Spring 2011 Philosophy of Human Nature Study Questions

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?"

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

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

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

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?

2. How does the Apology illustrate philosophical methods?

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

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 (scepticism, empiricism, and rationalism).

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

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?

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?

February 1, 2011 (7)

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

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