question

Which ancient philosophical tradition did Plotinus represent? A) Stoicism B) Epicureanism C) Skepticism D) Neoplatonism

answer

D) Neoplatonism

question

St. Augustine rejected this Neoplatonic claim. A) There are two realms to reality. B) The immaterial realm is more real than the physical realm. C) The ground of all reality, knowledge, and truth lies beyond the physical world. D) The highest reality is the One, an impersonal, indefinable, and indescribable god.

answer

D) The highest reality is the One, an impersonal, indefinable, and indescribable god.

question

What do Pyrrhonic skeptics maintain? A) Nothing can be known. B) People should suspend judgment about all things. C) Some topics of inquiry are unknowable. D) Some sources are ruled out as sources of knowledge.

answer

B) People should suspend judgment about all things.

question

What is asserted by the principle of noncontradiction? A) People who don't contradict themselves are rational. B) A proposition and its contradictory opposite cannot both be false at the same time. C) A proposition and its contradictory opposite can't both be true at the same time. D) If two propositions don't contradict each other then both of them are true.

answer

C) A proposition and its contradictory opposite can't both be true at the same time.

question

Which argument did St. Augustine use to refute total Academic skepticism? A) When we are in doubt we can at least know that we exist as a doubter. B) Memory can give us accurate knowledge of past events. C) Statistically speaking, if you believe enough things you can know that you are bound to be right about some of them. D) God guarantees that our clear and distinct perceptions and ideas will be true.

answer

A) When we are in doubt we can at least know that we exist as a doubter.

question

What did Hypatia think about the study of mathematics and astronomy? A) They were useful in finding practical solutions to practical problems on earth. B) They were an amusing diversion and, like philosophy, just idle speculation. C) They were a way of proving the truth of Christianity. D) They were part of a way of life and a means of testing the implications of Platonic and Neoplatonic metaphysics and epistemology.

answer

D) They were part of a way of life and a means of testing the implications of Platonic and Neoplatonic metaphysics and epistemology.

question

How did St. Thomas Aquinas distinguish philosophy from theology? A) Philosophy is limited to the natural world and theology is limited to the supernatural world. B) Philosophy is based on reason while theology is based on divine revelation and faith. C) Philosophy is a source of ignorance, error, and illusion while only theology can give us truth. D) Theology is dependent on philosophy but not vice versa.

answer

B) Philosophy is based on reason while theology is based on divine revelation and faith.

question

Which view did Aquinas accept? A) A physical thing is matter plus form. B) All reality is material. C) Forms exist independently of matter. D) Nothing changes.

answer

A) A physical thing is matter plus form.

question

Which view of Aristotle's did Aquinas disagree with? A) Physical things are always a blend of matter plus form. B) The essence of a thing is the same as its existence. C) One and the same form (universal) can be in more than one physical thing (particular). D) Change is explained in terms of four causes, the formal, material, efficient and final.

answer

B) The essence of a thing is the same as its existence.

question

What did Aquinas maintain concerning the human soul? A) It is the passive potentiality of the body. B) It is finite and destructible. C) It cannot exist without the body. D) It is a direct creation of God.

answer

D) It is a direct creation of God.

question

Plotinus believed in a personal God as the source of all reality and truth. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

Neither Plato nor Plotinus accepted the doctrine of creation ex nihilo. A) True B) False

answer

A) True

question

Platonism and Neoplatonism caused Augustine to reject skepticism and prepared him for Christianity. A) True B) False

answer

A) True

question

Augustine thought that God was in time, which is an objective feature of the world. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

Both Academic and Pyrrhonic skeptics are modified skeptics. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

Sextus Empiricus believed that occasionally we perceive things as they really are. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

St. Augustine used the principle of noncontradiction to refute Academic skepticism. A) True B) False

answer

A) True

question

Hypatia rejected Ptolemy's earth-centered astronomy. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

According to Aquinas, the great truths of Christian theology are both contrary to and beyond human reason. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

For Aquinas, what a thing is (its essence) does not entail that it is (its existence). A) True B) False

answer

A) True

question

Regarding universals, conceptualism is the position that universal terms refer to something that really exists outside of the mind. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

What was clarity and distinctness a mark of, for Rene Descartes? A) God B) Goodness C) Truth D) Rationality

answer

C) Truth

question

Which claim did Descartes use to establish the certainty of his own existence? A) To be is to be perceived. B) I think, therefore I am. C) Nothing exists except bodies in motion. D) Every created thing has both mental and physical properties.

answer

B) I think, therefore I am.

question

Which statement would Thomas Hobbes have accepted? A) The mind and the body are separate and distinct substances. B) All psychological states derive ultimately from perception. C) Reasoning is not based on perceptions. D) To be is to be perceived.

answer

B) All psychological states derive ultimately from perception.

question

Which claim about God did Anne Conway make? A) God is part mental, part physical. B) God is in time and space and subject to change. C) God created the universe in a single, past creation event. D) God is an eternal creator.

answer

D) God is an eternal creator.

question

Anne Conway advocated what sort of metaphysics? A) Materialism B) Idealism C) Dualism D) Monadology

answer

D) Monadology

question

What did Benedict Spinoza think a person is? A) A mode of God/Nature. B) An immaterial mind. C) A physical body. D) An immaterial mind in a physical body.

answer

A) A mode of God/Nature.

question

Why is there no mind/body interaction problem for Spinoza? A) Only minds exist. B) Only bodies exist. C) Minds and bodies are simply aspects of the selfsame unit of infinite substance. D) God guarantees that our mental states correlate with our bodily states.

answer

C) Minds and bodies are simply aspects of the selfsame unit of infinite substance.

question

What did John Locke believe about perception? A) Knowledge of the external world is based on the fact that some of the ideas we get through sense impressions represent the way things actually are in the external world. B) Our senses give us direct acquaintance with the objects in the external world. C) Our sense impressions only give us knowledge of the external world when they are clear and distinct. D) The senses can provide us with no knowledge whatsoever about a world beyond the mind.

answer

A) Knowledge of the external world is based on the fact that some of the ideas we get through sense impressions represent the way things actually are in the external world.

question

What did George Berkeley mean about such things as tables and chairs when he denied the existence of matter? A) There are no unperceived tables and chairs. B) There are no tables and chairs. C) Tables and chairs are really just swarms of particles in motion. D) Everything, including tables and chairs, is an illusion.

answer

A) There are no unperceived tables and chairs.

question

What was Berkeley's explanation for the fact that things like rocks and trees seem to continue to exist even when humans don't perceive them? A) They are material objects, so naturally they can exist unperceived. B) Appearances are deceiving. In fact such things do cease to be when we no longer perceive them. C) Being partly mental, they continue to exist because they can perceive themselves. D) God always perceives them.

answer

D) God always perceives them.

question

By doubting everything he could possibly doubt, Descartes hoped to discover something he could know with absolute certainty. A) True B) False

answer

A) True

question

A major problem for dualism is explaining how mind and matter interact. A) True B) False

answer

A) True

question

Hobbes would maintain that the green we experience when seeing a green lawn is in fact in the particles making up the lawn. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

Conway argued that, since God is an eternal creator, the universe did not have a moment of creation. A) True B) False

answer

A) True

question

Spinoza argued that thought and extension are only two of the infinite modes or attributes of the one, infinite substance. A) True B) False

answer

A) True

question

Representative realism holds that all of our perceptions of an external object are accurate copies of the object. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

Empiricists argue that all of our ideas come from sense experience. A) True B) False

answer

A) True

question

Bishop George Berkeley rejected Locke's belief in a world of material objects existing independently of our perceptions of them. A) True B) False

answer

A) True

question

For Berkeley, no sensible object can exist unperceived. A) True B) False

answer

A) True

question

In denying the existence of matter, Berkeley is in effect denying that chairs and tables even exist. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

What do we directly observe, according to David Hume? A) Physical objects B) Sense impressions C) Ourselves D) Our brains

answer

B) Sense impressions

question

What is the self, according to Hume? A) A sequence of perceptions. B) An immaterial, unchanging substance. C) A physical body. D) A social entity.

answer

A) A sequence of perceptions.

question

Why can't we have cause and effect knowledge, according to Hume? A) We can never observe a constant conjunction between events. B) We can never observe the cause and the effect at the same time. C) We can never observe a necessary connection between events. D) We can never observe the atoms that make up the cause and the effect.

answer

C) We can never observe a necessary connection between events.

question

Why can't past experience justify claims about the future, according to Hume? A) Our knowledge of past experience depends on memory, which cannot be known to be accurate. B) Trick question! Hume does think that past experience can justify claims about the future. C) Because we can never know if we are the same person as the person we seem to remember being, past experience cannot be a guide to claims about our future. D) We can never know whether or not the future will be like the past.

answer

D) We can never know whether or not the future will be like the past.

question

What is perception, for Immanuel Kant? A) Sense impressions. B) The organizing principles of the mind. C) The application of the organizing principles of the mind to sense impressions. D) The direct awareness of noumenal objects.

answer

C) The application of the organizing principles of the mind to sense impressions.

question

Why can we know that all of our future experiences will be in space and time, according to Kant? A) Because all of our past experiences have been. B) Another trick question! Kant says we can't know this. C) Because these are preconditions of all possible experience based on the mind's own organizing principles. D) Because a good God would not deceive us about such matters.

answer

C) Because these are preconditions of all possible experience based on the mind's own organizing principles.

question

What does Kant mean by the noumenal world? A) The world as it really is, independently of our experiences of it. B) The world as it is presented to us in experience. C) The world of mind. D) The world of matter.

answer

A) The world as it really is, independently of our experiences of it.

question

Why doesn't Kant think that we can have knowledge of the things-in-themselves (das ding-an-sich)? A) Because they have not yet been experienced. B) Because they are not physical in nature. C) Because they are not mental in nature. D) Because the organizing principles of the mind do not apply to them.

answer

D) Because the organizing principles of the mind do not apply to them.

question

According to Absolute Idealism, what is the relationship between being real and being knowable? A) No reality is knowable. B) All reality is knowable. C) Some reality is knowable and some isn't. D) Only God is ultimately unknowable.

answer

B) All reality is knowable.

question

What is the highest reality (the Absolute), for Hegel? A) The entire material world. B) A God who exists beyond the world. C) Infinite thought thinking itself. D) A vast group of independent particulars.

answer

C) Infinite thought thinking itself.

question

Hume believed that, since physical objects are directly experienced in sense perception, the mind can come to know a world of physical objects existing beyond itself. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

Hume believed that experience reveals not only a constant conjunction but also a necessary connection between certain events. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

Kant believed that, because the world of experience is only made possible by the mind's own organizing principles, and because the mind can come to know the principles governing its own operations, the mind can come to know a world of experienced objects existing beyond itself. A) True B) False

answer

A) True

question

Kant did not believe that it is possible to know anything about the world as it is in itself, independent of our experiences of it. A) True B) False

answer

A) True

question

The absolute idealists refused to accept Kant's belief in an unknowable reality. A) True B) False

answer

A) True

question

For Hegel, reality consists in the unfolding of the material laws of nature to produce more and more complex physical systems. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

For Hegel, nothing is completely real or true except the whole of reality, the Absolute. A) True B) False

answer

A) True

question

Schopenhauer believed humans are rational in their actions. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

David Hume wrote the Critique of Pure Reason. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

According to Schopenhauer, the will structures the phenomenal world. A) True B) False

answer

A) True

question

Which philosophical tradition includes existentialism and phenomenology? A) analytic philosophy B) Absolute Idealism C) continental philosophy D) pragmatism

answer

C) continental philosophy

question

Which is not a theme an existentialist would be likely to accept? A) Metaphysics can reveal the reason and purpose of life. B) Life is meaningless and irrational. C) Most people live dull, limited and unfulfilling lives. D) Each individual is alone in the world.

answer

A) Metaphysics can reveal the reason and purpose of life.

question

What was the fundamental philosophical question for Albert Camus? A) Does God exist? B) Is there any reason not to commit suicide? C) What should I wear to my funeral? D) Will I survive death?

answer

B) Is there any reason not to commit suicide?

question

How can we give life purpose in a purposeless world, according to Camus? A) Kill yourself. B) Seek God. C) Rebel against the absurd. D) It can't be done.

answer

C) Rebel against the absurd.

question

Why is man abandoned, according to Jean-Paul Sartre? A) Because technology no longer serves human needs. B) Because there is no God. C) Because there is no other life in the solar system. D) Because we must all die.

answer

B) Because there is no God.

question

Which best describes what Sartre means by good faith? A) Being honest and keeping our promises. B) Believing in God no matter what. C) Taking responsibility for the choices we make. D) Wanting to do the objectively right thing.

answer

C) Taking responsibility for the choices we make.

question

Phenomenology originated from which of the following distinctions? A) Kant's distinction between the phenomenal and the noumenal world. B) Descartes' distinction between the material and the mental world. C) Plato's distinction between the world of matter and the world of forms. D) Locke's distinction between primary and secondary qualities.

answer

A) Kant's distinction between the phenomenal and the noumenal world.

question

How was Edmund Husserl's philosophy similar to Descartes'? A) He too advocated mind/matter dualism. B) He too advocated a subject/object dualism. C) He too applied the method of doubt. D) He too sought to achieve rational certainty by grounding the truth in a deeper source.

answer

D) He too sought to achieve rational certainty by grounding the truth in a deeper source.

question

What does authentic existence require for the early, existentialist Heidegger? A) Belief in God. B) Belief in the superior man. C) Taking responsibility for one's choices. D) Understanding oneself as a being-unto-death.

answer

D) Understanding oneself as a being-unto-death.

question

Which would the late Heidegger accept? A) Language is human-centered. B) A human being should be one who simply and quietly dwells in Being. C) Humans should impose their will on Being. D) Humans must look to themselves for enlightenment.

answer

B) A human being should be one who simply and quietly dwells in Being.

question

Which is true of Jurgen Habermas? A) He believes that human nature is a creation of God. B) He thinks that humans should be studied as objective things in isolation from other humans. C) He is a Marxist. D) He is a Marxian.

answer

D) He is a Marxian.

question

What did Michel Foucault claim concerning epistemes? A) They form a continuous series leading to the advancement of truth over superstition. B) They are socially created realities that serve as the ground of truth for their eras. C) They are discovered, not made. D) They can be the basis of objective truth-claims.

answer

B) They are socially created realities that serve as the ground of truth for their eras.

question

For French structuralist anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, what is a culture? A) A system of signs. B) A conversation. C) A common heritage. D) A common language.

answer

A) A system of signs.

question

What would Jacques Derrida say about the essential meaning of a text? A) It means whatever the author intended for it to mean. B) It means whatever the reader understands it to mean. C) It means whatever the majority of experts take it to mean. D) A trick question, since he rejects the whole notion of essential meaning.

answer

D) A trick question, since he rejects the whole notion of essential meaning.

question

Which is not true of Richard Rorty? A) He describes himself as a liberal ironist. B) He uses American pragmatism as a medium to combine liberalism with Continental literature and philosophy. C) He believes in necessary starting points for rational inquiry. D) He maintains that we can never step outside the perspective of our own culture and its constraints on inquiry to find an objective point of view.

answer

C) He believes in necessary starting points for rational inquiry.

question

Which term is not generally associated with Jacques Derrida? A) epistemes B) deconstructive method C) semiotics D) the free play of signifiers

answer

A) Epistemes

question

Who is most likely to have written this? "There is no method for knowing when one has reached the truth, or when one is closer than ever before." A) Jacques Derrida B) Michel Foucault C) Richard Rorty D) Jürgen Habermas

answer

C) Richard Rorty

question

Modern linguistics is based on the work of which philosopher? A) Michel Foucault B) Ferdinand de Saussure C) Jürgen Habermas D) Richard Rorty

answer

B) Ferdinand de Saussure

question

Critical theory is associated with which philosopher? A) Jacques Derrida B) Michel Foucault C) Richard Rorty D) Jürgen Habermas

answer

D) Jürgen Habermas

question

Who is most likely to have written this? "The relation of technical progress and social life-world and the translation of scientific information into practical consciousness is not an affair of private cultivation." A) Michel Foucault B) Ferdinand de Saussure C) Jürgen Habermas D) Richard Rorty

answer

D) Richard Rorty

question

Soren Kierkegaard believed that metaphysics could demonstrate that the world is fundamentally rational and that human life does have a clear meaning and purpose. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

Arthur Schopenhauer thought that human actions are driven by a blind, purposeless will. A) True B) False

answer

A) True

question

Existentialists believe that most people lead dull, senseless, trivial lives filled with anguish and despair. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

Existentialists also believe that philosophy should focus on the big picture, not on individuals and their confrontation with the world. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

For Albert Camus, suicide is a better option than simply rebelling against the absurdity of life. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

Jean Paul Sartre thought that humans come into existence already with a purpose to their existence and thus a meaning to their lives. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

According to Sartre, humans are both thrown into existence and condemned to freedom. A) True B) False

answer

A) True

question

Edmund Husserl's "phenomenological reduction" attempts to study the stream of conscious experience without making any assumptions at all about the nature or existence of an external, objective world. A) True B) False

answer

A) True

question

That minds and their ideas are superior to and should thus control any nonmental reality is an idea highly endorsed by Martin Heidegger. A) True B) False

answer

A) True

question

According to the later Heidegger, we should dwell simply in Being, not in the thingafied world of modern, technical man. A) True B) False

answer

A) True

question

In Jurgen Habermas' ideal speech situation, only those with knowledge of and respect for the controlling ideology of a society should be allowed to participate. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

Michel Foucault's study of discourse revealed to him a steady advancement of truth over superstition as time goes by. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

For structuralists like Ferdinand Saussure, the meaning of a sign (signifier) rests in its contrast with other signs that could be, but are not, present. A) True B) False

answer

A) True

question

Deconstruction attempts to find the essential meaning of a text from among the many possible meanings. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

For Jacques Derrida, the meaning of words is not stable. A) True B) False

answer

A) True

question

Richard Rorty maintains that, even though each culture has its own constraints on inquiry (standards of rational discourse), there are universal constraints on inquiry that define the objective standpoint for everyone. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

Claude Lévi Strauss abandoned Saussure's methods while conducting his ethnographic research. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

Jacques Derrida followed the deconstructive method. A) True B) False

answer

A) True

question

Michael Foucault wrote The History of Sexuality. A) True B) False

answer

A) True

question

Jurgen Habermas' views were considered Marxist. A) True B) False

answer

B) False

question

What was Plotinus?

answer

Neoplatonis Philosopher

question

What did Plotinus come up with?

answer

The one- which was the source of all reality

question

How did Plotinus say things were apprehended?

answer

Through mystical experience

question

what was St. Augustine

answer

Neoplatonis Philosopher

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