Midterm Study Guide PDF

**MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE** The midterm will take place during your regularly scheduled class in Week 10. You do not need a proctor---just show up to class as usual. It will be a closed book exam (no references to notes or books). Questions will ask you to explain (and sometimes to draw connections bet...

**MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE** The midterm will take place during your regularly scheduled class in Week 10. You do not need a proctor---just show up to class as usual. It will be a closed book exam (no references to notes or books). Questions will ask you to explain (and sometimes to draw connections between) key concepts from the readings; they will **not** ask you for your views on those concepts. To prepare for the exam, write 2-3 questions about each of the bullet points below that you think (given what we discussed in class, in lecture, and on assignments) might be good exam questions. Then practice answering these questions. We will begin working on this together in class. The exam will consist of short-answer questions (you will write 3-4+ sentences for each response) and an explanation of a quote from one of your readings (you will write 5-6 sentences to explain it). You will choose **7 of 9** given short-answer questions to answer, and you will choose **1 of 2** given quotes to explain. **ARISTOTLE** Humans are distinctively political/social creatures, and this is shown in part by how we use speech; humans also desire "to know" by nature. **DESCARTES** A basic contrast characterizes humans and non-human animals; this contrast has to do with how we use speech; a two-pronged test reveals this contrast. **AI & TURING TEST** The "test" consists of a procedure for determining something important about machines/computers; using this test is supposed to replace the question, "Can machines think?" because that question is no good, as it stands. Dagar analyzes several attributes (like how we think creativity or self-awareness) that we once may have thought separate humans from AI but perhaps no more. **THE STATUS OF ANIMALS** Humans importantly different from non-human animals, according to Kant, and this implies that we only have "indirect" duties to them. Korsgaard agrees and disagrees with Kant: she agrees that humans are different in an important way, but does not think that this makes our duties to animals indirect. Singer gives a cautionary history of prejudice to prompt a review of human treatment of non-human animals, and focuses on our shared ability to suffer as a key reason to treat them with 'equal consideration'. **THE STATE OF NATURE** Mozi thinks that a state of nature would be dominated by conflicting opinions and disharmony. Moving into a society---particularly one where dispersed power is harmonized through aligning opinions with the governing 'superior'---is far more desirable. Hobbes thinks that the elements of our nature -- especially our natural motives -- imply that a state of nature would give way to a state of war. He thinks this in part because we are natural equals, in a certain way. Rousseau thinks it is important to see that the state of nature is peaceful, and he offers an alternative picture of our natural motives and tendencies. He thinks that things go awry when we move into society -- our social ties force us to lose certain things that made the state of nature peaceful and stable. Turnbull records his take on a group of Mbuti people living without government and flourishing in a cooperation-centered, generally harmonious society. Peer pressure, ridicule, and tasks that can only be accomplished with the help of others are distinctive characteristics. Twain isn't giving us a view of a "state of nature", but he does offer an outside perspective in the guise of the angel Satan who focuses on human cruelty and what he sees as the twisted 'moral sense' that leads to more misery than any non-human 'brute' inflicts. *Lord of the Flies* depicts a situation in which the more violent and domineering characteristics win out over the cooperative and democratic. Clear parallels with Hobbes can be drawn---and many more complex connections as well!