Phil 110: Review Questions - Final Exam PDF

Phil 110: The Adventure of Ideas December 3, 2024 Christopher M. Brown, Ph.D. Review questions for the final exam: Augustine’s Confessions (books three-nine); Thomas Aquinas’ Summa contra gentiles (SCG), book one, chapters 3-4, and Rene D...

Phil 110: The Adventure of Ideas December 3, 2024 Christopher M. Brown, Ph.D. Review questions for the final exam: Augustine’s Confessions (books three-nine); Thomas Aquinas’ Summa contra gentiles (SCG), book one, chapters 3-4, and Rene Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy Strong suggestion: get some notecards. Use one notecard for each question. On one side of a notecard write one of the questions below; on the other side, write the correct answer to the question. (N.B. make sure your answer is correct and substantive. You don’t want to study incorrect or incomplete answers! If you’re not sure, ask somebody, for example, your professor.) After filling out the notecards, practice asking and answering the questions with your friends. Begin by using the answers on your notecards as a study tool, and practice until you don’t need to look at the answers anymore. Questions on Augustine’s Confessions, books three-nine (1) (a) Augustine: “I fell in with a sect of men talking high-sounding nonsense, carnal and wordy men.” Which sect of men? (2) (a) Who was the founder of the Manichee religion? (b) When did he live? (c) Explain the cosmology of Manichaeism. (d) Explain the ontology of Manichaeism. (e) Explain the theology of Manichaeism. (f) True or false: the Manichees believed the light God—the Father God of Jesus Christ—was semi-potent rather than omnipotent. (g) True or false: the Manichees identified the evil God with the God of the Old Testament. (h) Explain the cosmogony of Manichaeism. (i) Explain the Manichee views on evil. (j) Explain the Manichee views on the body, sex, and reproduction. (k) Given what we’ve said about Augustine’s traditional Christian views, contrast Augustine’s traditional Christian views with each of these Manichee views. (3) According to Augustine, what is a human being apart from God (Confessions, book four, chapter 1)? (4) (a) “I had become a great enigma to myself” (book four, chapter iv, section 9). What’s happened to Augustine? (b) According to Augustine, why was he miserable in losing his friend (book iv, chapters 7 and 9)? (5) How was Augustine conceiving of God and the human soul as a Manichee (book four, ch. xvi, sec. 31)? (6) (a) Compare and contrast what Augustine says about human happiness with the Socratic sufficiency thesis (book five, ch. iv, sec. 7). (b) According to Augustine, is the person who knows God and everything there is to know about the natural world happier than the person who knows God but does not know everything there is to know about the natural world? Why or why not? (7) Why did Augustine find Faustus’ refusal to answer his objections to Manichee cosmology so pleasing (book five, ch. vii, sec. 12)? (8) Augustine: “This indeed was the principle and practically the sole cause of my inevitable error” (book five, ch. x, sec. 19). What was? (9) (a) Where is Augustine at in his account of his spiritual journey by the end of book five? (b) What are his views about Catholic Christianity at this time? (10) We discussed four reasons, when taken together, which explain why Augustine found Manicheeism attractive earlier in his life. What four reasons? (11) (a) Who is the bishop that has such a marked influence on Augustine when he moves from Rome to Milan? (b) What does this bishop teach Augustine so that Augustine changes his mind about the value of certain Manichee criticisms of Catholic Christianity? (12) (a) Be able to complete an unfinished expression of the classical argument from evil that God does not exist. (b) How did the Manichees respond to this classical argument from evil? (c) Who is responsible for any evil act according to the Manichees? (d) What are two reasons Augustine becomes disillusioned with the Manichee responses to the problem of evil? (13) Augustine on why he wasn’t finding the truth about God: “I went _____ of myself in the search for You and did not find the God of my heart” (Confessions, book six, chapter i, section 1). (14) Augustine tells us two reasons why it began to make sense to him to adopt Catholic beliefs that he couldn’t demonstrate or prove to be true. Explain. (15) (a) What ‘project’ or ‘dream community’ does Augustine mention at book six, ch. xiv, sec. 24? (b) What prevented Augustine and his friends from realizing their plans? (16) (a) At Confessions, book seven, ch. i, sec. 1, Augustine tells us he struggled to make meaningful an idea central to Catholic Christianity. What idea? (b) Reading which books helped this idea to become meaningful for him? (c) How so? (17) Augustine seems to suggest that much of what Christians believe can be found in the writings of the Platonists. Which articles of the Christian faith did Augustine not find in these books (see, e.g., book seven, ch. ix and ch. xxi)? (18) Fill in the blanks: reading the books of the __________ helped Augustine to become a Catholic intellectually insofar as it helped him make sense of the immaterial nature of _________ and the immaterial nature of ________. But it was reading ________ that helped him to become not only intellectually but whole-heartedly a Catholic Christian (book seven). (19) With what is Augustine struggling in the part of his spiritual journey he writes about at the beginning of book eight (ch. i, sec. 2)? (20) What attitudes towards philosophy does Simplicianus espouse (book eight, ch. ii, sec. 3)? (21) (a) How does Augustine’s complete conversion to Christianity finally come about? (b) What does Augustine tell us was the immediate effect of his conversion (book eight, ch. xxii)? (22) What important event in Augustine’s life does he mention in book nine, ch. vi, sec. 14? (23) What happens to Augustine and Monica at Ostia (book nine, ch. x, sec. 23)? (24) About whom is Augustine speaking at the end of book nine of the Confessions? Questions on Thomas Aquinas’ Summa contra gentiles (SCG), book one, chapters 3-4 (25) (a) When are the first universities founded? (b) What are the three important sources for the medieval university we spoke about in class (and since medieval universities are an important source for modern universities such as UTM, for modern universities such as UTM as well)? (26) Who are the two early Christian philosophers who are particularly important for transmitting Greco- Roman culture into the Middle Ages (and beyond) that we mentioned in class? (27) (a) Where does Thomas Aquinas receive his early education in the liberal arts? (b) Where does Thomas Aquinas take his bachelor’s degree? (c) With whom does Thomas Aquinas study at the University of Paris and Cologne? (28) (a) Which disciplines compose the trivium? (b) What do each of these disciplines study? (c) Which disciplines compose the quadrivium? (d) What do each of these disciplines study? (e) What are the eight disciplines that form the essential parts of a medieval undergraduate education? (29) What are the three higher areas of specialized study at the medieval universities? (30) Explain and give examples of the two different kinds of truths about God that Thomas Aquinas identifies (SCG, book one, chapter 3, section 2). (31) According to Thomas Aquinas, what are two things human reason can accomplish where the mysteries of faith are concerned? (32) (a) Upon what evidence does Thomas Aquinas draw in his attempt to establish the view that human being can arrive at truths about God by the light of natural reason and apart from faith at SCG, book one, chapter 3, section 2? (b) What does Thomas Aquinas mean by ‘the light of natural reason’? (33) Be able to recognize Thomas Aquinas’ theological argument that it makes sense that God supernaturally reveals Himself to human beings, rather than requiring that all human beings come to have knowledge of God’s existence by way of philosophical argument. (34) (a) Given that God wants human beings to know (with firm certainty, as soon as possible) that He exists for their own good, Thomas Aquinas notes there are three problems for the following point of view: truths about God that can be discovered by human reason must be discovered by human reason, i.e., by way of philosophical argument. List and explain these three problems (chapter 4, sections 2-5). (35) Explain the three reasons St. Thomas offers for thinking that, if we could only arrive at clear and certain knowledge about the preambles to faith by way of philosophy, then only a very few people would ever arrive at such knowledge (chapter four, section 3). (36) Explain the two reasons St. Thomas thinks that, if we could only arrive at clear and certain knowledge of the preambles to faith through philosophy, then human beings who could know the preambles in this way would do so only later in life. (37) Why does Thomas Aquinas think being able to understand an argument for God’s existence such that it gives one certain and clear knowledge of God’s existence requires a lot of training, as well as knowing a lot of other things first? (b) What other things need to be known first? (38) Explain the two reasons St. Thomas thinks that, if we could only arrive at clear and certain knowledge of the preambles to faith through philosophy, then human beings would not have firm certitude about such matters. Questions on Rene Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy (39) (a) To whom does Descartes appeal for help and support in the introduction to his Meditations on First Philosophy? (b) What motive for publishing the Meditations does Descartes record in the introduction of that work, i.e., what does Descartes think the philosophical arguments in the Meditations can do? (40) (a) In class, the professor tried to make some sense of the global skepticism espoused by many of Descartes’ intellectual peers. According to the professor, three views espoused by some theologians and philosophers between the time of Thomas Aquinas and Descartes contributed to the rise of such skepticism. What three views? (b) What is theological fideism? (c) What is nominalism? (d) What is radical empiricism? (e) The professor also spoke of three historical events or developments that also go some distance towards explaining the global skepticism that characterized the social class of which Descartes was a part. What are these three historical events or developments? (41) (a) In the synopsis of the six meditations, how does Descartes describe the content of the first meditation? (42) In the synopsis of the six meditations, what two things does Descartes claim to do in the second meditation? (43) (a) In the synopsis of the six meditations, what does Descartes claim to do in the third meditation? (b) Why does Descartes think he needs to do that? (44) In his synopsis of the six meditations, what two things does Descartes claim to do in the fourth meditation? (45) Using the chart (and its terminology) that the professor employed in his lectures, explain and give examples of the kinds of beliefs Descartes thinks should not be subjected to his method of radical, methodical doubt. Explain and give examples of the kinds of beliefs Descartes therefore is subjecting to his method of radical, methodical doubt? (46) In his synopsis of the six mediations, what does Descartes claim to do in the fifth meditation? (47) In the synopsis of the Meditations, what does Descartes claim to do in the sixth mediation? (48) (a) In a lecture, the professor spoke of how Descartes employs the existence and nature of God in order to argue that we know there is an external world. Explain. (49) (a) In meditation one, paragraph one, Descartes states a goal: “to establish _____________________.” (b) How is he going to accomplish this goal? (c) In Descartes’ view, what is an opinion? (d) What, then, is knowledge? (50) In meditation one, paragraph two, Descartes records the principle which will help him renew the sciences: “reason already persuades me that I ought no less carefully to withhold my assent from _________________ than from those which appear to me manifestly to be false.” (51) (a) In meditation one, paragraph three, Descartes offers an argument to the effect that we have reason to doubt all the many things we believe on the basis of sense experience (The professor called this “Descartes’ belief building bulldozer number one.”) What argument is belief building bulldozer number one? (b) In meditation one, paragraph four, Descartes suggests a reason for thinking belief building bulldozer number one fails to establish what it pretends to establish. What reason? (52) (a) In meditation one, paragraph five, Descartes offers what the professor labeled, “belief building bulldozer number two.” What is it? (b) What kinds of beliefs seem to survive Descartes’ belief building bulldozer number two (meditation one, paragraphs six-nine)? (53) (a) What doubt does Descartes raise in meditation one, paragraph nine? (In a lecture, the professor called this “belief building bulldozer number three.” So, in other words, what is belief building bulldozer number three?) (b) Descartes suggests a reason R for thinking belief building bulldozer number three fails to establish what it aims to establish. What reason? (c) Descartes then goes on to suggest a reason for rejecting reason R for thinking belief building bulldozer number three fails. Explain. (54) Having created ambiguities with respect to belief building bulldozer number three, in meditation one, paragraph twelve, Descartes offers another thought experiment. What is it? (In the lecture, the professor called this “belief building bulldozer number four.” So, in other words, what is belief building bulldozer number four?). (55) In meditation two, paragraph three, Descartes discovers a truth (he thinks) that is indubitable. What is it? (56) Descartes: “[Although I know with certainty that I exist every time ‘I exist’ is conceived in my mind] I do not yet know clearly enough _____ I am” (meditation two, paragraph four). (57) (a) In meditation two, paragraph five, Descartes asks what he formerly thought he was. What does he say in his first set of answers to this question? (b) Why is he not satisfied with the (traditional Aristotelian) definition of man as a rational animal? (c) Descartes: “But I shall rather stop here to consider the thoughts which of themselves spring up in my mind, and which were not inspired by anything beyond my own nature alone when I applied myself to the consideration of my being” (meditation two, paragraph five). Contrast Descartes’ own intellectual method over against the methods of doing philosophy and science in the medieval university (epitomized by a philosopher such as Thomas Aquinas)? (58) (a) In meditation two, paragraph six, what is the attribute that properly belongs to the soul according to Descartes? (b) Descartes claims to know that he exists. When or how often can he claim to know this with certainty? (c) What does Descartes claim to be? (59) In meditation two, paragraph eight, Descartes mentions the characteristics of a thinking thing. Be able to recognize these. (60) One potential problem for Cartesian science is that the method of radical doubt is self-defeating. Explain. (61) Having proved the existence and perfection of God to his own satisfaction, Descartes is now in a position to make good on a claim that he makes in meditation three, paragraph four: “if I find there is a God, I must examine likewise whether he can be a deceiver; for, without the knowledge of these two truths, I do not see that I can ever be certain of anything” (emphasis mine). Some of Descartes’ readers have suggested that Descartes is reasoning in a circle here; in fact, the objection I’m thinking of goes by the name ‘The Cartesian Circle.’ What’s the potential problem here for Descartes’ project? (62) Descartes develops his chief argument for the existence of God in meditation three, paragraphs thirteen through thirty-nine. How did the professor summarize this argument? (63) List and explain the three potential problems for Descartes’ project in the Meditations on First Philosophy the professor spoke about.