Deck 6: What Is Real What Is True Further Explorations

Question 1

How do you know what the "real" nature of things is? How is this question
important?

Answer 1

not answered

Question 2

Does all our knowledge arise from perception, or are there modes of knowledge that are truly independent of perception?

Answer 2

not answered

Question 3

Explain hylomorphism. How did Aristotle's hylomorphism differ from Plato's theory of
forms?

Answer 3

not answered

Question 4

Describe Plato's doctrine of the Forms. What questions was it meant to answer?

Question 5

Describe the metaphysical views of the pre-Socratic philosophers. What did Socrates learn from them?

Question 6

What does it mean to say that our minds "create" an intelligible world? To what extent do you think this is so?

Question 7

How did Descartes go out about pursuing only knowledge that could be absolutely certain? What did he find?

Question 8

Explain and contrast the theories of knowledge of rationalism and empiricism.

Question 9

What is an "external world," and what do we know about it?

Question 10

"Independent reality" means .

A) that which is true regardless of what we think about it
B) the most fundamental facts
C) those facts that do not depend on other facts
D) things that we can only find out through philosophical investigation

Question 11

Explain the basis of Plato's theory of innate ideas. How did he seek to demonstrate
its truth?

Question 12

Unlike Berkeley, Leibniz believed .

A) in real physical objects
B) in the existence of ideas
C) that people are not deceived by sense-data
D) in a reality independent of our minds

Question 13

Do we have reliable knowledge about the future? Why or why not?

Question 14

Describe Plato's hierarchical metaphysics, explaining the relationships between the
levels.

Question 15

Bertrand Russell said that the nature of reality is difficult to arrive at because .

A) our senses can be unreliable
B) we do not really have sense-data
C) we might be deceived by someone
D) all that we directly know are our sensations

Question 16

Where does our idea of cause and effect come from? Is it derived from reason, or experience? Why do you think so?

Question 17

George Berkeley denied the existence of matter because .

A) he thought that matter is illusory
B) he did not think our senses are reliable
C) he thought that there is nothing non-mental
D) he thought that people are deceived in thinking so

Question 18

Explain and give examples of each of Aristotle's four varieties of causation.

Question 19

Describe the subject matter of epistemology, and explain what questions in epistemology you think are worth pursuing.

Question 20

Give some examples of questions that are asked in metaphysics. Which one(s) do you think are best indicative of the subject matter of metaphysics? Explain.

Question 21

Secondary qualities, for Locke, are .

A) powers to produce certain sensations in us
B) qualities that we can perceive without the senses
C) qualities that are not unique characteristics
D) powers that do not relate to an object's identity

Question 22

According to Jaggar, the neglect of emotion began with .

A) the rise of Western philosophy
B) the dominance of male philosophers
C) the influence of psychotherapy
D) the rise of modern science

Question 23

Empiricism is the position that .

A) there is an external world
B) knowledge derives from experience
C) ordinary people can arrive at the truth
D) philosophy is the pursuit of knowledge

Question 24

Leibniz believed that the mind .

A) has innate knowledge
B) has innate tendencies
C) learns everything by experience
D) is a blank slate at birth

Question 25

Alison Jaggar's main contention about the deficiency of most philosophy is that it .

A) is methodologically improper
B) totally neglects the emotions
C) is not on subjects that most women care about
D) does not explore issues related to the human person

Question 26

Berkeley's epistemology rested upon certainty that .

A) he existed
B) the external world exists
C) sensory data is reliable
D) God is creator and sustainer of the world

Question 27

Immanuel Kant thought that Hume was wrong to .

A) focus on sensory impressions
B) try to give an account of human knowledge
C) try to give a foundation of metaphysics
D) neglect the way in which our impressions are organized

Question 28

David Hume's epistemology was based on the idea that .
A) everything in the mind is either an impression or an idea

A) we can arrive at truth only through experience
B) sensory qualities always give us reliable information
B) we know our experiences to be truthful when they are sufficiently vivid

Question 29

Locke's account of human understanding is missing .

A) an account of human faculties
B) a story about how sense-data is acquired
C) a story about how the mind transforms experience into concepts
D) an account of why there are universal concepts shared by all

Question 30

Locke believed that rationalism is false because .

A) there are many things that we cannot know
B) he disbelieved in the existence of universal ideas
C) people disagree about a great many things
D) he believed it was always possible to show that knowledge arises from experience

Question 31

What was Kant's relation to the rationalists and empiricists?

A) He tried to put the two together into a new theory.
B) He wanted to develop a better rationalism.
C) He wanted to develop a better empiricism.
D) He thought that both were completely wrong.