Study Guide for
PHIL 1000-130 (Meets Tues.-Thurs. 2-3:15) Saturday, May 6,
PHIL 1000-140 (Meets Tues.-Thurs.
Exams
are given in the same room as lecture.
You will need to bring a blue book to the exam for the essay portion.
Blue books can be purchased at the C.U. bookstore.
The
exam will be in two parts. Part I will
include several short-answer questions over the reading. You will be given the first 40 minutes of the
exam period to do this portion of the exam.
Once Part I is completed, you will turn this in and complete Part II
(which will start 40 minutes after the beginning of the exam period). Part II will include
multiple-choice-true-false questions and one essay (3-5 pages, single-sided,
double-spaced). There is no time limit
on Part II (except for the end of the exam period). Note that the order of the
exam has been switched from the first two exams.
Part I
Questions Over the
Part I will ask several
short-answer, general-understanding questions over the assigned readings (about
10-15 questions). Part I is open book,
so you will want to bring both texts as well as copies of the reserve readings
to class. You will not be able to
consult your texts during Part II of the exam.
You will have 30 minutes to complete Part I of the exam. The questions will direct you to the relevant
article and page numbers, so you will not need to spend time finding the
article the question pertains to. Most
questions will be directed toward the readings in Reading and Responsibility and the reserve readings (so be sure to
bring these as well) but may also ask questions from Does the Center Hold?
Part II
The
multiple-choice-true-false questions will, in most cases, have more than one
correct answer. It is even possible to
have a question in which all answers
are correct, though there are no questions in which there are no correct
answers. Here is a sample question:
Which
argument(s) is/are an argument(s) for the existence of God:
a. The argument from design.
b. The cosmological argument.
c. The argument from virtue.
d. The ontological argument.
Here,
the correct answer would be a, b, and d, so you would circle these three, but
leave c un-circled. These
multiple-choice-true-false questions cover the lecture material and on-line
lecture notes from 4/6-5/4.
The
questions below will help you to prepare for the multiple-choice-true-false
portion of the exam. There will
approximately 20 multiple-choice-true-false questions. All of the answers to the below questions can
be found on the PowerPoint slides that are posted on the web. Go to http://www.colorado.edu/philosophy/robertsm/Reading_schedule.htm
and click on the link for each lecture to access the slides.
1.
(4/6) What was Thomas Hobbes'
view of the justification for the state?
What is the state of nature? What
was Hobbes' view of human nature? How
did this affect his political philosophy?
What is the nature of private property according to Hobbes? What are some objections to Hobbes' theory?
2.
(4/6, 4/11) What was John
Locke's view of the justification of the state?
Be able to describe Locke's political philosophy. What was Locke's view of wealth, punishment,
and the justification for revolution?
What was Locke’s view of private property?
3.
(4/11) Be able to describe John
Stuart Mill's political philosophy. What
are some objections to Mill's political philosophy? What was Mill’s view of rights with respect
to a majority?
4.
(4/11) Be able to describe Karl
Marx's political philosophy. What was
Marx’s view of economic history? What
were Marx’s four conditions for a just society?
What were some principles for distributing wealth fairly according to
Marx? What is Marx’s view of private
property?
5.
(4/13) Be able to describe the
minimalist view of the state. How does
Robert Nozick’s view of property figure into his
minimalist philosophy? What is Nozick’s view of taxation?
6.
(4/13) What is liberalism? Be able to describe John Rawls' liberal
philosophy.
7.
(4/18) What is cultural
relativism? What is subjectivism? What are the arguments for cultural
relativism? What are objections against
cultural relativism?
8.
(4/18) What is moral realism
(objectivism)? What are the two models
we discussed for answering the question about the nature of moral propositions
(hint: fashion and…)? Be able to describe these models. How does morality fit and not fit with these
models?
9.
(4/20) What is
utilitarianism? What different
definitions of happiness did we consider?
How does John Stuart Mill define happiness? How does Mill's definition differ from Jeremy
Bentham's?
What are objections to utilitarianism?
10.
(4/25) What is deontology
(Kantianism)? How does Kant define what
is morally right? Is moral knowledge
gained a priori or a posteriori according to Kant? How does one assess whether a person is
morally good or not? What is the
categorical imperative and how does Kant apply it to the determination of the
morality of actions? What are objections
to Kantianism (deontology)?
11.
(4/27) What is the focus of
virtue ethics? What is the function of a
human being for Aristotle? How does
Aristotle define a virtue? How does
Aristotle say we gain virtue?
12.
(5/2) What arguments and
rebuttals are given for the moral permissibility of capital punishment?
13.
(5/2) What arguments and
rebuttals are given for the moral impermissibility of capital punishment? What distinction is relevant in arguments for
the moral permissibility of capital punishment (hint: killing vs….)?
14.
(5/4) What arguments and
rebuttals are given for the moral permissibility of abortion? What arguments
and rebuttals are given for the moral impermissibility of abortion? How does the notion of personhood bear on the
debate? Does Judith Thomson think this
is relevant to the debate? What
analogies does Thomson use for her argument?
Essay: Be prepared to write on 1 of the 2 following essay topics. You will have your choice between them on the exam. Answers should be about 3-5 pages (1 side of notebook paper, double-spaced, though you can go longer than this if you choose). The more detail you provide in your essay, the better.