Deck 5: How Can We Know the Nature of Reality Philosophical Foundations

Question 1

Explain the feminist philosophical view on the nature of free will.

Answer 1

not answered

Question 2

What are some of the outside factors that might help determine a person's actions?
Which do you think are most important? Explain.

Answer 2

not answered

Question 3

Describe Daniel Dennett's position on the nature of free will.

Answer 3

not answered

Question 4

Explain the distinction that was made by W.T. Stace in arguing for the compatibility of free will with determinism.

Question 5

What is reality? What is appearance? How do we tell the difference?

Question 6

Describe William James's position on the nature of free will.

Question 7

What did Moritz Schlick mean by saying "If decisions were causeless there would be no sense in trying to influence men…". What role did this thought have in his theory of free will?

Question 8

Plato believed that reality consists ultimately of the forms because he thought that .

A) everything is really a form
B) appearance cannot tell us about the forms
C) the forms can be understood by everyone
D) only the forms are perfect and unchanging

Question 9

Thales' fundamental belief about water was that it is .

A) what everything is ultimately made of
B) what makes life possible
C) found in everything
D) found everywhere

Question 10

Which of the following best characterizes the subject matter of metaphysics?

A) the question of free will
B) things that we cannot see
C) the fundamental nature of reality
D) the extent of human knowledge

Question 11

What did Baron D'Holbach mean by saying that "Absence of constraint is not absence of necessity"?

Question 12

Parmenides thought that change is the ultimate reality because .

A) nature is hidden
B) everything is in flux
C) only very small things do not change
D) you cannot tell what anything is really like

Question 13

What was Descartes' method of knowledge? Do you think that method is apt for
finding truth?

Question 14

What is existentialism? Explain Jean-Paul Sartre's existentialist position on the
nature of free actions.

Question 15

What is hard determinism, and how is it argued for?

Question 16

Anaximander thought that ultimate reality is boundless and indefinite because .

A) only the indefinite could be everything
B) everything is boundless and indefinite
C) it is both a beginning and has a beginning
D) it is the only thing that is not a beginning nor has a beginning

Question 17

Does everything in nature have its own distinct purpose? What role did this concept
play in Aristotle's philosophy?

Question 18

Epistemology is basically the study of .

A) what we know
B) what we cannot know
C) the substance of our minds
D) how we know what we know

Question 19

Can you think of anything that does not change over time? Could whatever does not change be the ultimate reality?

Question 20

What is determinism? How is it different from the thesis that there is no free will?

Question 21

Descartes supposes the existence of an "evil demon" in order to .

A) determine what he cannot be deceived about
B) suppose that the soul is eternal
C) suppose that God does not exist
D) determine what else would exist

Question 22

What did Descartes believe was the fundamental thing that is beyond doubt?

A) what kind of thing he is
B) that he has a body
C) that God exists
D) that he exists

Question 23

What was Socrates' theory of innate ideas based upon?

A) his argument that everything is learned by reason
B) his argument that everyone had an existence before birth
C) his observation that no one actually learns anything new after a certain point
D) his ideas about dialectical philosophy

Question 24

Rationalism is the philosophy that .

A) everything is rational
B) everything is known by reason
C) everything makes sense
D) everything can be understood

Question 25

Descartes thinks that the existence of physical objects cannot be certain because .

A) they are changeable things
B) it is possible to be deceived about them
C) the existence of the self is more certain
D) it is not possible to know their true essence

Question 26

Aristotle disagreed with Plato mainly because .

A) he thought that things did not have forms
B) he disagreed with Plato's supernaturalism
C) he thought that Plato's forms do not explain anything
D) he disagreed with Plato's attempt to determine the nature of ultimate reality

Question 27

In order for a belief to be justified, .

A) it has to be true
B) it must be about something observable
C) it has to be formed in the right way
D) it has to be shared by many people

Question 28

Aristotle believed that the soul is .

A) the same thing as the body
B) immaterial but in the body
C) a material object
D) the form of the body

Question 29

According to Aristotle, the final cause of a thing is .

A) its reason for being
B) its formal identity
C) the matter it is made of
D) what caused it to exist in the first place