Phil 1010 – Introduction to Philosophy



Phil 1010 – Introduction to Philosophy, Final Exam

50 Questions. Worth 25% of your course grade

2/26/2014

Name _____________________________________________

1. According to Plato in The Allegory of the Cave, the major aim of philosophy is:

a) to demonstrate that it is impossible to have certain knowledge

b) to provide guidelines for the proper study of nature and mathematics, but not human nature

c) freedom from the unwarranted beliefs and opinions of others

d) to repudiate all belief in gods

e) to explain the nature of ethics

1.

2. As we defined the term in class, theism is:

a) any belief in a Divine Being or Naturalistic Force that has powers beyond those of Man

b) the belief that God is both fixed and changing, inclusive of all possibilities

c) the belief in a personal God who intervenes in the lives of individuals

d) any belief in God that contradicts atheism

e) the branch of philosophy that tries to determine the good and right thing to do

f)

3 In the Euthyphro dialog, Plato describes Socrates asking Euthyphro to identify what makes all holy things holy, that is, what is the essential nature of holiness. This is critical for Plato because:

a) Plato thinks holiness is meaningless.

b) Plato suggests the ultimate reality is a world of forms. Forms are the essences of things.

c) Plato wants to prove that holiness is a matter of purpose in nature.

d) Plato thinks holiness is one of the three essential parts of man’s nature.

e) Plato wished to prove that Socrates was holy and perhaps even a god.

4 William James agreed with agnostic Thomas Huxley that evidence for something is:

a) proof that the claim is true

b) all one should base their beliefs upon when evidence is available

c) the only justification for ever believing something.

d) to be ignored if it doesn’t fit what you already believe to be true.

e) none of the above

5. Arguing that “You claim that this man is innocent, but you cannot be trusted since you are a criminal as well":

a) is a straw man

b) begs the question

c) is an ad hominem

d) is a post hoc fallacy

e) none of the above. This is a good argument.

6. Which philosophical outlook proclaimed that Metaphysical arguments were often pointless and that both Materialists and Idealists were making claims that were not useful:

a) Pragmatism

b) Logical Positivism

c) Realism

d) Theism

e) Existentialism

7. A logical argument is composed of:

a) three parts: the claim, the premises, and the conclusion

b) three parts: the claim, the premises, and the facts

c) two parts: the claim and the reasons to believe (also known as “the premises”)

d) two parts: the premises and the reasons to believe

e) one thing: the facts

8. Which one of the following does Ninian Smart not list as a fundamental dimension of religion:

a) doctrine

b) morality

c) myth

d) ritual

e) belief in having certain knowledge of truth

.

9. The Traditional View of Human Nature held all the following positions except:

a) that the self is distinct form the body but somehow related.

b) that the nature of the self varies between cultures

c) that the self has an independent existence from other selves

d) that the self is conscious and has a purpose

e) that the self endures through time

10. How does Jean-Paul Sartre challenge the traditional view of human nature?

a) He suggests that man’s purpose is to do evil

b) He shows that man has no consciousness

c) He suggests that a person creates their own human nature

d) He suggests that man’s reason may not be unique among the animals and provide purpose as Aristotle thought

e) It doesn’t. Sartre fully supports the Traditional view

11. An argument for the existence of God deduced from the nature of God's Being is:

a) The Cosmological Argument

b) The Ontological Argument

c) The Metaphysical Argument

d) The Existential Argument

e) The Teleological Argument

12. Rationalism is:

a) The doctrine that certainty about absolute truth is unattainable

b) The view that experience, especially of the senses, is the only source of true knowledge.

c) The view that our common sense is always true.

d) The view that the external world does not exist in reality independent of the human mind

e) The primary basis for knowledge is through reason, rather than experience, authority, or spiritual revelation.

f)

g)

h)

13. The Mind/Body problem:

a) proves that it is foolish to think that anything in the mind causes activity in the physical world.

b) is not a problem at all if you believe in Dualism

c) accepts that Dualism may be true and poses the question how can it be so. That is, it asks how can the body and mind truly influence each other.

d) was resolved by Descartes and the Dualist argument

e) denies what is obviously true -- that minds and bodies are different, but somehow related

14. St. Augustine:

a) adopted Plato’s view that the soul is rational, immaterial, and immortal

b) adopted Plato’s view that the soul is immaterial and immortal but rejected the idea that it was rational

c) rejected Aristotle’s view that the soul has a purpose

d) agreed with Aristotle that some men are more rational (or intelligent) than others and thus, suggested they are better servants of God

e) disagreed with Plato that men had the ability to choose between good and evil

15. This theologian presented an influential and ingenious argument for design – one in which God is analogous to a watchmaker, and the world is seen as being like an intricately designed watch:

a) St. Augustine

b) Thomas Aquinas

c) Martin Luther

d) William Paley

e) Bishop George Berkeley

16. George Berkeley believed that the essential basis of reality is:

a) the material world since all our perceptions are dependent upon it.

b) our own mental states. A tree can only exist if it is perceived by a person.

c) space and time which is the structure in which all objects exist.

d) ideas or forms. All physical objects must have their perfect models which gives reality to them.

e) the mind of God. A tree can exist if it is not perceived by a person because it is perceived by the mind of God.

17. An inductive argument is a good argument if:

a) it proves the conclusion.

b) It tells a good story

c) It confirms what the audience already believes

d) It disputes what the audience believes

e) it has premises that provide relevant evidence for its claim

18, The most obvious, everyday “knowledge” (common sense) that we seem to have about our world like our belief that we have both a mind and a body:

a) should not be questioned because we have good reasons to believe it.

b) is always false

c) often leads to perplexing paradoxes when analyzed carefully

d) should not be challenged by philosophy because it is the foundation of all that we know

e) is always true and thus philosophy needs to explain why it is true

.

19. William James was a Pragmatist. Pragmatists hold that:

a) reality does not exist. William James concluded that reality itself is not real.

b) it is meaningless to talk about reality.

c) reality is whatever you think it is.

d) our reality is largely dependent upon mythologies which we must abandon.

e) reality is what “works.”

20. Atheism can be compared and contrasted with agnosticism by the following:

a) Both are denials of the existence of God. There are some minor differences but none that are significant to the major issue whether God exists.

b) The atheist at least is honest in his denial of the existence of God. The agnostic weasels and says that God doesn’t exist, but it is okay to say that God exists when it is convenient.

c) While the atheist denies that God exists, the agnostic says “God may exist. We don’t know.”

d) While the atheist denies that God exists, the agnostic always says “God may or may not exist. We don’t know yet, but someday science will determine it.”

e) both c and d are true.

21. Darwin argued against the Teleological Argument for the Existence of God by contending that:

a. order in the universe was an illusion

b. intention does not always produce what it intends

c. order can occur without design.

d. Paley had not proven that the Designer had created an intelligent universe

e. the process of natural selection was evidence for design

22. In stark opposition to the rationalists who preceded him, most notably Descartes, this thinker concluded that desire rather than reason governed human behavior, saying: "Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions."

a) David Hume

b) Soren Kierkegaard

c) Ninian Smart

d) St. Anselm

e) Bishop George Berkeley

23. The following thinker believed that all that exist are minds & their ideas.  There is no such thing as matter & no material objects apart from ideas of them:

a) David Hume

b) Soren Kierkegaard

c) Bishop George Berkeley

d) Jeremy Bentham

e) Thomas Hobbes

24. Suppose you do NOT have a good argument either for or against the existence of God, but you decide to believe in the Greek gods of Homer because you want to have purpose in your life. William James would probably challenge you and ask:

a) Since obviously you are stating a belief that ultimately is either true or false, it has to be decided on intellectual, not passional, grounds.

b) Given your own passional nature, what is the evidence for the belief?

c) is that a living option for you?

d) is that a momentous option for you?

e) Is that a forced option for you?

25. What existentialist philosopher argued not only that God does not exist, but that the consequence of this is that human beings have no fixed nature?

a. Soren Kierkegaard

b. Thomas Aquinas

c. Edmund Husserl

d. William Paley

e. Jean-Paul Sartre

26. Religion:

a) typically stresses personal commitment

b) is generally founded on belief

c) frequently finds expression through institutionalizing ritual

d) is rooted in our search for meaning and fulfillment

e) all of the above

27. This thinker sought to account for evil by describing evil as the absence of the good. That is, evil is incomplete good.

a. David Hume

b. St. Augustine

c. Immanuel Kant

d. William Paley

e. Descartes

28. The “argument from evil”:

a) typically tries to argue for theism

b) typically tries to argue for pantheism

c) typically tries to argue for agnosticism

d) typically tries to argue for atheism

e) typically tries to argue against atheism

29. To give a logical argument that God exists, one must:

a) be a virtuous person

b) have a definition of “God“ that does not beg the question.

c) hold that existence is a property of an object

d) say that existence is a relationship between objects and reality

e) clarify how God expects man to conduct himself

30. A premise:

a) is always the proof to a conclusion whether the argument is deductive or inductive

b) is only as good as the facts that are clear

c) can add support to the claim even if the claim is totally vague.

d) can add support to the conclusion even if the premise is totally subjective.

e) is a reason for believing a conclusion is true.

31. In this class and for most logicians, an argument proves the conclusion if:

a) given the premises, the argument is extremely convincing

b) there are no alternative claims that make sense

c) the argument is a valid, deductive argument

d) the argument is a strong, inductive argument

e) the argument is a strong inductive argument and everyone believes the premises to be true

32. The question “How Should I Live?” is a question one would want most likely to ask in a class in:

a) Metaphysics

b) Epistemology

c) Cosmology

d) Ethics

e) Psychology

33. A sound deductive argument is:

a) a valid deductive argument where the conclusion is only probably true

b) a valid deductive argument where the premises may be true or false but the conclusion is always true

c) a valid deductive argument where the premises are probably true but perhaps not

d) a valid deductive argument where the premises are true.

e) None of the above

34. Aristotle’s idea of science included the following claims:

a) theretthe four natural elements (water, earth, fire, air) each had a natural motion.

b) a fifth essence (aether) accounts for the motion of the heavenly bodies and thus causes their circular motion

c) the explanation of all bodies in nature is based on things striving to attain a particular end or goal.

d) none of the above

e) all of the above

35. Descartes believed to have found an answer to skepticism and arrived at a true certainty for human knowledge by:

.

a) his reliance on Aristotle’s understanding of the motion of heavenly and earthly bodies

b) divine revelation from God

c) scientific methodology

d) clear and distinct perception of the self

e) a pragmatic conception of the world

36. Thomas Hobbes’ primary issue with Descartes’ dualism was based on:

a) Hobbes arguing that science needed to return to Aristotle’s explanation of the motion of heavenly and earthly bodies

b) Descartes’ reliance on divine revelation as the primary source of knowledge

c) Descartes’ insistence on maintaining Aristotle’s methodology of teleological explanation.

d) Descartes’ affirmation of a non-material world in addition to the material world.

e) All of the above.

37. The mechanistic model of scientific explanation was advanced by:

a) Descartes, Hobbes, Galileo, and Aristotle.

b) Galileo and Hobbes; but not Aristotle.

c) Hobbes and Aristotle; but not Descartes nor Galileo

d) Galileo; but not Descartes, Hobbes, or Aristotle.

e) none of the four.

38. Nicholas Malebranche:

a) claimed that causality is a necessary connection between objects

b) claimed that motion “causes” us to see the motion

c) claimed that God recreates the world at every instance.

d) (a) and (c) but not (b)

e) All of the above.

39. A value judgment is subjective:

a) if it is just someone’s opinion and they can’t give a good argument for it but someone else can.

b) when another person can give a better argument for the opposite point of view.

c) when the claim that is being made by one side is “right” and the other side is refuting the same claim and they too are “right”

d) if someone says “well someone has to be right, but I don’t care who is.”

e) all of the above

40. The view that man has Free Will and that such is incompatible with Determinism is called:

a) Anti-compatibilism

b) Free thinking

c) Libertarianism

d) Categorical Freedom

e) Normative Freedom

41. Berkeley’s Idealism contrasts with Plato’s Idealism mainly in that:

a) For Berkeley, reality is “out there” and for Plato it is “within the soul.”

b) For Plato, reality is an illusion, only a “shadow.”

c) For Plato, reality is independent of the minds that may or may not know it.

d) For Berkeley, reality is totally dependent on individual minds.

e) None of the above.

42. In the Crito, Socrates argued that we should obey the laws of society because:

a) laws are established by God and thus it would be unholy to disobey them.

b) we have no other choice.

c) we entered into a contract to obey the laws by living in society.

d) All of the above.

e) None of the above.

43. For the prisoners in Plato’s Cave, reality consists of:

a) the world of forms

b) theatrical performances

c) shadows

d) religious beliefs

e) clear and distinct ideas

44. According to Gail Stenstad, male thinking assumes that there is only one true view of reality and that any contrary views must be:

a) false

b) irrational

c) heresy

d) feminist

e) none of the above

45. “Doing philosophy” comes at a cost, including perhaps:

a) the risk of unmasking cherished personal and cultural assumptions

b) long, painstaking study

c) the pursuit of an apparently never ending goal

d) discomfort with the views of those you love

e) all of the above

46. The pre-Socratic philosophers were largely:

a) ethical philosophers

b) metaphysical philosophers

c) psychoanalytic philosophers

d) charletans

e) religious teachers

47. Genevieve Lloyd argues that the rationalist view of human nature can only be changed if we acknowledge that:

a) women are just as rational as men

b) emotion is just as valuable as reason

c) the concepts of “reason” and “emotion” are heavily biased

d) emotion should rule over reason

e) all of the above

48. In the chariot analogy of Plato’s, the horses represent:

a) the two ruling classes in the ideal state

b) the two parts of the soul that must obey reason

c) the male and the female elements of the human spirit

d) good and evil

e) None of the above

49. Materialism is:

a) entirely a fabrication of Western Philosophy

b) the pre-dominant view of reality in all Oriental philosophies

c) was expressed by philosophers in India at least five centuries before Christ

d) merely a dismissive response to Christianity

e) None of the above

50. According to A.J Ayer, metaphysical claims such as “God exists” are:

a) relations of ideas

b) matters of fact

c) tautologies

d) empirical claims

e) None of the above.

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