Spring 2011 Philosophy of Human Nature Study Questions with Notes

Return to Human Nature

Exams in this course are basic exclusively on the study questions below, which are updated from each class.

January 13, 2011 (2)

1. How are philosophical methods involved in answering questions like, "What is Real?"

Plato's definition of real is that which is neither changing (ephemeral) nor subjective. ~~ Nick Keyes

inserting your notes with a ":" at the start of the line will indent them like this. (name)

2. Who was Socrates and what methods was he famous for?

Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher. He lived in Athens. He was known to be more or less considered a crazy street guy--until he started asking people questions which proved to be quite destablizing and annoying. The method he is best known for is the elencus, in which a series of questions are asked not only to draw individual answers, but also to encourage fundamental insight into the issue at hand. ~~Nick Keyes

3. What are the main fields of philosophy and the major questions in each field?

Logic, studying the nature of arguments (a claim of knowledge usually put into a specific form like modus ponens; epistemology, studying the scope and nature of knowledge (why and how to we claim to have knowledge?); metaphysics, studying the nature of ultimate reality (religion overlaps a lot here). Ethics, studies questions for how we should act, is it ethical to (insert controversial topic here)?

4. How is philosophy related to and different from science and religion?

Here we may discuss "logos" which involves philosophy, interpretations (hermeneutics), and science. Thus they are related all to each other. Religion, science, and philosophy all have claims of knowledge. Philosophy tends to sort out good, strong argument from those that do not stand up to scrutiny.

January 18, 2011 (3)

1. How can the relationships among philosophy, science, religion, and culture be thought of through the three-fold distinction of Logos, Theos, and Mythos?

2. What is at stake, philosophically, in the question, from Euthyphro, of "whether the pious or holy is beloved by the gods because it is holy, or holy because it is beloved of the gods"?

3. What is Euthyphro doing and why is Socrates interested?

4. Why does Euthyphro have so much trouble giving a definition of piety?

5. What are arguments and explanations? What is the difference between deductive and inductive arguments?

January 20, 2011 (4)

1. What is Socrates' charged with and what is his defense?

He was sentenced to death for "speculating about the heaven above, and searched into the earth beneath, and made the worse appear the better cause" Basically he was accused to atheism and corrupting the youth. Nick Keyes 20:40, 3 March 2011 (UTC)Nkeyes

2. How does the Apology illustrate philosophical methods?

3. How should we approach philosophical discussion in light of Socrates' fate?

     - Socrates believes: If you knew the good, you would do it.
                          No one errors (does wrong) willingly.
          -This philosophical defense of Socrates' logically connected two ideas with the method of MODUS PUNS (If 
            believe A+B, Then believe both A+B)

January 25, 2011 (5)

1. How do philosophers typically distinguish knowledge from other belief and types of knowledge?

2. Identify and discuss in detail the main positions in epistemology (skepticism, empiricism, and rationalism).

• one Skepticism: questioning everything, being very doubtful.
• two Empiricism: Evidence of sense, feeling hearing, seeing, touching is grounds for knowledge.
• three Rationalism: Logic and reasoning prove knowledge (math realist are rationalist).

3. What is Descartes' approach to grounding knowledge in Meditation 1? What is the result at the end of that Meditation?

• one Descartes approach in meditation one is radical doubt. He is not only going to throw out what he cant be certain of- but everything in that category too.

The results of the end of this meditation is that he doesn't know if he is being deceived by dreams (if he is really awake or asleep) and that maybe demons are controlling his life.

January 27, 2011 (6)

1. How does Descartes establish certainty in Meditation 2? How does he use the wax example to suggest that he has certainty about objects?

In Meditation 2 Descartes establishes certainty with an archimedes point of certainty: I think, therefore I am. He cannot be persuaded away from the idea that :he is the subject of deception. Descartes attempts to establish certainty through mathematics and God. In the wax example, Descartes suggests that he has :certainty about objects because he has a direct rational intuition, a clear idea that the object is there, apart from its sensory properties. (Margo)

2. Is it possible, likely, or impossible that we are radically deceived about the nature of reality?

3. What do the initial speakers in the Symposium say about love?

Phaedrus says that Love is one of the oldest gods and does the most to promote virtue in people. Pausanias makes the distinction between Common Love and :Heavenly Love, which always takes place between a man and boy. Eryximachus believes that love is a force that can be found in everything. Aristophanes :describes a myth about how man was once two people together but the gods cut them in half so we look for our respective half in order to become whole :again. Agathon depicts Love as young and beautiful and also plants virtues in people. (Margo)

February 1, 2011 (7)

1. Reconstruct Socrates questioning of Agathon as an argument, then critically assess it. Is desire a structure of absence?

Agathon states that love is a desire of something that a person usually does not possess. Socrates questions this saying:

A. A person desires what they love.

B. Love is the desire of something a person needs.

Therefore a person cannot desire what they possess. If there is not a need for something, a person will not love it.

Based on the two premises, if a person believes that both are true, then the conclusion must be true. By these means, a person cannot love what they possess, but rather love and desire are held for what a person lacks. If a person desires what they already have, then they are desiring that they continue to possess it in the future. Based on Agathon's argument, love is a lack or the desire of something that is absent. (Kelsey)

2. How do the epistemological positions of naive realism, indirect realism, and idealism all respond to particular strengths and weaknesses of empiricism?

February 3, 2011 (8)

1. Reconstruct the view of love in the Speech of Diotima. How does this view connect love to Plato's form of the good and how does it relate to previous speeches? Critically evaluate it.

2. Why does Locke think that secondary properties are different from primary ones?

3. What is representational realism?

2/8/2011

1. What are the chief characteristics of science, how are scientific hypotheses confirmed or refuted, and what criteria describe a good scientific theory?

2. What is the problem of induction?

3. What model of epistemology best fits the description of contemporary science in Schick and Vaughn?

2/10/2011

Review Day -- No Study Questions