Explain why and in what respect Russell thinks that philosophy is importantly different from other fields of inquiry.
Explain why and in what respect Russell thinks that philosophy is importantly different from other fields of inquiry.
According to Russell, what is the value of “speculative interest” and how does philosophy help keep it alive?
According to Russell, philosophy doesn’t give definite answers to its questions because?
According to Russell, a benefit of making one’s mind accustomed to freedom and impartiality is?
Why does Russell think Philosophy should be studied?
How does Socrates reconcile the claim that he is the wisest person with the claim that he knows nothing?
According to Anselm, God is? (3 components)
Explain Anselm’s distinction between existence in the understanding and existence in reality.
What is Anselm’s argument that God exists in the understanding?
Why does Aquinas think that a series of causes cannot go back to infinity?
Against the ontological argument, Aquinas argues that even if God means “that than which nothing greater can be thought”…
For Aquinas, there must be something maximally true, good, and noble, because…
According to Aquinas, we must trace purposeful acts back to a cause higher than human reason and will because…
What is Pascal’s wager?
What do we stand to gain and lose if we wager on the existence of God, according to Pascal?
How does Pascal suggest non-believers bring themselves to believe in God’s existence?
At the end of the first meditation, Descartes mentions that he is concerned “not with acting, but only with knowledge.” Why might this be important to point out for Descartes?
In order to establish any firm and lasting knowledge, for Descartes, what must he do?
Descartes finds reason to doubt everything because…
Why does Descartes concludes he must exist?
Descartes claims that God exists because existence is a perfection. What is Kant’s response to Descartes?
Explain Plato’s understanding of reality through the movie the Matrix.
Explain how the movie “The Gods Must Be Crazy” can be seen as the anti-Matrix.
What does Descartes’s evil demon have in common with the contemporary supposition that we are all just brains in a vat (or trapped in a computer program)?
Why might the phenomenon of dreaming lead us to a sort of skepticism?
What is Hume’s challenge to the argument of “first cause” for the Universe as an explanation for God? What is the “inductive leap of logic”?
What are Kant’s Moral Arguments for the existence of God?
What is Russel’s “philosophical zombie” and how does this challenge Descartes’s proof of the mind and existence?
Can machines become self-aware? Is Simulating a Mind equivalent to Duplicating a Mind?
What is Hume’s argument against the idea of the “self”?
What are the arguments for or against “free will”? (i.e. Libertarianism vs Determinism)
What does the movie Gattaca argue about free will and determinism?
What does it mean when Kant says you must treat people as ends and not means?
According to Kant you must …“Act in such a way that you always treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, never simply as a means, but always at the same time as an end.” What is the consequence of Kantian ethics?
How does Kantian ethics question justice and the application of justice?
What does “the Stanford Prison Experiment” tell us about question of justice and rights?
What is the objective of Utilitarianism? And how does it propose to achieve its objective?
What does Mill’s mean when he says “it is better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied”?