Midterm Study Guide

Question 1

What is Epistemology?

Answer 1

The theory of knowledge.

Question 2

What is Metaphysics?

Answer 2

The theory of reality.

Question 3

What is the literal definition of “Philosophy”?

Answer 3

“the love of knowledge”.

Question 4

According to Kant, what is Enlightenment?

Answer 4

The maturity to be able to question and challenge authority using one’s own understanding.

Question 5

What is the difference between Public and Private reason?

Answer 5

Public reason is the ability to question authority and practice free speech.Private reason is the ability to debate with authority, but you must do what is told of you. Like paying taxes or being in the military.

Question 6

What is the Socratic method?

Answer 6

Answering questions by asking more questions. It forces the student to think critically and virtually come up with the answer themselves.

Question 7

How is knowledge traditionally defined?

Answer 7

A true, justified, belief of something.

Question 8

What is the logical problem with global skepticism?

Answer 8

Skeptics believe that: “All knowledge is impossible.” But the issue is that if all knowledge is impossible, how does one know that?

Question 9

What is Magical Thinking?

Answer 9

Believing in something that completely goes against any reason or logic.

Question 10

What is the Placebo Effect?

Answer 10

Something that takes place in someones mind and they believe in something that is fake (like a sugar pill will help them).

Question 11

What is the Nocebo Effect?

Answer 11

Something that takes place in someones mind and they believe that something will hurt them.

Question 12

What is the Verification Principle?

Answer 12

A proposition is only meaningful if it is analytical.

Question 13

What is Rationalism?

Answer 13

Knowledge only comes through reason and logic and knowledge cannot come through sense because senses can be flawed.

Question 14

What is Empiricism?

Answer 14

True knowledge that comes through the senses.

Question 15

What is an Analytic Statement? Give one example.

Answer 15

A statement that is true in all definitions and will always be true no matter what. Example: A Triangle will always have three sides.

Question 16

What is a Thought Experiment? Give one example.

Answer 16

An imaginary experiment that is used to cause someone to think about the nature of things. Example: Gettier’s example of Jones and Smith in the job interview.

Question 17

What is the principle of the uniformity of nature?

Answer 17

The theory that the future will resemble the past. The past will continue to repeat.

Question 18

What is the old problem of induction?

Answer 18

We cannot predict the future using the past. Circular reasoning will not always be the answer for everything in life.

Question 19

What is the new problem of induction?

Answer 19

We don’t know which inductive conclusion is the right one to make given a particular set of observations.

Question 20

What is Hard Determinism?

Answer 20

A form of determinism that teaches that the future is not completely written out because it has not happened yet, but a person’s future is caused by what has happened in their past. No moral responsibility.

Question 21

What is Compatibilism?

Answer 21

States that a person’s future is completely determined, but we still have enough freedom to be morally responsible for our actions.

Question 22

What is the difference between predeterminism and hard determinism?

Answer 22

Predeterminism states that our life is a fixed path and that our future is already decided and it is our job to fulfill that path. Hard determinism teaches that our life is not a fixed path and our future is not completely determined because it hasn’t happened yet, but says that when something does happens, it is caused by a person’s past.

Question 23

What is Metaphysical Freedom?

Answer 23

The power to choose among general choices when one is not constrained by certain outside factors.

Question 24

What is Theological Determinism?

Answer 24

States that everyone’s future is preordained by a higher power like a god. All the events that happen are already predestined to happen no matter what.

Question 25

What is the principle of alternative possibilities?

Answer 25

The theory that a person is morally responsible for their actions if they had the power to do otherwise.

Question 26

How would Schopenhauer view romantic love?

Answer 26

Schopenhauer said that love was cause by our uncontrollable drive to reproduce with someone else called the will to life.

Question 27

How would a Buddhist view the nature of the self?

Answer 27

Buddhist believe that there is no self that persists through time. A person is always changing throughout their life.

Question 28

What is the difference between qualitative and numerical identity?

Answer 28

Qualitative identity is a person’s traits, characteristics, and qualities that are the same. Numerical identity is what makes a person one in the same.

Question 29

What is the problem of personal identity?

Answer 29

The possibility for someone to change yet stay the same person.