*We will go over the sample test in class on Monday, December 1st and Wednesday, December 3rd.
Part A – Multiple Choice (4 marks)
Answer the following questions in your exam booklet.
1. "If everything that exists in the world (including the world itself) is not the cause of its own existence, then there must be a cause of the world's existence which itself does not need to be caused by anything else: that uncaused cause is God." This line of argument is called the:
a. existential argument.
b. cosmological argument.
c. ontological argument.
d. teleological argument.
2. Descartes' wax example is intended to show that the wax is the same substance before and after it is melted, and this observation indicates how
a. Our senses portray the physical characteristics of wax in purely non-sensible ways.
b. Our knowledge of sensible objects (e.g., wax) is based on what reason, not sense, identifies.
c. Without sense experiences, we would not know whether the wax before and after melting is the same.
d. Knowing that something is wax is the same thing as sensibly experiencing something as wax.
3. According to Bertrand Russell, to say whether two beliefs are coherent, we have to determine whether they are consistent with one another according to laws of logic. But laws of logic must themselves be true based on facts, not on their coherence with other beliefs, because:
a. A set of beliefs could be coherent with one another even though the whole set is false.
b. Apart from such laws, we would be unable to tell whether or not two beliefs are coherent.
c. The truth of a belief depends on how well it is consistent with or "coheres" with other beliefs.
d. Although laws of logic are not true or false, they define truth and falsity by identifying facts.
4. Taylor claims that there is no mind-body problem because:
a. Minds are the only real things in the world; everything physical or bodily is really a projection of my mind.
b. Minds exhibit characteristics that some bodies exhibit, just as bodies exhibit characteristics that some minds exhibit.
c. There are no such things as minds; only bodies exist.
d. Minds act on the basis of mental laws, and bodies act on the basis of physical laws.
Part B – Quotations (6 marks)
In roughly 2-4 sentences, identify the author of each of the following passages and explain its significance.
1. “It is a perversion of language to assign any law as the efficient, operative cause of anything. A law presupposes an agent, for it is only the mode according to which an agent proceeds; it implies a power; for it is the order according to which that power acts.”
2. “Hesiod says about a wagon, ‘In a wagon are a hundred pieces of wood.’ I could not name them all; no more, I imagine, could you. If we were asked what a wagon is, we should be content if we could mention wheels, axle, body, rails, yoke.”
3. “A mite therefore must be supposed to see his own foot, and things equal or even less than it, as bodies of some considerable dimension, though at the same time they appear to you scarce discernible or at best as so many visible points?”
Part C – Short Answers (20 marks)
Answer each of the following questions in a short paragraph.
1. How is Anselm’s example of the painter relevant to the question of God’s existence?
2. Why is true belief unworthy of the title ‘knowledge’? Provide examples in your explanation.
3. Plato describes knowledge as a line divided into four parts. What are the names given to each of these four parts, and what is the object of knowledge of each?
4. Explain the difference between something that is known a priori and a posteriori.
5. Berkeley refers to primary and secondary qualities. What are they? Be sure to give an example of each.
Part D – Essay Question (15 marks)
In an essay of approximately 750-1000 words, answer the question below.
Do humans have a self? Justify your answer, explaining the positions and arguments of at least two of the thinkers we have studied.