Midterm

Front 1

According to lecture, what is a “worldview” and what are the main questions regarding one’s worldview?

Back 1

A worldview is an ordered set of beliefs about life’s most important questions; What is real? What counts as knowledge and reality? What is the good life? Who is really a good person?

Front 2

Understand the four senses of the word

“philosophy” discussed in class.

Back 2

1. Logic- study of logical relations between sentences.

2. Metaphysics- study of being (existence,ultimately reality)

3. Epistemology- study of knowledge and beliefs

4. Value theory- study of (aesthetic/moral)

Front 3

According to our text (p. 4), what does it mean to say that philosophical study is a “dialectic”?

Back 3

discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to establish the truth through reasoned arguments.

Front 4

What is “intellectual humility”?

Back 4

The willingness to own up to one’s intellectual limitations or ignorance.

Front 5

Modus ponens

Back 5

1. If P then Q.

2. P.

3. Therefore, Q.

Front 6

Modus Tollens

Back 6

1. If P then Q.

2. If not Q.

3. Therefore, not P.

Front 7

Hypothetical syllogism

Back 7

1. If P then Q.

2. If Q then R.

3. Therefore, if P then R.

Front 8

Disjunctive syllogism

Back 8

1. Either P or Q.

2. Not P

3. Therefore Q.

Front 9

Know the difference between deductive and

inductive arguments and know examples of each

Back 9

Deductive arguments are supposed to give

logically conclusive support to its conclusion.

Inductive arguments are supposed to give

probable support to its conclusion.

Front 10

Know the “indicator words” for premises and conclusions provided in our text (p. 33).

Back 10

The premise indicator words include; because, since, due to the fact, the reason being, for the reason that, and in as much as.

The conclusion indicator words include;

therefore, it follows that, this, so, it must be that, consequently,and we can conclude that.

Front 11

According to our text, what does it mean to make an “inference to thebest explanation”?

Back 11

wereason from premises about a state of

affairs to an explanation for the stateof affairs.

Front 12

Begging the question

Back 12

Occurs when the conclusion of theargument is already present, usually disguised, in one of the premises.(usually called circular reasoning)

Front 13

Genetic Fallacy

Back 13

This fallacy is arguing against aposition or argument merely because its origins are suspect. A belief ismistaken or false because of the way the belief originated (way you wereraised).

Front 14

Red Herring

Back 14

A fallacy that introduces an unimportantor irrelevant topic to divert attention from the main question.

Front 15

Ad Hominem

Back 15

Arguments against the man making theclaim then the claim itself. “You can’t trust what Jones says about Abortion.She is an immoral person.”

Front 16

Straw Man

Back 16

An inappropriate simplification of anopposing argument so that it becomes a caricature of the true argument and iseasier to refute.

Invalidating arguments by making them seem ridiculous.

Front 17

What does Camus mean by “consciousness” regarding the absurdityof life and why it is

important?

Back 17

Camusmeans being aware or understanding or assuming the importance of ideas. Camussaid we can become overcomers of absurdity by

gaining consciousness- which isunderstanding the absurdity and pointlessness of our lives. He believes that nomatter who you are or what you do, we are all doomed to the same fate- death.

Front 18

What is the most important philosophical

question according toCamus?

Back 18

Why notcommit suicide? If life is so pointless then why not.

Front 19

Know and be able to describe the 8 ways that

religion can providemeaning to one’s existence (Pojman).

Back 19

1. Origin/ Sustenance of the universe.

2. Victory of Good over Evil

3. God loves and cares for us.

4. We have an answer to “Why be Moral”.

5. There is cosmic justice.

6. All persons have equal worth.

Front 20

What is meant by the “God of the philosophers”?

Back 20

Beingof maximum greatness;

all-good, all-powerful, and all-knowing.

Front 21

Know the premises and conclusion of the kalam cosmological argument.

Back 21

1. Whatever begins to exists has a cause.

2. The universe began to exist.

3. Therefore, the universe has a cause.

We cannot be certain about these premises

Front 22

What is Paley’s “watch analogy” (see pp. 90-92) and how theargument was formulated in class.

Back 22

Ifyou were to imagine crossing a heath and

stepping on a watch, he believes youwould

conclude two things:

1. The watch has a maker.

2. It was designed for apurpose.

We should then infer from this a designer of the universe.

Front 23

Know the four objections by Hume discussed in class. Understandhow Darwinian evolution was problematic to Paley’s design argument.

Back 23

1. The universe is not sufficiently like human artifacts.

2. We don’t have other universes to compare our universe to see if it is designed.

3. We can only argue for a human designer of the universe.

4. The universe could have resulted by chance.

Front 24

According to lecture, what two observations in the 20thcentury led to a reconsideration of the design argument?

Back 24

1. Complexity of a single cell

2. The fine tuning of the initial constantsof the early universe.

A) Constants

B) Arbitrary Quantities.

Front 25

What is meant by the “fine-tuning” of the universe?

Back 25

Here,fine-tuning does not mean design rather it is a neutral term that meanssimplifying.

1. The fine-tuning of the universe is due to

either physical necessity, chance, or design.

2. It is not due to physical necessity orchance.3. Therefore, it is due to design.

Front 26

Know how Anselm defines “God” and the

structure of his ontological argument.

Back 26

God is the greatest conceivable being. Aim is to refute the fool who says in their heart that there is no God by understanding showing that these claims are unstable

Front 27

Why is Anselm’s argument called an “ontological” argument?

Back 27

Anselm's ontological argument is a prioriproof of God's existence. Anselm startswith premises that do not depend on experience for their

justification and thenproceeds by purely logical means to the conclusion that God exists.

Front 28

How does the notion of “existence” factor into Anselm’sargument?

Back 28

If God exists in the mind, then he must exist in reality based on His definition of being the

greatest conceivable being.

Front 29

What is Kant’s “existence is not a predicate”

objection toAnselm? See Rowe (pp. 108-09).

Back 29

Existenceis not a real predicate which gives information about the subject. Example:John ‘laughed’. Existence is not a matter of property that can attributed to beingslike a unicorn being a horse, white, and horned.

Front 30

Know the “hidden premises” of the logical

problem of evil?

Back 30

Thehidden premises are

1. If an all good God exits than he wouldprefer a world with no evil.

2. If an all powerful God exists than hewould create a world w/o suffering.

3. What follows if we took away #2 is that

suffering does not exist therefore making the

argument false.

Front 31

What are the premises and the conclusion of Rowe’s argument fromevil?

Back 31

God does not pointless suffering to justify his powerful.

Front 32

What are the three types of atheism that Rowe discusses? Whichdoes he recommend?

Back 32

Indifferentatheism- atheism holds no belief if the atheist is or is not rational.

Friendlyatheism- atheism that holds that some theists are rationally justified.

Unfriendlyatheism- atheism that holds theists are not rationally justified.

Front 33

According to lecture, what are the three kinds of knowledge?When philosophers analyze

knowledge, which kind are they concerned with?

Back 33

Knowledge by acquaintancewhich is things we are directlyaware of.

Knowledge by know-how.

Knowledge by propositional“I know that .

Front 34

According to lecture what is required for

knowledge of the propositionalsort

Back 34

Belief and Truth

Front 35

Know the difference between rationalism and empiricism and whatepistemological question they are trying to answer.

Back 35

Rationalists believe that ATLEAST some of our knowledge is of the a priori.

Empiricists believe ourknowledge of the world is of the a posteriori.Trying to answer: What is knowledge? Isknowledge even possible? How does it differ from mere belief? Does knowledgerequire certainty?

Front 36

What caused Descartes to begin the process of doubtingeverything (pp. 199-204)?

Back 36

He doubted some of his truths so he thusdecided all of his truths could possibly be wrong.

Front 37

· Why does Descartes doubt his senses?

Back 37

He believed knowledge required certaintyand senses can be misleading.

Front 38

What is foundationalism?

How was Descartes a foundationalist?

How wasLocke a foundationalist?

Back 38

An attempt to respond to the regressproblem of justification in epistemology. Descartes starts with a foundation of certainty and from this foundation, allknowledge can then be built like a house. (Rationalist)Locke wanted to base hisown justifications from what he can experience. (Empiricist

Front 39

What is the first thing Descartes comes to know for certain?

Back 39

He exists

Front 40

According to lecture, what are the two “tools” of the intellectthat Descartes employs to gain more knowledge?

Back 40

Intuition and deduction

Front 41

According to lecture, what are the two kinds of experiences asunderstood by John Locke?

Back 41

Sensation- The operations ofour own minds within.

Reflection- the ideas it affords beingsuch only as the mind gets by reflecting on its own operations within itself.

Front 42

In our text (pp. 28-32), what is meant by, and what does Russellthink of, the view that “man is the measure of all things”?

Back 42

Thetruth is man made, that the space and time and the world of universals areproperties of the mind, and that, if there are to be anything created by themind, it is unknowable and of no account for us.

Front 43

· What is the “egocentric predicament”?

Back 43

This is the problem of not being able toview

reality outside of our own perceptions.