Study Guide PHI 101 First Exam

STUDY GUIDE
SECOND
PHI 101

When: Thursday, the 31st Day of October, 2013, 3:00pm – 4:15pm
Where: The same location our class normally meets
What to bring: Your ASU Student ID, for when you hand in your exam & A Scan-tron form (bubble-in forms) available at the bookstore Do not bring an exam book. TWO number 2 pencils for filling in the scantron form & A blue or black ink pen (optional – pencil ok), for your exam book. If you bring extras for your peers, they will be supremely grateful.

Structure of the Exam
The exam will consist of:
60 multiple choice questions (for Scantron form)
Worth 4 points each
240 points total questions limited to topics covered on this study guide
1 essay question (answered directly on the exam) worth 60 points total questions will be broad and comprehensive for Unit 1.
Answer should be 4-5 paragraphs

Study Guide Warranty

IF:

you fill out this study guide completely based on your notes, the readings, and the lectures, making a recognizably serious attempt to put in relevant and correct information, citing all sources outside of the course materials,

and you turn in the completed study guide prior to the exam, either as a MS Word attachment sent by e-mail to [e-mail], with the subject line “PHI 101 STUDY GUIDE WARRANTY”, or as a series of PDF or JPG attachments of a scanned or legibly photographed copy of a handwritten version of all of the pages in your study guide, sent by e-mail to [e-mail], with the subject line “PHI 101 STUDY GUIDE WARRANTY”,

and you take the exam and answer all 60 of the multiple-choice true/false questions, making a recognizably serious attempt.

THEN:

On the multiple-choice section of the exam, you will receive at least 173 out of 240 points (72%, equivalent to a B-/C+).
If you receive fewer than 173 points on the multiple-choice section, and you turned in the completed study guide, then contact me after the exam by filling out the appropriate form by the deadline I set, and I will automatically raise your grade on the multiple-choice section to 173 points. (Allow for a delay of 2-3 weeks from the time you fill out the form.)
No warranties are here given for the essay portion of the exam.
If you don’t take advantage of this warranty, and you get less than 173 points, no excuses or complaints.

NOTE: This time I will not accept a paper copy on the day of the exam.

STUDY GUIDE FOR MULTIPLE CHOICE QUESTIONS

Aristotle

What is a material cause? What question does it answer? What is an example?

denoting or consisting of physical objects rather than the mind or spirit.

What is a formal cause? What question does it answer? What is an example?

relating to or involving the outward form, structure, relationships, or arrangement

What is an efficient cause? What question does it answer? What is an example?

achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense.

What is a final cause? What question does it answer? What is an example?

coming at the end of a series.

What do Aristotle’s four causes have in common?

all of them are types of cause

What are the ways in which Aristotle defines “nature”?

The heart of Aristotle's work in natural philosophy comprises four central works: Physics, On the Heavens, On Coming-to-be and Passing-away, and Meteorology

Which sense of “necessary” does Aristotle say is the one from which all of the others are somehow derived?

Aristotle made a distinction between the essential and accidental properties of a thing. an accident is a property which has no necessary connection to the essence of the thing.

Solomon

What are the two senses of “consciousness” Solomon gives?

conscious and subconscious

What is your “subjectivity” according to solomon?

“As a lily among brambles, so is my love among the young women.”

From the Lectures

What do Philosophers mean by “consciousness?” What do they not mean by “consciousness”?

Consciousness is the quality or state of being aware of an external object or something within oneself. It has been defined as: sentience, awareness, subjectivity, the ability to experience or to feel, wakefulness, having a sense of selfhood, and the executive control system of the mind

What does a substance dualist believe about consciousness?

dualism encompasses a set of views about the relationship between mind and matter, and is contrasted with other positions, such as physicalism, in the mind–body problem

What does an emergentist dualist believe about the mind?

an adherent of the theory of emergent evolution.

What does a panpsychist believe about the mind?

Panpsychism is a philosophical theory which holds that everything in the universe, the inorganic world as well as the organic, is God.

What does a reductive physicalist believe about the mind?

A doctrine stating that everything in the world can be reduced down to its fundamental physical, or material, basis.

What does a non-reductive physicalist believe about the mind?

the ontological thesis that "everything is physical"

What does an eliminativist believe about the mind?

if you eliminate the mind, the body will die too

In the dualist-materialist debate, one property x supervenes on another y when . . .

it occurs later than a specified or implied event or action, typically in such a way as to change the situation.

Frank Jackson

Who is Mary?

According to the Bible, Mary, also known as Saint Mary or Virgin Mary, was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee and the mother of Jesus.

What was the new fact that Mary the color scientist learned?

Mary taught the color scientist about the heavens in divine revelations.

How does she learn it?

through divine revelation

Why is the ‘Mary’ argument a challenge to physicalism?

if Mary had divine revelation, it wasn’t physical revelation

David Chalmers

What three arguments does Chalmers offer against materialism?

1. A main concern is that materialism is unable to offer a proper raison d'être for human existence. 2. Many religions oppose materialism because of the belief that it interferes with religion and spirituality or that it leads to an immoral lifestyle 3. Environmentalists feel that increasing materialism is unsustainable, especially when coupled with population growth, and most often leads to an increased destruction of nature

What is a Zombie?

In the Vodoo religion, zombie is an animated corpse raised by magical means, such as witchcraft.

Chalmers’s “Zombie” argument depends on inferring ____ possibility from ____ possibility.

logical possibility from moral possibility

What can evolutionary explanations provide us with? What can’t they provide us with?

Evolution Can't Explain Morality. If you argue that morality evolved, you may end up saying that one "ought" to be selfish.

Why would the logical possibility of Zombies demonstrate that mental-physical supervenience is false?

If there were Zombies then there would be souls which returned to the Zombies.

Paul Churchland & Pojman’s Introduction

What does the principle of “Occam’s Razor” say?

a principle of parsimony, economy, or succinctness used in problem-solving.

How does Churchland’s argument appeal to lithium, alcohol, and cocaine?

The Illegal drug trade is a global black market that is dedicated to the cultivation, manufacturing, distribution, and sale of drugs that are subject to drug prohibition

What is the “Problem of Identification”?

It requires the name on voters' official ID to match with the name on their voter ID card. That's causing problems for some women.

Locke

Why does personal identity matter? What does the concept of a person include?

A person is a being, such as a human, that has certain capacities or attributes constituting personhood, which in turn is defined differently by different authors

What would have to be true for Locke to say that you were the same person as someone who fought in the Trojan wars?

In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus

Why doesn’t Locke think personal identity has anything to do with physical substance?

physical substance that things can be made from: building materials, such as stone Crude oil is used as the raw material for making plastics.

Why doesn’t Locke think personal identity has anything to do with non-physical, conscious substance?

Locke proceeds through Filmer's arguments, contesting his proofs from Scripture and ridiculing them as senseless.

On Locke’s theory, what is personal identity determined by?

Personal identity deals with questions that arise about ourselves by virtue of our being.

According to Locke, why can’t Dualist or Materialist accounts of conscious substance tell us what personal identity consists in?

He defended the claim that men are by nature free and equal against claims that God had made all people naturally subject to a monarch. He argued that people have rights, such as the right to life, liberty, and property, that have a foundation independent of the laws of any particular society.

What examples does Locke give where physical identity differs from personal identity?

Though Locke appears to suggest that one can only have property in what one has personally labored on when he makes labor the source of property rights, Locke clearly recognized that even in the state of nature, “the Turfs my Servant has cut” can become my property.

What examples does Locke give where identity of conscious substance (or soul) differs from personal identity?

While this duty is consistent with requiring the poor to work for low wages, it does undermine the claim that those who have wealth have no social duties to others.

According to Locke, the same man at different times could be different persons. How does he use this to explain a feature of ‘human laws’?

The most direct reading of Locke's political philosophy finds the concept of consent playing a central role. His analysis begins with individuals in a state of nature where they are not subject to a common legitimate authority with the power to legislate or adjudicate disputes.

What is the difference between “same man [or human]” and “same person”?

Locke clearly states that one can only become a full member of society by an act of express consent

Hume

What does Hume’s account of the ‘self’ say?

Hume discusses how thoughts tend to come in sequences, as in trains of thought. He explains that there are at least three kinds of associations between ideas: resemblance, contiguity in space-time, and cause-and-effect.

What are you, according to Hume’s account?

Hume accepts that ideas may be either the product of mere sensation, or of the imagination working in conjunction with sensation.

Does Hume think there are souls? Hume brushes it aside as an exceptional case by stating that one may experience a novel idea that itself is derived from combinations of previous impressions.

Does Hume think the essential self remains constant?

Having dispensed with these alternative explanations, he identifies the source of our knowledge of necessary connections as arising out of observation of constant conjunction of certain impressions across many instances.

According to Hume, where does the concept of identity come from? Hume tells the reader that, though testimony does have some force, it is never quite as powerful as the direct evidence of the senses. That said, he provides some reasons why we may have a basis for trust in the testimony of persons.

Parfit & Vesey

All there is to personal identity, for Parfit, is _________ _________.

personal identity

What does the two-word phrase you wrote in the blanks above mean?

who you are

Because the question, “will that future person be me – or someone else?” is a question which no amount of further information can answer, what should we do?

Parfit does not explicitly endorse a particular view; rather, he shows what the problems of different theories are.

According to Parfit’s split brain thought experiment, if I had the surgery, would I survive as L, R, neither, or both? Would I be identical to L, R, neither, or both?

R and L are not persons so I could not be identical

What’s wrong with our common sense concept of personal identity?

common sense doesn’t tell us about identity

What is the example involving the split-brain case and the brain transplant supposed to show about survival and personal identity? (Think of the 3 aspects of all identity relations)

splitting a brain would kill a person

In Parfit’s “Secular version of the Ressurection”, what happens?

the concept of a living being coming back to life after death.

Parft discusses the case of a club which meets in England for many years, disbands, and re-forms. What is this example supposed to show?

that things change

What view does Parfit take of punishment, given his view that personal identity is a matter of degree?

you should only punish the guilty not the innocence

Be able to explain the problem of split brains for personal identity, including the scenario which is supposed to be a problem, what theories it is a problem for, and what you think we should conclude from it.

okay

Daniels

Could there be a fact of the matter about personal identity, if no one could know it?

no, if it was a fact, someone would know it

What is the example of Dokes and Morgan supposed to show?

Dokes returns to earth and finds it ruled by apes but Morgan is an intelligent ape

What example does Daniels give involving a new mode of transportation?

a space ship

Daniels gives an example involving a new mode of transportation - with a horrible twist. What’s the horrible twist?

the space ship returns to earth and it is ruled by apes

How does Daniels argue against the memory theory of personal identity?

even though the apes don’t remember Dokes he is the same person

When two people fall in love with one person, with Daniels’s machine, what happens?

they all get married because polygamy is normal amoung the apes

Be able to explain the problem of teleportation for personal identity, including the scenario which is supposed to be a problem, what theories it is a problem for, and what you think we should conclude from it.

Star Trek – also remember Picard and Data for this question

Lectures on Personal Identity

What are the two senses of “same”?

the same day and the same place

What’s the difference between qualitative identity and numerical identity?

qualitative means you feel it numerical means you count it How might two things be qualitatively but not numerically identical, or vice-versa?

it’s impossible if you have one to not have the other

Three aspects of identity relations:

What does the transitivity of identity mean?

Transsexualism describes the condition in which an individual identifies with a gender inconsistent or not culturally associated with their assigned sex,

What does the symmetry of identity mean?

made up of exactly similar parts facing each other or around an axis; showing symmetry.

What does the reflexivity of identity mean?

A reflex action, differently known as a reflex, is an involuntary and nearly instantaneous movement in response to a stimulus

What are questions about personal identity relevant to?

people in the past

What, if anything, would the logical possibility of surviving death tell us about its probability?

you only live once

If I am essentially a non-physical mental substance, not a functioning physical body, and at death, nothing about me will change except that my functioning physical body will cease to exist, then when my body is dead, what will happen to me?

I will be dead

If I am identical to a functioning physical substance, and that functioning physical substance will cease forever to exist at death, then at death, what will happen to me?

I will still live

I can’t conceive of myself existing and then ceasing to exist. However, this doesn’t give me a good reason to think that I will survive death. Why not?

I am still alive

The existence of God does not guarantee that all or any moral agents survive death unless certain conditions and assumptions hold. What would those conditions and assumptions be?

God might not exist

Assume I am essentially a functioning physical substance, my body. How might I might survive death?

by not dying, being rescued by someone

Assume I am essentially a non-physical mental thing, my consciousness. Why might I nonetheless cease to exist when my body ceases to exist?

because the soul might move on to another body

STUDY GUIDE FOR ESSAY QUESTION
(not required for the warranty)
Prepare for an essay of 4-5 paragraphs

First, explain what consciousness is. What does ‘consciousness’ mean in the philosophy of mind? What does it not mean in philosophy, that it might mean in ordinary English?

Second, describe and evaluate at least two competing accounts of consciousness which were discussed in class or in the readings, such as: Eliminativism Non-reductive physicalism Reduction physicalism Emergentist dualism Substance dualism Epiphenomenalism Panpsychism

Third, take a position on one of the two following questions of your choice, and defend your position.

In your judgment so far, based on what you’ve learned, what seems like the best account of consciousness, and why?

(‘I don’t know’ is an acceptable answer, but then you must explain what further information you would need in order to know, and how different source of further information would push you towards one position or another on the question).

In light of these considerations about consciousness, in your judgment so far, based on what you’ve learned, what seems like the best account of personal identity, and why? Be sure to explain what personal identity is, how it relates and doesn’t relate to consciousness, and how it relates or doesn’t relate to the possibility of surviving death.

(‘I don’t know’ is an acceptable answer, but then you must explain what further information you would need in order to know, and how different source of further information would push you towards one position or another on the question).