Philosophy Exam 1 Study Guide

Study Guide:

Assigned Reading 1: The Chewbacca Defense: A South Park Logic Lesson

  1. Definitions for deductive and inductive arguments

    1. Deductive arguments - the speaker intends the conclusion to follow the premises with absolute certainty; if all premises are true the conclusion must be true without any doubt
    2. Inductive arguments - the speaker intends the conclusion to follow from the premises with the probability or likelihood such that, if all the premises are true, then the conclusion probably or likely is true, but it is still possible the conclusion is false

  2. Distinctive features of the red herring, hasty generalization, slippery slope, false dilemma, argument from inappropriate authority, and ad hominem fallacies

    1. Red herring - someone uses claims and arguments that have nothing to do with the issue in order to get someone to draw a conclusion they believe to be true
    2. Hasty generalization - a person fallaciously draws a conclusion about characteristics of a whole group based upon premises concerning characteristics of a small sample of the group
    3. Slippery slope - when one inappropriately concludes that some further chain of events, ideas, or beliefs will follow from some initial event, idea, or belief and thus we should reject the initial event, idea, or belief
    4. False dilemma - fallacy of concluding something based upon premises that include only two options, when, in fact there are three or more options
    5. Argument from inappropriate authority - fallacy that sounds like what it is, incorrectly drawing a conclusion from premises based upon a non-credible, non-qualified, or illegitimate authority figure
    6. Ad hominem fallacies - someone concludes that a person’s claims or arguments are false or not worth listening to because of premises that concern an attack on the actions, personality, or ideology of the person putting forward the claim or argument

Assigned Reading 2: A Certain Point of View: Lying Jedi, Honest Sith, and the Viewers Who Love Them

  1. Details of the Buddha’s Parable of the House of Fire

    1. Wealthy man’s house catches fire

    2. Children are oblivious and ignore their father and play with their toys as house burns around them

    3. Tells kids there are carts driven by their favorite animals outside and they listen and go outside

    4. No carts were found but instead they were carriages to carry them to safety

    5. Buddha asks his disciple if he is guilty of falsehood

      1. It saved their life

  2. Know answer to the question of why the Jedi can justify some forms of lying

    1. Believe it is for the greater good
    2. To keep their power

Assigned Reading 3: Cartmanland and the Problem of Evil

  1. Know why the Story of Job does not appear to constitute an objective to the Problem of Evil

    1. An example of someone continuing to believe in God despite suffering horrendous evil, but it does not challenge a specific premise of the argument

  2. General details of the “You Are Up There!” response to the Problem of Evil

    1. Had to give Cartman perfect happiness for a brief period and then rip it away
    2. Certain goods can only be accomplished by allowing evils as long as the goof outweighs the evil

  3. General details of John Hick’s response to the Problem of Evil

    1. God allows evil to exist so that you can respond to it, thus developing and perfecting our characters
    2. No point in existence if God fixed everything
    3. Not be allowed to learn and grow which is very important

Assigned Reading 4: I Am an Instrument of God: Religious Belief, Atheism, and Meaning

  1. Definition for ex nihilo nihil fit

    1. “Out of nothing, nothing comes”
    2. Supports the notion that something had to exist out of which the universe came to be

  2. Difference between moral evils and natural evils

    1. Moral evils - misuse of free will; those who make “bad calls” can be held responsible
    2. Natural evils - do not result from intentions or negligence

  3. Proposed explanation for religious belief suggested by J.J.C. Smart

    1. Ultimate ego-booster

  4. Definition of nihilism

    1. Belief that existence is meaningless in the absence of objective value, although it can certainty lead to it

Assigned Reading 5: Talking Trees and Walking Mountains: Buddhist and Taoist Themes in The Lord of the Rings

  1. Three ways Tolkien’s themes connect up with Buddhist thought

    1. Treatment of nature; sentience found not only in humans
    2. Emphasis on the relationship of individuals have with nature
    3. Emphasis on mentoring; Learn from a host of sources

  2. One way Tolkien’s themes connect up with Taoist thought

    1. Presents a view of opposites; two opposing forces exist in balance

Assigned Reading 6: You Know, I Learned Something Today: Stan March and the Ethics of Belief

  1. Under what conditions W.K. Clifford contends it is wrong to believe some claim

    1. Wrong to believe anything upon sufficient evidence

  2. Distinction between prudential reasons and evidential reasons

    1. Prudential reasons - reason to believe something if it makes you better off
    2. Evidential reasons - believe in something if there is evidence to believe in it

Assigned Reading 7: Tumbling Down the Rabbit Hole: Knowledge, Reality, and the Pit of Skepticism

  1. Definition of skeptic

    1. Person who believes that we can never be absolutely sure what the world is really like

  2. Definition for Cogito ergo sum

    1. “I think therefore I am”

  3. Definition for naive realism

    1. The world outside our minds basically matches our perceptions of it

Powerpoint 1

  1. Definition of philosophy

    1. Love of wisdom, devoted to understanding the fundamental nature of everything

  2. Two methods employed in philosophy

    1. Conceptual analysis - insisting on clarity in our ideas, thoughts, and words
    2. Rational argumentation - insisting that every claim we might be inclined to accept as true is logically supported with sufficient evidence

  3. Standard method for teaching philosophy

    1. Historically based with readings from the philosophical canon
    2. Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes

  4. Two problems with the standard approach

    1. Philosophical issues always contain historically important elements, but are always contemporary in some important sense
    2. Historical readings in philosophy can be extraordinary difficult for undergraduates and nonprofessionals to understand

  5. Definition of pop culture

    1. Refers to the people’s culture in any given society
    2. Film, literature, music

  6. Three advantages to using pop culture to teach philosophy

    1. Pop culture is immediately accessible and vivid to students
    2. Philosophy permeates pop culture
    3. Many cutting edge philosophical questions and answers can be found within pop culture

  7. Three student learning outcomes for Philosophy and Pop Culture

    1. Students will be able to identify philosophical claims found within pop culture
    2. Students will be able to identify metaphysical, epistemic, and axiological aspects of these claims
    3. Students will be able to evaluate the philosophical acceptability of these claims

  8. Three main sub-disciplines of philosophy

    1. Metaphysics - study of the ultimate nature of reality
    2. Epistemology - study of knowledge itself
    3. Axiology - study of value itself

Powerpoint 2

  1. Both definitions for logic

    1. Study of the correct rules of reasoning
    2. Study of arguments, with the goal of distinguishing good arguments from bad arguments

  2. Definition of argument

    1. Set of sentences some of which - the premises
    2. Are supposed to provide sufficient evidence for believing one another - the conclusion

  3. Conditions for argument to be good argument

    1. Has to be logical with true premises

  4. Conditions for logical argument

    1. If all the premises of the argument were true, then the conclusion of the argument would be more reasonable to accept rather than reject

  5. Conditions for premise of argument to be true premise

    1. Given everything I know to be true about the premise, it is more reasonable for me to accept the premise is truth than reject it as false

  6. Definition of informal fallacy

    1. Logical error in an argument

Powerpoint 3

  1. Definition of metaphysics

    1. Study of the ultimate nature of reality

  2. Definition of philosophy of personal identity

    1. Study of what is necessary and sufficient for some past, present, or future self to be you
    2. Keep it real

Powerpoint 4

  1. 5 aspects of the concepts of God

    1. X is God
    2. God is an intelligent entity who created the universe
    3. God is omnipotent
    4. God is omniscient
    5. God is omnipresent
    6. God is omnibenevolent

  2. Premises of the Problem of Evil argument against existence of God

    1. If God omnipotent, then God could rid the world of evil
    2. If God is omniscient, then God would know how to rid the world of evil
    3. If God is omnibenevolent, then God would want to rid the world of evil
    4. There is evil in the world

  3. Premises of the Design Argument for the existence of God

    1. The universe is exactly like a watch in that it is orderly and is fine-tuned to serve human needs
    2. If there exists a watch, then there must exist a watchmaker

Powerpoint 5

  1. Definition for axiology

    1. Study of value itself

  2. Definition of ethics

    1. Study of right and wrong action

  3. Distinction between descriptive terms and normative terms

    1. Descriptive - merely depict objects or events in the world as having certain publicly accessible properties - example: might depict what an object looks like or when an event happened (apple is red, WW2 began in 1939)
    2. Normative or value laden - describe objects or events in the world, they also tell us how we ought to treat the object in question or how we ought to respond to the event - example: nope was a “terrifying” movie (if nope is terrifying and we don’t like to be scared, that implies that we shouldn’t watch that movie)

  4. Three epistemic questions related to values

    1. Is the source of all or some value claims purely objective?
    2. Is the source of all or some value claims purely subjective?
    3. Is the source of all or some value claims somewhere in between?

  5. Metaphysical and epistemic aspects of Pure Objectivism (Platonism)

    1. Metaphysical - all value terms refer to objects in some reality that is inaccessible to us by way of our senses, the realm of the forms
    2. Epistemic - we know to what objects value terms refer via the fact that our reason is in continual intellectual contact with the above mentioned reality

  6. Metaphysical and epistemic aspects of Pure Subjectivism (Humeanism)

    1. Metaphysical - all value terms refer to our own personal attitudes toward various objects, events, individuals, etc.
    2. Epistemic - we know to what objects value terms refer via the fact that we have direct access to our own personal attitudes

Powerpoint 7

  1. Definition for epistemology

    1. Study of knowledge itself

  2. Definition for philosophy of science

    1. Study of scientific knowledge and critical inquiry into the scientific method

  3. 5 possible sources of knowledge

    1. Sensory experience - believing some claim because you saw something, heard something, etc.
    2. Memory - believing some claim because you remember its being true
    3. Testimony - believing some claim because you read about it or were told it was true by someone else
    4. Introspection - believing some claim because the claim is about what is going on in your own mind, e.g., what you are currently thinking or currently feeling
    5. Reason - believing some claim because you logically inferred it was true

  4. Definition for rationalism

    1. Reason is the only true source of knowledge

  5. Definition for empiricism

    1. Sensory experience is the only true source of knowledge

  6. Two problems with rationalism

    1. It sounds metaphysically spooky - that is, it seems to allow the possibility that I could know very specific facts about literary history without doing any research at all
    2. Our intuitions are easily contaminated by non-evidential factors - i.e., by aspects of our culture, upbringing, education, current emotional states, personal biases, desires, etc.

  7. Two problems with empiricism

    1. It sounds metaphysically incomplete - that is, it does not seem to be able to account for knowledge we have of logical or mathematical truths, claims about the future, claims about unobservable entities, or even claims about empirical knowledge itself

    2. Our experiences are also easily contaminated by non-evidential factors

      1. I.e., by aspects of our psychology, by personal expectations, by changes in normal perceiving conditions, by biases and desires, by the drunken state of the speaker and/or the drunken state of ourselves, etc.

Powerpoint 8

  1. Distinction between local and global skepticism

    1. Local skepticism - view that we lack knowledge of a certain specific claim or of a set of claims that are related in some way
    2. Global skepticism - view that no one knows anything or that there is almost nothing that anyone truly knows

  2. Premises of the Matrix Argument for global skepticism

    1. In order for me to have any knowledge (other than that I exist), I have to know that I am not in the Matrix
    2. I don’t know that I am not in the Matrix