Deck 14: Philosophy in the Islamic World: The Great Conversation Spreads Out

Question 1

Anselm's "ontological" argument for the existence of God

A) begins with easily observed facts about the world.
B) moves from the premise that I exist to the conclusion that God exists.
C) purports to establish that "There is no God" is self-contradictory.
D) begins from the idea of God as the greatest thing I can conceive.

Answer 1

purports to establish that "There is no God" is self-contradictory.

Question 2

The fool who "says in his heart" that there is no God

A) believes that God doesn't exist and also that God does exist.
B) is an impossibility, since being such a fool is self-contradictory.
C) is obviously not thinking of God at all.
D) could be correct, but is mistaken according to Anselm.

Answer 2

believes that God doesn't exist and also that God does exist.

Question 3

Anselm's argument

A) moves from existence to essence.
B) presupposes that God exists.
C) starts from essence and ends with existence.
D) begins with premises derived from Christian faith.

Answer 3

starts from essence and ends with existence.

Question 4

Thomas Aquinas

A) depends on Anselm's ontological argument to buttress faith with reason.
B) rejects Anselm's argument as invalid.
C) thinks that God's existence cannot be proved, but must be accepted on faith.
D) holds that we are not in the right epistemological position to use Anselm's argument.

Question 5

Reason and revelation, Aquinas holds,

A) are irreconcilably in conflict.
B) are two compatible sources of truth.
C) cannot deal with the same topics.
D) both depend on faith for their validation.

Question 6

Existence, Aquinas tells us,

A) is included in form, the principle of actuality in things.
B) is something we can take for granted.
C) is something added to the essence of finite things.
D) derives from essence, and from essence alone.

Question 7

The argument for God's existence from change

A) claims that every change is a transition from actuality to potentiality.
B) assumes that something can be simultaneously both potentially hot and actually hot.
C) assumes that changes can be traced back to infinity.
D) argues that without a first cause of change there would be no intermediate causers of change.

Question 8

In the argument from possibility and necessity, Aquinas reasons that

A) since at one time nothing existed, something must have come from nothing.
B) not every being could be a merely possible being.
C) every being is a necessary being, otherwise there would be an infinite regress.
D) some necessary beings have their being caused by merely possible beings.

Question 9

We cannot know, Aquinas says,

A) anything about God's nature, because all our knowledge begins in sense experience.
B) that God's very substance is being itself.
C) that God is the cause of the world.
D) what the nature of God is through direct acquaintance.

Question 10

Aquinas says that a human soul

A) is the form of a human body.
B) inhabits the body like a sailor his ship.
C) is potentially a human being.
D) is the substance of a human being, which in turn is a composite of form and matter.

Question 11

What we know first and most easily, according to Aquinas,

A) is the soul.
B) are the contents of our own minds.
C) are things like carrots and clouds.
D) are ideas of things like carrots and clouds.

Question 12

What is right for us to do, according to natural law,

A) can be known only through careful attention to what is described as natural in the Scriptures.
B) is whatever naturally feels right.
C) is whatever God, the author of nature, arbitrarily legislates as right.
D) expresses our nature as rational human beings.

Question 13

The atheist says, "There is no God." Imagine you are Anselm. What can you say to him or her?

Question 14

Why does Thomas Aquinas think we cannot use Anselm's argument?

Question 15

What is the relation between reason and revelation, according to Aquinas?

Question 16

How are essence and existence related in finite creatures, according to Aquinas?

Question 17

Where do the words that we use to talk about God get their meaning, since we are not directly acquainted with God?

Question 18

According to Aquinas, am I identical with my soul?

Question 19

In what sense is a human will free?

Question 20

What are virtues, and why are they useful to us?

Question 21

Is the fact that God cannot make a cube with seven sides a limitation on his power? Explain.

Question 22

How does reflecting on God's omnipotence tend to undermine the premises of Aquinas' arguments?

Question 23

Compare the kind of argument that Anselm puts forward with the kind that Aquinas favors. What are the significant differences? Why are there those differences?

Question 24

Aquinas relies heavily on Aristotle for many basic concepts and principles. Where does he differ, and why?

Question 25

Choose one of the five ways Aquinas thinks God's existence can be proved and criticize the argument.