Question 1

Charvaka philosophers

Accepted Answer

only sense perception is reliable
materialism, senses can only perceive matter, urge to turn away from religion

Question 2

inductive reasoning

Accepted Answer

generalizing about what we observe

Question 3

deductive reasoning

Accepted Answer

uses general statements to reach logical conclusions

Question 4

Democritus

Accepted Answer

nothing exists but material atoms in space, materialism

Question 5

Thomas Hobbes

Accepted Answer

we can only know reality’s measurable quantitative aspects

Question 6

La Mettrie

Accepted Answer

humans are complex machines, rely on experience and observation, soul is a machine in head that controls the machine of body

Question 7

Heisenberg

Accepted Answer

“principle of indeterminacy.”, world is intertwined w/ the mind
observing something changes the results
“probability fields” of potential entities do not become definitely real until they interact with a mind.

Question 8

idealism

Accepted Answer

the objects we perceive in the world around us consist entirely of ideas in our minds (or some other mind), their existence depends on their being perceived by a mind. emphasize mental/immaterial reality, reject physical/material world

Question 9

Plato

Accepted Answer

Behind each material entity in our experience is a perfect form  that is truly real in a way the entities we perceive are not. This ideal is what accounts for the derivative reality of the objects we see around us.

Question 10

Augustine

Accepted Answer

beware of the world and the flesh because they cannot last and so are not fully real. What is fully real is the enduring spiritual world of God, a world without matter.

Question 11

Berkeley

Accepted Answer

the world we perceive around us consists of these sensations and perceptions, together with the minds that experience them.
all the things we perceive around us are just ideas—or collections of ideas—in our minds.

Question 12

subjective idealism

Accepted Answer

the ideas of things cease to exist when the individual perceiver ceases to perceive them.

Question 13

objective idealism

Accepted Answer

It explains also why, for example, when I shut my eyes and open them again, the world I see before me is the same world that was there before I shut my eyes. It is the same world because God makes sure it is

Question 14

Vasubandhu, a Buddhist philosopher

Accepted Answer

All we ever experience are sensations within us, so we have no basis for concluding that in addition to these sensations there also exist external objects that cause these sensations. meditation & ethical life

Question 15

Pierce

Accepted Answer

philosopher uses a concept, we should always ask: “What practical difference does it make?” And if it makes no practical difference in our lives, then the concept is empty. pluralistic reality.

Question 16

Dewey

Accepted Answer

all thinking is related to people’s interests and their conscious or unconscious desires.

Question 17

James

Accepted Answer

Any metaphysical claims about reality, he held, must be based on facts and real consequences. we choose our own reality by the criterion of its meaningful relation to our emotions and actions.

Question 18

logical positivism

Accepted Answer

based on a certain view of language and meaning

Question 19

Alfred J. Ayer

Accepted Answer

Metaphysical statements, in particular, he and the positivists claimed, are just “nonsense,”

Question 20

“verification principle”

Accepted Answer

(1)“formal” statements - their truth or falsity depends completely on the way we define the words or symbols that make up the statement.  
(2)“empirical” or factual statements - can be proved or disproved by observing the world around us.

Question 21

Ayer

Accepted Answer

no observations can prove or disprove metaphysical statements.
Metaphysical statements are used to express feelings and not to represent facts about the world.

Question 22

Realism

Accepted Answer

our real world would be the same even if no one ever perceived it, thought about it, or described it.

Question 23

Antirealism

Accepted Answer

the world and its features depend on how they are described, perceived, and thought about.

Question 24

Goodman

Accepted Answer

All reality depends on the way we humans have chosen to describe the world. Each is created by different and overlapping languages and systems of thought and each is equally real

Question 25

Putnam

Accepted Answer

what reality is depends on the system of concepts we use to describe it.

Question 26

Spender

Accepted Answer

If language creates reality, then it is not surprising that our common reality is focused on men
suggests that we have to recognize that there are different female worlds or realities.

Question 27

Searle

Accepted Answer

although the descriptions we give of reality depend on our language, the reality we are describing does not.

Question 28

Postmodernism

Accepted Answer

there are many different realities because there are many different ways of describing reality and each of these different ways of describing reality can produces a different reality, each of which is equally valid

Question 29

Determinism

Accepted Answer

every event is causally determined by previous conditions and events operating  Laplace suggesting  what we do depends on what we want &  laws of nature that lead us to satisfy our wants.  laws of nature ensure we will act exactly as our wants cause us

Question 30

Libertarianism

Accepted Answer

people have control over what they do and are free to make choices other than the ones they actually make. Sartre

Question 31

Existentialist

Accepted Answer

de Beauvoir; women  are subject to social influences that attempt to rob them of an awareness of their own freedom. Social and economic liberation is key if women are to accept their freedom.

Question 32

Compatibilism

Accepted Answer

So a person’s action is free in the compatibilist sense only if it is caused by the person’s desires and character as determinism says it is.
Hobbes: although we are “free” when we do what our desires prompt us to do, our actions are still  determined

Question 33

Two World’s View

Accepted Answer

Steven Pinker - we have to understand ourselves as free agents when we are discussing morality, and as deterministic machines when discussing science.

Question 34

McTaggart

Accepted Answer

For time requires change, and the events or moments in objective time—the B series—do not change. This is not really time. Only the A series could really count as time. And because the A series is impossible, time cannot be real.

Question 35

Smart

Accepted Answer

events don’t move from being future to being past. They are all fixed in objective time and don’t change at all. So, the flow of time we think we experience is really an illusion.

Question 36

Kant

Accepted Answer

mental construct, space and time are the two basic systems that the mind uses to organize this flow of changing sensations. e cannot even have a sensation unless it occurs at a specific time.

Question 37

Bergson

Accepted Answer

Only what we directly experience—what we “intuit”—is real.  We directly experience ourselves as changing and as flowing through time. Bergson calls this experience the “intuition of duration”

Question 38

Religion features

Accepted Answer

doctrine of universe, experience presence similar to God, myths with special meaning, rituals/acts of worship, morality/set of rules, and organization of group

Question 39

The Ontological Argument

Accepted Answer

Anselm: God is  “that than which nothing greater can be conceived.” For a thing that exists in reality is greater than a thing that has no existence except in the mind.

Question 40

The Cosmological Argument

Accepted Answer

The Kalam - But this series of events, cannot form an infinite series of events that goes backward in time without a beginning. So they have had a beginning, and whatever caused the beginning is the Eternal God.

Question 41

Design Argument

Accepted Answer

Paley argued that the design evident in a watch implies that an intelligent watchmaker must have made it.   the design we see in natural organisms implies that an intelligent “divine agency” created them

Question 42

“Fine-Tuning Argument”

Accepted Answer

Davies, The physical laws and numerical constants that govern the universe, then, are “finely tuned” to produce  conditions that enable us to live and flourish.  those laws and constants were deliberately selected by an intelligent creator of the universe

Question 43

argument of evil

Accepted Answer

Draper suggested,  they just don’t care about the gratuitous suffering we experience in this world.
Augustine: evil exists because a finite world has to contain some evil or privation of good if it is to be distinct from the all-good God.

Question 44

agnosticism

Accepted Answer

Huxley believed the arguments for and against God’s existence were both inconclusive. So he suspended judgment  about the existence of God

Question 45

will to believe

Accepted Answer

James: It is legitimate to rely on “our passional nature” to decide such options of faith, even without sufficient intellectual evidence for either option.

Question 46

leap of faith

Accepted Answer

Kierkegaard, God is unknowable, To believe in God is to feel, act, and commit oneself, rather than to know

Question 47

Hinduism

Accepted Answer

get rid of selfish desires through meditation to experience moksha, enlightenment. karma, atman is the profound self, brahman is true reality

Question 48

Buddhism

Accepted Answer

karma and reincarnation, Gautama focused on human suffering, no true self, everything is temporary, eightfold path and nirvana enlightenment

Question 49

Aquinas

Accepted Answer

concludes that something is needed to sustain this whole process of current changes and keep it going right now. He is arguing that God is needed as the source that powers the actual changing universe we see around us right now.

Question 50

Subjective Time

Accepted Answer

It is the perspective on time that we have as creatures within time who experience the flow of time from the inside.

Question 51

Objective Time

Accepted Answer

The view of time, in which all times—past, present, and future—are equally real is called “eternalism.” We can also call it the external or the “objective” view of time.

Question	Answer
Charvaka philosophers	only sense perception is reliable materialism, senses can only perceive matter, urge to turn away from religion
inductive reasoning	generalizing about what we observe
deductive reasoning	uses general statements to reach logical conclusions
Democritus	nothing exists but material atoms in space, materialism
Thomas Hobbes	we can only know reality’s measurable quantitative aspects
La Mettrie	humans are complex machines, rely on experience and observation, soul is a machine in head that controls the machine of body
Heisenberg	“principle of indeterminacy.”, world is intertwined w/ the mind observing something changes the results “probability fields” of potential entities do not become definitely real until they interact with a mind.
idealism	the objects we perceive in the world around us consist entirely of ideas in our minds (or some other mind), their existence depends on their being perceived by a mind. emphasize mental/immaterial reality, reject physical/material world
Plato	Behind each material entity in our experience is a perfect form that is truly real in a way the entities we perceive are not. This ideal is what accounts for the derivative reality of the objects we see around us.
Augustine	beware of the world and the flesh because they cannot last and so are not fully real. What is fully real is the enduring spiritual world of God, a world without matter.
Berkeley	the world we perceive around us consists of these sensations and perceptions, together with the minds that experience them. all the things we perceive around us are just ideas—or collections of ideas—in our minds.
subjective idealism	the ideas of things cease to exist when the individual perceiver ceases to perceive them.
objective idealism	It explains also why, for example, when I shut my eyes and open them again, the world I see before me is the same world that was there before I shut my eyes. It is the same world because God makes sure it is
Vasubandhu, a Buddhist philosopher	All we ever experience are sensations within us, so we have no basis for concluding that in addition to these sensations there also exist external objects that cause these sensations. meditation & ethical life
Pierce	philosopher uses a concept, we should always ask: “What practical difference does it make?” And if it makes no practical difference in our lives, then the concept is empty. pluralistic reality.
Dewey	all thinking is related to people’s interests and their conscious or unconscious desires.
James	Any metaphysical claims about reality, he held, must be based on facts and real consequences. we choose our own reality by the criterion of its meaningful relation to our emotions and actions.
logical positivism	based on a certain view of language and meaning
Alfred J. Ayer	Metaphysical statements, in particular, he and the positivists claimed, are just “nonsense,”
“verification principle”	(1)“formal” statements - their truth or falsity depends completely on the way we define the words or symbols that make up the statement. (2)“empirical” or factual statements - can be proved or disproved by observing the world around us.
Ayer	no observations can prove or disprove metaphysical statements. Metaphysical statements are used to express feelings and not to represent facts about the world.
Realism	our real world would be the same even if no one ever perceived it, thought about it, or described it.
Antirealism	the world and its features depend on how they are described, perceived, and thought about.
Goodman	All reality depends on the way we humans have chosen to describe the world. Each is created by different and overlapping languages and systems of thought and each is equally real
Putnam	what reality is depends on the system of concepts we use to describe it.
Spender	If language creates reality, then it is not surprising that our common reality is focused on men suggests that we have to recognize that there are different female worlds or realities.
Searle	although the descriptions we give of reality depend on our language, the reality we are describing does not.
Postmodernism	there are many different realities because there are many different ways of describing reality and each of these different ways of describing reality can produces a different reality, each of which is equally valid
Determinism	every event is causally determined by previous conditions and events operating Laplace suggesting what we do depends on what we want & laws of nature that lead us to satisfy our wants. laws of nature ensure we will act exactly as our wants cause us
Libertarianism	people have control over what they do and are free to make choices other than the ones they actually make. Sartre
Existentialist	de Beauvoir; women are subject to social influences that attempt to rob them of an awareness of their own freedom. Social and economic liberation is key if women are to accept their freedom.
Compatibilism	So a person’s action is free in the compatibilist sense only if it is caused by the person’s desires and character as determinism says it is. Hobbes: although we are “free” when we do what our desires prompt us to do, our actions are still determined
Two World’s View	Steven Pinker - we have to understand ourselves as free agents when we are discussing morality, and as deterministic machines when discussing science.
McTaggart	For time requires change, and the events or moments in objective time—the B series—do not change. This is not really time. Only the A series could really count as time. And because the A series is impossible, time cannot be real.
Smart	events don’t move from being future to being past. They are all fixed in objective time and don’t change at all. So, the flow of time we think we experience is really an illusion.
Kant	mental construct, space and time are the two basic systems that the mind uses to organize this flow of changing sensations. e cannot even have a sensation unless it occurs at a specific time.
Bergson	Only what we directly experience—what we “intuit”—is real. We directly experience ourselves as changing and as flowing through time. Bergson calls this experience the “intuition of duration”
Religion features	doctrine of universe, experience presence similar to God, myths with special meaning, rituals/acts of worship, morality/set of rules, and organization of group
The Ontological Argument	Anselm: God is “that than which nothing greater can be conceived.” For a thing that exists in reality is greater than a thing that has no existence except in the mind.
The Cosmological Argument	The Kalam - But this series of events, cannot form an infinite series of events that goes backward in time without a beginning. So they have had a beginning, and whatever caused the beginning is the Eternal God.
Design Argument	Paley argued that the design evident in a watch implies that an intelligent watchmaker must have made it. the design we see in natural organisms implies that an intelligent “divine agency” created them
“Fine-Tuning Argument”	Davies, The physical laws and numerical constants that govern the universe, then, are “finely tuned” to produce conditions that enable us to live and flourish. those laws and constants were deliberately selected by an intelligent creator of the universe
argument of evil	Draper suggested, they just don’t care about the gratuitous suffering we experience in this world. Augustine: evil exists because a finite world has to contain some evil or privation of good if it is to be distinct from the all-good God.
agnosticism	Huxley believed the arguments for and against God’s existence were both inconclusive. So he suspended judgment about the existence of God
will to believe	James: It is legitimate to rely on “our passional nature” to decide such options of faith, even without sufficient intellectual evidence for either option.
leap of faith	Kierkegaard, God is unknowable, To believe in God is to feel, act, and commit oneself, rather than to know
Hinduism	get rid of selfish desires through meditation to experience moksha, enlightenment. karma, atman is the profound self, brahman is true reality
Buddhism	karma and reincarnation, Gautama focused on human suffering, no true self, everything is temporary, eightfold path and nirvana enlightenment
Aquinas	concludes that something is needed to sustain this whole process of current changes and keep it going right now. He is arguing that God is needed as the source that powers the actual changing universe we see around us right now.
Subjective Time	It is the perspective on time that we have as creatures within time who experience the flow of time from the inside.
Objective Time	The view of time, in which all times—past, present, and future—are equally real is called “eternalism.” We can also call it the external or the “objective” view of time.

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PHIL EXAM 2