PHIL151 – Introduction to Philosophy

Review sheet for final exam

This is a comprehensive final, meaning anything covered in class or the assigned readings throughout the semester. What follows are the key concepts and distinctions you should focus on as you study.

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

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 slides and class notes)

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

Part 6 (class notes and reread chapters 25, 27-29; slides)

What is the difference between monotheism and polytheism?

What is the difference between an agnostic and an atheist?

What’s the difference between faith and demonstration? Why, according to Aquinas, would a faithful person nevertheless want demonstration?

How did Anselm try to prove that God exists? (Ontological argument)

How did Aquinas try to prove that God exists? (5 ways)

How is the “argument from evil” meant to work as a refutation of God’s existence? What are some other reasons to doubt God’s existence?

Part 5 (class notes and reread chapters 19-20, 22-24)

What is Plato’s definition of justice? How does Plato argue that it is in one’s self-interest to be just?

What is utilitarianism? How does Mill try to reform Bentham’s theory?

What is Kantian duty-based ethics? How do we figure out our moral duties?

What is Aristotle’s virtue theory? How does he define courage?

What is Aristotle’s model of moral self-development?

Part 7– (mainly web readings, class notes, and chapter 30)

How does art communicate?

What are some ways of understanding the function of art?

What are some philosophically useful ways of defining art? What are some problems? Must art be mimetic?

How does Aristotle understand tragedy? What does he mean by catharsis?

Part 8 – chapters 34-37 plus videos and class notes

Why have society at all? What is government for?

Why does Jefferson think, with Locke, that just government requires consent? What are rights?

Why did modern societies gravitate towards religious toleration?

Why does Mill think liberty is an important social value?