PHIL exam 1

Question 1

Socratic Wisdom

Answer 1

Socratic wisdom is recognizing one’s own ignorance. Humility is acknowledging intellectual limitations. Socratic irony is a technique of feigned ignorance.

Question 2

Diotima’s Ladder of Love

Answer 2

Diotima’s speech in Plato’s “Symposium” outlines stages of love from physical to intellectual.

Question 3

What are the Stages in the Ladder of Love

Answer 3

1. Physical attraction
2. Love of the body
3. Love of all Beautifull Bodies
4. Love of Souls
5. Love of Laws and Institutions
6. Love of Knowledge
7. Love of Beauty Itself

Question 4

What is Phaedrus’s Speech About?

Answer 4

Phaedrus argues that love is the greatest motivator for heroism and noble actions. He believes that lovers are willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of their beloved.

Question 5

What is Pausanias’s Speech About?

Answer 5

Pausanias distinguishes between two types of love: Common love (Aphrodite Pandemos), which is based on physical attraction, and Heavenly love (Aphrodite Urania), which focuses on the soul and intellect. He argues that the latter is superior.

Question 6

What is Eryximachus’s Speech About?

Answer 6

Eryximachus, a physician, extends the discussion of love to the entire universe. He sees love as a cosmic force that governs harmony and balance, both in the human body and in the world.

Question 7

What is Aristophanes’s Speech About?

Answer 7

Aristophanes presents a humorous mythological account of love. He explains that humans were once androgynous beings, split into two halves by the gods. Love is the desire to reunite with one’s missing half, creating a sense of completeness.

Question 8

What is Agathon’s Speech About?

Answer 8

Agathon, the host of the banquet, delivers a speech praising love as the youngest and most virtuous of the gods. He focuses on the positive aspects of love, emphasizing its attributes like youth, beauty, and courage.

Question 9

What is Socrates’s Speech About?

Answer 9

Socrates, through the recounting of a conversation with a wise woman named Diotima, explores the philosophical nature of love. He argues that true love is not about seeking what one lacks but seeking a higher form of love, which is the pursuit of wisdom and immortality.

Question 10

What is Alcibiades’s Speech About?

Answer 10

Alcibiades, who arrives at the banquet late and drunk, delivers a speech praising Socrates and confessing his love for him. He speaks of Socrates as the embodiment of love, as he has transformed Alcibiades’s life.

Question 11

What are Plato’s Three Primary Arguments for the Immortality of the Soul?

Answer 11

Cyclical Process, Recollection, and Affinity to Forms

Question 12

What is a Cyclical Process?

Answer 12

The soul is immortal because it undergoes a cycle of reincarnation.

Question 13

What is Recollection?

Answer 13

Learning is a recollection of knowledge from a pre-existent state.

Question 14

What is the Affinity to Forms?

Answer 14

The soul is immortal because it is closer to the eternal Forms.

Question 15

What is Plato’s Theory of Forms?

Answer 15

Plato’s philosophical concept proposes that abstract, perfect Forms exist as the true reality behind the imperfect physical world.

Question 16

What objections do Simmias and Cebes raise to the idea of immortality, and how does Socrates respond?

Answer 16

Simmias and Cebes raise objections regarding the soul’s nature and immortality. Socrates responds by presenting counterarguments and defending the immortality of the soul.

Question 17

What is Plato’s “Dual-World” Metaphysical View, and how does it impact his philosophy?

Answer 17

Plato’s dual-world view distinguishes between the world of appearances and the world of Forms. It shapes his view of reality and knowledge.

Question 18

What is the significance of the Analogy of the Sun and “The Good” in Plato’s philosophy?

Answer 18

The analogy explains the role of the Form of the Good as the source of knowledge and truth in Plato’s philosophy.

Question 19

What are the Divided Line and the Allegory of the Cave in Plato’s philosophy?

Answer 19

They are Plato’s illustrations representing different levels of knowledge (Divided Line) and the journey from ignorance to philosophical wisdom (Cave Allegory).

Question 20

How does Plato’s Divided Line symbolize the progression of knowledge?

Answer 20

The Divided Line illustrates different stages of knowledge, moving from imagination and belief to understanding and reason, symbolizing an ascent from ignorance to wisdom.

Question 21

What is the significance of the Allegory of the Cave in Plato’s philosophy?

Answer 21

The Allegory of the Cave symbolizes the transformative journey from the darkness of ignorance to the enlightenment of philosophical wisdom.

Question 22

In Aristotle’s philosophy, what is meant by “Primary Substance” (ousia)?

Answer 22

Aristotle’s concept of “Primary Substance” refers to individual entities or beings that exist as fundamental substances.

Question 23

How do Plato and Aristotle differ in their concepts of Objects of Knowledge?

Answer 23

Plato focuses on Forms as the objects of knowledge, while Aristotle emphasizes individual substances. This highlights their contrasting epistemological approaches.

Question 24

What is Hylomorphism in Aristotle’s philosophy?

Answer 24

Hylomorphism is Aristotle’s theory that everything is composed of both matter and form, where matter provides potentiality, and form actualizes it.

Question 25

What are Aristotle’s Four Causes?

Answer 25

Material, Formal, Efficient, and Final Causes.

Question 26

What do Aristotle’s Four Causes Represent?

Answer 26

They represent the reasons or explanations behind events and existence.

Question 27

How does Aristotle distinguish between Potentiality and Actuality (energia/entelechy) in his philosophy?

Answer 27

Aristotle distinguishes potentiality as what something can become and actuality as its current state. This distinction is central to his philosophy of change and development.

Question 28

What is the Cosmological Argument in Aristotle’s Metaphysics?

Answer 28

The Cosmological Argument is Aristotle’s argument for the existence of a prime mover responsible for cosmic motion and order.

Question 29

Define Teleology and explain the concept of the “Unmoved Mover” in Aristotle’s philosophy.

Answer 29

Teleology is the study of purpose. The “Unmoved Mover” is Aristotle’s prime, unchanging cause that sets the purpose and origin of motion in the universe.