STUDY QUESTIONS: MEDITATION ONE
1.) At the end of the first Meditation, what does Descartes know?
2.) What three reasons cause Descartes to come to the conclusion from question #1?
3.) What does Descartes observe about his senses?
4.) What do Descartes’ observations of his senses cause him to conclude?
5.) What does Descartes observe about dreaming?
6.) What do Descartes’ observations about dreaming cause him to conclude?
7.) What does Descartes notice about God?
8.) What do Descartes’ observations about God cause him to conclude?
9.) The conclusion from question #1 has a name; what is it?
STUDY QUESTIONS: MEDITATION TWO
1) What is Descartes plan for continuing after his startling conclusions from the first meditation?
2) What does Descartes mean by "certainty"?
3) What’s the difference between doubt and knowledge of falsehood?
4) What is the single piece of knowledge that Descartes has by the end of the second meditation?
5) How does he prove this certain truth to himself; what is his argument?
6) What is the scope of this piece of knowledge that Descartes discovers? How much of the world does it cover? How much of time does it cover?
7) What important fact are Descartes’ meditations on the piece of wax revealing to him and to us?
8) What is the difference between the faculty of the senses Descartes discusses in Mediation One and the faculty that he discusses in his considerations of the piece of wax?
9) What additional strength does his understanding of this new faculty add to the knowledge he has uncovered during Meditation Two?
STUDY QUESTIONS: MEDITATIONS FOUR & SIX
1. In Meditation Four, Descartes explains why we can be assured of the reliability of the "faculty of judgement." Why is that?
2. According to Descartes, what causes error?
3. Descartes no longer believes that waking and dreaming are indistinguishable. What distinguishes them? (This is in Meditation Six.)
4. Explain how Descartes is using these three words in Meditations Four an d Six:
Eminently:
Free Will:
Light of nature:
STUDY QUESTIONS: NON-CARTESIAN SUMS &
BUT WHAT ARE YOU REALLY1) According to Mills, what is the difference between the way philosophy handles women and the way it handles blacks?
2) What is "subpersonhood"?
3) What’s the difference between the Cartesian Sum and the Ellisonian Sum?
4) What does Mill’s say that Zack says about racial identity and bad faith?
5) Why does Mill’s think the body is important for black~s in a way that is alien "traditional" philosophy?
6) What is the meaning of the metaphysical positions of race (p. 45)? Define "objectivism", "anti—objectivism", "Realism", "Constructivism", "Materialist~~~ "Idealist", "Subjectivism", "Relativism", and "Error Theory".
7) Which of the criteria for racial identity do you think are/is accurate? (Your goal here is to begin developing arguments)
STUDY QUESTIONS: WOMAN AS BODY
1) How does Plato understand the body?
2) How does this differ from Descartes view of the body? How is it similar?
3) A hierarchy is established between body and soul, but what traits — characteristics — that the two ideals have?
4) How does Plato manage to transfer the stigma associated with the body to women?
5) Why is this problematic?
6) What is the explanation/justification for this kind of racism/sexism displayed by Plato and other philosophers?
7) The example of Plato makes clear why Mills’ "Non-Cartesian Sums" is so important. Why is it so important?
8) Spelman worries that many feminists are taking the hierarchy at face value. Give two examples of feminists who do this.
9) What problems does Spelman believe result from taking this hierarchy at face value?
10) What challenge do Spelman and Adrienne Rich bring to feminist philosophy?
STUDY QUESTIONS: POSTMODERNISM & UTOPIA
1) What is the postmodern critique of the modern value of inclusion?
2) What is the postmodern critique of the modern value of reason? What is the concern about objectivity? What is the concern about subjects? What do they think moral and political projects like Kantianism, Marxism, Feminism, for example, are?
3) What is the postmodern critique of the modern value of science?
4) What is the postmodern critique of the modern value of progress?
5) What is the relationship between modernism and utopia?
6) What is the postmodern utopia?
7) What are the problematic consequences of postmodernism according to Harris?
STUDY QUESTIONS: FREEDOM & RESPONSIBILITY & CONCRETE RELATIONS WITH OTHERS
1) Sartre begins his discussion of relations with others by adding further justification to Mills’ assertions about the body? What is Sartre’s view on this issue?
2) What does Sartre mean by the "being-for-itself?" "Being-in-itself"?
3) What is the power of the look for Sartre?
4) We must assume one of two roles relative to others, according to Sartre; what are they?
5) What is the ultimate result of relations with others as far as Sartre is concerned?
6) What is the consequence of freedom, according to Sartre?
7) What does Sartre mean by "responsibility"?
8) What are the consequences of responsibility, according to Sartre?
STUDY QUESTIONS: INTRODUCTION AGENCY & RESPONSIBILITY
1) What are the two pictures of agency to which Ekstrom refers?
2) Do you think that these pictures are incommensurate, i.e. they cannot be both true at the same time?
3) What is the difference between practical and theoretical reasoning?
4) Do you think any conflict between the two perspectives is resolved by thinking of them as perspectives one from the standpoint of "practical reasoning" and another from the standpoint of "theoretical reasoning."
5) What is compatibilism?
6) Does it resolve the conflict between the two perspectives (to your satisfaction)?
7) Do you see a conflict here between Sartre and the incompatibilists who insist that because we cannot control the circumstances of our birth we cannot control our lives?
8) What reconsideration is undertaken by compatibilists to escape the "Beyond Control Argument" (from the question above)?
9) Characterize the compatibilists’ view of freedom?
10) What value does indeterminism add to the debate?
STUDY QUESTIONS: ALTERNATE POSSIBILITIES & MORAL RESPONSIBILITY
1) What is the "principle of alternate possibilities"?
2) What is it about not having alternate possibilities that makes us think that you could not be responsible?
3) Frankfurt using a logical point about the relationship between being coerced to act and not having been able to do otherwise to explain why the principle of alternate possibilities is false. What is his claim?
4) What confusion does Frankfurt find in the notion of coercion?
5) What is the important feature in determining responsibility according to Frankfurt?
STUDY QUESTIONS: SANITY AND THE METAPHYSICS OF RESPONSIBILITY
1) What’s the difference between freedom of action and freedom of the will?
2) What’s the difference between first order and second order desires?
3) How, according to Wolf, does Watson "fix" Frankfurt’s explanation of responsibility?
4) What is Taylor’s take on the deep-self view?
5) What, according to Wolf, are the virtues of the deep-self view?
6) How does the deep-self view respond to the problem of determinism?
7) Wolf believes, however, that ultimately the deep-self view fails to respond to even the simple problem of moral responsibility regardless of determinism?
8) What work does sanity do in resolving the failures of the deep-self view?
