world view midterm longer questions

Question 1

Identify and briefly explain four of the six functions of a worldview, as explained by Hiebert.

Answer 1

1 WV’s are a plausibility structure providing answers to ultimate questions
2 WV’s give emotional security
3 WV’s validate deepest cultural norms
4 WV’s integrate culture
5 WV’s monitor cultural changes
6 WV’s offer psychological reassurance that we are at home in the world

Question 2

Identify and briefly explain three of the evaluative themes/counterthemes from the course slides.

Answer 2

1 Hierarchy is Right v. Equality is Right
2 Emotional Expression v. Emotional Control
3 Group-Centered v. Individual Centered

Question 3

Give Hiebert’s definition of a worldview.

Answer 3

The fundamental cognitive, affective, and evaluative presuppositions a group of people make about the nature of things, and which they use to order their live

Question 4

**Briefly explain what is meant by saying that Christianity is a synthesis of Athens and Jerusalem.

Answer 4

-christianity is a fusion of greek traditional philosophies and jewish traditions from the Old Testament
-they both have elements in common that sometimes fit and sometimes contradict

Question 5

With reference to the book of Genesis, explain the Christian doctrine that pride is sinful.

Answer 5

pride in sinful comes from Adam and Eve eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. they wanted to be more like god by eating the fruit and this shows pride as they defied gods authority and tried to be above what they were supposed to be

Question 6

Briefly explain why Plato holds that the divine must be unchanging.

Answer 6

because the divine is supposed to be already perfect. if it where to change for the better, it would imply it wasn’t already perfect before and if he changed for the worse he would not be perfect anymore. plato means that something perfect changing would imply to was imperfect before

Question 7

Identify and briefly explain the main elements of Plotinus’ neo-Platonism.

Answer 7

philosophical system that builds on Platos ideas
-the one, which is the ultimate source of all reality
-the intellect, which are humans who form the material world and contemplate the one
-the soul, which bridges the spiritual and the material world

Question 8

Briefly explain the evolution of Augustine’s conception of God

Answer 8

-in his youth, he thought god was material and a dualistic force between good and evil as he was influenced by Manichaeism
-later, he saw god as a transcendent immutable and perfect being after being influenced by neoplatonism which aligns with the christian view. he also integrated biblical teachings after that

Question 9

Explain how Augustine uses analogy to illuminate the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.

Answer 9

people are created in the image of god so humans can examine themselves to understand more the nature of god and form a clearer idea of him. example trinity
lover( father)
beloved (son)
love (spirit)

Question 10

Briefly summarize the controversy between Augustine and Pelagius and its significance.

Answer 10

the original sin is the center of the controversy. Augustine believes in it and thinks we can’t do good anymore until god brings us back
Pelagius says that its a mistake and we are born fresh and new without sin
significant because raises question on goodness of humans and babies

Question 11

Briefly explain Augustine’s understanding of the contrast between the City of God and the Earthly City.

Answer 11

city of god: city where people have caritas and value god more than themselves
earthly city: people who value material things and life in the moment
example of having a gun to your head and dying or lying earthly city people would lie to live and city of god people would die to because they value the afterlife more

Question 12

Briefly explain the philosophical problem of future contingents.

Question 13

Briefly explain how Boethius reconciles divine foreknowledge and human free will.

Answer 13

he reconciles them by saying god does not necessarily decide on what humans do, that is not what is foreknowledge is about. he says that god knows what humans will decide as he is all knowing so humans have the ability to make the choice just that god knows what it will be so this preserve human free will

Question 14

Briefly explain the doctrine of chance given by Philosophy in Boethius’ Consolation

Answer 14

he says that the world is governed by divine providence . there is not really any such thing as chance but only a result that was unexpected by us and is just the addition of many events we didn’t know would happen

Question 15

Identify and briefly explain Eriugena’s fourfold division of nature.

Answer 15

-what creates and is not created (god)

-what creates and is created (essence of triangularity built into reality)

-what does not create and is create (everything material, humans)

-what does not create and is not created (god in his capacity at rest)

Question 16

Briefly explain what Eriugena means by calling God a ‘seer’ and a ‘runner.
’

Answer 16

seer: everything that exists is within gods knowledge and view because he is omniscient

runner: god is what makes everything happen so he runs the world

greek ethimology of word god gives verb see and run

Question 17

Briefly explain the sense in which God may be said to be ‘nothing’ in Eriugena’s philosophy.

Answer 17

-things have defined characteristics that give us the ability to describe them

-god does not have any specific characteristics he is one and eternal

-because of that he is said not to be a thing so no thing

Question 18

Briefly explain Eriugena’s views on the naming or description of God.

Answer 18

there can’t be contrasts to god so we can’t describe him, we must say he is super good and not good

Question 19

Briefly summarize Anselm’s argument for God’s existence in Chapter 2 of the Proslogion.

Answer 19

-anselm argument based on onthological argument

-that can which nothing greater can be thought
-because we can think about him, he must be real and not only an idea because things are better in reality that just in understanding

Question 20

Briefly summarize Gaunilo’s reply to Anselm’s argument for God’s existence from Ch. 2 of the Proslogion

Answer 20

-says that there’s a difference between having just a thought, really understanding it and it exsisting so Ansley second premise is wrong and justifies it with the idea of the perfect island which we know doesn’t really exist even if we think about it

Question 21

Briefly summarize Anselm’s theory of truth.

Answer 21

Anselm believes that god consists of the fundamental truth so if we want something tp be true, it must conform with god. Anselm idea conforms with christianity

Question 22

Briefly summarize why Anselm holds that not even God can take away rectitude of will.

Answer 22

-because rectitude of will is like justice
-god wants to be just and wants humans to be too so he wants humans to have rectitude of will
-if he was to take it away, he would be contradicting himself which is against god

Question 23

Briefly explain why Anselm holds that the ‘ability to sin’ is not part of the definition of freedom of choice

Answer 23

Blasphemy to say God could sin. You are more free if you’re able to hold onto to your rectitude. ability to sin decreases our rectitude.

Question 24

Briefly explain how Anselm justifies the damnation of infants who die unbaptized.

Answer 24

Anselm believes that because Adam and Eve ate the fruit in the garden of eden w newborns are born sinners.
-believes baptism wipes away that sin
-if unbaptized, die sinners so go to hell

Question 25

With reference to the slogan fides quarens intellectum, explain Anselm’s view on the authority of reason.

Answer 25

The way reason and faith are connected.
Faith seeking understanding.
Anslem is in the middle of faith and reason and thinks we should combine both. but faith comes first. If the two conflict, go with faith.
Rational project within the frame of christianity

Question 26

11 Briefly explain Aquinas’ view on the sorrow of the demons.

Answer 26

they don’t on one sense of the term because they are incorporeal persons so they don’t have feeling so no sorrow
in the sense they do in the sense its will is frustrated because he can’t do what he wants to

Question 27

1 Briefly summarize Anselm’s argument against Roscelin’s view of the Trinity.

Answer 27

Anselm refuted Roscelin’s view by emphasizing the unity and indivisibility of the Trinity. He argued that while the Trinity consists of three distinct persons, they are not separate substances but share a single, unified divine essence. Anselm maintained that understanding the Trinity requires acknowledging the mystery of this unity without dividing the essence of God into three separate gods, which would contradict the core monotheistic principle of Christianity.So if you say the first thing, christian view, but the second you’re not christian

Question 28

20 Briefly explain why, according to Dante, humans need the guidance of both secular and Church authority.

Answer 28

humans have a dual nature of form and matter, the soul and the body. we have a natural and spiritual end on earth. our soul needs the church authority to be guided to church and the secular authority needs to guide the body. an authority must be guided temporaly and the other eternaly

Question 29

15* Briefly explain the difference between strong and weak theories of existence.

Answer 29

weak : things are just there. what is means to exist is just to fit a particular description
strong (keep asking question): further explanation of existence that can be questioned, rather than simply accepted without thought.

Question 30

2 Briefly explain Anselm’s Christology.

Answer 30

christology is just what you wanna says of god, the different views
Anselm is the orthodox center of this question. he says christ as a dual nature, he is fully human and fully divine. he is in the second person of the trinity, the son. both his divine and human nature

Question 31

9 Briefly explain Aquinas’ view on the question whether an angel is in a place.

Answer 31

angels are incorporeal, they don’t have quantity or a body so they can’t occupy a place in the material sense. Acquinas reads the Bible which says they have a place and justifies it as they have a place in the sense they have power. they contain their expression of their power. if they act on some us, they are in us

Question 32

8 Briefly explain Aquinas’ view about the relationship between the body and the soul.

Answer 32

he is opposed to Platos view who says that who we are is our soul and its our substance housed in our physical body. Aristotle and aquinas believe that the human body is a composite of both the soul and the body, the body is in the soul. it gives it its identity. when they are separated they don’t have the same power. its not a human being anymore its only the soul, needing a body to work again

Question 33

7 *** Briefly explain what is meant by talk of Aquinas’ ‘destruction of the world.
’

Answer 33

destruction of our concept of the world. the way that we think of the world. Explaining stuff from our concept of the world but doing so, aquinas says that we are not capturing its essence, where there’s a bunch of things emerging. detstroying the world as one big thing.

Question 34

12 Briefly explain Aquinas’ view concerning charitable love toward irrational creatures.

Answer 34

friendship towards creatures? can’t be.
1- can only wish good to something capable of free choice
2-they don’t have rationality, can’t share in our form of life
3-ultimate aim of friendship is eternal, but animals don’t go to heaven.

Question 35

16*Briefly explain what is meant by describing humans as a microcosm within the Great Chain of Being.

Answer 35

we all fall on this hierarchal scheme. at the bottom: matter. humans have all the lower level powers, plus rationality. the whole of the universe is visible in human beings in a way.

Question 36

13 Briefly summarize Aquinas’ view on love for one’s enemies.

Answer 36

You’re commanded to love. even your enemies. but you don’t have to indiviualy go out of your way and love them, but if the opportunity arises, you must love them. It is a sort of test to god, to despite them being your enemy, you still love them for their humanness.

Question 37

4 Briefly explain Duns Scotus’ solution to the problem of individuation.

Answer 37

problem for scholastic realists. scotus contrasts to henrys answer by saying categories subdivide, humans as a species subdivide into each of us. negation one of henry is that ex i cant subdivide myself and second i am not the same as amelie

A
a problem for scholastic realists. he contrasts with henry’s answer: subcategories of species. 2 negations; there are not two divisions of Amelie. Amelie is not the same as maverick. Scotus: individuation is not merely a matter of possessing certain properties or existing in a particular time and space but is instead due to a unique, non-qualitative property he termed haecceity. This haecceity is what makes an individual entity distinctively itself, beyond its shared characteristics with others in its species or category

Question 38

3 Briefly contrast Anselm’s view with the traditional explanation for Christ’s incarnation.

Answer 38

christ does not come into existence from human. therefor he is not directly a subject of satan. anselm finds it delerious and says Humans in sinning, must pay to make up for it, but don’t have the power to do it. So they need a Godman who is human enough to have the sin but also powerful enough

Question 39

14 Briefly explain why, according to Aquinas, each angel belongs to a species of its own

Answer 39

because acquinas believes that your matter is what makes you an individual. angels are incorporial so they dont have matter therefor they are all totally unique so each their own species as they dont have traits that can relate them to a common specie

Question 40

17 Identify and briefly describe the three characteristic features of mystical experience.

Answer 40

noetic quality (mind). ineffable, unsayable so you can’t say what this experience is exactly because it is so unique. paradoxality of the language when they try to explain what happens in these mystical experiences. leads to contradictions

Question 41

18 With reference to Margery Kempe, distinguish introvertive from extrovertive mystical experience.

Answer 41

the connections are connectd to your life so extrovertive as its related t your sensory characters. introvertive is when they are not connected to sensory experiences, its almost like a moment of nothingness as you must shut off all sensory things

Question 42

10 According to Aquinas, in what sense did the devil desire to be like God?

Answer 42

he denies the devil would have wanted to be equal to god as it would implicate the destruction of his own nature. he says it is likeness in the sense of similarity. he desires to do something in its power but its not in his nature to control all things. he is also trying to be happy on his own without trying to achieve it trough god

Question 43

5 Briefly explain Duns Scotus’ approach to the question of God’s infinity.

Answer 43

being sebarated in finite and infinite. gods infinity by scotus: step 1 imagine a potential quantitative infinite, a rule that keeps you going forever (n+1) 2 conceive it as a whole 3 abandon quantitative aspect and look at it as a qualitative aspect
he thinks thats a positive idea

Question 44

6 Briefly explain Duns Scotus’ doctrine of the formal distinction

Answer 44

comes between real distinctions (things that are separatable like liver and heart) and conceptual distinctions (evening star and morning star two concepts that are of the same object but we draw a distinction)
the formal distinction is between those two. 2 features of things that cant be separated from eachother (gods justice and goodness) ex humanity of amelie and her uniqness, they are 2 aspects of one thing, they cant be separated

Question 45

19 Briefly explain why, according to Dante, secular powers do not derive their authority from the Church.

Answer 45

A
church gets its form from christ. christ gives the church its nature. christ says he’s not the lord, and that the church does not have any power. the purpose of secular authority is to maintain peace and order in the earthly realm, guiding humanity toward temporal happiness. In contrast, the Church’s role is to guide souls toward eternal salvation. Each authority serves its distinct purpose, and mixing these roles would disrupt divine order.