PHIL235 -- Review sheet for Final Exam

Your final exam will consist of some subset of the following. If you are well-prepared to answer all of these, you will be well-prepared for the exam.

1. Explain the sense in which various criticisms of the liberal tradition turn on a difference in metaphysics (including but not limited to the conception of the self).

2. What does the word “natural” do in the expression “natural rights” when used by Locke? How does Locke conceive of authority?

3. Explain Nozick’s “Wilt Chamberlain” argument against patterned redistribution. What political arrangements are implied by this?

4. How does “the original position” work in Rawls? What political arrangements are implied by this?

5. Explain the difference between negative and positive rights.

6. What does the word “human” do in the expression “human rights”? Why can’t human rights be in conflict?

7. What are some of Plato’s central objections to democracies?

8. What are some key similarities and differences between fascism and communism?

9. How does Hobbes understand the state of nature, and what political arrangements does he say follow from this?

10. According to Rothbard, how would various key state functions be performed in anarchist society?