Midterm Practice Exam

Which theory of justification holds that beliefs are justified by fitting together in a system of beliefs that support one another, so that no belief has to come first?

Select one.

• Coherentism
• Reliabilism
• Foundationalism
• Empiricism

True or false: in this course, a claim whose reasons have survived careful testing has better support than a claim backed only by a strong feeling, even when philosophers still disagree about the question.

True or false.

• True
• False

Here is an argument (illustrative): "If a belief rests on the senses, then a vivid dream could cast doubt on it. The belief that it is raining rests on the senses. So a vivid dream could cast doubt on it." Which form does it have?

Select one.

• Denying the consequent
• Disjunctive syllogism
• Modus ponens
• Denying the antecedent

A traveler insists that everything anyone knows about the world was learned through experience. Which view, as this course defines it, is the traveler stating?

Select one.

• Rationalism
• Empiricism
• Methodical doubt
• The problem of induction

Two coins fresh from the mint are exactly alike in every quality. In this course's terms, how are the two coins related?

Select one.

• Qualitatively identical, but not numerically identical
• Numerically identical, since they are exactly alike
• Both numerically and qualitatively identical
• Numerically identical, but not qualitatively identical

A pharmacist expects a cough syrup to soothe a customer's cough because it has done so for every earlier customer on record. What does the problem of induction say about this expectation? Select every accurate statement.

Select every option that applies.

• It asks what justifies the step from past cases to this new one
• It shows that the pharmacist should stop relying on the records
• It guarantees that the syrup will work for this customer
• Defending the step by its past success would assume what it sets out to show
• It comes from Plato's allegory of the cave

On John Locke's memory theory, what would make a retiree the same person as the child who once planted a tree in the family's yard?

Select one.

• The retiree's having the same body that the child once had
• One permanent self that stays fixed through every change
• The family's calling the retiree and the child by one name
• The retiree's being able to remember that child's experiences

In the allegory of the cave, what does the freed prisoner who climbs out and sees the sun stand for?

Select one.

• The changing things we perceive with the senses
• The shadows that are cast on the wall of the den
• The fire that lights the den from behind
• The philosopher who comes to know the Forms

Here is an argument (illustrative): "If the bakery is open, its lights are on. Its lights are not on. So the bakery is not open." Which form does it have?

Select one.

• Modus ponens
• Denying the consequent
• Denying the antecedent
• Disjunctive syllogism

A neuroscientist says that a pain and the brain process that goes with it are one thing described in two ways. Which position in the mind-body debate is this?

Select one.

• Substance dualism
• Functionalism
• The identity theory
• The systems reply to Searle

A dualist argues: "I can doubt that I have a body, but I cannot doubt that I am thinking right now." Which earlier finding in the course does the second half of this argument draw on most?

Select one.

• Hume's problem of induction about predicting future cases
• The puzzle of a ship rebuilt plank by plank
• Plato's allegory of the cave and its shadows
• Descartes' conclusion that he exists whenever he thinks

Here is an argument (illustrative): "If a tourist understands Spanish, the tourist can order a meal in Spanish. This tourist ordered a meal in Spanish by reading from a phrasebook. So this tourist understands Spanish." Which judgment of the argument is accurate?

Select one.

• Valid: it has the form of modus ponens
• Valid: it reasons by denying the consequent
• Invalid: it runs the conditional backward
• Sound: ordering in a language requires understanding it

In what year was Meditations on First Philosophy published?

Select one.

• 1748
• 1963
• 1651
• 1641

An illustrative argument runs: "If a thing is always changing, it is not a true object of knowledge. The things we perceive are always changing. So the things we perceive are not true objects of knowledge." Its key is valid. Which question does that key leave open?

Select one.

• Whether true premises would guarantee its conclusion
• Whether its conclusion follows from its premises
• Whether its premises are in fact true
• Whether it could have true premises and a false conclusion

A friend wants to run the Socratic method on the word "courage." Which plan follows the method as the course teaches it?

Select one.

• Copy a dictionary's definition of courage and apply it to every new case
• Ask what courage is, find a case the answer gets wrong, revise, and test again
• Gather many brave acts that fit one definition and call the definition proven
• Ask several friends for definitions and keep whichever one most of them like

Here is an argument (illustrative): "If every idea comes from experience, then no idea is innate. Every idea comes from experience. So no idea is innate." How does the course's method key this argument?

Select one.

• Valid; soundness is left open, since whether every idea comes from experience is debated
• Sound, because its form guarantees that its conclusion is true
• Invalid, because rationalists reject its conclusion
• Unsound, because some ideas are in fact innate

An argument runs: "Every cat is a mammal. This animal is a mammal. So this animal is a cat." The animal in question does turn out to be a cat. What follows about the argument?

Select one.

• It is valid, since its conclusion turned out to be true in the end
• It is sound, since every one of its statements happens to be true as written
• It is invalid, since its conclusion has to be false given its form
• It is invalid: true premises of this form can lead to a false conclusion

How much of Socrates' own writing survives, and how does the course say we come to know him?

Select one.

• None survives; we know him mainly through Plato's dialogues
• His Apology survives, the defense speech he wrote for his trial
• Several dialogues survive that he wrote together with Plato
• A book of his sayings survives in Benjamin Jowett's English

A cousin defines a sandwich as "food served between two slices of bread." A friend points to an open-faced sandwich on a single slice, which everyone at the table calls a sandwich. In the Socratic habit the course began with, what is the friend doing?

Select one.

• Restating the cousin's definition in other words
• Offering a counterexample the definition fails to cover
• Appealing to a chef as the final authority on sandwiches
• Backing the definition with one more example of it

Which thinker and paper does the course credit with the argument that physical accounts of the mind leave out the subjective character of experience, what it is like for the creature itself?

Select one.

• John Searle, "Minds, Brains, and Programs" (1980)
• Thomas Nagel, "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?" (1974)
• Harry Frankfurt, "Alternate Possibilities and Moral Responsibility" (1969)
• Alan Turing, in proposing the imitation game

A critic asks, "What exactly is it for a drawn circle, which changes and fades, to share in the unchanging Form of the circle?" Which objection is the critic raising?

Select one.

• The access objection
• The regress objection
• The objection that the cave is a history
• The participation objection

In the course's set of free will positions, which position says that determinism is false and that free will exists?

Select one.

• Libertarianism
• Hard determinism
• Compatibilism
• Fatalism

A gardener reasons, "My tomatoes have ripened before the first frost in each of the past ten seasons, so they will ripen before the first frost this season too." Which description fits this reasoning best?

Select one.

• An inductive argument, judged by how strong it is
• A valid deductive argument, since its premise is true
• A sound argument, because the gardener's record is accurate
• An invalid deductive argument whose conclusion is false

True or false: the course treats the allegory of the cave as a story built to stand for claims about knowledge and reality, rather than as a report of events that really happened.

True or false.

• True
• False

A student copies Descartes' approach: they set aside each belief that is open to any doubt at all, hoping to reach one belief that survives. In this course's terms, what is the student doing?

Select one.

• Running the problem of induction
• Defending empiricism
• Applying methodical doubt
• Concluding that nothing is real