Practice Exam B

Question 1

Why is it important to study philosophy?

Answer 1

*it changes the perspective from which one views the world.

Rationale -
Philosophy encourages deep reflection and critical thinking.
Philosophy is NOT a science.

Question 2

In the analogy of the cave, what represents the Form of the Good?

Answer 2

*the sun.

Rationale-
The sun is the Form of Good, the last to be seen upon exiting the cave.

The cave is the realm of the visible.

Question 3

How does Bertrand Russell respond to the cosmological argument?

Answer 3

*if God can exist without a cause, then the world could as well.

Rationale-
Russell, like Hume, argues that if God needs no cause or creator, then it is not true that everything needs a cause, and so the universe could exist without a cause just as easily.

Hume argued that the cosmological argument did not support monotheism so he thought, there could be many Gods that exist.

Question 4

Which statement is most consistent with Willard Gaylin’s view of the self?

Answer 4

*the real self is what others perceive it to be.

Rationale-
This is Gaylin’s view.

Question 5

Which view of free will holds that all events are brought about by previous events and that human actions are free if they are the results of internal motivations and not the product of external influences or constraints?

Answer 5

*compatabilism.

Rationale-
Compatabilism holds that all events are caused. However, we can consider human actions free if they are the result of internal motivations, not the product of external influences or constraints.

Question 6

What rule summarizes William Clifford’s philosophy of belief?

Answer 6

*one should never believe anything on insufficient evidence.

Rationale-
Clifford states, “To sum up: it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything on insufficient evidence.

Question 7

Accord to John Locke, what unites experience with self?

Answer 7

*consciousness.

Rationale-
Locke’s unique perspective is that a self consists in a single consciousness, a consciousness that could be passed on to different bodies or different souls.

Question 8

Which of the following is a response to Philo gives to the claim that God must exist, because there must be a cause for everything?

Answer 8

*if everything needs a cause, then by the same reasoning God would also need a cause.

Rationale-
Philo argues that if everything needs a creator, then by the same principle God would need a creator, and that creator would need a creator and so on ad infinitum.

Question 9

Which statement best characterizes the Bhagavad Gita?

Answer 9

*a royal warrior learns the meaning of duty.

Rationale-
This is an accurate description of what happens in the Bhagavad Gita when Arjuna receives counsel fro Krishna.

Question 10

Based on his reasoning that we can imagine the mind and body as separate, what would Descartes be likely to conclude if he were able to clearly imagine that pigs could fly?

Answer 10

*flying pigs are possible.

Rationale-
Just as Descartes’s ability to imagine his mind distinct from his body leads him to conclude that the mind and body are separable, so he should conclude in general that what is clearly imaginable is possible. Thus, if he can clearly imagine that pigs cam fly, God must be able to make it so, and it is therefore possible.

Question 11

Which term best describes St Anselm’s argument for the existence of God?

Answer 11

*ontological.

Rationale-
This is the traditional way of identifying Anselm’s argument, as ontological arguments proceed from reasoning about the nature of God captured in the meaning of the term.

Question 12

What statement best describes the Copernican turn in Immanuel Kant’s epistemology?

Answer 12

*all objects must conform to our modes of cognition.

Rationale-
Kant explicitly describes his “Copernican turn” in this way. He denies the transcendental realist view that all knowledge must conform to objects. He also denies the empiricist claim that all knowledge arises from experience, and the exaggerated rationalist claim that all knowledge is prior to experience.

Question 13

According to Upanishads, why are the senses misleading?

Answer 13

*because they cause the mind to focus on what is unreal.

Rationale-
The senses cause us to focus on sensations and worldly spectacles, which are unreal and always changing.

Question 14

Which philosopher is most likely to expect that people will subconsciously interpret the same event differently?

Answer 14

*Immanuel Kant.

Rationale-
Kant believed that people’s minds synthesized their experiences of events so that they made sense to the perceiver.

Wrong answers:
Berkeley, Hume, Locke

-they believed the mind to be passive, not active.

Question 15

Which statement best distinguishes a scientific revolution from normal science?

Answer 15

*it replaces an older paradigm with a new one.

Rationale-
Kuhn explicitly defines scientific revolutions in this way.

Question 16

Why does Philonous claim he is NOT a skeptic?

Answer 16

*because he denies the existence if matter.

Rationale-
Philonous claims he is not a skeptic because a skeptic doubts everything, whereas he does not doubt that there is no material world.

Question 17

Which statement would George Berkeley most likely defend?

Answer 17

• “there is no material substance”.

Rationale-
To Berkeley, there is no such thing as material substance. We perceive nothing but our own ideas.

Question 18

According to W.E.B. DuBois, how does the African American’s self-knowledge differ from that of a White American?

Answer 18

• African Americans are obliged to see themselves through the double lenses of “Black” and “White.”

Rationale-
Double lenses is one of W.E.B. DuBois’s (his) central thesis.

Question 19

What is an example of a matter of fact?

Answer 19

• It is raining.

Rationale-
This is a matter of fact.

Question 20

Which philosopher was a proponent of constructivism?

Answer 20

• Immanuel Kant.

Rationale-
Kant was a constructivist.

Descartes = rationalist.
Plato = rationalist.
Kant = constructivist.
Locke = empiricist.

Question 21

“What I feel is right, is right. What I feel is wrong, is wrong.”

Which philosopher wrote these words?

Answer 21

• Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Rationale-
Rousseau is identified as the author of that passage.

Question 22

To what does the ethical absolutist attribute the variability of moral values across cultures?

Answer 22

• human ignorance of universal moral standards.

Rationale-
An ethical absolutist believes that there are universal moral standards that do not evolve over time, and the reason people’s moral values differ is that we are ignorant of these universal moral standards.

Question 23

Why does Socrates reject Euthyphro’s claim that we must prosecute those who are guilty of crimes?

Answer 23

• is based on theology and Socrates does not believe in the gods.

Rationale-
Since Euthyphro has argued that the need for prosecution of the crime is based on piety and what the gods favor, Socrates illustrates that we cannot truly know what the gods favor or do not favor. He thereby soundly rejects all of Euthyphro’s arguments that are based on assumption of the gods.

Question 24

What action illustrates putting John Rawls’s two cardinal principles of justice into effect?

Answer 24

• developing a system of financial aid and incentives that gives every person the opportunity to attend college.

Rationale-
Rawls thinks justice requires giving everyone equal opportunity to pursue the profession and goals they want.

Question 25

In Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics, Kant criticizes which philosophical school of thought?

Answer 25

• skepticism.

Rationale-
Kant disagreed with Hume’s skepticism that genuine knowledge of anything isn’t possible and called it “a scandal in philosophy.”

Question 26

Which statement about values is most accurate?

Answer 26

• Most people lack a coherent and consistent moral compass.

Rationale-
Most people have a collection of general principles, practical conclusions, and emotional pronouncements.

Question 27

According to Carol Gilligan, what is the general difference between women and men when it comes to moral judgments?

Answer 27

• Women tend to make moral judgments based on concern and relationships, whereas men make moral judgements based on equity and justice.

Rationale-
This is Gilligan’s view, that women’s judgments are governed by the psychology of relationships, whereas men’s are governed by the logic of justice.

Question 28

Who wrote A Vindication of the Rights of Woman?

Answer 28

• Mary Wollstonecraft.

Question 29

What did Immanuel Kant believe moral principles are best understood as?

Answer 29

• categorical imperatives.

Rationale-
Kant claimed morality is a system of categorical imperatives.

Question 30

James Rachels argues for which of the following positions?

Answer 30

• Psychological egoism is FALSE and ethical egoism is FALSE.

Question 31

What is the basic principle of Soren Kiekegaard’s ethics?

Answer 31

• One should reject the tyranny of the crowd and embrace one’s authentic individual life.

Rationale-
This type of authenticity is the basis or grounding for Kierkegaard’s ethics.