Introduction to Philosophy Study Questions for Exam 2 On the exam date, you will be given 40 multiple-choice questions closely related to the following questions. Also, there will be ten true/false questions aimed at assessing your grasp of the readings. You will not be allowed books or notes. And you ought not cheat. 1. What is a skeptical hypothesis? Give an example. A hypothesis that raises skepticism and calls facts into question. P is a skeptical hypothesis with respect to your belief in Q iff P is consistent with your current state of evidence and P is inconsistent with your knowing Q. Ex: Descartes dream argument, it all seems real but we could be dreaming. 2. What is a skeptical argument? Give an example. An arguments that raisses skepticism to show that you don?t know what you think you know. I do not know that skeptical hypothesis P is false. If P, then I do not know Q. Therefore, I do not know Q. Ex: I do not know that someone didn?t steal my car, so I do not know that my car isn?t in my driveway. 3. What is Descartes? dream hypothesis I might be dreaming, hence I cannot be certain that I am really perceiving anything in the external world or that I ever have. which four categories of his beliefs were left untouched by it? Mathematical beliefs, conceptual beliefs (all bachelors are unmarried), logical beliefs (if p then p), appearance/seeming beliefs 4. Discuss the various interpretations of how Descartes reached his first certainty, namely, that he exists. Inferential interpretation: I think therefore I am, but at best this means it?s his second certainty. Intuitional interpretation: Because it clearly and distinctly seems to me that I exist, I am certain that I exist. A seeming doesn?t entail that it?s true because he?s just established that it doesn?t. Discovery Interpretation: distinguish source/justification of belief, what is the source of Descartes? belief? Intuition, it seems to him that he exists. What justifies his certainty in his belief? The belief. is immune to skeptical hypotheses. Which is most plausible? Discovery interpretation 5. Descartes thought that only one or two propositions were directly evident. Are there other propositions that are plausible candidates for being directly evident? Explain your answer. What categories of propositions about the external world can be deduced from your directly-evident beliefs? 6. What is meant by ?indirectly evident belief?? something inferred from directly-evident beliefts by good rules of reasoning. Be ready to identify plausible candidates for being indirectly evident beliefs. There is an external world, I am a student, tables exist. 7. Briefly describe, and give the significance of, The Cartesian Theatre. It separates the private and the external world with an epistemic wedge meaning you are trapped in a private theater where you are unable to determine what is causing the outside world. Separates our sensations, thoughts, emotions, seemings from things. 8. What is the traditional analysis of knowledge? Justified True Belief: X knows P if X believes P, P is true, X is justified in believing P Give a ?Gettier-type? counterexample to it and explain why it qualifies as a counterexample. I believe at torte has been entered into the baking contest because I believe I have made a torte because of my ?torte recipe? but recipe technically makes a cake, however someone else has entered a torte. 9. What is the distinction between a priori and a posteriori propositions? Give an example of each. A priori is knowledge or justification independent of experience (all bachelors are unmarried), something that can be conceived in the head. a posteriori knowledge or justification is dependent on experience or empirical evidence (some bachelors are very happy), something that makes reference to experience. 10. What is Locke?s distinction between secondary and primary qualities? Give examples of each. Secondary qualities are projected properties
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