PHL 101
Final Exam Section Two
Directions: Complete the questions below following the instructions for each section. Submit your answers on Canvas by the due date.
Short Answer
1. Explain the difference between a deductive and inductive argument, make sure to mention the role of concepts like validity, soundness, stronger, weaker, and cogent.
2. Describe Empiricism and offer one major objection to it. (Remember to state who the important philosophers who belong to this tradition.)
3. What is the original "mind
ody" problem in the philosophy of mind (i.e. the one offered by Princess Elisabeth of Bohemia)? Explain how this problem effects substance dualism.
4. Describe the "Turing Test" developed by Alan Turing and explain what it is meant to show. What is a potential objection to this test?
5. Describe the different views of free action that a libertarian and compatibilist have in the free will debate.
6. Explain and describe Sartre’s view of the meaning of life. Also, make reference to his understanding of the concepts of authenticity and bad faith.
Essay: Choose one of the following and write your answer on the blank page
1) The "problem of evil" is meant to argue that God cannot exist. Summarize this argument and offer the standard objection to it. Next, offer a response to this objection. Do you think that this response, ultimately, overcomes the objection or does the original problem raised by the objection still defeat the "problem of evil" argument? Explain and defend your answer.
2) In the philosophy of mind, three of the main views are substance dualism, functionalism, and reductive physicalism. Describe each view and explain what it is that makes them different from each other. Make sure to mention Jaegwon Kim's "problem of mental causation" and any effect it might have on the views you are discussing.
Short Answer Questions (2 points each):
1. What does Descartes mean we he said, “I think, therefore I am?”
2. Thomas Nagel in "What's it Like to be a Bat?" argued that we could never know what it is like to have a bat's subjective experiences of the world. What is the overall point of Nagel's argument (i.e. his main conclusion)? Describe how Nagel gets from his point about bats to this main conclusion.
3. Describe Ethical Subjectivism and offer a major objection to this ethical theory.