Philosophy of Mind
What is (substance) dualism?
The view that mind and body are fundamentally separate.
What is epistemology the study of?
Knowledge
What does it mean for x and y to be qualitatively identitical?
It means that x and y have all the same qualities (intrinsic properties).
What does it mean for an argument to be deductively valid?
If the premises are true, then the conclusion must be true.
What is the push variant of the trolley problem?
You are on a footbridge, and below you a trolley is about to run over 5 people. You can save their lives by pushing one person off the footbridge and into the path of the train.
What is a p-zombie?
A p-zombie is a creature that behaves like it has subjective experience, but in reality it has no subjective experience whatsoever.
What is the traditional analysis of knowledge?
On the traditional analysis, knowledge is justified, true belief.
What does it mean for x and y to be numerically identical?
It means that x = y (x and y are one and the same object).
What does it mean for an argument to be inductively strong?
What is the state of nature according to Hobbes?
In the state of nature, there is no government or laws. For Hobbes, this state is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. It is a war of all against all.
What is the easy problem of consciousness? What is hard problem of consciousness?
The easy problem is to explain how intelligent behavior is possible. The hard problem is to explain the nature of subjective experience.
Empiricism holds that all knowledge is justified by what?
Experience
What is the problem of evil?
A perfectly good and all-powerful God would prevent any evil from existing. Evil exists. Therefore, God does not exist.
Can a deductively valid argument have all false premises?
Yes
Why is there constant conflict and insecurity in the state of nature according to Hobbes?
What is the thought experiment of Mary's Room, and what is it intended to show?
Why does Plato deny empiricism?
Because he denies that you can gain knowledge from examples. On his view, knowledge of the forms must come prior to experience.
What is the cosmological argument?
1. Everything that begins to exist has a cause.
2. The universe began to exist.
3. Therefore, the universe has a cause.
4. If the universe has a cause, God exists.
5. Therefore, God exists.
What does it mean for an argument to be ampliative?
It means that there is information contained in the conclusion that is not contained in the premises.
Simplest answer: In the push variant of the trolley problem, utilitarianism requires you to push the one person to their death, but this is clearly wrong.
Describe one argument that Descartes gives for accepting substance dualism.
Conceivability argument/divisibility argument.
What is the master argument for skepticism about the external world?
You can’t know you’re not in a simulation.
If you can’t know you’re not in a simulation, then you can’t know anything about the external world.
Therefore, you can’t know anything about the external world.
What are the three main views on the relation between free will and determinism?
Libertarianism: We have free will, and this requires that determinism is false.
Compatibilism: We have free will, and determinism is true.
Hard determinism: determinism is true, and that rules out free will.
Suppose an argument is deductively valid. Can adding more premises make it deductively invalid? Why or why not?
It cannot. The premises of a deductively valid argument guarantee the conclusion. If they guarantee the conclusion, then any expanded set of premises that contains them also guarantees the conclusion. Thus, adding premises to a deductively valid argument always preserves validity.
What is the experience machine, and what theories of well-being is it intended to support?
The experience machine is a hypothetical device that can simulate what your future would be like and make it slightly better. Since many people deny that the experience machine would maximize well-being, this thought experiment is a problem for hedonism, and it supports desire-satisfactionism or objective list theories.