PHIL151 – Introduction to Philosophy

Review sheet, 1^st exam

Although anything that we covered in class or that you were assigned readings on is fair game, what follows are the key concepts and distinctions you should focus on as you study.

Part 1 (chapters 1-4, parts of 7, plus class notes, slides, and web reading):

What is philosophy? Why is it important? How is logic important for philosophy?

What characterizes the earliest philosophical inquiry?

What are “sophists” and what accounts for their rise?

How does Socrates rescue philosophy from the sophists? What is “Socratic method”?

In what sense was Socrates “most wise”?

From Socrates to Plato and Aristotle – from the market to the schools

Why does Socrates say “the unexamined life is not worth living”? What did he mean by saying that most Athenians had misplaced priorities?

Part 3 (chapters 8-12 plus class notes; slides):

What are some ways we might mean “real” when we ask what is real?

Why should we think there’s a “real world”?

What is truth?

Plato: what are “the forms”? How does Plato understand reality? What is the story of the cave meant to represent? What is real?

Aristotle: what are the 3 laws of thought?

Epicurus: matter and void

Locke: what is color? What are “primary” and “secondary” qualities of objects?

Berkeley: an idealism very unlike Plato’s

Get clear on distinctions such as monism/dualism; materialism/idealism

Part 4 (chapters 14-17 plus class notes; slides)

Why think of knowledge as justified true belief? Why not?

Why do we distinguish knowing from having an opinion/belief?

What is certainty? Can we have it?

How is it that some of our knowledge claims can be certain, while others are at best very likely?

What is skepticism? Why is Hume a skeptic?

What is empiricism? What is rationalism?

Why does Descartes begin with doubt? What is the significance of “I think, therefore I am”?

What is solipsism?

What are some reasons to think we have innate ideas (Descartes) or that we do not (Locke)?

Get clear on Kant’s distinctions between a priori/a posteriori and analytic/synthetic