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GUIDE AND REVIEW FOR FINAL EXAM IN PHILOSOPHY:

As you prepare for final cumulative exam, I trust this guide and review will help you best prepare for this dynamic opportunity to offer your very best.

The exam will be composed of multiple choice, true/false, and perhaps matching. Please bring scantron 882E and number 2 pencil. Exam will not involve essay. Questions will range between 50 to 100.

Stay focused. Do not wait till day before to prepare for final exam. Study for at least three hours each day, at least a week before exam, constantly reviewing each time you study. Be strategic! Pace yourself. Do not become preoccupied with other things. Focus! Ask yourself questions! Use all your learning styles to help you prepare for your test.

Make sure you have completed the reading of your textbook, review your notes, and examine the notes I have available on website. Don’t get weighed down by the particulars in your book but focus on big ideas. Focus on major ideas in book for review but concentrate on lecture notes. However, I am requiring that you read Aesthetic Universals by Denis Dutton. The article is on my website and I will test you from it.

I believe in the champion in you!

I. Review the following lectures:

A. What is Philosophy (lecture 1a)

B. What is a worldview? (Lecture 1b)

C. How Can We Know what is True (lecture 4)

D. Plato’s Chart on Metaphysics and Epistemology (Allegory of the Cave). Also be able to define the nature of a “form” (lecture 3)

E. Aristotle’s metaphysics, universals, and 4 causes (Lecture 3b and supplement: Aristotle’s universals and 4 causes

F. Aquinas on reality (Lecture 3f)

G. Aquinas on Knowledge (lecture 3g)

H. Supplement: The analytic Fallacy by John Dewey (between lectures 7 and 8):

I. Nihilism (Lecture 17)

J. Lectures 11-17 on ethics: Virtue ethics, Supplement to virtue ethics: Socrates; Deontological & Consequential Ethics; Hume’s Ethics; Nihilism.

K. Arguments for God’s existence (Lecture 18): see below on what specific arguments I want you to know but be sure to have an understanding of the ontological argument and innate idea argument.

Also, do you remember the eight evidences for the moral law argument?

1. Absolutes are undeniable… we know right from wrong best by our reactions to wrongs committed against us.

2. Is there any action or event that is universally unjust? We wouldn’t know injustice if there was no absolute sense of justice (you only know something is wrong by comparing it to an unchanging standard of what is right)

3. Is every moral issue just an opinion? Real moral disagreement would not be possible without the Moral Law. Every moral issue would be a matter of opinion if you deny objective reality.

4. Can you measure moral judgments? Everything can’t be relative if there is nothing to be relative to. There must be some independent standard otherwise nothing could be measured.

5. We would not make excuses for breaking the Moral Law if it didn’t exist.

6. We wouldn’t know the world was getting worse (or better) if there was no moral law.

7. Is it ever right to disobey government? The moral law is the “prescriptive” basis for political and social dissent.

8. Is there any moral judgment that is always right? Therefore, since we know what’s absolutely wrong, there must be an absolute standard or basis of rightness.

L. Intelligent Design (just know definition and realize how it is different from scientific creationism)

K. Anthropic Principle (just know definition).

M. Chart on Presocratic Philosophy (Lecture 2)

N. Descartes’ Meditations (Lecture 5) with a focus on meditations 1-4.

O. Lecture 19: Miracles

P. Lecture 20: Problem of evil with lecture notes on 5-fold problem of evil and counter responses to them (from class lecture):

R. Introduction to Existentialism with a focus on 6 major existential themes.

S. Lecture 22: introduction to philosophical aesthetics:

T. Lecture 24: Plato’s Aesthetics:

U. Lecture 25: Objective/subjective beauty in ancient aesthetics:

V. Lecture 28: Aristotle’s aesthetics

W. Lecture 29: Tolstoy’s aesthetics

X. Lecture 26: John Dewey and Aesthetic Experience.

II. Terms you need to know from reading and lecture material. In order to help you, I’ve given you definitions to most terms.

A. If you know and understand the following terms, you should do well.

1. A posteriori . In epistemology, pertaining to knowledge derived from or posterior to, sense experience.

2. A priori principle: A proposition whose truth we do not need to know through sensory experience and that no conceivable experience could serve to refute.

3. Aesthetics: Philosophical study of art, philosophical reflection on the nature of art, value judgments about art and of beauty in general, and our experience of beauty.

4. Altruism: The belief that everyone ought as much as possible to seek the good of others.

5. Analytic Philosophy (Linguistic philosophy): An emphasis in twentieth-century philosophy (largely British) on linguistic analysis, or the analysis of language, as a means of identifying the sources of, and resolving, philosophical problems.

6. Antirepresentationalism: A philosophy that denies that the mind or language contain or are representations of reality.

7. Arete = Excellency of some sort.

8. Argument: An attempt to show that some claim mis true (the conclusion) by providing reasons for it (the premises).

9. Attribute is a property or characteristic attributed to or predicated of something.

10. Autonomous: The state of being self-controlling, independent, or free.

11. Consequential ethics: An action is right if and only if it promotes the best consequences.

12. Cultural relativism: The view that morality and other values are rooted in the experience, habits, and preferences of a particular culture.

13. Deductive reasoning: Reasoning in which the conclusion follows with logical necessity from the premises.

14. Deontological ethics: An action is right if and only if it is in accord with a moral rule or principle. Deontological ethics can be either secular or theistic.

15. “Deon” = obligation; binding duty.

16. Egoism: the maximization of self-interest.

17. Empiricism: the belief that knowledge about existing things is acquired through the five senses.

18. Existentialism: A 19th and 20th century philosophical perspective which disdains abstractions and focuses on the concrete reality and freedom of the existing individual.

19. Epistemology: The study of theory of knowledge.

20. Essence: The nature or “whatness” of something that which makes the something the kind of thing that it is.

21. Ethics: The theory of good and evil as applied to personal actions, decisions, and relations.

22. Ethical absolutism is the view that moral values are independent of human opinion and have a common or universal application.

23. Ethical relativism denies any absolute or objective moral values and affirms that either the individual or community (culture) is the source of morality. Individual relativism and cultural relativism flow from this major idea.

24. Free-will defense: A long-standing solution to the problem of moral evil: Humans are endowed with free will by God as a condition for genuine morality, trust, love, etc. though it also makes the introduction of moral evil into the world. True love is not forced love. Thus, God will not force Himself upon you.

25. Habit: To think, feel, desire, and act in such a way that you do not consciously will to do so; you just do it. Habit is second nature to you.

26. Hedonism: The ethical doctrine that pleasure is the highest good, and the production of pleasure is the criterion of right action.

27. Humanism: the view that human reality is the highest reality and value.

28. Idealism: In metaphysics, it is the theory that all reality consists of mind and its ideas.

29. Indubitable (Descartes): That which is not susceptible to any doubt.

30. Inductive reasoning: Reasoning in which the conclusion follows with the probability from the premises.

31. Infinite regress: A series of claims, explanations, elements, factors, etc. dependent successively on one another without end.

32. Innate ideas: The view that at least some ideas are inborn, present to the mind at birth.

33. Cosmological argument for God’s existence (beginning): Know definition and argument/syllogisim for each of the following:

1.

2.

3.

34. Teleological argument for God’s existence:

1.

2.

3.

35. Moral Law argument for God’s existence:

1.

2.

3.

36. Religious Need Argument for God’s existence:

1.

2.

3.

37. Argument from Joy:

1.

2.

3.

38. Natural, Moral Law (ethics): In Judaism, Christianity, and Philosophy of Aquinas it is God’s eternal law as it applies to humans on earth and dictates the fundamental principles of morality (e.g., Ten Commandments). In Stoic philosophy, natural law is the principle of rationality that infuses the universe to which human behavior ought to conform.

39. Phenomenalism: The theory that we only know phenomena. In other words, it is the view that we have no rational knowledge of anything, including the mind, beyond what is disclosed in the phenomena of perceptions.

40. Metaphysics: The branch of philosophy that studies the nature and fundamentals features of being; it is the study or theory of reality. For example, transcendent reality is the reality which lies beyond the physical world and cannot therefore be grasped by means of the senses.

41. Nihilism: literally, “nothingism”; the generally, the rejection of any transcendent values or ultimate meaning. It is the rejection of values and beliefs. Remember the distinction between ontological nihilism and existential nihilism from lecture notes. See powerpoint.

a. What is significant about F. Nietzsche?

1. What is slave morality?

2. What is master morality?

3. Explain his term, “transvaluation of all values”:

4. What is his notion of true morality?

5. Life is simply the will to power.

6. The moral person is the one who “lives dangerously” by increasing his or her mastery.

7. What are general criticisms made against Nietzche’s view of ethics:

a. Self-defeating nature of perspectivalism

b. Destructive consequences in history when his ideas were followed.

c. Promotion of hatred, bigotry, and discrimination

d. Radical empiricism is unwarranted.

b. Jean-Paul Sartre?

c. Albert Camus?

42. Law of non-contradiction: nothing can be and not be at the same time and in the same respect.

43. Rationalism: The epistemological theory that reason is either the sole or primary source of knowledge. Rationalism is the affirmation of reason and the view that truths about reality are acquired independently of sense experience.

Loose rationalists will hold that at least some truths about reality are required independently of sense experience whereas strict rationalists will hold that all truths about reality are acquired independently of sense experience.

44. Reformed Epistemology: Belief in God is a properly basic belief requiring no justification (Alvin Plantinga).

45. Utilitarianism: The ethical doctrine that an action is right if and only if it promotes the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.

46. Understand the Innate idea for God’s existence.

47. Argument against miracles (Improbability) by David Hume:

1.

2.

3.

48. Violation of Natural Law (Alister McKinnon):

1.

2.

3.

50. Violation of Natural Law by Spinoza:

1.

2.

3.

51. Lack of Identifiability (former atheist now deist late Antony Flew):

1.

2.

3.

II. Particular ideas and People:

A. Presocratic Philosophers and view of substance/change.

B. Socrates’ concept of virtue: virtue = knowledge. No one intentionally does anything wrong. Rather, we do things that are wrong because of ignorance or forgetfulness. Plato’s concept of virtue is a well-ordered soul; the aggregation (harmony) of the three parts of the soul (appetites, emotions/spirit, and reason) whereby virtues like justice, temperance, courage, and wisdom emerge. In contrast, disordered soul is one whereby the emotional or appetitive parts of the soul (e.g., appetites) take control over reason and become unruly (e.g., gluttony).

C. Know Plato’s Metaphysics and Epistemology (sensible world and intelligible world) and the Allegory of the Cave.

D. Know “clear and distinct” criterion in Rene Descartes criterion of truth (see chart on Rene Descartes). His criterion of truth is that truth, according to which that, and only that, which is perceived as clearly and distinctly as the fact of one’s own existence is certain. Also, realize that Descartes advocated “systematic doubt”, namely, the process in which anything susceptible to doubt is doubted in the interest of discovering something indubitable.

E. Understand Rene Descartes’ “cogito ergo sum”: “I think, therefore I am”; The single indubitable truth on which Descartes epistemology is based. Also, know meditation 1 on methodic doubt, arguments for God’s existence in meditation 3, and his explanation why error occurs and how to avoid errors in fourth meditation.

F. Kant’s noumena (things in themselves): Thing as they are in themselves independently of all possible experience of them.

G. Kant’s phenomena (things as they appear to be): They are objects as experienced and hence as organized an unified b the categories of the understanding and the forms of space and time.

H. Need to know John Dewey’s starting point in philosophy, namely, experience as it is, how ideas are utilities or tools to help us engage present experience to obtain beneficial ends. Moreover, you need to understand that for Dewey, the most pervasive fallacy in philosophy is reductionism, that is, focusing on one idea to the neglect of all other ideas. John Dewey is a pragmatist. Pragmatism holds that the meaning of concepts lies in the difference they make to conduct and that the function of thought is to guide action. See supplement on Analytic fallacy on website.

I. Understand Hume’s view of “sympathy” and his four-fold categories of pleasurable and useful virtues. Also understand why our human feelings are his starting point for ethics

J. Understand Aristotle’s concept of virtue, vice, eudaimonia, the golden mean, and phronesis. How do obtain eudaimonia. What are criticisms made against virtue ethics? Why is virtue ethics popular today as an alternative to both deontological ethics and consequential ethics… because character formation is based upon certain virtues that are promoted by a particular community.

K. Understand Kant’s threefold Categorical Imperative.

L. Understand Denis Dutton’s notion of aesthetic signatures (see article on website).

M. Understand Plato and Aristotle’s views of aesthetics.

N. Understand Tolstoy’s view of aesthetic experience and value.

O. Understand Dewey’s view of aesthetic experience.

P. Understand David Hume’s argument against miracles.

Q. Understand the advantages for and criticisms against deontological ethics.

R. Understand the advantages for criticisms against consequential ethics.

S. Understand the criticisms made against relativism.

T. Understand the criticisms made against rule-based by ethics by virtue ethicists.

U. Understand Augustine’s view of “evil” and free-will defense theory regarding the problem of evil.

V. Understand the 5 problems/solutions offered about evil and theism:

1. Problem 1: Evil affirms the non-existence of God;

Counter response by theist: Evil actually affirms the existence of God because of the moral law argument. Also, you have the use of the ontological argument.

“One of the strongest arguments against the existence of God is the presence of evil and suffering in the world. Can you not the see what is brought in through the back door in that question? Because if there’s evil, there’s good. If there’s good there has to be a moral law. If there’s a moral law there has to be a transcendent moral lawgiver. But that’s what the skeptic is trying to disprove and not prove. Because if there is no moral law giver, there’s no moral law. If there’ no moral law there’s no good. If there’s no good there’s no evil. So what’s the question, really? The strongest argument against the existence of God actually assumes God in the objection.”

2. Problem 2: God is not all-perfect:

Response: Leibniz type argument: “No one has demonstrated that any alternative world is morally better than the one we have. Hence, no antitheist can show that God did not create the best world, even given the privation of God. This, of course, does not mean that the theist is committed to the belief that this present world is the best world that can be achieved. God is not finished yet, and Scripture promises that something better will be achieved. The theist’s assumption is that this world is the best way to the best world achievable.”

3. Problem 3: God is the author of evil

Response: Evil is not a substance but a corruption of a substance.

4. Problem 4: Natural evil;

Response: Leibniz type argument: “No one has demonstrated that any alternative world is morally better than the one we have. Hence, no antitheist can show that God did not create the best world, even given the privation of God. This, of course, does not mean that the theist is committed to the belief that this present world is the best world that can be achieved. God is not finished yet, and Scripture promises that something better will be achieved. The theist’s assumption is that this world is the best way to the best world achievable.”

5. Problem 5: Gratuitous (pointless) evil:

Response: If God exists, then pointless evil does not exist. Lack of capacity to see all things from God’s perspective… are we really in a position to declare that pointless evil does occur?

X. The Problem of evil and worldviews:

1. Atheism affirms evil but denies the reality of God;

2. Finite godism can claim that God desires to destroy evil but is unable to because he is limited in power;

3. Deism can distance God from evil by stressing that God is not in the world, but beyond it.

4. Panentheism insists that evil is a necessary part of the ongoing progress of the interaction of God and the world.

5. Pantheism affirms the reality of God but denies the reality of evil.

6. Theism affirms both the reality of both God and evil.

Y. What are the two types of miracles that do not violate physical laws, thus avoiding the force of Hume’s critique against miracles:

1. Superseding miracles: The evident appears to defy known physical laws (e.g., law of buoyancy vs. law of gravity).

2. configuration miracles: Set of events that seem too improbable to come together on the basis of coincidence alone.

Z. Know Blaise Pascal’s wager (end of lecture 18 on God’s existence):

Since we cannot know all that there is to be known about anything, we ought to know a little about everything. ~ Blaise Pascal

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