PH 13

Final Exam Review Sheet

Part I.

1. What was the dominant view of ideas and their relation to objects in modern philosophy? That is, what is the representational model of knowledge.?

2. How did Descartes prove his own existence in the Meditations? What did he think this showed about the relation of mind and body?

3. What role did God play in Descartes’ theory of knowledge? How did he think we could arrive at knowledge?

4. What did Leibniz think the world was composed of? What are some characteristics of these things?

5. What alternative did Locke propose to Descartes’ view of how all our knowledge originates?

6. What is the difference between primary and secondary properties? What did Locke think secondary properties were?

7. What were Berkeley's views on the existence of material objects? Where did he think our ideas came from?

8. What did Hume say was the source of our beliefs about causality and morality.

9. What was Kant's Copernican revolution?

10. How are synthetic apriori propositions possible according to Kant?

11. What was Spinoza’s view about how our minds and bodies were related to God?

Part II: Short Essay

What progress was made in philosophy during the Modern Period? State 4 propositions that were learned during this period and which were agreed upon by all philosophers, or should have been agreed upon, by the end of the Modern Period. You may want to add a brief explanation or justification after each proposition.

You will be graded not only on the accuracy of your claims (i.e., whether the propositions you list really were learned during the modern period and whether they were agreed upon, or should have been agreed upon, by the end of the period) but also on the significance of the propositions you choose and whether they were central to the aims of the Modern Period in Philosophy.

Part III. 200 points

Choose one of the following problems: Identify how this issue was discussed in Modern Philosophy and what the most important alternative positions were. Take a position on the problem and defend it with arguments against the arguments of the philosophers we have studied who would disagree with you

   1. What is the source of our self-knowledge? What does it reveal about our Nature?

   2. What is the source of our belief in and knowledge of God?

   3. What is the fundamental nature of Physical Reality?

   4. Can we know reality as it exists apart from our perception of it?

   5. What is thought? How do we sense, represent, and recognize external reality?

Your answer must follow this form. You will have to actually mark and identify each of these parts.

A. Introduction: Identify and explain the issue as it arose in Modern Philosophy

1.        State the assumptions leading to the position you agree with

2.        State the assumptions leading to the position you disagree with.

3.        State your thesis and explain your central reason for thinking the arguments on your side to be stronger.

B. Body  of Essay:

1         Give the best arguments that  we have studied  for your position and consider the responses the other side would give.

2         Give the best arguments that  we have studied against your position and try to respond

(Optional) C. Conclusion: Summarize your conclusion from the discussion of the arguments and restate the most important consideration that led you to your position.