truth question: is it true that everything is physical?

thomson's solution to the trolley problem

it is normally permissible to divert a threat from more to fewer people as long as it is the same threat that is being redirected. as long as the means of diverting; the threat does not violate anyones important rights

explain the difference between local and global desires

local desires are desires for particular things that you can satisfy in short terms. global desires are desires that are about one's whole life or a large part of it

explain nagel's critique of the argument from design

nagel goes against paley's argument from design and the idea that everything that exists has a creator and purpose. he states that the real reason that we know that the watch has a maker is because we make the watches, not because it has a function. the function or existence of the eye can be explained without assuming a creator , and suggests that it can be explained with the theory of revolution.

explain nagel's critique of the cosmological argument

nagel questions the cosmological argument for the idea that everything that exists has to have a cause however, god doesn't seem to apply to that. nagel questions that if everything has to have a cause, then why doesn't God have to have a cause? he also questions that if there can be something with no cause, then why can't the universe itself be the uncaused necessary being since the universe has been existing for a numerous amount of years.

Explain Taylor's Cosmological argument.

no matter how big or small something is, there is an explanation for the existence of anything. the cosmological argument is depended on the principle of sufficient reason, meaning that there is a reason that makes sense for anything that exists to prove that it is true, such as god. taylor uses the example of the beams of light and a flame to prove that everything that exists on earth has a cause to it, it does not happen naturally. the light beams were a factor of the flame but the flame was not a factor of the light beams

explain a basic criticism of utilitarianism other than "theory fit for swine"

people can still use people as a means. for example, a surgeon can kill one person in order to save five. although five dying instead of one dying, this is still considered to be morally wrong.

Explain Moore's argument that existence is not a predicate.

predicate is the same idea as a property, attribute, feature, or anything you can say of an object. anselm argues that existence is a predicate but moor says existence shouldn't be a predicate. moore says that there is two meanings of "existence is not a predicate" the logical and the gramattical sense. Tame tigers growl (all, most, some). Tame tigers exist (all, most, some).

explain nagel's "historical" account of misfortune

some misfortunes can only be seen by comparing a person's past condition to their present condition. e.g. the brain injured adult vs. normal infant

explain nagel's example of the infant and the brain-injured man

someone painlessly suffers an injury which leaves them with the mental life (desires, beliefs, attitudes etc) of a 3 year old baby. Before the injury their life was pleasant enough, the injury itself was painless (suppose it happened while unconscious), and after the injury the person is cared for, they are treated well and their desires are met about as well as most three year olds, their nappy changed, food provided, interesting toys to play with and pleasant and attentive carers. The point is that at no stage does the person suffer an unpleasant experience, but Nagel expects that we will find such an injury to be a disaster for the person who suffers it. If this is correct then there are bad (and presumably good) events that can happen to people that do not involve good and bad experiences, or indeed any non-relational properties - thus you can't tell just by how someone is in isolation how well or badly off they are, you have to include their.relationships to other people and things, even relationships which they are unaware of.

explain the concept of a nomological dangler

something that remains unexplained by science

explain the idea that people have "temporal parts"

with einstein's space-time theory, we have spatial and temporal parts. a temporal part is an object at a moment of time. people have temporal parts because there are parts of us in the past, present, and future. according to this theory, all temporal parts in the past, present, and future are all equally real.

explain the argument from casual closure.

the argument from casual closure states that every event which has a cause has a physical cause. it does not matter what kind of event it is for example, metal events can cause physical events. if an event A causes an event B, then there is no event C, which is different from A , which also causes C.

Explain Paley's argument from design.

the argument of design prove's god's existence by the design of nature and having a natural purpose to exist on earth. paley presents that the existence of god depends on how one perceives the world and universe. he uses the example of the watch to emphasize that something that is made well is the product of a great design, and that it takes up a lot of energy for something good and precise to properly function and perform its purpose.

explain why the concept of time "moving" is a paradox

the concept of time "moving" is a paradox because it is a known fact that time is unable to move in multiple directions. "now" is not a singular moment and events that are far away in time are just as real and significant as events that happen in present time. another argument is that people can only affect the future, not the past. although events can cause events as a different place, later events are unable to cause or effect earlier events from the past because the past is fixed. people are unable to fix the past.

explain the concept of "bad faith"

the idea of "bad faith" is when you try to replace responsibility for your essence on external factors that you could not control. by creating your own essence, you also create a model of the good life for all humanity. essence: the necessary defining qualities of something; created by our own freewill and decisions

explain the difference between monism and dualism

the position of monism is everything in the universe is made out of one kind of substance. dualism states that everything in the universe is made out of two kinds of substances. the two possible substances include physical matter, which is anything that is extended in space at the fundamental level, also referred to as atoms, and the mind, which is not extended in space and is thinking.

What is the principle of sufficient reason and how does it relate to a proof of God's existence?

the principle of sufficient reason is the idea of there being a reason that makes sense for anything that exists to prove that it is true. it relates to a proof of god because the reason that everything exists is because of god.

explain hardin's concept of "the tragedy of the commons"

the tragedy of the commons is warning people that public resources everyone will make use of the commons because it is available for the public. It will quickly become overcrowded and will get ruined from people not taking care of it.

if a person talks to their past self on the phone, how many people are having this conversation? explain

there is only one person having this conversation. although it may seem as if it is more than one person, it is simply just two temporal parts, one in the past and one in the present, not two separate people.

explain the meaning of the expression "soon he will be in the past" according to lewis

there is two types of time, personal and external time. external time is all the time travelers. being soon in the past is the future in external time.

explain the difference between physicalism and idealism

they are both branches of monism. physicalism states that everything is made out of physical matter, including us and our consciousness. idealism states that everything is made out of ideas.

why does nagel say death is bad at any age?

to nagel, death is bad at any age because it deprives you of the goods in life. goods in life that fulfill people's happiness include activities, perception, thought, relationships, and desires.

what makes a human life go as well as possible according to plato?

to plato, human life goes as well as possible if the person is physically healthy and has happiness, and fulfilling their desires.