Week 7 Quiz

In this course, which statement defines numerical identity?

Select one.

• Being exactly alike in every quality, while still being two things
• Being one and the same thing, so that there is one thing, not two
• Having the same name at two different times
• Being made of exactly the same matter at two different times

The ship of Theseus asks whether a thing whose parts are all replaced is still the same thing. Which author and work is the source of the case?

Select one.

• Plato, Republic, Book VII
• René Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy
• Plutarch, Life of Theseus
• The Questions of King Milinda

True or false: in the course's quotation Q3, "they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their place", the English words are Plutarch's own.

True or false.

• True
• False

According to John Locke's memory theory, when is a person at one time the same person as someone at an earlier time?

Select one.

• When they can remember that earlier person's experiences
• When they have the same body as that earlier person
• When they share one permanent self that never changes
• When other people call them by the same name

Which statement fits the Buddhist teaching of no-self (anatta) as the course presents it?

Select one.

• Nothing exists at all, including the body and the mind
• A person is a permanent soul that stays fixed through every change
• Persons cannot act, remember, or be responsible for anything
• There is no permanent self beyond a changing collection of body, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness

In this course, which statement defines determinism?

Select one.

• What will happen will happen whatever anyone does
• Every event is necessitated by prior events together with the laws of nature
• Some human choices are caused by nothing at all
• Our choices are free only when nothing forces them

In the course's set of free will positions, which position says free will exists and is compatible with determinism, and takes no stand of its own on whether determinism is true?

Select one.

• Hard determinism
• Libertarianism
• Compatibilism
• Fatalism

Dataset B, argument 4 (illustrative): "Either free will is an illusion or determinism is false. Free will is not an illusion. So determinism is false." How does the course key this argument?

Select one.

• Valid, by disjunctive syllogism
• Invalid, because it denies the antecedent
• Valid and sound, so determinism is false
• Invalid, because two positions reject a premise

In the course's set of free will positions, which positions hold that free will and determinism cannot both be true? Select all that apply.

Select every option that applies.

• Hard determinism
• Libertarianism
• Compatibilism
• Fatalism

Harry Frankfurt's cases (1969) describe a person who could not have done otherwise yet seems morally responsible. Which principle do they challenge?

Select one.

• That every event is necessitated by prior events together with the laws of nature
• That a person is the same person as someone earlier if they can remember that person's experiences
• That there is no permanent self beyond a changing collection of parts
• That a person is morally responsible only if they could have done otherwise