Phil 134 Study Guide PDF

Phil 134 Study Guide 1. Pascal offers what sort of argument for belief in God? Pragmatic or Epistemic? How does it work? 2. What is the ‘many gods’ objection to Pascal’s wager? 3. What is one way that Pascal could respond to the ‘many gods’ objection to his argument? 4. True or false: Pascal mainta...

Phil 134 Study Guide 1. Pascal offers what sort of argument for belief in God? Pragmatic or Epistemic? How does it work? 2. What is the ‘many gods’ objection to Pascal’s wager? 3. What is one way that Pascal could respond to the ‘many gods’ objection to his argument? 4. True or false: Pascal maintains that if you wager for God and lose, you will be no worse off than if you had wagered against God. 5. Pascal insists that “you must bet” either on the existence of God or the non-existence of God. Why does he say this? 6. Clifford contrasts two shipowners. Each believes that his ship is seaworthy despite evidence to the contrary and lets it sail. In the first case, the ship sinks. In the second, it arrives safely. The first shipowner is blameworthy because his action kills many people. Why is the second blameworthy according to Clifford? 7. What is Clifford’s fundamental principle governing rational belief? 8. According to James, it is rational to believe a proposition in the absence of evidence when the option is forced, live, and momentous and when the question cannot be resolved on intellectual grounds. What do each of these four conditions mean? (Think of examples.) 9. James holds that our intellectual lives are governed by two commandments: “Believe truth!” and “Shun error!” Why are these are two distinct commandments? 10. What are some of the main criticisms Kelly James Clark directs against Classical Foundationalism? 11. According to Kelly James Clark, when is peer disagreement with respect to p relevant to whether belief in p is rational? 12. True or False: According to Al Ghazali’s cosmological argument, the universe is ‘subject to origination’—that is, it began to exist. 13. Here is an argument for the conclusion that the universe began to exist: (a) Whatever begins to exist has a cause. (Premise) (b) If the universe did not begin to exist, then there is an infinite temporal regress of physical events. (Premise) (c) An actual infinite cannot exist. (Premise) (d) An infinite temporal regress of physical events is an actual infinite. (Premise) (e) An infinite temporal regress of physical events cannot exist. (c, d) (f) The universe began to exist. (b, e) (g) The universe has a cause. (a, f) Hilbert’s Hotel is a thought experiment that can be used to support which premise of this argument? 14. What is Samuel Clarke’s PSR principle? 15. What sort of being doesn’t exist according to Clarke’s PSR principle? 16. What are David Hume’s main objections to Clarke’s cosmological argument? 1