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?

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

2/15/2011

1. Be prepared to identify the major positions in dualism discussed by Churchland.

2. What are some of the underlying issues that motivate various dualisms?

3. How is Buddhism like or unlike other religions? How do these differences affect the philosophical study of Buddhism?

2/17/2011

1. What is the Buddhist's diagnosis of the conditions of our existence?

2. How is the Eight fold path a response?

3. What is the paradox of liberation?