Review for Final Exam — PHIL 120 F2009
Contact: Dr. Jan Garrett
Last Revised Date: December 9, 2009
The Final Exam is scheduled for the regular final exam time for this class, Monday, December 14, at 10:30 a.m.
If you have worked through the Study Questions corresponding to the chapters, and taken notes on the new material introduced in lectures, for which you are primarily responsible on the Final Exam, you should not have a difficult time reviewing these topics. Note: there are additional Study Materials available on the web site under "Interlude," Kant, Marx, and Evolution. Essay questions have been added related to the Evolution chapter.
I encourage you to ask questions while there is still time.
Topics from New Testament section of chapter 6
Spirit and flesh in St. Paul (120-121, 122)
How Paul understands human sinfulness (123)
Why Manicheanism is different from (Pauline) Christianity (124; cf. also 131)
Central claim of Christianity (124)
Salvation, free will, and divine grace (125-26)Interlude
I believe in order that I may understand (Augustine) (131)
Augustine on free will before and after "the Fall" (131-32, lecture)(Augustine)
City of Man, City of God (132)
Rational theology, revealed theology (Aquinas) (134)
Faith, will, and grace. (Aquinas)
Cardinal virtues, theological virtues (Aquinas) (134)
The nature of (early) modern natural science (Galileo, Newton)(137)
Hobbes' materialism (137-38)
Hobbes on human motivation (138)
Hobbes on the original condition of humankind (138)
Hobbes on the best type of government (138)
Hobbes on how and why a commonwealth emerges (138)
"social contract" in Hobbes (discussed in lecture)
Descartes on the human nature, the nature of body, the nature of mind (139)
How Descartes "proves" dualism, the distinction between mind and body (139)
Descartes' argument for the uniqueness of human beings (compared to other animals (139)
Descartes' reconciliation of his Catholicism with his support of scientific method (139)
Hume as an empiricist (141)
Relations of ideas vs. matters of fact (in Hume) (141)
Hume's reduction of the common notion of cause and effect (141)Kant
How we discover the limits of reason (146)
A priori principles, a posteriori principles (146-47; lecture)
Synthetic propositions, analytic propositions (146-47; lecture)
Forms of intuition (=forms of sensibility) (148)
The (Kantian) categories (a priori concepts) (implicit on p. 148; lecture) What part of our knowledge is synthetic a posteriori? (147)
What part is synthetic a priori? (146-47)
How does Kant reinstate causal knowledge, after Hume's critique? (lecture)
How is Kant's theory of the role of the mind different from that of his predecessors? (148)
Things as they appear (phenomena) vs. things in themselves (noumena) (148)
Are metaphysical claims meaningless? Can they be proven, or given empirical support? (148)
What is special role of reason does Kant make note of? (150)
What is special about agents, moral agents (150)
How humans transcend nonhuman animals
Hypothetical imperatives, categorical imperatives (150-51)
Hume vs. Kant on the basis of moral judgment (151)
What, according to Kant, do we know about our selves? (151-52)
What must we assume about ourselves to make sense of moral praise and blame? (152)
Can we prove we are only material beings? (152)
How does Kant explain the compatibility of freedom and the system of nature governed by causal laws? (152-53)
Why Kant regards humans as "mixed creatures" (155)
Why must we believe that "pure practical reason" exists?
What is a maxim? (155) Under what conditions may we act on a particular maxim? (157; see lecture notes and also Kant's duty ethics.)
When we make moral choices, how are we to treat other human (rational) beings? (157)
Kant on radical evil (156); how is Kant's view of evil related to Hobbes' theory of human motivation?
How is moral improvement possible? (157) What advice does K have for parents, teachers, lawmakers, and social reformers? (157)Marx chapter and lecture(s)
Hegel on history as a sequence of stages
Hegel on the World-Spirit and the growth of freedom
Ancient society, characteristic class structure and form of labor
Feudal society, characteristic class structure and form of labor
Bourgeois society, characteristic class structure and form of labor
Proletarians, capitalists—what each owns? Which receives a subsistence wage?
Which class has the greatest economic security?
Bourgeois democratic revolutions—what it promises, what it actually achieves
powers of production (=productive forces), economic structure (including relations of production) (168-169)
superstructure (168-169)
Downsides of capitalism for the workers:
* How capitalism seems to violate Kant' categorical imperative (176)
* alienation of labor, of the worker from his product, from the process of production (174-75)
* exploitation in the "scientific" Marxist sense (lecture)
Marx's hermeneutics of suspicion (lecture)
Ideology in Marx's sense of the term (lecture)
Marx's prediction regarding the future of capitalism (171)
What version of metaphysical materialism does S. discuss on p. 172?
* Is Marx a metaphysical materialist in this sense? In what sense is he a materialist? (172)
Marx's concept of humanity (172-73)
Marx's solution to the social problems of capitalism
* Marx's attitude toward reforming capitalism to make it more humane
Did Marx really regard "the coming revolution" as inevitable? (177)
Evolution chapter
Lamarck's view on inherited characteristics (203)
the four key generalizations in Darwin's argument for natural selection (204)
why "natural" and "selection"?(204)
meaning of "fittest" (205)
why "evolution of species" is considered fact
Herbert Spencer's questionable use of "survival of the fittest" (207-208)
sexual selection (205)
"survival of fittest" and racialist attitudes (208)
"fittest" compared with "superior" (208)
Darwin's view of Descartes' claim of human mental uniqueness (209)
Darwin's explanation of variation within species (212)
Mendel's explanation of inheritance and variation within species (212-213)
racist applications of "Darwinism" with genetics added (213-14)
negative eugenics (214)
positive eugenics (214)
arguments against each type (214)
how evolutionary biology was used to reinforce racial/ethnic bias (late 19th- early 20th century) (215)
how did advocates of "intelligence tests" understand intelligence? (216)
challenges to the concept and to "intelligence tests" (217)
Durkheim's view of social facts (218)
Boas' scientific challenge to "scientific" racism (219)
equality feminism, difference feminism (220)
instincts according to Freud (221)
James' definition of instinct (221)
Watson's behaviorism (221)
B. F. Skinner's assumptions, empirical arguments against them (221)
II. The essays are your chance to show what you know on these topics and thinkers. Choose three and no more than three. (20 points per essay.) Do not choose a topic that substantially overlaps with the topic of your third major paper. Don't do both #4 and #5. If you haven't written 200 words per essay, you probably have not covered enough to earn maximum points. For help on reviewing the subtopics, see the corresponding terms or phrases in the above list, and check the page references in Ten Theories.
1. Discuss the philosophies of human nature of Thomas Hobbes and Rene Descartes. Are they Aristotelians? Dualists? Materialists? Skeptics with respect to whether we know the existence of material or mental substance? How does Descartes prove his position with respect to mind and body? How does one of them (which one?) reconcile his Catholicism with his view on the new science? What is the theory of human motivation defended by the other? What is his image of the pre-political condition of humanity? Why, in his view, do human beings enter into a society ("commonwealth") What kind of government does he think best? Why?
2. According to Kant, what sorts of things can we know? In what other things is it reasonable to believe? Discuss, in this connection, how the mind helps organize our knowledge of the world, the extent to which knowledge depends upon sense perception, the difference between the empirical self and the self as a moral agent, free will, the immortal soul. When alone do we act rightly, i.e., from duty (i.e., from the operation pure practical reason)? What is happening when we do not act from duty? Compare Kant's view of moral choice with Hobbes' view of human motivation.
3. Explain from Marx's point of view. What is capitalism (bourgeois society)? What are the two major classes in this society? How do they differ in their roles and activities? What is the alienation of labor—discuss at least two features of it? In what ways is the economic cycle hard on workers? How does life under capitalism violate Kant's categorical imperative? What is the economic meaning of "exploitation"? What solution to the difficulties of capitalism does Marx favor? Does he regard this as inevitable? (Be careful here.)
4. Explain Darwin's view of the causal mechanism that he calls natural selection. Why does he use the terms "natural" and "selection"? What does it mean to say that a trait is adaptive? Does natural selection always operate by means of combat between organisms? Explain. How does natural explanation explain the "branching structure" of the evolutionary "tree" (or "bush")? Are organisms with adaptive traits superior to other organisms morally or spiritually? Explain. What is meant by sexual selection? Did Darwin's theory include the genetic explanation of heredity? If not, is it compatible with this explanation? Explain.
5. How was "Darwinism" used in support of racist policies? In support of an uncaring attitude toward the disadvantaged members of society? What scientific and philosophical errors were committed by these "Darwinists"? (Can empirical scientific work by itself entail moral or political decisions?) What points did the founders of modern social science make against "scientific" racism? How did Franz Boas refute some of the claims of the "scientific" racists? How did advocates of "intelligence tests" understand intelligence? What are some of the main criticisms of intelligence tests? What moral or social values have been given more elbow room as a result of the refutation of "scientific" racism?