201 SQs only Spring 2009

We'll use class dates and topics to organize this page. Please sign your answer with your name so that people can keep an eye on the roster to determine their turn. You must post your answer (circulated to your two "editors" if possible) by the next class meeting. Please try to do this so we can review answers in class.

1/15/2009

1. What are some of the distinguishing traits and methods of philosophical thought?

2. How do philosophy, myth, and religion relate to each other? Identify both differences and areas of overlap.

3. What is the difference between philosophy and science?

1/20/2009

1. What lessons about doing philosophy can we infer from Socrates trial and fate? What should philosophers consider as they advance their theories in a social community?

2. How do Plato and Aristotle differ on the real and form?

1/22/2009

1. In light of Greek history and the relationship between Greek culture and philosophical culture, how do you explain Socrates fate?

2. How does Plato's philosophy fit into a "history of theory"?

3. Consider and assess the criticism that Plato's philosophy is too radically "anti-body"?

4. In what ways are Socrates and Kant both "heroes of knowledge"?

5. How does Russell characterize philosophy, it's relationship to other fields of knowledge, the kinds of questions it can address, and it's connection with freedom? What is the value of philosophy, in his view?

1/27/2009

1. Summarize the first three speeches of the Symposium.

2. Why would someone argue that love is a broad force, as Eryximachus thinks, as opposed to a narrower force describing the bond between intimate partners?

3. Is love morally "dual," admitting of both noble and ignoble forms? How is love related to the good?

4. Distinguish propositional knowledge, know how, and knowledge by acquaintance.

5. Why does it seem that knowledge involves belief, truth, and justification?

1/29/2009

1. Give reasons for answering the following questions either affirmatively or negatively: a. Could ther be another world (like the Matrix, or a "brain in a vat") alongside or "behind" this one? and b. Could we be radically wrong about our knowledge of the world?

2. How does the parabola video show the relationship between empirical and rational knowledge? How should we understand that relationship?

3. Identify a modern naturalistic view of love and then consider whether it answers the questions Plato is trying to answer. What kind of knowledge do we have about love (propositional, know-how, or aquaintance)?

4. Summarize Aristophanes' speech on love.

2/3/2009

1. How does Agathon praise love? Contrast his view with previous speeches. In what way is Plato making fun of him?

2. Reconstruct and evaluate Socrates criticism of Agathon (see journal samples in addition to the answer here).

3. What is Descartes' goal in the first meditation?

4. Identify each type of knowledge he discards and why.

2/5/2009

1. How do you distinguish empiricism from rationalism?

2. What are some of the theoretical options for an empiricist to connect sense data to reality? (naive, indirect, idealism) Define each.

3. What is the distinction between primary and secondary qualities? Does it solve any problems?

4. What is Descartes' "archimedian point" for establishing certainty? Is it successful?

5. Does Descartes' analysis of the experience of the wax justify his claim that we can have an "intuition of the mind" about objects? Why or why not?

6. What is the problem of induction and what is the "pragmatic solution"? Does it work? What, finally is induction based upon?

2/10/2009

1. What is Diotima's account of the origins of love? Why does it have the characteristics it does? Why isn't it a god?

2. Explain Diotima's view that the purpose of love is to give birth in beauty, whether in body or soul?

3. What is the "scala amoris"? What claim does Plato make about love with this idea? Is this a real feature of love?

2/12/2009

1. What is the difference between sensation and reflection for Locke?

2. How did Logical Positivists use the analytic / synthetic distinction to attack rationalism as a source of certainty?

3. What is philosophical hedonism?

2/17/2009

1. What are the major positions in philosophical thought on personal identity?

2. Identify strengths and weaknesses of each position, in your view.

3. How does Parfit use the "split brain" thought experiment to consider three specific possibilities about the self?

4. How does Dennett complicate the opposition between mind and body with his thought experiment in "Where Am I?"?

5. How does Epicureanism defend the view that pleasure is the ultimate good. Reconstruct major concepts and theses in the view and assess it in relation to Plato's view and your own experience and thought about the nature of pleasure. Is it the greatest good?

2/19/2009

No class due to conference travel.

2/24/2009

1. Is it possible to mix and match different philosophical theories of identity? Give an example of how you might do that, as well as problems it might create.

2. What is Parfit's view of personal identity and why does he hold it? How is it an instance of a "deflationary" philosophical theory?

3. What philosophical viewpoint on personal identity does Dennett's story "Where Am I?" support?

4. Compare and contrast Stoics and Epicureans on theology, ontology, human nature, and the good life.

5. Using some of the passages discussed in class, how do you begin to reconstruct Epictetus' formulation of Stoic thought?

2/26/2009

1. What is the importance of the Stoic distinction between things "up to us" and things "not up to us"?

2. Why does a Stoic place so much importance on their hegemonikon?

3. Give an example of stoic teaching that would strike some people as extreme. How would a stoic defend against this charge?

4. How does the psychological research reported by Paul Bloom in the excerpt from, "Is God an Accident?" bear on the problem of personal identity?

5. Reconstruct and evaluate the arguments against immortality of the soul in Perry's, "A Dialogue on Immortality and Personal Identity."

201 SQs only Spring 2009

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