* Please prepare all of the questions below for your final exam (Thursday, April 29th from 11:00 a.m. -1:00 p.m.).
* I will choose 12 of the 18 questions below and you will choose 10 to answer. All answers must be in short essay format.
* You may bring in one 3 ½ X 5 index card with notes on it. No other books or notes will be allowed
* YOU MUST BRING YOUR OWN GREEN EXAM BOOK TO THE EXAM
o Do not write anything in or on the booklet before the start of the exam.


Descartes:


1. In Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy, he proves the existence of God through the idea of God. What “clear and distinct” axioms does Descartes use to prove God’s formal existence from the simple idea of God that Descartes has as a thinking thing?


2. What are four possible counter-arguments that Descartes offers at the end of the third meditation as to the possibility that God is not the ultimate cause and preserver of his existence (ex. perhaps his parents are the cause of his existence)? How does Descartes refute each of these counterattacks?


3. Recreate the method of doubt in detail as described in the first meditation. Be sure not only to list each step but also to say what objects are called into doubt and how this is done.


Spinoza:


1. What is the relationship between substance, attributes and modes in Spinoza’s philosophy? How do all of these aspects work together to support Spinoza’s general understanding of the essence of God, or nature?


2. Describe the different kinds of knowledge outlined in Part Five of Spinoza’s ethics. How do these different levels lead us to the best kind of life? What is the best kind of life, according to Spinoza?


Leibniz:


1. Describe the nature of human beings as conceived by Leibniz in the Monadology. What constitutes the nature of human beings? To answer this question, describe both our bodies and our minds as Leibniz conceives them. What is the relationship of the human mind to the human body?


2. What are monads? What do they do and how do they make up the essence of everything in the universe? What is their causal relationship to each other?


Locke:


1. Locke directly attacks his predecessors’ reliance on a priori ideas in their metaphysical systems. With his strong sense of empiricism, how does Locke dismantle the notion that we have any ideas or knowledge before experience? Where does knowledge come from? Is it absolute?


Berkeley:


1. Berkeley is considered to be an “idealist” philosopher because of his theory, which states that to be is to be perceived. What does this mean? In answering this question, make sure to address the role of the mind (both of human beings and of God) as well as the role of the “material” world.


Hume:


1. How does Hume attack the notion of cause and effect that has been so central to modern philosophical argumentation? Where do we get the idea of cause and effect? How reliable is it?


2. What is Hume’s critique of the idea that we now call “intelligent design”? How does he show that the belief that we can hypothesize a perfect God from our experience of the world is impossible to maintain?


3. What is the difference between relations of ideas and matters of fact and existence? Why does this distinction matter? Which does Hume emphasize in his philosophy and why?


Pascal:


1. What exactly is Pascal’s wager? To whom is the wager addressed? Why should we bet on the existence of God, even if his existence is unlikely? How do we become faithful if we lack faith?


Kant:


1. Explain the difference between analytic and synthetic judgments according to Kant, giving an example of each. Why is Kant so interested in synthetic a priori judgments?


2. Explain Kant’s distinction between judgments of experience and judgments of perception. Is either of these judgments objectively valid? Why or why not?


3. According to Kant, what is an idea of reason? How is it different from a concept of the understanding? What are the three kinds of ideas distinguished by Kant?


4. What is an antinomy? What are Kant’s four antinomies? Explain how each class of antinomies is resolved.


5. According to Kant, what is the purpose of the ideas of reason given the fact that we can never fully resolve the problems that they motivate us to investigate? What, in the end, is metaphysics for Kant? Why is it still necessary?

Just quote the text you're commenting on in your post so we can keep everything clear.

I'll add more after I get through the needs I have before study guides get my attention.



(Descartes, 36)

First, only Ideas that display substance contain more objective reality than those which represent only modes or accidents.

Second, there must be as much reality in the efficient cause as there is in its effect.

Third, something cannot come into being from nothing.

Fourth, that which is more perfect cannot come into being for what is less perfect.