Part I: Fill in the Blank. You should know the definitions of the following words for fill in the blank questions. A word bank will be provided:- Teleology
- Good
- Highest Good
- Neoplatonism
- Skepticism
- ex nihilo
- Great Chain of Being
- Natural Evil
- Moral Evil
- Free Will Theodicy
- Natural Law Theory
- Mysticism
- Perennialism
- Constructivism
- Cartesian Dualism
- Distributive Justice
- Analytic Statement
- Synthetic Statement
Part II: Short Answer. You should be able to explain the following concepts (Note, we may not cover all of these in class before the exam. If we don't get to it in class it won't be on the exam): - Explain Aristotle's conception of the Highest Good.
- Explain Aristotle's conception of a Function and the related concepts of Virtue and Vice and illustrate them with an example.
- Explain the four levels of Plotinus' Hierarchy of being.
- Explain Plotinus' solution to the Metaphysical Problem of Evil.
- Explain Augustine's response to skepticism.
- Explain the Problem of Evil and Augustine's Response
- Name and give a brief description of each of the three types of arguments for God's Existence.
- Explain Anselm's Ontological Argument and articulate one objection to it.
- Explain Aquinas' Cosmological Argument.
- Explain Aquinas's Teleological Argument.
- Explain Natural Law Theory and how it would be used to show that homosexuality is immoral.
- Explain the four qualities of a mystical experience according to William James.
- Explain the three sources of doubt Descartes considers. For each source of doubt you should be able to explain the nature of that doubt, the beliefs that form of doubt calls into question, and the beliefs that survive that form of doubt.
- Explain Descartes' Cogito argument.
- Explain Descartes argument for Cartesian Dualism.
- Explain the Cartesian Circle.
- Explain the two features of every social contract theory.
- Explain Hobbes' conception of the State of Nature and his solution for how we can escape it.
- Explain Locke's conception of the three functions of government.
- Explain some of the differences between Hobbes' and Locke's conception of human nature and the social contract.
- Explain the two types of "perceptions of the mind" discussed by Hume. How do we tell the difference?
- Explain Hume's two arguments for the claim that all ideas can be traced back to some original impression or impressions.
- Explain the difference between Hume's account of Relations of Ideas and Matters of Fact.
- Explain Hume's account of the source for our idea of causality.
- Explain the Problem of Induction.
Part III: Essay. Pick a Medieval Philosopher. Explain that philosopher's main position. How was that philosopher influenced by the Greek (Presocratic, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle) philosophical tradition? |
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