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Intro to Philosophy 251.200 (2015 Fall, Daniel): Morton’s Philosophy in Practice, 2nd ed Questions
Chapter One: Certainty and Doubt (Sept 3)
1. What is philosophical doubt?
2. Why does the closed belief trap suggest the certainty assumption? (Explain what they are.)
3. What is the difference between skepticism and dogmatism?
4. Why is a moral skeptic not always a cynic?
5. What is Socrates’ argument for skepticism?
Chapter Two: Authority and Reason, Arguments and Paradoxes (Sept 10)
1. Why is skepticism used to undermine authority?
2. What is a logical argument?
3. What arguments can be used to show that there is a God? (Not just names; give arguments.)
4. Why do modern philosophers now think that neither authority nor reason alone can be a source of
knowledge?
Chapter Three: Rationalism and Skepticism (Sept 17)
1. How is rationalism different from traditionalism?
2. Why did Descartes use doubt in order to achieve certain knowledge?
3. What is the evil demon (sometimes “evil genius”) hypothesis?
4. What is Descartes’ proof that he exists?
5. How can someone find reasons for doubting that he or she exists?
Chapter Four: Rationalism and Moral Relativism (Sept 24)
1. Why is moral rationalism often based on a principle of impartiality?
2. What factors can increase and decrease the justice of a society?
3. How does Plato think he can prove what an ideal society would be like?
4. What are the arguments for and against moral relativism?
5. How is existentialism similar to and different from moral relativism?
6. What should we expect of a moral philosophy?
Nietzsche Essay: 500-word essay due Saturday Sept 26 midnight; response to this question:
For Nietzsche, how does acting honorably express the will to power that promotes life and the “selfovercoming of man” much more explicitly than doing what is useful or even moral?
Chapter Five: Induction and Deduction, pp. 121-28, 136-48 (Sept 28)
1. What is inductive reasoning?
2. What is simple induction?
3. What is the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning?
4. Why are the conclusions of inductive reasoning always uncertain?
Chapter Six: Retreat from Certainty: Hume on Habit/Toleration (Sept 30)
1. Why did Hume believe that many beliefs are based on habit rather than reasoning?
2. Why did Hume think that any desire is as reasonable as any other?
3. In what ways is Hume’s understanding of reason too narrow?
4. What problems does Mill’s harm principle run into?
5. How can you think that something is wrong and still tolerate it?
Chapter Seven: Utilitarianism (Oct 5)
1. What according to utilitarianism makes an action morally right?
2. What is the difference between utilitarianism and hedonism?
Chapter Seven: Bentham and Mill (Oct 7)
1. What arguments can be used to defend utilitarianism?
2. Why does utilitarianism sometimes recommend actions that go against conventional morality?
Chapter Eight: Kantian Ethics (Oct 12)
1. How is a morality that looks at motives different from one that looks at consequences?
2. What is Kant’s “categorical imperative”?
3. How can you defend the idea that there are things no one should ever do?
4. How do both consequentialist and deontological moralities sometimes ask more from us than
conventional morality does?
Mid-Semester Exam (Oct 14)
Questions coming.