Short Answer Review for PHI Exam PDF

1. Given that Descartes holds that God is not a deceiver, how does he explain the possibility of error (or false judgment)? a. The possibility of error comes from our misuse of free will which is beyond our understanding. 2. What is the problem of circularity that arises for...

1. Given that Descartes holds that God is not a deceiver, how does he explain the possibility of error (or false judgment)? a. The possibility of error comes from our misuse of free will which is beyond our understanding. 2. What is the problem of circularity that arises for Descartes? a. He uses the existence of God to prove clear and distinct ideas but uses clear and distinct ideas to prove the existence of God 3. According to Descartes, how many kinds of substance exist, and for each kind, what is its essence? a. 2 Kinds of substances, mind whose essence is thought and body whose essence is extension 4. State Leibniz’s theory of truth. a. In every affirmative truth the concept of the predicate is contained within the concept of the subject. 5. State Leibniz’s version of the principle of sufficient reason. a. For everything there is a reason, an immediate implication of the theory of truth. 6. State the principle of the identity of indiscernibles. a. No distinct two things can have the same exact properties, if they do they are identical 7. According to Leibniz, what are space and time? a. Space and time are the relationship between objects and are purely ideal 8. What is Leibniz’s doctrine of pre-established harmony?  a. All things act according to their own principles, 9. What two doctrines are characteristic of rationalism? a. Knowledge can come from reason alone and certain truths are known a priori. 10. What two doctrines are characteristic of Empiricism? a. All ideas derive from sensory experience and there are no innate ideas. 11. What is an idea, according to Locke? a. The object of thinking, representation of experiences 12. How do we acquire abstract ideas, according to Locke? a. By perceiving and extracting the ideas and using it to group things. 13. According to Locke, what is our idea of “substance in general”? a. Every individual object will have a substrata, that stands under and supports perceivable qualities 14. According to Locke, what is a person, and what constitutes personal identity through time? a. A thinking thing that can consider and think of itself, the ability to recall or having done the thing. 15. What is liberty (freedom), according to Locke? a. The ability to act according to one's will without constraint 16. In what way are direct realism and indirect realism similar, and in what way are they different? a. Both say that we perceive the external world, direct realism is we perceive it directly and indirect realism we perceive through ideas