Deck 10: The Skeptic: David Hume

Question 1

Empiricism is the belief that all knowledge is derived from reason.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

A tabula rasa is a clean slate.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

A skeptic demands undoubtable evidence before accepting any knowledge claim as true.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

Descartes believed in innate ideas.

Question 5

Locke was the first of the British empiricists.

Question 6

Locke was educated as a theologian.

Question 7

Locke believed in innate ideas.

Question 8

Doubting Thomas refused to believe that Jesus had risen from the dead until he could see this for himself.

Question 9

Locke held that all ideas originate in sensation and religion.

Question 10

Locke decided to study the origins of ideas to understand the process of acquiring knowledge.

Question 11

Bertrand Russell held that skepticism was logically impossible.

Question 12

The correspondence theory of truth is favored by rationalists.

Question 13

Sextus Empiricus devised a credulous grammar.

Question 14

The correspondence theory of truth is also known as the copy theory.

Question 15

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that studies the nature of knowledge.

Question 16

Empiricists believe that knowledge comes from sense data.

Question 17

Locke was profoundly affected by conversations he had in 1670.

Question 18

Locke called for philosophers to focus their attention inward.

Question 19

Locke held that we can think about things before we have experienced them.

Question 20

The three founding philosophers of empiricism were all French.

Question 21

Who held that the refutation of skepticism if the whole business of philosophy ?

A) Rhees
B) Russell
C) Hume
D) Smith

Question 22

At what age did Hume write the Treatise ?

A) 18
B) 27
C) 32
D) 38

Question 23

Locke held that substance was a complex idea.

Question 24

Color is a primary quality.

Question 25

Epistemological dualism is the view that there is a knower and a known.

Question 26

What is a fiction, according to idealism?

A) The material world
B) Mental states
C) Ideas
D) Trees

Question 27

How many copies of the Treatise did Hume received as part of his payment for it?

A) 3
B) 6
C) 9
D) 12

Question 28

What did Hume say appeared nauseous to him?

A) Rationalism
B) Economics
C) Religion
D) Law

Question 29

Sound is a primary quality.

Question 30

Where was Hume born?

A) St Andrews
B) Kirkcaldy
C) Edinburgh
D) Glasgow

Question 31

Size is a primary quality.

Question 32

Thomas Reid contrasted the plain man with the philosopher.

Question 33

Locke pursued the logical consequences of his premises.

Question 34

Who believed that to be is to be perceived?

A) Locke
B) Aristotle
C) Descartes
D) Berkeley

Question 35

Descartes pursued the logical consequences of his premises.

Question 36

Locke claims that we have no idea of substance.

Question 37

Who held that all qualities were secondary qualities?

A) Berkeley
B) Locke
C) Descartes
D) Aristotle

Question 38

Berkeley was

A) a rationalist
B) a materialist
C) an idealist
D) a Catholic

Question 39

Which is not a secondary quality?

A) Color
B) Location
C) Taste
D) Texture

Question 40

Locke held that Cartesian-style reasoning was dangerous.

Question 41

Who famously visited Hume as he was dying?

A) St. David
B) Boswell
C) Earl of Hertford
D) Berkeley

Question 42

If one accepts Hume s account of the degree to which we have knowledge of causation, is science possible? Explain your view fully.

Question 43

Who held that reason was the ground of all knowledge?

A) Berkeley
B) Locke
C) Hume
D) Descartes

Question 44

In what way might Berkeley s idealism support the view that God must exist? Does Berkeley s idealism necessarily support this view, or could one accept it and still be an atheist? Explain your answers to these questions.

Question 45

What can meaningful ideas be traced back to, according to the empirical criterion of meaning?

A) Impressions
B) Material objects
C) Innate ideas
D) Habits

Question 46

What is a self , according to Hume? What are his arguments for this view of the self? What philosophical position do they rest on? Do you agree with them? Why, or why not?

Question 47

Who claimed that the skeptic wishes to cure the rashness of the dogmatist?

A) Hume
B) Berkeley
C) Aristotle
D) Empiricus

Question 48

Where, for Hume, do the ideas of causality and necessity come from?

A) Impressions
B) The mind
C) Science
D) God

Question 49

Hume s view of the self is similar to that of a

A) Catholic
B) Cartesian
C) Buddhist
D) Baptist

Question 50

Who referred to Hume s work as a scandal ?

A) Berkeley
B) Smith
C) Kant
D) Boswell

Question 51

Who developed the bundle theory of the self?

A) Berkeley
B) Locke
C) Hume
D) Boswell

Question 52

What did Hume once propose should be taxed?

A) Health
B) Chairs
C) Obesity
D) Philosophy

Question 53

Who was famously faced with the egocentric predicament?

A) Hume
B) Descartes
C) Berkeley
D) Locke

Question 54

Who explicitly wrote that skepticism was psychologically impossible?

A) Reid
B) Russell
C) Hume
D) Descartes

Question 55

Who challenged Locke s copy theory of truth by pointing out that the so-called objects Locke held ideas correspond to lacked any fixed nature?

A) Descartes
B) Russell
C) Hume
D) Berkeley

Question 56

Who argued that reasons s function was to rule the appetites and emotions?

A) Plato
B) Hume
C) Smith
D) Empiricus

Question 57

Who held that reason alone could never provide a motive for any action?

A) Kant
B) Plato
C) Aristotle
D) Hume

Question 58

The Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion is Hume s most

A) irrelevant work
B) religious work
C) irreverent work
D) Catholic work

Question 59

Do you believe that Hume is more likely to agree with the philosophy of Plato, or with the philosophy of Epicurus? Explain your answer, outlining the views of all three philosophers as you do so.

Question 60

Does the external world exist, according to Berkeley? If not, how can he account for our common-sense view that it does? If it does, in what form does it exist? That is, is it a materialist world, or not? How can a world exist without being made of material stuff ?

Question 61

Can an empiricist coherently believe in God? Explain your answer.

Question 62

Do you agree with Locke s distinction between primary and secondary qualities? Why, or why not? What are two possible objections to this distinction? Do you agree with them, or not?

Question 63

Why did Locke reject Descartes epistemology? Do you believe that this rejection was justified, or not? Explain your answer.