Deck 8: The Medieval Period

Question 1

The most powerful trend in the Medieval period was the rise of __________.

A) pagan cults
B) Christianity
C) Islam
D) Neoplatonism

Answer 1

B

Question 2

__________ was the pivot point between Greco-pagan and Christian thinking.

A) Aquinas
B) Avicenna
C) Augustine
D) Anselm

Answer 2

C

Question 3

In his youth, Augustine devoted much of his time to __________.

A) sensual indulgence
B) religious observance
C) rampant criminality
D) charitable works

Answer 3

A

Question 4

__________ is known for the principle of parsimony.

A) Augustine
B) Ockham
C) Aquinas
D) Anselm

Question 5

Neoplatonism is a philosophical view that blends __________.

A) Plato's metaphysics and other nonmaterialist or nonreligious ideas
B) Plato's metaphysics and other materialist or religious ideas
C) Aristotle's metaphysics and other nonmaterialist or religious ideas
D) Plato's metaphysics and other nonmaterialist or religious ideas

Question 6

A truth that could not have been false is a(n) __________ truth.

A) objective
B) necessary
C) modal
D) religious

Question 7

Augustine argues for degrees of reality, which reflects the influence of __________ on his thought.

A) Plato
B) Aristotle
C) the Stoics
D) Pythagoras

Question 8

According to Augustine's hierarchy of being, __________.

A) goodness correlates to reality
B) God is the penultimate reality
C) everything that is, is equally real
D) there is no nothingness

Question 9

Augustine defines evil as the privation of __________.

A) reality
B) good
C) God
D) faith

Question 10

Augustine rejects total skepticism because __________.

A) God would not deprive us of the means for acquiring knowledge
B) we never make mistakes
C) skepticism is logically contradictory
D) we cannot be mistaken about the fact of our own existence

Question 11

A teleological argument reasons from __________.

A) apparent signs of design or purposeful creation in the world to the existence of a supreme designer
B) the concept of God to the existence of God
C) similarities between divine and material attributes to the existence of God
D) the fact of cause and effect to a first cause, namely God

Question 12

An ontological argument reasons from __________.

A) apparent signs of design or purposeful creation in the world to the existence of a supreme designer
B) the concept of God to the existence of God
C) the existence of the universe or cosmos to the existence of God
D) the fact of cause and effect to a first cause, namely God

Question 13

Anselm advances a version of the __________ argument.

A) teleological
B) cosmological
C) ontological
D) causal

Question 14

Gaunilo criticized Anselm's ontological argument because __________.

A) existence is not predicate
B) it can be used to generate absurd conclusions
C) it defines God incorrectly
D) the supposition of its second premise is false

Question 15

Hildegard was one of the first __________ in the West.

A) female logicians
B) religious mystics
C) philosophical skeptics
D) successful female poets

Question 16

According to Kant, to say that something exists is to __________.

A) add an additional property to it
B) postulate a change in the thing's essence
C) not add any additional property to it
D) add a concept to the concept of the thing

Question 17

According to Kant's criticism of the ontological argument, "being" is not a real __________.

A) predicate
B) concept
C) idea
D) contradiction

Question 18

Aquinas's thought is deeply influenced by __________.

A) Heraclitus
B) Parmenides
C) Plato
D) Aristotle

Question 19

A cosmological argument reasons from __________.

A) apparent signs of design or purposeful creation in the world to the existence of a supreme designer
B) the concept of God to the existence of God
C) the existence of the universe to the existence of God
D) the fact of cause and effect to a first cause, namely God

Question 20

Aquinas's "Five Ways" include the argument from __________.

A) faith
B) divine revelation
C) contingency
D) motion

Question 21

Natural law theory is the view that right actions are those that __________.

A) conform to God's commands
B) promote human happiness
C) conform to universal law
D) conform to moral standards rationally discernable in nature

Question 22

__________ developed what is now known as natural law theory.

A) Ockham
B) Augustine
C) Anselm
D) Aquinas

Question 23

According to the doctrine of __________, performing a good action may sometimes be morally acceptable even if it produces a bad effect.

A) bad effect
B) causation
C) double effect
D) good effect

Question 24

According to the doctrine of __________, __________ is not one of the four "tests" that an action must pass to be judged morally permissible.

A) bad effect; the action itself must be morally permissible
B) causation; the end does not justify the means
C) double effect; the end justifies the means
D) good effect; the bad effect can be foreseen but never intended

Question 25

Avicenna contributed to distinctions in __________.

A) ontology
B) optometry
C) zoology
D) epistemology

Question 26

__________ advances an argument for the existence of the soul that is later similar to Descartes's argument for the existence of the self.

A) Aquinas
B) Avicenna
C) Anselm
D) Augustine

Question 27

Avicenna developed a sophisticated __________ argument, used later by __________.

A) ontological; Anselm
B) cosmological; Aquinas
C) cosmological; Anselm
D) ontological; Aquinas

Question 28

Maimonides is best known as a(n) __________ scholar.

A) Islamic
B) Christian
C) Jewish
D) Hindu

Question 29

Maimonides attempts to reconcile religious tradition with philosophy, especially __________ thought.

A) Anselm's
B) Aquinas's
C) Platonic
D) Aristotelian

Question 30

Maimonides sought truth through __________.

A) reason
B) sensation
C) tradition
D) religion

Question 31

According to Gaunilo's criticism of Anselm, being is not a predicate.

Question 32

Augustine advocates skepticism because he believes there is nothing about which we cannot be mistaken.

Question 33

Aquinas advances an ontological argument for the existence of God that enlists a perfect island thought experiment.

Question 34

Aquinas fused Plato's philosophy with Christian doctrine.

Question 35

Aquinas is perhaps best known for his arguments for the existence of God and his ethical system, known as natural law theory.

Question 36

Aquinas offers "Five Ways" or proofs of God's existence.

Question 37

Avicenna argues for the existence of an immaterial soul.

Question 38

A necessary truth is a truth that one needs to support a claim.

Question 39

According to Augustine, moral evil is evil that comes from demonic influences on people's choices and actions.

Question 40

Teleological arguments reason from the concept of God to the existence of God.

Question 41

Ontological arguments reason from the concept of God to the existence of God.

Question 42

Teleological arguments reason from apparent signs of design or purposeful creation in the world to the existence of a supreme designer.

Question 43

Ontological arguments reason from apparent signs of design or purposeful creation in the world to the existence of a supreme designer.

Question 44

Cosmological arguments reason from the existence of the universe to the conclusion that God exists.

Question 45

Natural law theory is a theory about nature.

Question 46

The doctrine of double effect disallows bad consequences stemming from good actions.

Question 47

Mysticism is the belief in the alleged ability to access, through trances or visions, divine knowledge that is otherwise unattainable.

Question 48

According to Maimonides, there can be no contradiction between religious texts and the deliverances of reason.

Question 49

The principle of parsimony admonishes that in devising explanations or theories to explain a phenomenon, we should be as thorough as possible.

Question 50

Natural law theory is undergirded by a teleological conception of nature.