Deck 12: Jews and Christians: Sin, Salvation, and Love

Question 1

Augustine claims to be able to refute skepticism by

A) arguing that God would not deceive us.
B) showing that it is absurd to think we could be mistaken about everything.
C) pursuing that skeptical infinite regress right to its end.
D) a direct appeal to Christ, the Interior Teacher.

Answer 1

showing that it is absurd to think we could be mistaken about everything.

Question 2

Augustine

A) agrees with Socrates that virtue is knowledge.
B) agrees with Socrates that the explanation for wrongdoing is ignorance.
C) agrees with St. Paul that our wills are divided and that we cannot heal ourselves.
D) agrees that the self-reliance of the Stoics is the key to happiness.

Answer 2

agrees with St. Paul that our wills are divided and that we cannot heal ourselves.

Question 3

Augustine was attracted to the Manicheans because they

A) seemed to deal with the problem of evil rationally.
B) held that there is one God, omnipotent, omniscient, and perfectly good.
C) took the Scriptures literally.
D) thought, as Augustine himself did, that will was more fundamental than intellect.

Answer 3

seemed to deal with the problem of evil rationally.

Question 4

Augustine solves the problem of natural evil by

A) feeding the hungry and providing for the poor.
B) accepting that there is, always has been, and always will be an evil power in conflict with the good.
C) arguing that without evil there couldn't be any good.
D) denying that evil is a positive reality.

Question 5

One crucial step in Augustine's argument that God must exist is this:

A) Truth exists and is superior to all.
B) Whatever is superior to us is God.
C) Either nothing is superior to truth or there is something superior to truth.
D) As the measure of all that is and of all that is not, there is nothing superior to us.

Question 6

Unlike Plotinus, Augustine holds that

A) all of being streams incessantly in an eternal emanation from the One.
B) the created world is not continuous with the being of God.
C) worldly things differ from each other in both being and goodness.
D) all that is arises mysteriously out of the primal nothingness.

Question 7

In meditating on the puzzling nature of time, Augustine concludes that

A) time is an illusion and only God's eternity exists.
B) neither the past nor the future nor the present can have any reality at all.
C) time came into being with the creation.
D) God endures through all past and future time, as well as in the present.

Question 8

Sin, according to Augustine, is

A) having a disordered love life.
B) not to be attributed to babies, who are truly innocent.
C) something that just happens to us-a fate we cannot help.
D) a mistake we make when we don't know better.

Question 9

Why do we sin? Augustine answers that

A) we were created with a flaw that tends toward evil.
B) we are made to sin by the Evil One, who tempts us and leads us into evil.
C) there is no cause for it.
D) it is because we have a body dragging us down from the spiritual plane.

Question 10

A good and happy life, Augustine thinks, is

A) the result of an act of free will that straightens out our disordered loves.
B) one of those things that are in our power, as opposed to things not in our power.
C) the result of God's grace.
D) reached by identifying yourself with the pure, unsullied soul within.

Question 11

Citizens of the heavenly city

A) have a dual citizenship.
B) live lives of quiet perfection, in contrast to the citizens of the earthly city.
C) pursue peace, in contrast with the citizens of the earthly city.
D) are those who have died and gone to heaven.

Question 12

What insight into human nature does Augustine draw from the incident of stealing the pears?

Question 13

Why does Augustine think that will is deeper in us than intellect?

Question 14

What is Augustine's argument against the skeptics?

Question 15

State "the problem of evil."

Question 16

Explain the idea of the Great Chain of Being.

Question 17

How does the notion of the Great Chain of Being help Augustine to solve the problem of evil?

Question 18

What is the puzzle about measuring time, and how does Augustine solve it?

Question 19

The Manichees asked, derisively, "What do you Christians say God was doing before he created heaven and earth?" What is Augustine's answer?

Question 20

Why, according to Augustine, is sin more than just a mistake?

Question 21

Why did God make creatures that could sin, that could do such terrible things as humans do?

Question 22

Explain Augustine's concept of the "two cities." What do they have in common, and how do they differ?

Question 23

In terms of enjoyment and use, charity and cupidity, explain how Augustine thinks of the good life for human beings.

Question 24

Sketch Augustine's argument for the existence of God.

Question 25

Explain Augustine's saying, "Love, and do what you will." What does he mean by "love," and what kind of love is he talking about?

Question 26

In terms of what Augustine calls "loves," discuss what is wrong with human beings and what a good life would consist of.

Question 27

Discuss Augustine's concept of God and of God's relation to the rest of reality.

Question 28

Imagine that Democritus (the atomist) and Augustine are discussing the nature of ultimate reality. Write a brief dialogue in which they express and argue for their views on this matter.

Question 29

Imagine that Heraclitus, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus (the Stoic), Epicurus (the Hedonist), and Augustine have been having a debate about the good life for a human being. The debate is about to come to an end, and each is asked to make a brief final statement summing up what he believes about this important issue. Here is what each says:

Question 30

Avicenna's thought experiment of the Flying Man brings out the importance of first person experience of the self that establishes that human subjectivity is fundamentally irreducible. This idea is discussed in contemporary philosophy of mind by philosophers such as Thomas Nagel, David Chalmers, Dan Zahavi, B. Alan Wallace and others. So you can expand the Flying Man argument by highlighting the "first-person" perspective insofar as it explicates the nature of consciousness and subjectivity.

Question 31

Al-Ghazālī's skepticism bears remarkable similarity to that of Descartes. However, the two thinkers draw very different conclusions from their respective skepticism. Al-Ghazālī's skepticism leads him to mysticism, while Descartes' skepticism leads him to embrace rationalism. By inquiring into the contrasting results of their respective skepticism, one may explore important questions about the context that plays a crucial role in one's intellectual formation.

Question 32

A recurring theme addressed by all the Islamic philosophers discussed in this chapter is the relation between reason and revealed religion. In the contemporary world, the question of reason and religion is further complicated by the advance in various sciences and by scientific empiricism that is widely accepted. Thus this issue can be better explained by making references to religious and scientific modes of knowing.