Final Practice Exam

Set beside Aristotle's virtue ethics, where does Confucian ethics part from it on the question of what makes a person good, according to the course's comparison?

Select one.

• Over which of the two traditions is the superior and more truly philosophical one
• Over whether there is any permanent self for a person's memories to link
• Over whether the best action takes effort or flows without any forcing
• Over how much good character is learned in family roles and fitting conduct

A poster prints "a person is a person through other persons" and labels it the original words of a Southern African proverb. Which correction matches the course?

Select one.

• The English is a common gloss of the Zulu maxim umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu
• The English line is a Confucian saying drawn from the Analects
• The Zulu maxim is a later translation of an English proverb
• The English line is the maxim's original wording, so it can stand

True or false: in Book II of Plato's Republic, it is Glaucon who tells the story of the shepherd Gyges, whose ring can make him invisible.

True or false.

• True
• False

A citizen holds that some rights belong to people before and apart from any government. In Locke's Second Treatise, which rights are those?

Select one.

• Peace and security, which only an absolute sovereign can provide
• Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness
• Equal basic liberties, ranked ahead of the difference principle
• Life, liberty, and property

True or false: the course treats the state of nature as a thought experiment about life with no government at all, not as a period of history that really happened.

True or false.

• True
• False

A gardener says, "My life has meaning because it serves a purpose built into the universe itself." Which of the course's answers to the question of life's meaning does the gardener express?

Select one.

• Meaning created by the individual
• Meaning given from outside
• Meaning found in valuable activities and relationships
• The absurd, as Camus describes it

A utilitarian referee applies the rules of the game exactly, even on a night when bending one would please more fans, because a general practice of applying the rules exactly brings far better results over time. Which view does this reasoning express?

Select one.

• Rule utilitarianism
• Act utilitarianism
• Psychological egoism
• Ethical egoism

Which Confucian concept does the course gloss as humaneness, goodness toward others, the quality that fitting conduct is meant to express?

Select one.

• junzi
• li
• wu wei
• ren

William Paley's Natural Theology supplies which case on the course's thought-experiment roster?

Select one.

• The ship of Theseus
• The evil deceiver
• Pascal's wager
• The watch on the heath

An illustrative argument: "If a rule is generally followed, neighbors can trust one another. If neighbors can trust one another, they can plan their lives. So if a rule is generally followed, neighbors can plan their lives." Which form does it take?

Select one.

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

Select every argument about God below that, as Dataset G sorts it, begins from something observed in the world.

Select every option that applies.

• The argument from things that change, are caused, or might not have existed
• The argument from the idea of a being than which nothing greater can be conceived
• The argument from an infinite possible gain and a finite possible loss in believing
• The argument from parts that fit together to serve a purpose

An illustrative argument about a volunteer whose work never finishes: "Premise: If a task must be finished to be worth doing, then the volunteer's food-bank work is not worth doing. Premise: The volunteer's food-bank work is worth doing. Conclusion: So it is not the case that a task must be finished to be worth doing." How does the course key this argument?

Select one.

• Invalid, because it denies the antecedent of its first premise
• Sound, because its conclusion follows from its premises
• Valid, by denying the consequent; its soundness is not keyed
• Invalid, because its conclusion is still an open question

Select every statement the course keys as true about this illustrative argument: "Every honest act is an act of good character. Every return of a lost wallet is an honest act. So every return of a lost wallet is an act of good character."

Select every option that applies.

• The course keys it as sound, because its premises lead to its conclusion
• It has the form every A is B; every C is A; so every C is B
• It is invalid, because its premises could be true and its conclusion false
• It is valid: true premises would leave no way for the conclusion to be false

A story tells of prisoners chained in an underground den who take shadows for real things until one is freed and sees the sun. Where does the course locate this story in Plato's writing?

Select one.

• In the Apology, during Socrates' speech to the jury
• At the opening of Book VII of the Republic
• In a dialogue that Socrates wrote himself
• In the closing pages of the Republic's last book

A member of a town council asks what gives any government the right to make laws that everyone must obey. Which branch of philosophy is home to this question?

Select one.

• Ethics
• Epistemology
• Political philosophy
• Metaphysics

In the course's illustrative theory-matching set, which statements are keyed to utilitarianism? Select both.

Select every option that applies.

• Lying to get a loan is wrong because a universal rule of lying-to-borrow would defeat itself.
• Count each person's happiness equally and choose the act with the best total.
• Courage is a mean between cowardice and rashness, learned by practice.
• A broken promise is wrong if breaking it causes more misery than keeping it.

A friend says, "Whatever I decide, the outcome is already fixed, so deciding is pointless." Which view, in the course's terms, is the friend expressing?

Select one.

• Determinism
• Compatibilism
• Libertarianism
• Fatalism

A study group is making one flash card for each main branch of philosophy that the course maps in its opening week. Which of these subjects belong on the cards? Select all that apply.

Select every option that applies.

• Ethics
• Sociology
• Political philosophy
• Epistemology
• Rhetoric
• Logic

Which philosopher wrote Meditations on First Philosophy, the book that searches for a belief no doubt can shake?

Select one.

• John Locke
• Edmund Gettier
• René Descartes
• David Hume

On functionalism, a human and an octopus, whose brains are built very differently, could both be in pain. What would make that true?

Select one.

• Each has the same kind of brain process that humans have
• Each has a mind that is not physical joined to its body
• Each could pass for a person in a typed conversation
• Each has a state that plays pain's causal role

In the course's illustrative theory-matching set, one statement reads: "Ask what an honest, generous person would do here, and how it shapes who you become." Which theory is it keyed to?

Select one.

• Utilitarianism
• Social contract theory
• Virtue ethics
• Kantian deontology

A student calls an argument valid. On this course's definition, what has the student claimed about it?

Select one.

• If its premises were true, its conclusion could not be false
• Its premises are true, and its conclusion is true as well
• Its conclusion is true, whatever its premises happen to say
• Most people who hear it would find it convincing and accept it

True or false: on the course's reading, Camus concludes that the absurd leaves a person nothing but despair.

True or false.

• True
• False

True or false: in the English version of Descartes' famous line about thinking and existing that the course quotes, the words were chosen by its translator, John Veitch, rather than by Descartes.

True or false.

• True
• False

True or false: once an argument about happiness has been shown to be valid, it counts as sound only if every one of its premises is also true.

True or false.

• True
• False

A visitor argues: "Two neighboring towns disagree about whether it is rude to arrive late to a shared meal. So whether arriving late is wrong depends only on what each town believes." As the argument stands, how does the course key it?

Select one.

• Invalid, since a premise about belief cannot by itself settle what is right
• Valid, since its conclusion follows from its premise by modus ponens
• Valid and sound, since the two towns really do disagree on this point
• Invalid, since its premise about the two towns' disagreement must be false

Behind Rawls's veil of ignorance, which of these can the choosers still know?

Select one.

• Their own wealth, talents, and values
• General facts about how societies and economies work
• Which place in society they will end up holding
• Nothing at all, not even how to reason about which rules to choose

An argument has already been shown to be valid. What else must be true of it before this course calls it sound?

Select one.

• Its premises must make its conclusion probable
• Most readers must agree with its conclusion
• Its form must be modus ponens and no other
• Every one of its premises must be true in fact

A friend hears that Buddhist philosophy teaches anatta, no-self, and concludes that on this view nothing exists. How does the course correct the friend?

Select one.

• It does not: the teaching denies that bodies and minds exist at all
• The teaching holds that each person is a soul that never changes
• The parts and their changing collection exist; a permanent self is what is denied
• The teaching holds that no person can remember, choose, or act

One case on the course's roster describes a ship kept in service for generations by replacing its rotting boards, one at a time, until none of the original boards remain. Which author and work does the course give as its source?

Select one.

• Plato, Republic, Book VII
• Plutarch, Life of Theseus
• The Questions of King Milinda
• Plato, Apology

In "Evil and Omnipotence", J. L. Mackie defends one version of the problem of evil. Which claim states the version he defends?

Select one.

• A world with free creatures is better than a world without them, even when those creatures choose badly
• Evil and a wholly good, omnipotent God cannot both exist, since the two claims are inconsistent
• The amount and kind of suffering make God's existence unlikely, though not impossible
• Hardship lets people grow in courage and compassion, which they could not do otherwise

A straw standing in a glass of water looks bent at the waterline, though it is in fact straight. In this course's terms, which word fits the straw's being straight?

Select one.

• Its appearance
• Its shadow
• Its reality
• Its Form

A student describes philosophy as "learning what famous thinkers believed." Which description does this course give instead?

Select one.

• Reporting what most people in a society believe at present
• Accepting the views of the best-known thinkers of the past
• Examining fundamental questions by careful argument
• Collecting opinions on hard questions without weighing them

On the course's thought-experiment roster, one case asks whether justified true belief is enough for knowledge. Which author and work does the course credit as the source of that case?

Select one.

• Edmund Gettier, "Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?" (1963)
• David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)
• John Searle, "Minds, Brains, and Programs" (1980)
• Frank Jackson, "Epiphenomenal Qualia" (1982)

A puzzle asks whether there can be a barber who shaves all and only those who do not shave themselves. Which statements describe how the course works this puzzle? Select all that apply.

Select every option that applies.

• It assumes such a barber exists and follows that assumption to a contradiction
• It shows that the barber shaves himself only on some days
• It concludes that no one could ever fit the barber's description
• It is taken from Plato's Apology, as one of Socrates' arguments

A study sheet pairs cases from the course's thought-experiment roster with their sources. Select every pairing the roster confirms.

Select every option that applies.

• The watch on the heath: David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
• The evil deceiver: Descartes, Meditations (1641)
• The veil of ignorance: Rawls, A Theory of Justice (1971)
• The Chinese room: Nagel (1974)
• The ship of Theseus: Plutarch, Life of Theseus

True or false: in the line "they took away the old planks as they decayed, putting in new and stronger timber in their place", which the course quotes in John Dryden's English translation, the words on the page are Dryden's rather than those of the work's original author.

True or false.

• True
• False

At a town meeting, most members vote for whatever benefits each of them personally this year. A reader of Rousseau objects that the vote may not express the general will. Why, on the course's definition?

Select one.

• The general will is the command of one absolute ruler who keeps the peace
• The general will is each member's private wishes, added into one total
• The general will aims at the common good of the people as a whole
• The general will is whatever the oldest members of the town decide

An illustrative reconstruction of psychological egoism, applied to a volunteer who tutors children for free: P1 Her tutoring is caused by a desire that the children learn to read. P2 That desire is her own. P3 (added) Any action caused by a person's own desire is done from self-interest. C So her tutoring is done from self-interest. Which response states the critics' main objection?

Select one.

• P1 is false, because her tutoring was caused by no desire of hers at all
• The form is invalid, because C does not follow from the premises
• C is normative, so it cannot follow from descriptive premises
• P3 is false: it confuses whose desire moves her with whose good it aims at

Here is an illustrative argument. If justified true belief is always knowledge, then the help-desk worker who trusted a status light stuck on green, while the server happened to be running, knows that the server is running. The help-desk worker does not know that the server is running. So justified true belief is not always knowledge. What is its form, and is it valid?

Select one.

• Modus ponens; valid
• Denying the consequent; valid
• Denying the antecedent; invalid
• Reasoning from the consequent back to the antecedent; invalid