Philosophy Exam Section A Past Questions by Miss King https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf en-us 2023-09-18 00:59:51 UTC 2023-09-18 01:08:32 UTC hello@padlet.com 1a. Briefly outline one of the reasons Descartes uses to support his claim that ‘there is not one of my former beliefs about which a doubt may not properly be raised’.b. What does Descartes conclude cannot be doubted and why?c. Evaluate the argument outlined in part b. sking31 https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707826457 2023-09-18 01:03:00 UTC https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707826457 4a. How does Descartes describe the nature of: •body • mind?b. How does Smart describe the nature of: • body •mind?c.How does Descartes argue for the conclusion that he is distinct from his body? d. How might Smart criticize Descartes’s argument as outlined in part c.? sking31 https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707826623 2023-09-18 01:03:10 UTC https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707826623 1. Outline one reason why Descartes believes he is not his body2. According to Descartes, how does his awareness of his own mind compare with his awareness of a physical object, such as a piece of wax? sking31 https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707826886 2023-09-18 01:03:25 UTC https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707826886 3. Explain how Smart’s analogy of lightning supports his physicalist theory of the mind. sking31 https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707827072 2023-09-18 01:03:35 UTC https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707827072 4. Consider the following two claims: Alex feels happy. 2. Alex is two metres tall.According to Nagel, which of these two claims is more subjective and why?According to Nagel, which of these two claims must a physicalist reject and why?How might Smart respond to Nagel’s view about these two claims? sking31 https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707827276 2023-09-18 01:03:47 UTC https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707827276 2a. Explain the problem with Locke’s theory of personal identity, which Michaels refers to as the ‘Lockean circle’. b.Outline the relationships between memory and causality, and between memory and resemblance in creating the illusion of personal identity according to Hume.c. Why does Locke’s account of personal identity provide a basis for personal responsibility, whereas Hume’s does not? Use an example to support your response. sking31 https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707827570 2023-09-18 01:03:59 UTC https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707827570 5. ‘… the understanding never observes any real connexion among objects, and … even the union of cause and effect, when strictly examin’d, resolves itself into a customary association of ideas.’ Source: David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, Penguin Classics, 1985, p. 307a. What does Hume mean in this quotation?b.How does Hume use this idea to argue for his theory of personal identity?c. Outline an objection to Hume’s theory of personal identity. sking31 https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707827733 2023-09-18 01:04:08 UTC https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707827733 4a.Outline Locke’s thought experiment of the prince and the cobbler.b. Outline Michaels’s Schwanda thought experiment.c. Compare how the two thought experiments outlined in part a. and part b. are used to justify different theories of personal identity. sking31 https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707827954 2023-09-18 01:04:21 UTC https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707827954 5a.According to Hume, how is the self like a theatre?b.Do you agree with Hume’s view of personal identity? Why or why not? sking31 https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707828313 2023-09-18 01:04:40 UTC https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707828313 1a. Callicles claims that self-discipline is not compatible with the good life. Outline one reason he gives for this claim.b.Socrates believes that self-discipline is essential to the good life. Outline one reason he gives for this claim.c. Whose view on the role of self-discipline in the good life – Callicles’s or Socrates’s – do you prefer? Give one reason in support of your response. sking31 https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707828452 2023-09-18 01:04:48 UTC https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707828452 2a.Why does Aristotle reject the idea that honour is the good for humans? Outline one of his reasons.b.Does the idea of honour have a place in a 21st-century conception of the good life? Give one argument in support of your response. sking31 https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707829456 2023-09-18 01:05:38 UTC https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707829456 3a.How does Wolf define meaningfulness?b.Give your own example of an activity that would satisfy Wolf’s definition of meaningfulness and explain why it satisfies this definition. sking31 https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707829638 2023-09-18 01:05:49 UTC https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707829638 3. According to Socrates, what is the distinction between knacks and expertise? sking31 https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707829762 2023-09-18 01:05:56 UTC https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707829762 4. Outline one point of similarity and one point of difference between the criticisms that Callicles and Nietzsche make of conventional morality sking31 https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707830017 2023-09-18 01:06:11 UTC https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707830017 5. Suppose that Sisyphus engages in deep philosophical reflection while he pushes his rock uphill. He loves philosophical reflection and pushing the rock focuses his thoughts.a. Would Aristotle think that Sisyphus is living the good life? Why or why not?b. Would Wolf think that Sisyphus is living the good life? Why or why not?c. Which answer – Aristotle’s or Wolf’s – is more plausible and why? sking31 https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707830210 2023-09-18 01:06:22 UTC https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707830210 1.a Outline the analogy of the leaky jars as put forward by Socrates.b. Explain how this analogy responds to Callicles’s analogy of ‘a stone or a corpse’. sking31 https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707830363 2023-09-18 01:06:30 UTC https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707830363 3a. Outline Aristotle’s argument to the conclusion that a life devoted to money-making is not the good life.b.How plausible is Aristotle’s view, as outlined in part a., on the role of money-making in the good life? sking31 https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707830582 2023-09-18 01:06:42 UTC https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707830582 5a.According to Aristotle, why are young people generally not well suited to the study of moral philosophy (or ‘political science’)? b.Why does Callicles see value in young people studying philosophy but not in older people studying philosophy?c. Do you agree with Aristotle or Callicles on the right age to study moral philosophy? Why? sking31 https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707831391 2023-09-18 01:07:26 UTC https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707831391 2a. According to Nietzsche, what role does ‘fear of the neighbour’ play in herd morality?b. Evaluate Nietzsche’s view as described in part a. Use an example to support your response. sking31 https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707831953 2023-09-18 01:07:55 UTC https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707831953 6.a Why does Nietzsche think that we can discover the good life through the model of a noble, individual commander rather than through ‘the herd instinct of obedience’?b.How might Socrates respond to Nietzsche’s view that the superior individual shows the way to the good life? sking31 https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707832546 2023-09-18 01:08:29 UTC https://padlet.com/sking31/xqb4gzhqpiwimbqf/wish/2707832546