Philosophy

Question 1

Who was Cartesian Skepticism named for, and what is it?

Answer 1

René Descartes, a process of analyzing one’s beliefs

Question 2

What are empirical beliefs?

Answer 2

Beliefs formed through senses

Question 3

What are Local doubts?

Answer 3

Doubts about sensual experiences

Question 4

What is Global doubt?

Answer 4

The thought that everything is a deception

Question 5

Explain the 5-minute hypothesis

Answer 5

Created by Bertrand Russel - what if the universe was created five minutes ago, and everything marking time - memories, fossils, etc. - were fabricated by the creator?

Question 6

What is the Evil Genius?

Answer 6

Created by Descartes, it is a concept not unlike the devil - a creature who’s sole purpose is to deceive us. Descartes created this after encountering his own version of the 5-minute hypothesis. As a devout Catholic, he could not believe God would deceive us.

Question 7

Three branches of philosophy

Answer 7

Metaphysics, epistemology, and value theory (ethics and aesthetics)

Question 8

Fallacy

Answer 8

A failure in reasoning rendering one’s argument invalid

Question 9

Principle of charity

Answer 9

Understanding an argument in its truest form

Question 10

Philosophia

Answer 10

Greek, love of wisdom

Question 11

Interlocutors

Answer 11

People participating in conversation or debate

Question 12

Socratic method

Answer 12

Learning through ideas rather than information

Question 13

Premises

Answer 13

Propositions used to justify a conclusion

Question 14

What is the Tripartite soul?

Answer 14

Created by Plato - consists of rational thinking, emotional thinking, and physical thinking

Question 15

Species of arguments

Answer 15

Deductive, inductive, abductive, argument by analogy, and reduction ad absurdum

Question 16

Deductive argument

Answer 16

All premises are true, and therefore the conclusion

Question 17

Inductive argument

Answer 17

Past experience to make future predictions - probability

Question 18

Abductive argument

Answer 18

Conclusion based on best explanation rather than evidence (eliminate impossible, save whatever’s left)

Question 19

Validity vs. truth

Answer 19

Arguments can be invalid if all premises and conclusions are true, and vice versa

Question 20

Recall Plato’s prisoner story and the book it is from

Answer 20

The Republic, three prisoners in a cave…

Question 21

Recall example of argument phrasing that led to the absence of a thing becoming present

Answer 21

The no cat example

Question 22

Cogito ergo sum (where did it come from)

Answer 22

Latin, I think therefore I am - Descartes could doubt everything except that he was doubting, so he must have a mind in some form

Question 23

Responses to skepticism

Answer 23

Rationalism and empiricism

Question 24

Tabula rasa

Answer 24

John Locke, as in we are all born tabula rasa (as blank slates)

Question 25

Primary and secondary qualities

Answer 25

Created by John Locke - Quantitative (mass, weight, height, shape) and qualitative (color, smell, texture)

Question 26

Rebuttal to primary and secondary qualities

Answer 26

George Berkeley, primary qualities cannot exist without secondary ones

Question 27

Esse est percepi (recall who wrote this and what he meant)

Answer 27

To be is to be perceived - George Berkeley

Question 28

Problem and Berkeley’s solution to esse est percepi

Answer 28

One is not observed while they sleep, meaning you would not exist. Berkeley says God is the ultimate perceiver, holding everything in existence

Question 29

Assertion

Answer 29

A linguistic act with truth value

Question 30

Truth value

Answer 30

True, false, or indeterminate

Question 31

Proposition

Answer 31

The underlying meaning of what you’re saying

Question 32

Knowledge

Answer 32

A justified true belief

Question 33

Testimony

Answer 33

A statement taken as justification for beliefs

Question 34

Propositional attitudes

Answer 34

Belief and disbelief (convincing and believing)

Question 35

Gettier cases and example used

Answer 35

Named for Edmund Gettier - Instances where one has a justified true belief but not knowledge (Jones and Smith example)