The exam will be on Friday, March 18. About ten of the following questions will be presented to you as multiple choice questions. You will be asked to answer several other questions with brief essays (a half of a page each). You will be able to consult any of the course texts, but not your notes. Your answers to the essay questions, though, should be in your own words, using only brief quotations from the texts, if any.
1 How does Socrates argue that death is probably a blessing? Is he right?
2 Socrates said, “the unexamined life is not worth living for a man.” Simon Blackburn gives three reasons why philosophical reflection (examination) is worthwhile. What are those reasons? How good are they?
3 Why does Socrates reject Euthyphro’s definition of ‘piety’ as ‘what is loved by all the gods’? What broader significance does his point have?
4 In the Meno Socrates questions a slave boy about geometry. What doctrine is he trying to support by doing this? Do you think that his ‘experiment’ does give support to his theory?
5 What is Socrates’ main argument for thinking that it would be wrong for him to escape from prison? Is it a good argument?
6 In what sense are philosophers practicing for dying all their lives (according to Socrates)?
7 Briefly, what is Plato’s theory of forms?
8 In the Phaedo, how does Socrates argue that we must have acquired knowledge of the forms before we were born?
9 What reasons does Descartes give (in Meditation One) for doubting his former beliefs? Which of these reasons leads him to doubt even his knowledge of simple arithmetic? Do you think the reasons Descartes gives are, as he says, “valid and considered reasons” that really do show that none of our ordinary beliefs is certain?
10 On what basis does Descartes claim that he can be absolutely sure that he exists?
11 What does Descartes think that he essentially is?
12 What rule does Descartes find (in Meditation Three) to guide his search for truth? What do you think of this rule?
13 Why does Descartes claim that all of our knowledge depends on our knowledge of God and on our knowing that God is not a deceiver?
14 In your own words, explain and evaluate the causal argument for God's existence that Descartes gives in Meditation Three (Blackburn calls it ‘the trademark argument’.).
15 What reasons does Descartes give for thinking that the mind is distinct from the body? (Explain briefly.)
16 Why does Blackburn think that Cartesian dualism leads to the possibility that other people are Zombies or Mutants? What does he think is the significance of these ‘outlandish possibilities’? (Does he think we should take them seriously, and worry about whether our friends are really Zombies, for example?)
17 Briefly, what is logical behaviorism? Explain at least one problem with this view.
18 Briefly, what is psycho-physical (or mind-brain) identity theory? Explain at least one problem with this view.
19 Briefly what is the theory of mind called ‘functionalism’?
20 The so-called ‘hard determinist’ says that, because every event is the product of preceding causes, we should stop thinking of ourselves as free (and as responsible for our actions). How, according to Blackburn, can a ‘compatibilist’ accept the determinist premise; yet avoid the conclusion that free choice is an illusion?
21 How does Blackburn think we can see the conception of the self as a separate ‘something’ that could survive the death of the body as arising from ‘delusions of imagination’?
I may also ask you to explain what you think about one of these ideas, arguments or theories.