Philosophy 1301 Examination #2B Fall 2020

Define / Explain the philosophical subject: ‘Metaphysics’/ ‘Ontology’ (5 points)

True / False (1.5 points each = 21 points)

TRUE or FALSE: Thales sought to explain things in terms of his own reasoning and observations.

TRUE or FALSE: Thales was a ‘pluralist’ and an ‘idealist.’

TRUE or FALSE: Pythagoras was “the first (western) philosopher.”

TRUE or FALSE: ‘Monism’ claims that ultimate reality is ultimately ‘one.’

TRUE or FALSE: ‘Pluralism’ claims that ultimate reality is ultimatelymore-than-one / ‘many.’

TRUE or FALSE: ‘Stasis’ claims that ultimate reality is “always changing.”

TRUE or FALSE: The principal claim of ‘Idealism’ claims that ultimate reality is ‘unchanging.”

TRUE or FALSE: ‘Dynamism’ claims that ultimate reality is non-physical and consists of Mind, or “minds-and-ideas.”

TRUE or FALSE: ‘Physicalism’ claims that ultimate reality is ultimately material or physical in nature: “matter-in-motion.”

TRUE or FALSE: A ‘worldview’ is “a way of interpreting” reality and will influence what is believable and valuable and ‘do-able’for individual persons or for a group of people.

TRUE or FALSE: Worldviews are accounts (only) of reality held by individuals only – groups of people cannot share a worldview.

TRUE or FALSE: One’s worldview is ‘a way of interpreting reality.’

TRUE or FALSE: One’s worldview is ‘a way of responding to reality.’

TRUE or FALSE: One’s worldview is ‘a way of valuing reality.’

1301 Examination #2C Fall 2020

I. True / False (2 points each = 12 points)

TRUE or FALSE: In the experience/process of ‘deliberation’ we seem to be making choices that are “up to us” and not “fixed by the past” – we seem to be deciding what we will do.

TRUE or FALSE: If Universal Causal Determinism is true, we do not truly deliberate or make “genuine decisions between genuinealternatives” – as our desires and choices (and actions) are “fixed by the past.”

TRUE or FALSE: If Universal Causal Determinism is correct, then nothing that happens and nothing that we do “could have beenotherwise’”

TRUE or FALSE: One’s view regarding free will vs. determinism has no implications for one’s view of ‘moral responsibility.’

TRUE or FALSE: One’s view regarding free will vs. determinism has no impact for one’s understanding of ‘rationality and truth.’

TRUE or FALSE: One’s view regarding free will vs. determinism has no implications for one’s understanding of ‘human dignity.’

I. Multiple Choice (3 points each = 12 points)

1. ‘Universal Causal Determinism’ is the view that:

Everything that happens, happens because God wills it – and what God wills “must” happen

Everything that happens, happens in spite of what people do – like Oedipus killing his father and marrying his mother

‘Physical’ events that happen “must” happen and could not ‘not-happen’ – because of prior physical causes

‘Mental’ events that happen “must” happen – could not ‘not-happen’ – because of prior physical causes

All human thoughts and actions “must” happen – could not ‘not-happen’

I. Multiple Choice (3 points each = 12 points)

1. ‘Universal Causal Determinism’ is the view that:

Everything that happens, happens because God wills it – and what God wills “must” happen

Everything that happens, happens in spite of what people do – like Oedipus killing his father and marrying his mother

‘Physical’ events that happen “must” happen and could not ‘not-happen’ – because of prior physical causes

‘Mental’ events that happen “must” happen – could not ‘not-happen’ – because of prior physical causes

All human thoughts and actions “must” happen – could not ‘not-happen’

C and D and E

A and B and E

2. Hard Determinism:

affirms, without qualification, ‘universal causal determinism’

Rejects universal causal determinism

Affirms a significant sense of ‘freewill’

denies any sense of ‘free will’

denies moral responsibility

A and D and E

A and C

3. Compatibilism:

affirms, without qualification, ‘universal causal determinism’

Rejects universal causal determinism

Affirms determinism and agent-freedom are ‘compatible’

affirms agent-freedom of “genuine choices among real possibilities”

affirms agent-freedom of ‘free action’ rather than ‘free will’

B and D and E

A and C and E

4. Libertarianism / Libertarian Free Will:\

rejects any form of causal determinism

Rejects universal causal determinism

affirms agent-freedom of “genuine choices between real possibilities”

affirms moral responsibility

affirms that in a free action “one could have done otherwise”

A and C and E

B and C and D and E