Philosophy Final

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

4:03 PM

200 Pts.
- Short answer Qs are 4 pts (from the quizzes)
Plato
At the beginning of the Recollection argument, Socrates distinguishes two kinds of recollection. What
are they?
1. Similar -- recollection that is triggered by something similar to what is recollected (exactly the
same -- photo of kevin spacey triggers thought of kevin spacey)
2. Dissimilar -- recollection triggered by something dissimilar to what is recollected (washington
monument triggers thought of kevin spacey)

What happens to tallness in the face of shortness?

The opposite either retreats or is destroyed
Things that have special relationship in the Forms in which they participate
Always bring with them the form which they participate in. Three always brings oddness, snow always
brings
Why does Socrates tell Crito that he owes a cock to Asclepius?
Being embodied is an illness, giving cock to give thanks for finally being free of physical body
Socrates' First Principle:
An opposite will never be opposite to itself. (102 B - 103 C)
But he says all opposites come to be from one another.
He was talking about forms and properties (1st principle), now he's talking about things that participate.

Perry
Weirob draws a distinction between identity and exact similarity. What is the difference?
Identity -- there is only one thing. Exact similarity -- there are two or more things.
How does the Blue River example show that sameness of psychological characteristics does not entail
sameness of soul?
There is a substance underlying appearances. Continuity of characteristics doesn't mean identity of the
substance that lies behind it. Just because the water looks the same doesn't mean that the water
molecules are the same. Psychological characteristic = appearance of the river. Soul = water molecules.
Water is constantly moving along, although looks the same the molecules won't be the same. There
could be lots of souls flowing through your body and it could still act the same.
What are the two advantages that Cohen says favor the memory theory of personal identity?
1. The memory theory locates personal theory in continuity of person stages and the memory is
supposed to carry around personality traits that are grounds of individuals. Explains the
importance of personal identity
2. How to judge identity without awareness of body
Descartes (everything he says he's going to do he does)
Prior to his argument for God's existence, Descartes establishes two causal principles. Provide one of
them.
(see notes)
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(see notes)
Why does Descartes say that God is not a deceiver?
God is perfect and to be a deceiver is a flaw so God is not a deceiver (end of meditation 3
Understand by god?
God is someone who is all perfect to an infinite degree, all good and omniscient and omnipotent
What is the immediate implication of Descartes' possession of a passive faculty of sensory perception?
Passive faculty of sensory perception = have the ability to receive sensory perceptions.
This implies that there is an active faculty that produces the sensory perception. It's not in him, so it has
to be in God or something else.
At the very beginning of the Third Meditation, Descartes says that in virtue of the result of the Second
Meditation, i.e. that he is a thinking thing, he knows what is required for him to be certain of anything.
What is Descartes' criterion for certainty?
Clear and distinct perception. If you clearly and distinctively perceive of x, you can be certain of x.
What does Elisabeth ask Descrates to explain about the mind and the body in her first letter?
How the mind, immaterial (nonextended) , can make the body, material (extended), move.
How does Descartes explain Elisabeth's confusion about the mind and the body?
She is making a category mistake. Looking for the wrong thing. Elisabeth can't understand it because she
is applying concepts relevant only to the body to the mind-body union.
Primitive notions.
Body, soul and the union of the soul and body
Mill
What, according to Mill, is the only proof that something is desirable?
If you desire it, then that something is desirable. PROBLEM: analogy fails because there is a difference in
visible and desirable. Visible = it is able to be seen. Desirable = ought to be desired.
What are the three things Mill proves in Ch 4 of Utilitarianism?
1. Happiness is desirable
2. General happiness is desirable
3. General happiness is the only thing that is desirable
Pressure on Mill -- 3rd thing. The objection he responds to is that there are things that people desire
without reference to happiness. He takes it as a psychological fact. He uses associationism to explain.
Back in the day we wanted to be good to be happy, but then the connection became so close but we
forget that good is a mean to becoming happiness and become a part of happiness.

How does Mill explain the fact that we appear to desire virtue, money, fame and power for themselves?
Started out as a means to happiness, but through repetition in our mind they become so close to
happiness that we think they are part of happiness.
Difference between virtue and money, fame and power -- money fame and power render men noxious
to one another. There are limits to money fame and power because they become unpleasant when
pursued too much. Virtue is good for others.
External + internal sanctions
Sanction = what motivates you to be moral
External = approval or disapproval of your peer or God
Internal = your conscience

Intro to Philosophy Page 2

Is the internal sanction of the GHP innate or implanted?

Not innate. Everyone has a conscience, but what it's attached to is at issue. It's implanted because you
have to have your conscience directed to the greatest happiness principle, that comes from reform and
education.
How does Mill distinguish higher and lower pleasures?
Lower pleasures satisfy sensual and base faculties
Higher pleasure satisfy higher faculties -- intellect, emotion
prefer to higher faculties in general.
Greatest Happiness Principle?
Singer
2 controversial implication
- proximity and distance is not a factor
- it doesn't matter if you are the only person who can help or if there are other people who can help (pg
231 & 232)
Traditional moral distinction that is upset by this argument
- the traditional distinction between charity and obligation
Kierkegaard
Difference between ersatz Abraham presented in "Turning up" and the actual Abraham?
All the ersatz Abrahams make sense and is understandable, but actual is incomprehensible
Nietzsche
By virtue of what is the movement of faith made?
The absurd. Sacrificing the son is inconsistent to God's promise that he will be father of nations. But
despite that he believes it will still happen.
Identitfy and briefly explain the three characteristics of genealogy, as indicated by Nietzsche's Prefact.
1. Epistemic -- gives us self-knowledge
2. Critical -- value of these values
3. Naturalistic -- stick to natural sciences, nothing metaphysical

Hume
Philo provides series of objections to the argument from design. Provide one.
If world isn't perfect then god isn't perfect
Universe isn't infinite, so we can't move to infinite of God
Is God is a craftsman then there could be multiple Gods (craftsman), world could be created by
flawed God and thus is flawed

Ressentiment -- the kind of resentment you feel towards people who have defeated you (then is
internalized and festers and eventually blossoms into Christianity)
Pure -- someone who bathed and then becomes attached to some religious meaning
Impure -- someone who didn't bath
** what does weirob think the soul consists of?
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** what does weirob think the soul consists of?

Sartre (**READ**)
What is the definition of existentialism, according to Sartre?
Existence precedes essence (what something is)
We exist and we have to create our essence. Human beings don't have an essence until the end of our
lives. We create it by existing and living.
Sartre says that three corollaries follow from the definition of existentialism. What are they?
1. We are free. There's nothing to constraint us from acting a certain way (there is no human nature)
2. We are responsible for our own choices and actions
3. We are responsible to everybody else also. If there is no essence there is no way you ought to be
an just making choices for what you are responsible. What you are doing is like holding up a model
of what it means to be a human to other people. Other people can judge it. Your way becomes a
model for someone else as one way to be human

According to existentialism, the human condition is one of anguish, abandonment and despair. What
does Sartre mean by these terms?
Anguish -- recognition of your responsibility for your choices
Abandonment -- recognition that you are free and there is nothing you can turn to beyond yourself
Despair -- play the ball where it lies. Can't hope for divine intervention. Cope with the circumstances on
the ground as they are. Count on the things that you can be sure of.
What, on Sartre's view, is the ground of all ethical judgment?
Objective ground for ethical judgment. Freedom. People are judged on whether or not they own up to
their freedom. Bad faith = denying their freedom (blaming your actions on something else), can be
judged as a person for that. Actions can also be judged according to freedom. Does it further the
freedom of other people. If it does, its good. If not, it's bad.
Simone de Beauvoir -- his lover. Ethics of Ambiguity.
Recollection Argument
1. 2 kinds of recollection
2. Judgment of deficiency. Sees something and recollect something else, you make a judgment about
if the thing you saw matches the thing you recollection
3. Knowledge of thing that you recollect prior to the judgment of def. the Forms, birth thing. (there's
different kinds of recollection)
4. The dilemma: we are hardwired for forms vs. gain knowledge when we are born
a. Why he rejects hardwire
5. Therefore, knowledge is recollection
Descartes's First Meditation
3 levels of doubt.
He tries to prove that every knowledge can be doubted so that the only things that remain is absolute
certain. He wants certain things from a firm ground of foundation.

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