Instructor’s Manual and Test Questions to Accompany

Philosophy: The Quest for Truth

Eleventh Edition

by Lewis Vaughn
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Contents

INTRODUCTION

SAMPLE SYLLABI/COURSE SCHEDULES

SUMMARIES AND TEST QUESTIONS

I. What Is Philosophy?

1. Plato: Socratic Wisdom

2. Plato: The Allegory of the Cave
3. John Locke: Of Enthusiasm and the Quest for Truth
4. Bertrand Russell: The Value of Philosophy

II. Philosophy of Religion

5. Thomas Aquinas: The Five Ways

6. William Lane Craig: The Kalam Cosmological Argument and the Anthropic Principle
7. Paul Edwards: A Critique of the Cosmological Argument
8. William Paley: The Watch and the Watchmaker
9. David Hume: A Critique of the Teleological Argument
10. St. Anselm and Gaunilo: The Ontological Argument
11. William Rowe: An Analysis of the Ontological Argument
12. Fyodor Dostoevsky: Why Is There Evil?
13. B.C. Johnson: Why Doesn’t God Intervene to Prevent Evil?
14. John Hick: There Is a Reason Why God Allows Evil
15. William L. Rowe: The Problem of Evil and Some Varieties of Atheism
16. Blaise Pascal: Yes, Faith Is a Logical Bet
17. W.K. Clifford: The Ethics of Belief
18. William James: The Will to Believe
19. Alvin Plantinga: Religious Belief without Evidence
20. Michael Martin: Faith and Foundationalism
21. Søren Kierkegaard: Faith and Truth
22. Bertrand Russell: Can Religion Cure Our Troubles?

III. Knowledge

23. René Descartes: Cartesian Doubt and the Search for Foundational Knowledge
24. John Locke: The Empiricist Theory of Knowledge
25. George Berkeley: An Idealist Theory of Knowledge
26. David Hume: The Origin of Our Ideas
27. G.E. Moore: Proof of an External World
28. Bertrand Russell: The Correspondence Theory of Truth
29. William James: The Pragmatic Theory of Truth
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30. Richard Rorty: Dismantling Truth: Solidarity versus Objectivity

31. Daniel Dennett: Postmodernism and Truth
32. Eve Browning Cole: Philosophy and Feminist Criticism
33. Alison Ainley: Feminist Philosophy
34. David Hume: Skeptical Doubts Concerning the Operations of the Understanding
35. Wesley C. Salmon: The Problem of Induction

IV. Philosophy of Mind: The Mind–Body Problem

36. René Descartes: Substance Dualism

37. Gilbert Ryle: Exorcising Descartes’s “Ghost in the Machine”
38. J.P. Moreland: A Contemporary Defense of Dualism
39. Paul Churchland: On Functionalism and Materialism
40. J.J.C. Smart: Sensations and Brain Processes
41. Thomas Nagel: What Is It Like to Be a Bat?
42. Jerry A. Fodor: The Mind–Body Problem
43. David Chalmers: Property Dualism
44. John Searle: Minds, Brains, and Computers
45. Ned Block: Troubles with Functionalism
46. John Locke: Our Psychological Properties Define the Self
47. David Hume: We Have No Substantial Self with Which We Are Identical

V. Freedom of the Will and Determinism

48. Baron d’Holbach: We Are Completely Determined

49. William James: The Dilemma of Determinism
50. Roderick M. Chisholm: Human Freedom and the Self
51. Harry Frankfurt: Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person
52. David Hume: Liberty and Necessity
53. W.T. Stace: Compatibilism

VI. Ethics

54. Ruth Benedict: Morality Is Relative

55. James Rachels: Morality Is Not Relative
56. Plato: Why Should I Be Moral? Gyges’s Ring and Socrates’s Dilemma
57. Louis P. Pojman: Egoism and Altruism: A Critique of Ayn Rand
58. Joel Feinberg: Psychological Egoism
59. Immanuel Kant: The Moral Law
60. John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism
61. Russ Shafer-Landau: Consequentialism: Its Difficulties
62. Aristotle: The Ethics of Virtue
63. Virginia Held: The Ethics of Care
64. Alison M. Jaggar: Feminist Ethics
65. Annette C. Baier: The Need for More than Justice
66. Jean-Paul Sartre: Existentialist Ethics
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67. James Rachels: The Divine Command Theory

68. Thomas Nagel: Moral Luck
69. Susan Wolf: Moral Saints

VII. Justice and Political Philosophy

70. Robert Paul Wolff: In Defense of Anarchism

71. Thomas Hobbes: The Absolutist Answer: The Justification of the State Is the Security
It Affords
72. John Locke: The Democratic Answer: The Justification of the State Is Its Promotion
of Security and Natural Human Rights
73. John Stuart Mill: A Classical Liberal Answer
74. John Rawls: The Contemporary Liberal Answer
75. Robert Nozick: Against Liberalism
76. Martin Luther King Jr.: Nonviolence and Racial Justice
77. Susan Moller Okin: Justice, Gender, and the Family
78. Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Women

VIII. What Is the Meaning of Life?

79. Epicurus: Moderate Hedonism

80. Epictetus: Stoicism: Enchiridion
81. Albert Camus: Life Is Absurd
82. Julian Baggini: Living Life Forwards
83. Louis P. Pojman: Religion Gives Meaning to Life
84. Thomas Nagel: The Absurd
85. Richard Taylor: The Meaning of Life
86. Susan Wolf: Meaning in Life

IX. Contemporary Moral Problems

87. Don Marquis: Why Abortion Is Immoral

88. Francis J. Beckwith: Arguments from Bodily Rights
89. Mary Anne Warren: On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion
90. Judith Jarvis Thomson: A Defense of Abortion
91. Jane English: The Moderate Position: Beyond the Personhood Argument
92. Burton Leiser: The Death Penalty Is Permissible
93. Hugo Adam Bedau: No, the Death Penalty Is Not Morally Permissible
94. Lawrence Blum: “Racism”: Its Core Meaning
95. Kwame Anthony Appiah: Racisms
96. Peter Singer: Famine, Affluence, and Morality
97. Garrett Hardin: Living on a Lifeboat

ADDITIONAL ESSAY QUESTIONS

KEY TERMS
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USEFUL WEB LINKS

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INTRODUCTION

This manual provides both new and experienced instructors with more resources for
effectively using Philosophy: The Quest for Truth to teach introductory philosophy, a
task that was already made easier by the text’s existing pedagogy. The new eleventh
edition retains all the pedagogical elements of the older edition but enhances many of
them. Thus, each reading in the text (there are now ninety-four of them) comes with

 an introduction with textual and biographical information (now updated);

 preceding study questions; and
 end-of-reading reflective/discussion questions.

In addition, the text has

 a substantial preface to every major section

 in Part I, a critical reasoning tutorial and a brief introduction to philosophy (both
revised for this edition); and
 an updated appendix of helpful guidelines for reading and writing a philosophy
paper.

This manual supplements these aids with the following for each reading:

 a concise summary;
 an expanded bank of test questions for gauging the student’s understanding
(multiple choice and true/false); and
 a small set of additional essay questions.

The manual also includes

 a list of key terms;

 sample syllabi/course schedules; and
 useful web links.

The test bank questions—more than 1,400 of them—as well as the additional
essay questions (194) should be especially helpful. For every reading, the instructor now
has the option of using the test questions as a short quiz or as additional study questions.
They can even be merged into a larger bank and used to test the student’s grasp of a
whole section (i.e., a major philosophical problem). The same goes for the essay
questions, which do double duty as starting points for class discussion.
Perhaps the most versatile pedagogy is the online Student Guide. It includes

 388 study questions;

 flashcards for key terms;
 two essay questions for each reading; and
 a list of handy web links categorized by philosophical problem.
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The extensive use of any of these features, of course, will affect the number of
readings that can be assigned in a semester. Questions, quizzes, and headnotes can
increase student understanding but often slow progress through the text. However, having
more options is a good thing. The teaching aids found in the new edition, the Student
Guide, and this manual offer many ways to calibrate the course as the instructor sees fit.
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SAMPLE SYLLABI/COURSE SCHEDULES

The design and pace of a course using this text will depend, of course, on the choice of
philosophical problems to be addressed, the use of the text’s pedagogical features, and
the number of readings to be assigned. The readings are organized around eight classic
philosophical problems, a section introducing philosophy and critical reasoning, and a
section covering four leading issues in applied ethics. So there are plenty of options and
many possible course designs between the comprehensively ambitious (covering most
readings and pedagogical elements in every section) and the intensive and more focused
(covering all the readings and pedagogical elements in just four or five sections). Here
are two rudimentary schemes that hint at some of the possibilities.

Sample 1: A course with broad coverage of seven philosophical problems plus some
issues in applied ethics.

Week Topic Reading

1 Introduction Plato, Locke, Logic
2 Philosophy of Religion Aquinas, Craig, Edwards, Paley, Hume
3 Philosophy of Religion Anselm, Rowe, Dostoevsky, Johnson, Hick
4 Philosophy of Religion Pascal, Clifford, Plantinga, James, Kierkegaard, Martin,
Russell
5 Knowledge Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Moore, Cole
6 Knowledge Russell, Ainley, James, Rorty, Dennett, Salmon
7 Philosophy of Mind Descartes, Ryle, Churchland, Moreland, Searle, Nagel, Fodor,
Chalmers, Smart
8 Philosophy of Mind Locke, Hume, Plato, Edwards, Hick, Block
9 Free Will d’Holbach, James, van Inwagen, Frankfurt, Taylor, Chisholm,
Stace, Hume
10 Ethics Benedict, Rachels, Pojman, Kant, Held, Mill, Rachels, Shafer-
Landau, Feinberg, Nagel, Wolf
11 Meaning of Life Epicurus, Camus, Pojman, Nagel, Baggini, Taylor, Wolf
12 Justice and Political Philosophy Wolff, Hobbes, Locke, Mill, Rawls, Nozick, Williams, Nagel,
King, Wollstonecraft
13 Abortion, Death Penalty Marquis, Beckwith, Warren, Thomson, English, Leiser, Bedau
14 Hunger and Poverty Singer, Garrett
15 Racism Blum, Appiah

Sample 2: A course providing more thorough treatment of four philosophical problems

and adding an extended introduction to philosophy and logic.

Week Topic Reading

1 Introduction Plato
2 Introduction Locke, Russell
3 Introduction Logic
4 Philosophy of Religion Aquinas, Craig, Edwards
5 Philosophy of Religion Paley, Hume, Anselm, Rowe
6 Philosophy of Religion Dostoevsky, Johnson, Hick
7 Philosophy of Religion Pascal, Clifford, James, Plantinga, Martin, Kierkegaard,
Russell
8 Knowledge Descartes, Locke, Berkeley, Moore
9 Knowledge Hume, Russell, James
10 Knowledge Rorty, Dennett, Salmon, Cole, Ainley
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11 Mind-Body d’Holbach, James

12 Mind–Body Chisholm, Frankfurt, Smart
13 Mind–Body Hume, Taylor, Block
14 Meaning of Life Epicurus, Epictetus, Camus,
15 Meaning of Life Pojman, Nagel, Baggini, Taylor, Wolf
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SUMMARIES AND TEST QUESTIONS

I. What Is Philosophy?

1. Plato: Socratic Wisdom

Summary
In this selection from the Apology, Plato recounts the trial of Socrates, accused of
corrupting the youth of Athens and not believing in the gods. Socrates defends himself,
declaring that he is guilty only of asking probing questions of men who claim to be wise,
thus exposing their ignorance. Unlike many who pretend to be wise, Socrates professes
no wisdom yet is wiser than most in that he does not claim to know what he in fact does
not know. Nevertheless, he tells the court that the good life is one in which we
continually search for the truth and examine our lives in a never-ending pursuit of human
excellence. He insists, “No greater good can happen to a man than to discuss human
excellence every day and the other matters about which you have heard me arguing and
examining myself and others, and that an unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates
is found guilty by the court and is given the sentence of death or exile from Athens. He
chooses death, staying true to his principles to the end.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Socrates says that the accusations against him arose from

a. his lavish lifestyle.
b. the riches he accrued by teaching.
c. his penetrating examination of people’s beliefs.
d. his superiority to others.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. Socrates interprets the oracle’s message to mean that

a. Socrates is wise.
b. the wisest are those who know the most.
c. Socrates is ignorant.
d. the wisest are those who know that they know nothing.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. When Socrates searched for a man who was wiser than he was, he found that
a. there were many wise men in Athens.
b. many who thought they were wise were not wise at all.
c. the wisest in Athens were artisans.
d. those with a reputation for wisdom were indeed wise.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. Socrates considers himself

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a. a political revolutionary.
b. an atheist.
c. a philosophical gadfly to the state.
d. a reclusive scholar.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

5. For Socrates, an unexamined life is a tragedy because it results in grievous harm to

a. the state.
b. the justice system.
c. the body.
d. the soul.
Answer: d

6. For Socrates, the soul is harmed by lack of

a. knowledge.
b. wealth.
c. community.
d. courage.
Answer: a

7. Socrates accuses his judges of

a. not being dedicated enough.
b. not attending to the health of their souls.
c. being too harsh.
d. worshipping the wrong gods.
Answer: b

8. For Socrates, an unexamined life is

a. inconsistent.
b. a godless life.
c. not worth living.
d. not profitable enough.
Answer: c

True/False

9. Socrates preferred exile to death.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Socrates thought that the primary occupation of a good citizen should be the pursuit
of wealth and prestige.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
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11. According to Socrates, we should always consider in doing anything whether we are
doing right or wrong.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Socrates thought that our main duty is the improvement of our souls.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. Socrates was a philosophical gadfly.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Socrates thought the primary occupation of a good citizen should be the pursuit of
wealth and prestige.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Socrates wrote several classic dialogues.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
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2. Plato: The Allegory of the Cave

Summary
In the Republic Plato presents what is probably the most famous tale in Western
philosophy: the “Allegory of the Cave.” Through the persona of Socrates, Plato tells a
story that works on many levels. Primarily the allegory represents facets of Plato’s
theories of knowledge and metaphysics, but it can also be seen as a metaphor for the
search for the true and the good through philosophy. Imagine, Plato says, prisoners
chained for life against a wall in a cave so that they can see only shadows on the opposite
wall. The shadows appear because behind and above the wall to which the prisoners are
chained there burns a fire, and between the fire and the prisoners is a raised walkway
along which people pass carrying vessels, statues, and replicas of animals. The prisoners
see the shadows of these artifacts on the wall and hear the people’s voices echoing off of
it, and they mistakenly believe that these sights and sounds are the real world. But the
real world—the truth—lies above the darkened cave out in the bright sunlight. If a
prisoner is released from his chains and is shown the true source of the shadows, he will
not believe his eyes, and he will prefer to believe as he always has—just as people will
often prefer comfortable commonplace assumptions to the deeper, sometimes unsettling
understanding that philosophy can provide. If he is dragged into the light, his eyes will
hurt, and he will be disoriented, just as the truths of philosophy can at first seem strange
and frightening. If the prisoner finally sees things as they really are in the full sunlight, he
will pity the prisoners he left behind and will return to the cave to enlighten them. But
they will revile him as a ridiculous fool and might even put him to death for his heresies
—a fate that has often befallen those who have dared speak unconventional truths (e.g.,
Socrates).

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Plato’s allegory of the cave can be seen as a metaphor for

a. the need to always adhere to conventional ideas.
b. the chaos of the imagination.
c. the search for the true and the good through philosophy.
d. the importance of prophecy.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. Plato’s allegory reminds us that widely accepted opinions can be

a. right.
b. beyond question.
c. complex.
d. wrong.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. In the cave allegory, the reaction of the prisoners to the enlightened one is
a. to praise him for his insight.
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b. to revile him as a ridiculous fool.

c. to reconsider their own worldviews.
d. to see him as a beacon of hope.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. The allegory suggests that the truth is

a. plain to most people.
b. obvious.
c. not always obvious.
d. easy to acquire.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Plato distinguishes between appearance and reality.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. The allegory suggests that there is a difference between mere belief and knowledge.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. The freed prisoner does not feel obligated to enlighten the others living in ignorance.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. The allegory reminds us that people will often prefer comfortable commonplace
assumptions to the deeper, sometimes unsettling understanding derived from philosophy.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Plato maintains that personal freedom is more important than wisdom.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Plato believes that truth is relative to cultures.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Plato argues that the prisoners in the cave can never be enlightened.
 15

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Plato thinks that the prisoners are deluded.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. Plato thinks that few people have insight into what’s really real.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. All the prisoners in the cave will eventually see daylight.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Plato thinks that only the rich and powerful can be enlightened.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
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3. John Locke: Of Enthusiasm and the Quest for Truth

Summary
Locke argues that in the search for truth we must beware the pitfalls of “enthusiasm”
(passion or emotion) and always follow the lead of reason. Reason, he says, is a God-
given faculty that demands we not entertain any proposition with greater assurance than
is warranted by the evidence. We should not believe anything that reason does not
support (although some mysteries such as immortality are beyond our understanding).
Even revelation (immediate communication of some sort from God) must be
corroborated by reason; otherwise, we cannot be sure that a revelation is genuine. A
prime disrupter of the workings of reason is enthusiasm, which arises “from the conceits
of a warmed or over-weening brain.” Through enthusiasm we can fall prey to wishful
thinking, overwrought imagination (especially the religious kind), and groundless
feelings of certainty. “Reason,” says Locke, “must be our last judge and guide in every
thing.”

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Locke, the first requirement in the search for truth is

a. a blessing from God.
b. a love of truth.
c. revelation.
d. reliable authority.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. According to Locke, the sure sign that one loves the truth is
a. earnest assertions that one loves the truth.
b. a feeling of certainty that one has the truth.
c. not believing any proposition without assurance from God.
d. not believing any proposition more strongly than reason warrants.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. In the search for truth, the relationship between reason and revelation is
a. reason can be overruled by revelation.
b. reason can substantiate the truth of revelation.
c. religious people must rely on revelation, not reason.
d. reason and revelation conflict.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. The question for people who believe they have received a revelation from God is:
a. How strong is their faith in the truth of the revelation?
b. How strong is their belief in God?
c. How do they know that it is really a revelation from God?
d. How psychologically certain are they that the revelation is true?
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Answer: c Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Locke does not believe in God.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. Locke does not believe in revelations from God.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Locke thinks that believing a proposition to be true makes it true.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. According to Locke, to reject reason in favor of revelation is to put out the light of
both.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Locke accepted religious revelation without question.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Locke thought that reason should serve the purposes of the Church.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. According to Locke, we should always proportion our belief according to the
evidence.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Locke thought that truth is relative.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True
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13. Locke rejected all religious claims.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Locke thought reason would ultimately support propositions of faith.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Locke thought “enthusiasm” was necessary to reach any firm conclusion.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
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4. Bertrand Russell: The Value of Philosophy

Summary
In this reading Russell argues that the value of philosophy is not in any ability to produce
material goods (“philosophy bakes no bread”) or arrive at definitive conclusions about
the nature of reality. Its value comes from its effect on the lives of those who take it
seriously. By studying the perennial questions of philosophy, we enhance our
appreciation of what is possible, weaken the dogmatism that prevents exploration and
speculation, and render the mind great through contemplation of the greatness of the
universe.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Russell, philosophy, like all other studies, aims primarily at

a. definitive answers.
b. material goods.
c. scientific certainty.
d. knowledge.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

2. According to Russell, in philosophy, whenever definite knowledge concerning any

subject becomes possible, the subject
a. ceases to be called philosophy and becomes a separate science.
b. ceases to be the focus of study.
c. becomes dogma.
d. becomes a repudiation of philosophy.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

3. According to Russell, while philosophy diminishes our feeling of certainty as to what

things are, it also
a. gives us certain knowledge.
b. increases our knowledge of unfamiliar and liberating possibilities.
c. strengthens the grip of custom and dogmatism.
d. raises no uncomfortable questions.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. To Russell, the chief value of philosophy is to be found through

a. its support of our instinctive wishes.
b. its endorsement of our narrow and personal aims.
c. the greatness of the objects that it contemplates.
d. the greatness of particular times and places.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

True/False
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5. Russell believes that man is the measure of all things and truth is manmade.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. According to Russell, all acquisition of knowledge is an enlargement of the Self.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Russell says that religious beliefs can be proved by strict demonstration to be true.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Russell says that the freedom and impartiality of philosophical contemplation can
imbue our actions and emotions with the same kind of freedom and impartiality.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Russell thinks philosophy is a waste of time.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Russell thinks philosophy can free us from prejudices and narrow-mindedness.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Russell says that philosophy has not had much success in providing definite answers
to its questions.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Russell believes that at least some types of philosophy can provide us with
demonstrably true answers.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Russell suggests that wise men have found philosophical proofs of religious beliefs.
a. True
 21

b. False
Answer: False

14. The value of philosophy, says Russell, is to be sought in its uncertainty.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Russell thinks philosophy can free us from the tyranny of custom.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
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II. Philosophy of Religion

5. Thomas Aquinas: The Five Ways

Summary
In this reading Aquinas presents his five a posteriori arguments for the existence of God.
The first argument begins with the fact that there is change and argues that there must be
an Unmoved Mover that originates all change (or motion) but is itself unmoved. The
second argument is from causation and argues that there must be a first cause to explain
the existence of cause. The third argument is from contingency and argues that because
there are dependent beings (e.g., humans), there must be an independent or necessary
being on whom the dependent beings rely for their subsistence. The fourth argument is
from excellence, and it argues that because there are degrees of excellence, there must be
a perfect being from whence come all excellences. The final argument is from the
harmony of things: There is a harmony of nature that calls for an explanation. The only
sufficient explanation is that there is a divine designer who planned such harmony.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Aquinas, an infinite regress of causes is

a. finite.
b. possible.
c. impossible.
d. necessary.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. For Aquinas, the first efficient cause of everything is

a. the universe.
b. God.
c. nature.
d. an infinite series.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

3. Aquinas says that if all things are capable of not existing, there was a time when
a. nothing existed in the universe.
b. nothing begat something in the universe.
c. some things were infinite.
d. some things were beyond time.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

DONE
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4. Aquinas says that things in the universe that move toward a goal must be
a. without direction.
b. without some intelligence to guide them.
c. unguided.
d. guided by some intelligence.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. According to Aquinas, it is necessary that there be an Unmoved Mover.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. If sound, Aquinas’s arguments prove that the God of traditional religion (an all-
knowing, all-good, all-powerful being) exists.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
DONE

7. Aquinas thinks that an infinite series of causes is repugnant to reason.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Aquinas believes that the universe exists necessarily.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
DONE

9. Aquinas is a religious skeptic.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Aquinas believes that the existence of God cannot be demonstrated through
philosophy.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

DONE
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11. Aquinas’s fourth argument is that because there are degrees of excellence, there must
be a perfect being from whence come all excellences.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Aquinas thinks that reason can show the way to some of God’s truths.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. Aquinas asserts that the harmony that exists in nature is no proof of God’s existence.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Aquinas argues that because there are dependent beings, there must be an
independent or necessary being on whom the dependent beings rely for their subsistence.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Aquinas says that the existence of God can be proved through mathematics.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
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6. William Lane Craig: The Kalam Cosmological Argument and the Anthropic
Principle

Summary
In the first part of this essay Craig develops two versions of the kalam argument, both
aiming to prove that the universe must have a cause of its existence. In the second part
Craig describes the evidence from astronomy for the kalam argument, which he
formulates as follows: Whatever begins to exist has a cause; the universe began to exist;
therefore, the universe has a cause. He argues that evidence for the Big Bang confirms
the thesis that the universe began to exist and so must have a cause. Toward the end of
the article, Craig introduces the “anthropic principle,” which states that “if the universe
were in fact different in any significant way from the way it is, we wouldn’t be here to
wonder why it is” (a definition given by Dewey Schwatzenburg). Finally, Craig argues
that there is good reason to believe, on the basis of the anthropic principle, that the First
Cause is the Personal Creator of Theism.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Craig, the kalam cosmological argument establishes that

a. the God of Christianity exists.
b. the universe has a cause.
c. the Big Bang model is false.
d. the universe is uncaused.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. According to Craig, an actually infinite number of things

a. is possible.
b. is meaningless.
c. exists somewhere.
d. cannot exist.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. According to Craig, the series of events in time cannot be actually infinite, so we know
that
a. the universe is finite in the past and began to exist.
b. the universe is infinite in the past.
c. the universe never is uncaused.
d. the universe exists only in the mind.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

4. Craig thinks the Big Bang shows that

a. the universe happened uncaused.
b. the universe always existed.
c. the universe began to exist and therefore had a cause.
 26

d. the universe arose from a vacuum fluctuation.

Answer: c Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Craig says that the anthropic principle supports the idea of intelligent design of the
universe.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. Craig thinks that the cause of the universe must be an accident.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Craig believes that the universe is the effect of a plurality of causes.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Scientists and philosophers have no explanation for the existence of the universe.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Craig implies that he believes in a finite God.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. For Craig, it’s impossible to prove the existence of God.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Craig argues that there is good reason to believe that the First Cause is the personal
creator of theism.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. For Craig, confirmation of his view comes from the Big Bang model of the universe.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 27

13. Craig accepts the oscillating model of the universe.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Craig says the observational evidence supports the oscillating model of the universe.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Craig believes in God but rejects the Genesis account of creation.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 28

7. Paul Edwards: A Critique of the Cosmological Argument

Summary
In this article Edwards attacks the cosmological argument, specifically Aquinas’s causal
and contingency versions, holding that the argument fails at several points. Against the
causal argument, he argues that the premise asserting the impossibility of an infinite
series is false. Even if the argument were sound, he says, it would not prove the existence
of a single first cause because a plurality of causes cannot be ruled out. Furthermore, the
argument is not helped by the theist’s distinction between causes that bring something
into existence (causes in fieri) and causes that sustain something in existence (causes in
esse). Some defend the causal argument by insisting that even if there were an infinite
series of causes, there still must be an ultimate cause of the series as a whole. Edwards
counters that such notions rest on the “erroneous assumption that the series is something
over and above the members of which it is composed.” Against the contingency
argument, Edwards maintains that to explain a contingent phenomenon, we do not need
to posit a necessary being and that those who make such a demand beg the question at
issue.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Edwards, the advocates of the causal argument seem to confuse an

infinite series with
a. an infinite regress.
b. a series with no members.
c. a series that is long but finite.
d. a nonseries.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. According to Edwards, even if sound, the causal argument does not establish that the
first cause is
a. prior to other causes.
b. real.
c. divine.
d. causal.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. According to Edwards, if sound, the causal argument shows that

a. the first cause is not a plurality of causes.
b. the first cause is God.
c. the first cause is supernatural.
d. the universe has a first cause.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website
 29

4. Edwards asserts that by rejecting a supernatural first cause, one is not then committed
to the proposition that
a. the universe is uncaused.
b. there is a natural first cause.
c. the universe is a necessary being.
d. All of the above
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Edwards claims that even if sound, the causal argument does not establish that the first
cause presently exists.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. Edwards maintains that a series is not something over and above its members.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Edwards argues that all natural objects require a sustaining (in esse) cause.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. According to Edwards, the idea of an infinite regress of causes implies that nothing
exists.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Edwards agrees with Father Copleston.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Edwards admits that a better version of the causal argument can prove the existence
of God.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Edwards rejects the contingency argument.

a. True
 30

b. False
Answer: True

12. Edwards says that even if the first-cause argument was sound, it would not prove the
existence of God.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. Edwards believes in a finite God.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Edwards contends that a series is something over and above the members of which it
is composed.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Edwards believes that if you reject the notion of a supernatural first cause, you are
committed to the view that there is a natural first cause.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 31

8. William Paley: The Watch and the Watchmaker

Summary
In this reading Paley offers his famous argument from design for the existence of God.
Arguing by analogy, he says that anyone who comes upon a mechanical watch would
infer from the watch’s apparent purposefulness that it must have been made by an
intelligent designer. Likewise, when we see the intricate works of nature exhibiting all
the marks of purposefulness in their design, we must conclude that the world, too, had an
intelligent designer.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Paley, we must conclude that a watch had an intelligent designer if the
watch
a. shows purposefulness.
b. has a structure.
c. runs well.
d. is engraved.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

2. According to Paley, every indication of contrivance and design that exists in the watch
exists in
a. God.
b. infinity.
c. the works of nature.
d. time.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. For Paley, the key difference between the “contrivance” of a watch and that of nature
is that the latter is
a. simpler.
b. more natural.
c. older.
d. greater and grander.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

4. Paley says that for us to conclude that a machine was the result of design or a designer,
it is not necessary that the machine be
a. completely understood.
b. perfect.
c. beautiful.
d. All of the above
Answer: d Appears: Student Website
 32

True/False

5. Paley says that if we found a watch and examined it closely, we would naturally infer
that it had a maker—even if we had never seen a watch made.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. Paley’s argument, if cogent, proves the existence of the Christian God.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Paley’s argument, if cogent, proves that the designer of the world has infinite wisdom.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Paley’s argument, if cogent, proves that the designer of the world was a single being.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Paley proves the existence of a God with restricted features.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Paley thinks that the fact that a creation has defects shows that the creator must also
have defects.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Paley proves the existence of the God of traditional theism.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Paley admits that his argument could support the idea of self-supporting nature in
need of no supernatural creature.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Paley proves that the world had a designer, but not the Designer in Genesis.
 33

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Paley says that the consciousness of knowing little need not cause a distrust of that
which one does know.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Paley says that a machine must be perfect to provide evidence that it had a designer.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 34

9. David Hume: A Critique of the Teleological Argument

Summary
In this famous dialogue Philo (who reflects Hume’s views on the subject) gives us the
classic critique of the argument from design. In the parts reproduced here, Cleanthes (the
natural theologian) states the argument and asserts, “By this argument a posteriori, and
by this argument alone, do we prove at once the existence of a Deity and his similarity to
human mind and intelligence.” Philo replies that the argument rests on an extremely weak
analogy from which we can derive no more than a guess about a deity. The dissimilarities
between the universe and a human-crafted machine are too great to draw the conclusion
that Cleanthes seeks. We cannot, for example, draw a conclusion about the origin of the
vast universe as a whole from a fact about the origin of a tiny part of the universe (a
house or a ship, for instance). Furthermore, if we try to infer the nature of a Designer
from facts about the natural world and human designers, we would have to conclude that
the Designer may not be infinite (because the world is finite), may not be perfect
(because nature is full of imperfections), and may not be single (because it is possible that
the world was made by many deities).

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Cleanthes argues that the universe is a great machine that resembles the products of
a. theology.
b. time.
c. human contrivance.
d. factories.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. Philo says the analogy that Cleanthes uses to make his case is
a. too complicated.
b. weak.
c. strong.
d. not based on a legitimate method of reasoning.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

3. Philo asserts that Cleanthes’s method of reasoning leads to serious doubts about the
Deity’s
a. perfection and unity.
b. infinity.
c. competence.
d. All of the above
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

4. Philo insists that we cannot argue from a fact about a small part of the universe to
conclusions about
 35

a. human history.
b. human contrivance.
c. ships and houses.
d. the whole universe.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Demea is interested in proving the existence of God through a posteriori argument.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. Philo declares that this world might have been the faulty product of an inexperienced
deity.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Philo proves that no God exists.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. According to Philo, because the universe is perfectly ordered, the existence of a deity
is likely.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Philo says that the dissimilarities between the universe and a human-crafted machine
are too great to draw the conclusion that Cleanthes seeks.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Philo says that we can always argue soundly from a part to the whole.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. In the end, Demea gives up his belief in God.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 36

12. Philo says that for all we know, many worlds may have been botched by an
inexperienced deity before the present world came into being.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. Philo declares that to multiply causes without necessity is contrary to true philosophy.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Cleanthes asserts that the creator deity must have physical form similar to man’s.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Philo reluctantly accepts the existence of a finite God.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 37

10. St. Anselm and Gaunilo: The Ontological Argument

Summary
In this reading we encounter St. Anselm’s ontological argument for the existence of God
and Gaunilo’s reply. The argument goes like this: God is by definition “a being than
which nothing greater can be conceived.” If God, the greatest being that can be
conceived, exists only in our minds, then there must be a being greater than God—that is,
a God that exists in reality (an existing being is greater than an imaginary one). But this
leads to a contradiction: A being greater than God is impossible. Therefore, God must
exist in reality (as well as in the mind). Gaunilo replies that if Anselm’s reasoning were
sound, we could prove something ridiculous—namely, that the greatest island possible
exists in reality.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Anselm begins his argument with

a. a tribute to reason.
b. a tribute to art.
c. a prayer to God.
d. a song.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. Anselm assumes that a being that exists in reality is greater than a being that
a. is worshipped.
b. is embodied.
c. exists only in the understanding.
d. exists without flaws.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. Anselm’s argument is based on

a. conceptual analysis.
b. empirical evidence.
c. science.
d. inductive generalization.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

4. According to Anselm, anything that can be conceived not to exist

a. exists in reality.
b. is God.
c. is not God.
d. is perfect.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

True/False
 38

5. Gaunilo demonstrates that Anselm’s argument is sound.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. Anselm thinks God is a being that exists in the understanding alone.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. According to Anselm, God cannot even be conceived not to exist.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Anselm’s argument rests on ideas about the design of the world.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Philosophers agree that Anselm establishes the existence of God.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Gaunilo succeeds in proving that there is a God.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Gaunilo proves that there is such a thing as a perfect island.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Arguments like Anselm’s rest on logic alone.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. Gaunilo denies that God is the greatest being possible.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 39

14. Gaunilo thinks that Anselm is trying to define God into existence.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Anselm says that his reasoning does not apply to things like islands but only to God,
the greatest being possible.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 40

11. William Rowe: An Analysis of the Ontological Argument

Summary
Rowe examines Anselm’s argument and finds it wanting. His critique is suggested by a
basic conviction that many philosophers have about the ontological argument: “that from
the mere logical analysis of a certain idea or concept, we can never determine that there
exists in reality anything answering to that idea or concept.” All that follows from
Anselm’s argument, he says, is that no nonexisting thing can be God (as Anselm defines
God)—that is, that “nothing but an existing thing could exemplify Anselm’s concept of
God.” But it does not follow from this conclusion that “some existing thing actually does
exemplify his concept of God,” that this God so defined exists in reality.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Rowe, Anselm believes that existence in reality is

a. not possible.
b. beyond understanding.
c. not an attribute of God.
d. a great-making quality.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

2. According to Rowe, Gaunilo’s “greatest island” argument

a. refutes Anselm’s argument.
b. seems to be no threat to Anselm’s argument.
c. makes a strong case for atheism.
d. proves theism.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

3. According to Rowe, Kant’s objection to Anselm—that existence is not a genuine

predicate—seems
a. to be a conclusive refutation.
b. incoherent.
c. not to be a conclusive refutation.
d. sound.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

4. Rowe says we can allow someone to define God anyway he or she wants, yet it will
not follow from that definition that such a being
a. actually exists.
b. can be defined.
c. exists in our understanding.
d. exists in our minds.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website
 41

True/False
5. Rowe asserts that it follows from the definition of magician that some existing thing is
a magician.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. Rowe says that most philosophers who have considered Anselm’s argument have
rejected it because they believe it tries to define something into existence.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. According to Rowe, if we grant to Anselm the premise that God is a possible being, the
argument begs the question.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Rowe believes that Anselm’s argument fails as a proof of the existence of God.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Rowe thinks Anselm’s argument is sound.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Rowe says we may examine and analyze the idea of a unicorn, but it is only by our
experience of the world that we can determine that such a thing exists.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. The most famous objection to Anselm’s argument comes from Immanuel Kant.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Proponents of Kant’s view say that existence is not a predicate.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 42

13. According to Rowe, it is doubtful that Kant provides us with a conclusive refutation
of Anselm’s argument.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Rowe says that Anselm’s argument is an indirect proof of the existence of God.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. According to Rowe, Anselm’s argument begs the question.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 43

12. Fyodor Dostoevsky: Why Is There Evil?

Summary
In this scene from Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, Ivan Karamazov explains to
his pious younger brother, Alyosha, a Christian monk, why he cannot accept God. Ivan’s
impediment to full devotion to God is the problem of evil. He declares that there is
untold, unfathomable suffering in the world—suffering such as that of a little child who
is tortured, mutilated, and murdered by a ruthless general for no reason. God allows this
suffering, but no adequate justification or explanation can be given why God would
permit such evil.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Ivan says that even if suffering is necessary for humans to acquire knowledge of good
and evil, all such knowledge is
a. worth the price.
b. worth the suffering endured by children.
c. worth any price.
d. not worth the suffering of a single child.
Answer: d
DONE Appears: Student Website

2. According to Ivan, to achieve a higher, cosmic harmony

a. everyone must suffer.
b. no one should suffer.
c. children should not have to suffer.
d. even children should suffer.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. Ivan says that he cannot and will not accept

a. God.
b. God’s grand scheme of higher harmony through suffering.
c. God’s punishment of guilty adults.
d. God’s kind treatment of children.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. Ivan asks Alyosha if he would consent to the torture and killing of one tiny child if the
act would give all of humanity ultimate peace and happiness. To this Alyosha answers
a. yes.
b. yes, if the peace and happiness were forever.
c. no.
d. only if all other children were spared.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website
DONE
 44

5. The central question raised by Ivan Karamazov is:

a. Why is there something rather than nothing?
b. What is evil?
c. How could a good God permit evil?
d. What is religion for?
Answer: c

True/False

6. Ivan thinks that he can understand God.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Ivan believes that God exists.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Ivan is content for injustices on Earth to be righted in some remote time and space.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Ivan accepts the fact that to pay for eternal harmony, children must suffer.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Ivan agrees that an eternal harmony of all mankind could compensate for all the
suffering in the world.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
DONE

11. Ivan is wrestling with what philosophers call the problem of evil.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. When Ivan says, “I most respectfully return Him the ticket,” he means that he has
solved the problem of evil.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 45

13. The existence of necessary evil is proof that God does not exist.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Ivan does not accept God’s arrangement—the terrible evil in the world in exchange
for some kind of divine reward such as harmony.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. In the end, Alyosha rejects God.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 46

13. B.C. Johnson: Why Doesn’t God Intervene to Prevent Evil?

Summary
In this essay Johnson compares God’s behavior with that of a morally good person. If you
know that a six-month-old baby is in a burning building and you have the opportunity to
save it without undue risk to your life, you would no doubt save the baby. Of course, if
you could not save the child, you would be excused. The question is, “Why doesn’t God
intervene to save not just babies who are caught in fires but people everywhere who are
suffering and in great need of help?” Johnson considers various “excuses” the theist
might claim for God and argues that they all fail. His conclusion is that if there is a God,
he or she is probably either evil or both good and evil.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Johnson, many people claim that God does not intervene to prevent evil
(accidents, disasters, pain, etc.) because
a. man has free will, which leads to much self-inflicted suffering.
b. we need to face disasters without assistance; otherwise, we would become
dependent on an outside power for aid.
c. God’s intervention would destroy people’s moral urgency to make things right.
d. All of the above
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

DONE

2. According to Johnson, if there were no disasters in the world to create moral urgency,
a. people would be worse off.
b. religion would flourish.
c. God would have to see to it that such disasters occur.
d. God would be obliged to maintain such a paradise.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. According to Johnson, to the theist’s claim that in a world without suffering there
would be no opportunities to cultivate virtues such as courage and sympathy, the atheist
can reply that
a. there is more suffering in the world than is needed to produce these virtues.
b. human suffering is an illusion.
c. God would not permit suffering.
d. the world should have zero suffering.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

4. According to Johnson, the reason it will not do for the theist to claim that evil exists as
a necessary contrast to good so we can have knowledge of good is
a. evil and good are the same thing.
 47

b. only a small amount of evil would be necessary to give us this knowledge.

c. evil is good for us.
d. large amounts of evil are necessary to give us this knowledge.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Johnson says that no one can have justifiable faith in the goodness of God.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. Johnson argues that the theist can correctly claim that God may not be all-powerful and
thus not able to prevent evil.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Johnson admits that evil is a necessary by-product of the laws of nature.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Johnson concludes that the problem of evil triumphs over traditional theism.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Johnson admits that evil actually does not exist.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Johnson says that God is like a bystander who refuses to help save a child from the
flames even though he has the power to do so.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Johnson accepts the existence of a God with limited powers.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Johnson says that God’s intervention to help mankind would destroy moral urgency.
a. True
 48

b. False
Answer: False

13. Johnson suggests that if we want to ensure a sense of moral urgency, then maybe we
should abolish fire or police departments.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Johnson concludes that if there is a God, he or she is probably either evil or both good
and evil.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Johnson claims that traditional theism ultimately triumphs over the problem of evil.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 49

14. John Hick: There Is a Reason Why God Allows Evil

Summary
In this reading Hick offers two responses to the problem of evil, one aimed at moral evil
and the other at nonmoral (or natural) evil. He argues that moral evil is a necessary result
of finite persons (moral agents) acting freely. God chose to create finite persons, and the
“possibility of wrongdoing or sin is logically inseparable from the creation of finite
persons.” There is nonmoral evil in the world, says Hick, to allow humans the
opportunity to improve morally, to be more like God. The purpose of nonmoral evil, then,
is “soul-making.” Given this purpose, an environment without nonmoral evil “would be
the worst of all possible worlds.”

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Hick, a certain amount of evil in the world is

a. illusory.
b. caused by a finite God.
c. necessary.
d. contrary to divinity.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. According to Hick, the idea of a person who can be infallibly guaranteed always to act
rightly is
a. coherent.
b. necessary.
c. biblical.
d. self-contradictory.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. According to Hick, such evils as poverty, oppression, persecution, and war are
a. manifestations of human sin.
b. natural evils.
c. divine evils.
d. unreal.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

4. According to Hick, the divine purpose could not be forwarded in a world that was
designed as a
a. place filled with natural evil.
b. realm of moral evil.
c. place with nature laws.
d. hedonistic paradise.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website
 50

True/False

5. Hick asserts that it is no limitation on God’s power that God cannot accomplish the
logically impossible.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. Hick says that it is possible to show that each item of human pain serves the divine
purpose.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. In Hick’s view, because God is good and loving, the environment that God has created
for human life is naturally as pleasant and comfortable as possible.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Hick concludes that this world is well adapted to the purpose of soul-making.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Hick says there is no real difference between moral and nonmoral evil.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Hick believes that evil permeates the world because God is powerless to stop it.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Hick attempts to explain every instance of evil in human experience.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Hick says that to claim that God should not have created beings who might sin
amounts to saying he should not have created people.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 51

13. Hick says that it is logically impossible for God to create people free from the risks
inherent in personal freedom.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Hick says there is no good reason for the existence of natural evil.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Hick successfully presents a detailed theodicy.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 52

15. William L. Rowe: The Problem of Evil and Some Varieties of Atheism

Summary
In this selection, Rowe presents his own version of the argument from
evil:

1. There exist instances of intense suffering which an omnipotent,

omniscient being could have prevented without thereby losing
some greater good or permitting some evil equally bad or worse.
2. An omniscient, wholly good being would prevent the
occurrence of any intense suffering it could, unless it could not
do so without thereby losing some greater good or permitting
some evil equally bad or worse.
3. [Therefore] there does not exist an omnipotent, omniscient,
wholly good being.

Concerning premise 2, Rowe declares, “In light of our experience and knowledge of the
variety and scale of human and animal suffering in our world, the idea that none of this
suffering could have been prevented by an omnipotent being without thereby losing a
greater good or permitting an evil at least as bad seems an extraordinary absurd idea,
quite beyond our belief.”

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Rowe’s argument from evil is based on

a. the profusion of three kinds of evil in the world.
b. a deductive proof.
c. the profusion of one sort of evil in the world.
d. scientific data.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. Rowe’s story of the dying fawn in the forest is meant to show that
a. premise 2 of his argument is true.
b. there is no God.
c. premise 1 of his argument is false.
d. premise 1 of his argument is true.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. Rowe claims that we can have rational grounds for believing that
a. premise 1 is true.
b. premise 1 is false.
c. premise 2 is unnecessary.
d. premise 1 is incoherent.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website
 53

4. Rowe asks if it is reasonable to believe that there is some greater good

so intimately connected to that suffering [of the fawn] that even an
omnipotent, omniscient being could not have obtained that good without
permitting that suffering or some evil at least as bad. His answer is that
a. it appears reasonable to believe this.
b. it is proven that this is true.
c. it does not appear reasonable to believe this.
d. it is proven that it is not reasonable to believe this.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Rowe acknowledges that the case of the fawn’s apparently pointless

suffering does not prove that premise 1 of his argument is true.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. Rowe asserts that it is reasonable to believe that God does not exist.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Rowe says the best procedure for the theist to follow in rejecting the
claim that unnecessary evil exists is the “G. E. Moore shift.”
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Rowe identifies himself as “an unfriendly atheist.”

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Rowe takes human and animal suffering as a clear instance of evil.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Rowe’s conclusion is that a finite God does not exist.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 54

11. Rowe thinks that instances of intense suffering exist that an omnipotent, omniscient
being could have prevented without losing some greater good or causing some evil
equally bad or worse.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Rowe thinks that theism cannot be accepted on rational grounds by theists.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Rowe believes there are no theist responses to his argument from evil.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. For Rowe, the dying fawn in the forest is a case of unnecessary, unexplained evil in
the world.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Rowe considers himself a “friendly atheist.”

a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 55

16. Blaise Pascal: Yes, Faith Is a Logical Bet

Summary
Pascal argues that if we do a cost–benefit analysis of the matter, it turns out that it is
eminently reasonable to get ourselves to believe that God exists, regardless of whether we
have good evidence for that belief. The argument goes something like this: Regarding the
proposition “God exists,” reason is neutral. It can neither prove nor disprove it. But we
must make a choice on this matter because not to choose for God is in effect to choose
against God and lose the possible benefits that belief would bring. Because these benefits
of faith promise to be infinite and the loss equally infinite, we must take a gamble on
faith.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Pascal, as finite humans, we are incapable of knowing

a. the infinite.
b. what God is or if God is.
c. the infinity of numbers.
d. finite things.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. According to Pascal, when it comes to the question of God’s existence,

a. reason can lead us to faith.
b. faith depends on reason.
c. reason can decide nothing.
d. reason can decide the question.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. According to Pascal, if you bet that God exists, and God does in fact exist,
a. you gain a viable faith.
b. you win nothing and lose everything.
c. you lose because you abandon reason.
d. you win infinite happiness and lose nothing.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

4. According to Pascal, it would be irrational

a. to bet that God exists.
b. not to bet that God exists.
c. to bet at all.
d. not to bet against God.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

True/False
 56

5. The point of Pascal’s wager is to prove that God exists.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. Pascal believes that belief in God is a rational act.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Pascal advises those who are unable to believe in God to reduce their passions and act
as if they believed.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Pascal proves that there is a 50–50 chance that God exists and will give infinite
happiness to believers.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Pascal says that if there is a God, God is infinitely incomprehensible.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Pascal believes that when it comes to the question of God’s existence, reason can lead
us to faith.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Pascal admits that God may be a being who punishes those who gamble on God’s
existence.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Like Pascal, others can make a bet on the existence of their god.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Pascal says that by believing in God, we have everything to gain and nothing to lose.
a. True
 57

b. False
Answer: True

14. Pascal believes that God favors honest doubters who use their God-given power of
reasoning to believe only according to the evidence.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Pascal considers the possibility that nothing people do or believe matters because they
are predestined by God to go to heaven or hell.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 58

17. W.K. Clifford: The Ethics of Belief

Summary
In this essay Clifford argues against Pascalian wagers and against all pragmatic
justification for religious belief. He contends that believing involves ethical principles, so
we violate our moral duty if we obtain beliefs where the evidence is insufficient. Such
acquisitions of beliefs are tantamount to theft. Clifford begins this essay by relating the
story of a shipowner who sends a ship full of emigrants out to sea, knowing that the ship
is old and not well built. The shipowner stifles doubts and launches it anyway, sincerely
trusting Providence to care for it. When it sinks and all passengers are drowned, he
collects his insurance money without a trace of guilt. Clifford argues that sincerity in no
way excuses the shipowner because “he had no right to believe on such evidence as was
before him.” The rest of the essay is a discussion of the ethics of acquiring beliefs on
insufficient evidence.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Clifford, what the shipowner did was wrong because

a. the ship was lost and people died.
b. he lacked sincerity.
c. he had no right to believe on insufficient evidence.
d. he had a right to believe what he did.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. According to Clifford, we have a duty to proportion our belief to the evidence

a. in most cases.
b. in all cases.
c. when lives are at stake.
d. if we have faith.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

3. According to Clifford, even if a belief that guides an action is true, the holder of that
belief is still guilty of wrongdoing if
a. the belief is based on the wrong grounds.
b. the action itself is wrong.
c. no harm is done.
d. the believer is sincere.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

4. According to Clifford, those who have acquired a belief when they have no right to
believe on such evidence as is before them have
a. done right.
b. been virtuous.
c. done wrong.
 59

d. made a perceptual error.

Answer: c Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Clifford asserts that it is always wrong for anyone to believe anything on insufficient
evidence.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. Clifford admits that there are exceptions to his ethics of belief.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. According to Clifford, no person’s belief is a private matter that concerns him or her
alone.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Clifford contends that no simplicity of mind and no obscurity of station can excuse
someone from the universal duty of questioning all that he or she believes.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Clifford argues that every time we let ourselves believe for unworthy reasons, we
weaken our powers of self-control and of judicially and fairly weighing evidence.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Clifford believes that in some cases we can legitimately believe on faith alone.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Clifford says that in religious matters we need not have our beliefs based on evidence.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Clifford says that a lifetime of believing without good reason amounts to a sin against
mankind.
 60

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. Clifford says that his insistence on believing according to evidence is backed up by
scripture.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Clifford insists that it is never lawful to stifle a doubt.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Clifford believes that no proposition can be shown to be conclusively true.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 61

18. William James: The Will to Believe

Summary
In this classic response to Clifford’s ethics of belief, James argues that life would be
greatly impoverished if we confined our beliefs to such a Scrooge-like epistemology as
Clifford proposes. In everyday life, where the evidence for important propositions is
often unclear, we must live by faith or cease to act at all. Although we may not make
leaps of faith just anywhere, sometimes practical considerations force us to make
decisions regarding propositions that do not have their truth value written on their faces.
“Belief” is defined as a live, momentous optional hypothesis on which we cannot avoid a
decision because not to choose is in effect to choose against the hypothesis. James claims
that religion can be such an optional hypothesis for many people and that in this case one
has the right to believe the better story rather than the worse. To do so, one must will to
believe what the evidence alone is inadequate to support.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to James, a live option is

a. a true hypothesis.
b. a forced option.
c. a real possibility to someone.
d. a dead hypothesis.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. According to James, a genuine option is

a. true.
b. momentous but not forced.
c. live but not momentous.
d. forced, live, and momentous.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. According to James, in cases where there are no forced options, it is best to

a. take a leap of faith.
b. try to avoid false beliefs by proportioning belief to evidence.
c. seek the truth by risking error.
d. not decide.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. According to James, the desire for a certain kind of truth can

a. change nothing.
b. never help create a fact.
c. bring about the special truth’s existence.
d. have no religious significance.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website
 62

True/False

5. James agrees with Clifford that it is always wrong to believe anything on insufficient
evidence.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. James thinks that in the search for truth above all else we must avoid being in error.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. According to James, those who refuse to make a leap of faith may cut themselves off
from their only opportunity of encountering the divine.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Believing that God exists increases the probability that God does in fact exist.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Like Clifford, James believes that it is dangerous to believe anything on faith.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. James thinks that we should withhold belief in some religious matters.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. According to James, to leave a question open (not to make a decision) is itself a
passional decision.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. James asserts that the answers to moral questions can wait for proof.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 63

13. James says that he refuses to believe in God.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. James believes that faith can help create a fact.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. James repudiates science.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 64

19. Alvin Plantinga: Religious Belief without Evidence

Summary
In this essay Plantinga argues that it is rational to believe in God despite the lack of
evidence for such belief. Those (such as W.K. Clifford) who insist that we must have
evidence for all our beliefs simply fail to make their case because the evidentialists have
not set forth clear criteria that would account for all the clear cases of justified beliefs and
that would exclude the belief in God. Plantinga outlines the position of the
foundationalist-evidentialist as claiming that all justified beliefs must either (i) be
“properly basic” by fulfilling certain criteria or (ii) be based on other beliefs that
eventually result in a treelike construction with properly basic beliefs at the bottom or
foundation. Plantinga shows that many beliefs we seem to be justified in holding do not
fit into the foundationalist framework: such beliefs as memory beliefs (e.g., that I ate
breakfast this morning), belief in an external world, and belief in other minds. These
beliefs do not depend on other beliefs, yet neither are they self-evident, incorrigible
(impossible not to believe), or evident to the senses. Having shown the looseness of what
we can accept as “properly basic,” Plantinga next shows that the Protestant reformers saw
belief in God as “properly basic.” He asks us to consider this belief as a legitimate option
and examines possible objections to it.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Plantinga, belief in God is

a. a perceptual notion.
b. accepted by evidentialists.
c. not properly basic.
d. properly basic.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

2. According to Plantinga, the two premises of the evidentialist objection to belief in God
are that (i) it is irrational or unreasonable to accept theistic belief without sufficient
evidence and that (ii)
a. there is sufficient evidence for belief in God.
b. most philosophers reject belief in God.
c. there is not sufficient evidence for belief in God.
d. God does not exist.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. According to Plantinga, the evidentialist objection to theistic belief is typically rooted

in
a. classical theodicy.
b. classical foundationalism.
c. scientific methodology.
 65

d. theological ideology.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. According to Plantinga, in the right circumstances, a properly basic belief could be

a. “God is speaking to me.”
b. “God has created all this.”
c. “God forgives me.”
d. All of the above
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Many philosophers have argued that belief in God is unreasonable because there is
insufficient evidence for it.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. Plantinga argues that one has no rational obligation to support one’s belief in God with
evidence.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Plantinga is committed to saying that belief in the Great Pumpkin can be properly
basic.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Plantinga thinks that someone who holds that belief in God is properly basic is
committed to holding that belief in the Great Pumpkin is properly basic.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Plantinga argues that only religious beliefs are properly basic.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Plantinga accepts classical foundationalism.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 66

11. Plantinga is a typical evidentialist.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. According to Plantinga, many Reformed thinkers rejected natural theology.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. Plantinga says that foundationalists have a duty to believe in God.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Plantinga thinks we are obligated to always have evidence for our spiritual beliefs.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. No beliefs are properly basic.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 67

20. Michael Martin: Faith and Foundationalism

Summary
Michael Martin (1932-2015) was a professor at Boston University and author of several
books including Atheism, Morality, and Meaning (2002) and Atheism: A Philosophical
Justification (1990). He also edited several collections, most notably The Cambridge
Companion to Atheism (2006). Martin critiques Alvin Plantinga’s argument that it is
acceptable for persons to believe that God exists even if they cannot produce evidence or
argument to justify that belief. Plantinga begins with the traditional philosophical view
that all our beliefs are based ultimately on beliefs that are “properly basic”—they are
either self-evident (such as “two plus two equals four”) or evident to the senses (as when
our looking at or remembering a tree shows immediately that there is or was a tree). To
be counted as genuine knowledge our beliefs must be either properly basic or justified by
beliefs that ultimately rest on those that are properly basic. Plantinga contends that belief
in God can be a properly basic belief and thus require no supporting evidence. Martin
argues, however, that because Plantinga’s approach allows people to formulate their own
properly basic criteria from their own unique experience and perspective, almost any
belief—no matter how bizarre—could be considered properly basic.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Martin critiques Plantinga’s view that belief in God is

a. a perceptual notion.
b. properly basic.
c. not properly basic.
d. accepted by evidentialists.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. According to Martin, Plantinga argues that foundationalists are unable to justify

a. belief in God.
b. that all beliefs are properly basic.
c. the foundationalist principle that a proposition is properly basic if and only if it
is self-evident or evident to the senses.
d. the scientific principle that a proposition is properly basic if and only if it is
self-evident or evident to the senses.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. Plantinga contends that the evidentialist objection to theistic belief is typically rooted
in
a. classical theodicy.
b. scientific methodology.
c. classical foundationalism.
d. theological ideology.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website
 68

4. According to Martin, Plantinga argues that traditional arguments for the existence of
God
a. are needed for rational belief.
b. are not needed for rational belief.
c. are incoherent.
d. are properly basic.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Martin points out that philosophers have argued that belief in God is unreasonable
because there is insufficient evidence for it.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. According to Martin, Plantinga argues that classical foundationalists are being self-
referentially inconsistent.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Martin contends that Plantinga’s refutation of classical foundationalism has no

relevance for contemporary foundationalism.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Martin agrees that Plantinga’s proposal would not allow any belief at all to become
basic from the point of view some community.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. According to Martin, on Plantinga’s view, the rationality of any belief is absurdly easy
to obtain.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Martin agrees with Plantinga that there is a consensus in the Christian community
about what beliefs are basic and what conditions justify these beliefs.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 69

11. Martin thinks Plantinga is a typical evidentialist.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Martin asserts that belief in God seems inappropriate for inclusion in the class of
basic belief.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. Martin concedes that like perception and memory, there are grounds for claiming that
a belief in God is properly basic.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Martin concludes that Plantinga’s foundationalism is radically relativistic.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Martin says that Plantinga’s foundationalism puts any belief beyond rational appraisal
once it is declared basic.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 70

21. Søren Kierkegaard: Faith and Truth

Summary
In this excerpt from his famous Concluding Unscientific Postscript, Kierkegaard declares
that faith is the highest virtue, far superior to reason. The latter can render belief in God
only a barren probability, a dry uncertainty or approximation; but the former gives you a
deeply fulfilling subjective certainty. This risky “leap of faith” requires an utmost act of
will—an extreme passion—to believe what cannot otherwise be believed, to believe what
is absurd. Great absurdities (such as Christianity’s central story, says Kierkegaard)
require great, passionate faith, and such faith is “the highest truth there is for an existing
human being.”

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Kierkegaard, the truth in its highest form is

a. objective certainty.
b. uncertainty.
c. objectivity.
d. subjectivity.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

2. According to Kierkegaard, without risk, there is no

a. belief.
b. faith.
c. objective understanding.
d. love.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

3. According to Kierkegaard, the objective uncertainty, held fast in an appropriation

process of the most passionate inwardness, is
a. an objective certainty.
b. the truth.
c. useless.
d. the unknown.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. According to Kierkegaard, the object of faith is

a. the absurd.
b. probable propositions.
c. objectively proven statements.
d. the sane and sensible.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

True/False
 71

5. Kierkegaard says that a person can achieve faith through objective inquiries into God’s
existence.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. He claims that what matters in religious belief is not what you believe but rather how
you believe.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. For Kierkegaard, faith is possible only where there is objective uncertainty.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Kierkegaard says that subjectivity is the truth.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Kierkegaard says that when the eternal truth is related to an existing individual, truth
becomes a paradox.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Kierkegaard thinks reason should be denied in every situation.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Kierkegaard says that Socrates was the most ignorant of real truth.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Kierkegaard eventually embraced his Judaism.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Kierkegaard says that the core story of Christianity is absurd.

a. True
 72

b. False
Answer: True

14. Kierkegaard says that paradox and passion belong together as a perfect match.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Most modern scientists now hold a Kierkegaardian view concerning objective and
subjective reality.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 73

22. Bertrand Russell: Can Religion Cure Our Troubles?

Summary
In this essay Russell argues against the idea that adherence to religious dogma is
humankind’s best hope for alleviating the world’s evils. Uncritical acceptance of faith-
based morality is dangerous and noxious because it leads to coercion by authorities who
wish to preserve orthodoxy, to intolerance of opposing views, and to discouragement of
honest inquiry. Contrary to general opinion, he says, Christianity has historically not
embodied better morality than rival worldviews have: “Christianity has been
distinguished from other religions by its greater readiness to persecution.” To those who
believe that intelligence has caused our troubles, he says, “It is not unintelligence that
will cure them. Only more and wiser intelligence can make a happier world.”

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Russell, as soon as people hold any belief for some other reason than that
it is true,
a. orthodoxy begins to decline.
b. a host of evils is ready to spring up.
c. social welfare is increased.
d. unorthodoxy takes root and flourishes.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. According to Russell, the dangers of Soviet and Christian doctrines arise from
a. communist propaganda.
b. pagan influences.
c. unorthodoxy.
d. the way the doctrines are held.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. According to Russell, the contention that Christianity has had a positive moral
influence can be maintained only by
a. ignorance or falsification of historical evidence.
b. the grace of God.
c. honest inquiry.
d. better education of the young.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

4. According to Russell, those who appeal to “true” Christianity selectively ignore much
that is to be found in
a. the Old Testament.
b. Marxism.
c. the Gospels.
d. Buddhism.
 74

Answer: c Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Russell thinks that the medieval church embodied the best of Christianity.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. Russell says that every theological ethic can be wholly defended rationally.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Russell believes that what the world needs is reasonableness, tolerance, and realization
of the interdependence of humanity.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. According to Russell, it is dangerous to defend Christianity solely on the grounds that

people will behave better if they believe it.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Russell thinks that people will behave better if Christianity is widespread.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Russell asserts that whenever people begin to doubt received theology, it becomes
supported by harmful and odious means.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Russell maintains that until the twentieth century, religion was either benign or
beneficial.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Russell says that he feels profound moral reprobation for those who say that religion
ought to be believed because it is useful.
a. True
 75

b. False
Answer: True

13. According to Russell, the evils of communism are the same as those that existed in
Christianity during the Ages of Faith.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Russell admits that Christianity has in fact stood for better morality than that of its
rivals and opponents.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Russell thinks Christianity is both untrue and harmful.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 76

III. Knowledge

23. René Descartes: Cartesian Doubt and the Search for Foundational Knowledge

Summary
Descartes desires to know the truth, and he realizes that this will be an arduous enterprise
because he has discovered by painful experience that much of what he has been taught
and has taken for granted is false. He must destroy his tottering house of “knowledge”
and lay a new foundation on which to construct an indestructible edifice. The method
consists of doubting everything that can be doubted and then, on the pure remainder of
certain truth, beginning the process of constructing an indubitable system of knowledge.
The result is a type of rationalism in which the only certainties are discovered by the
mind through self-evident insight or reason.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Descartes had been disillusioned by his discovery that many of the alleged truths
learned in his youth were
a. contrary to his religion.
b. true.
c. false.
d. beyond question.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. Descartes says that for all he knows, he may be

a. dreaming.
b. deceived by God.
c. deceived by an evil genius.
d. All of the above
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. Descartes reasons that the very fact that he is thinking shows that
a. he does not exist.
b. he is not being deceived.
c. he exists.
d. he is dreaming.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

4. Descartes argues against trusting the senses on the grounds that

a. they never directly deceive him.
b. they sometimes deceive him.
c. God allows sensory deception.
d. sense perception is indubitable.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website
 77

5. Descartes declares that an evil demon

a. undoubtedly exists.
b. could not possibly exist.
c. could possibly be deceiving him.
d. must exist if God exists.
Answer: c

6. Descartes declares that he is

a. a body.
b. a dream.
c. a thing that thinks.
d. a thing that cannot exist.
Answer: c

7. At first Descartes supposes that everything he sees is

a. true.
b. false.
c. part of him.
d. undeniable.
Answer: b

8. Descartes says that thought is an attribute that

a. must be illusory.
b. belongs only to his body.
c. does not belong to him.
d. really does belong to him.
Answer: d

True/False

9. Descartes declares that he knows with certainty that he is.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Descartes says that because it is possible that an evil genius is deceiving him, he can
never know that he himself exists.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Descartes concludes that he is a thing that breathes.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 78

12. For Descartes, the statement “I am, I exist” is necessarily true every time he utters it.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. Descartes is a rationalist.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Descartes is concerned with propositional knowledge.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Descartes denies the possibility of knowledge.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 79

24. John Locke: The Empiricist Theory of Knowledge

Summary
Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689) is the first systematic
assault on Cartesian rationalism, the view that reason alone guarantees knowledge. Locke
argues that if our claims to knowledge make any sense, they must be derived from the
world. He rejects the rationalist notion that we have innate ideas (actual knowledge of
metaphysical truths, such as mathematical truths, universals, and the laws of nature)
because (i) there is no good deductive argument establishing the existence of such
entities, (ii) children and idiots do not seem to possess them, and (iii) an empirical way of
knowing, which seems far more reasonable, has no place for such entities. Locke does
believe that we have intuitive knowledge of our own existence and that the existence of
God can be demonstrated by reason. Scholars are puzzled at this apparent inconsistency,
but Locke would respond that it is no inconsistency. We know that we exist on immediate
reflection because of the nature of consciousness, not because of any knowledge hidden
within us. Nor do we have innate knowledge of God. It is simply that we can reason from
empirical truths about the world to the existence of God (using such arguments as the
cosmological and teleological arguments).
According to Locke, the mind at birth is a tabula rasa, a blank slate. It is like
white paper, devoid of characteristics until it receives sense perceptions. All knowledge
begins with sensory experience on which the powers of the mind operate, developing
complex ideas, abstractions, and the like. In place of the absolute certainty that the
rationalists sought to find, Locke says that, apart from the knowledge of the self, most of
what we know we know in degrees of certainty derived from inductive generalizations.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Locke’s purpose is to inquire into

a. authoritative opinions about knowledge.
b. the structure and functions of the brain.
c. the origin, certainty, and extent of human knowledge.
d. the essence of the soul.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. Locke asserts that all the components of reason and knowledge come from
a. memory.
b. experience.
c. the mind of God.
d. logic.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

3. Locke believes that we have nothing in our minds that did not come from
a. sensation and reflection.
b. reflection on innate ideas.
 80

c. reason alone.
d. cultural memory.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

4. Locke draws a distinction between

a. primary and secondary colors.
b. internal and external feelings.
c. resemblances and similarities.
d. primary and secondary qualities.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. In his inquiry Locke set out to examine the physical characteristics of the mind.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. Locke accepts the view that we have innate ideas about metaphysical truths.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Locke argues that even if there were particular truths that all men agreed on, that fact
would not prove the existence of innate ideas.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. According to Locke, all knowledge begins with sensory experience.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Locke favors a rationalist theory of knowledge.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Locke refuses to use the word “idea.”

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Locke says that the knowledge of our own being we have by intuition.
a. True
 81

b. False
Answer: True

12. Locke says the existence of God is something that reason clearly makes known to us.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. Locke, like Descartes, is a rationalist.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Locke says, “I think; therefore I am.”

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Locke began by doubting every proposition he thought he knew.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 82

25. George Berkeley: An Idealist Theory of Knowledge

Summary
In this dialogue Berkeley defends his belief that only ideas exist. “To be is to be
perceived”—to be is to be an idea in a mind—and hence matter existing apart from the
mind does not exist. In this dialogue Hylas (from the Greek word for “matter”) debates
with Philonous (from the Greek “love of mind”). The unique thing about Berkeley’s
idealism is that unlike traditional idealism (e.g., Plato’s), it is not rationalistic. Berkeley
does not propose that ideas exist independently but rather assumes an empirical
foundation. He agrees with Locke that all ideas originate in sense experience and
proceeds to show that all we ever experience are ideas. The only reality that exists to be
known is perceivers and perceptions. To hold all of this ideal reality together one must
posit a Divine mind that perceives us and hence causes our existence as ideas in the
Divine’s mind.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Hylas asserts that existing and perceiving are

a. one and the same thing.
b. both in the mind only.
c. two distinct things.
d. imaginary.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. Hylas eventually concedes to Philonous that heat and cold are

a. illusions.
b. physical objects.
c. only things existing apart from our minds.
d. only sensations existing in our minds.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. Philonous believes that sensible things cannot exist except in

a. a mind.
b. absolute existence.
c. material substance.
d. a material universe.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

4. Philonous concludes that God exists because

a. material substance exists.
b. all sensible things must be perceived by him.
c. God perceives all things having absolute subsistence.
d. God is material substance.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website
 83

True/False

5. Hylas declares that the view that there is no such thing as material substance is the
most extravagant opinion ever.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. Berkeley is willing to accept the conventional distinction between

primary and secondary qualities.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Berkeley declares that there is no such thing as material substance.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Philonous asks how the same food can taste sweet sometimes and bitter at other times
if the taste was something inherent in the food.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Berkeley thinks that the sweet or bitter taste of food is inherent in the
food itself.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Berkeley is an empiricist.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Philonous forces Hylas to deny that sensible things have any real existence.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Philonous is a rationalist.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 84

13. Hylas says that the reality of sensible things exists independent of minds.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Berkeley and Locke say that only ideas exist.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Berkeley says there is no sound independent of our hearing it.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 85

26. David Hume: The Origin of Our Ideas

Summary
In this selection from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748), we have an
extension of the empiricism begun with Locke. Like Locke, Hume locates the foundation
of all our ideas in sensory experience. But Hume moves even further away from the
possibility of absolute certainly of knowledge toward the view that we can justly have
only relative certainty. We can be certain of only analytic truths (“relations of ideas”),
namely, mathematics and tautologies. With regard to synthetic truths (“matters of fact”),
we, at best, can have a high degree of probability. But even the notion of probability is
dubious and leads to a certain skepticism because the notion of cause and effect on which
experiential knowledge is based is itself not an impression but rather an idea.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Hume, all our thought is restricted to manipulating the materials provided
to us by
a. logic.
b. a priori knowledge.
c. the senses and experience.
d. theorems.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. According to Hume, if we suspect that a philosophical term is without meaning, we

need ask only
a. from what impression that supposed idea is derived.
b. from what conceptual considerations the idea is derived.
c. from what a priori principles it is derived.
d. if the claim is logical.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

3. According to Hume, propositions that are discoverable by the mere operation of

thought are those regarding
a. matters of fact.
b. the knowledge of the sciences.
c. sensory relations.
d. relations of ideas.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

4. According to Hume, all reasonings concerning matters of fact are founded on the
relation between
a. a priori ideas.
b. propositions of certainty.
c. cause and effect.
 86

d. logical ideas.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

5. The difficulty of justifying the assumption that the future will be like the past is known
as
a. the problem of science.
b. the problem of deduction.
c. the problem of induction.
d. the problem of incoherence.
Answer: c

6. Hume argues that the principle of induction can be neither an a priori truth nor
a. an a priori falsehood.
b. an a posteriori falsehood.
c. a truth of mathematics.
d. an a posteriori fact.
Answer: d

7. Hume observes that to argue that the principle of induction can be established by
experience is to
a. make a valid argument.
b. prove too much.
c. state the obvious.
d. beg the question.
Answer: d

8. According to Hume, we rely on the principle of induction because

a. it is an established truth.
b. it is a habit of mind.
c. it is confirmed by science.
d. it is inductively proven.
Answer: b

9. According to Hume, the senses do not give us images of something

distinct, independent, or external because
a. they convey to us images of things beyond our perceptions.
b. all our perceptions are the product of dreams.
c. the senses convey to us nothing but a single perception and
nothing beyond that.
d. our senses cannot be trusted.
Answer: c

10. Hume calls our belief in the continued, independent existence of such
things as colors and sounds a
a. truth derived from reason.
b. truth supported by the senses.
 87

c. deductive conclusion.
d. prejudice.
Answer: d

True/False

11. Hume’s view of empiricism would demolish all metaphysical speculation.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Hume thinks that causes and effects are discoverable by reason.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Hume divides the content of the mind into ideas and impressions.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. According to Hume, custom alone renders our experience useful to us.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Hume is an empiricist rationalist.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 88

27. G.E. Moore: Proof of an External World

Summary
Moore defends common sense against skeptics and others who deride our ordinary
beliefs. He insists that there is a vast amount of shared knowledge about the world,
expressible in ordinary language and about which we can be quite certain. He provides an
argument that he thinks decisively defeats skepticism about an external world: If
skepticism is true, we do not have knowledge of the external world, but we obviously do
have knowledge of the external world; therefore, skepticism is false.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Moore asserts that he has given a proof of the external world and that this proof is
a. inadequate.
b. logically certain.
c. perfectly rigorous.
d. equivocal.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. Moore thinks denying that he knew the proposition about his raised hands would be
a. reasonable.
b. rational.
c. logical.
d. absurd.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. Moore claims that the best phrase to describe “external things” is

a. things external to our bodies.
b. things external to our minds.
c. existing things.
d. things outside of us.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. Moore insists that his proof of the existence of things outside of him
a. is mathematically certain.
b. meets his two conditions of proof.
c. meets his three conditions of proof.
d. is superfluous.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

5. Moore says that Kant thought that a proof of things outside of us was
a. impossible.
b. possible.
c. possible but beyond his (Kant’s) ability.
 89

d. well known.
Answer: b

6. Moore believes that skepticism is decisively defeated by

a. logic.
b. common sense.
c. Kant.
d. popular assertions.
Answer: b

True/False

7. Moore argues that skepticism is false.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Moore thinks that no proof can be given for the existence of things outside of us.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Moore rejects common sense and our ordinary beliefs.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Moore argues that we have knowledge of ethical propositions.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Moore asserts that he can know things that he cannot prove.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Moore thinks that he can provide proof of knowledge in all cases.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Moore thinks the existence of God can be proved by common sense.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 90

14. Moore thinks all knowledge comes from reason alone.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Moore is a skeptic.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

28. Bertrand Russell: The Correspondence Theory of Truth

Summary
In this selection Russell first distinguishes between knowledge by acquaintance (e.g.,
knowledge by appearances, such as “I seem to see a red book,” “I am in pain,” or “I
think, therefore I am”) and knowledge by description (knowledge of truths, such as your
knowing that you are really seeing a red book or that your pain is caused by having
twisted your ankle). Knowledge by acquaintance is generally thought to be infallible
because believing it makes the proposition true. But the same is not the case for
descriptive knowledge claims because your beliefs could be false. Thus, descriptive
knowledge is dualistic—it has the properties of truth and falsity as opposites—whereas
knowledge by acquaintance is monistic and does not admit such opposites. Russell goes
on to specify the conditions for an adequate theory of truth and shows how the
correspondence theory meets these conditions, whereas the coherence theory does not.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Russell, a theory of truth must

a. allow for falsehood.
b. assume that truth and falsehood are properties of beliefs.
c. assume that truth or falsehood depends on something external to beliefs.
d. All of the above
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

2. According to Russell, truth consists of some form of correspondence between

a. beliefs and statements.
b. facts and states of affairs.
c. belief and fact.
d. belief and truth.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. According to Russell, an important objection to the coherence theory of truth is that

there is no proof that there can be
 91

a. only one coherent system of beliefs.

b. a coherence among beliefs.
c. a theory of how beliefs can cohere.
d. several systems of belief.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

4. According to Russell, the coherence theory of truth presupposes

a. nothing.
b. empirical truths.
c. the laws of logic.
d. scientific laws.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Russell is concerned with the question of how we can know whether a belief is true or
false.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. Russell believes that the coherence theory of truth is at least as plausible as the
correspondence theory.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Russell argues that the correspondence theory meets the three requirements of any
theory of truth.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. For Russell, minds do not create truth or falsehood.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Russell says the coherence theory of truth differs only slightly from the
correspondence theory.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Russell says it is possible to equate the correspondence theory with total skepticism.
a. True
 92

b. False
Answer: False

11. Russell ponders what is meant by the question whether a belief is true or false.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Russell maintains that it is not possible to possess propositional knowledge.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Russell says that truth and falsehood are properties of beliefs and statements.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Russell says that it is common for two rival hypotheses to both be able to account for
all the facts.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Russell is a skeptic.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 93

29. William James: The Pragmatic Theory of Truth

Summary
In this reading James sets forth his view of truth. He holds that truth is dynamic rather
than static and is to be defined in terms of beliefs that are useful or satisfying. Unlike the
“intellectualists” (James’s characterization of the traditional static approaches to the
question of truth, i.e., the correspondence theorists), truth is in process—still becoming
and changing. Yesterday’s truth is today’s falsehood, and today’s truth is tomorrow’s
half-truth. What really matters is what you can do with an idea, what difference it makes
to your life, its (in James’s term) “cash-value.”

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to James, the pragmatic method is to interpret each notion by

a. checking its correspondence with reality.
b. examining its practical consequences.
c. checking its coherence with other ideas.
d. accepting it as true.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. According to James, the popular notion of truth is that

a. a true idea is pragmatically real.
b. a true idea does not exist.
c. a true idea is unknowable.
d. a true idea must copy its reality.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. According to James, pragmatism asks

a. what concrete difference an idea’s being true will make in one’s life.
b. how the idea matches up to reality.
c. what other idea it coheres with.
d. “why bother with truth?”
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

4. The validation of an idea refers to

a. the idea’s deductive quality.
b. the idea’s practical consequences.
c. the idea’s eternal truth value.
d. the knower’s state of mind.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. James believes that truth is something that happens to an idea.

 94

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. James says that an idea cannot be true simply because it is useful.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. James declares that truth lives on a credit system.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. According to James, truth has nothing to do with the good.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. James says that true ideas are those that we can assimilate, validate, corroborate, and
verify.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. James asserts that the possession of true thoughts means everywhere the possession of
invaluable instruments of action.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. James says that the overwhelming majority of our ideas can be verified.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Almost all philosophers are in agreement with James’s theory of truth.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. James says that truth is one species of good.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 95

14. James thinks it is not possible to apply his theory of truth to morality.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. James says the pragmatic method is a way to settle metaphysical disputes.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 96

30. Richard Rorty: Dismantling Truth: Solidarity versus Objectivity

Summary
In this selection Rorty attacks the distinction between objectivity and subjectivity as well
as the correspondence theory of truth. He sides with Thomas Kuhn in arguing that we can
have no theory-independent notion of reality and proposes to erase the essential
difference between science and the humanities and arts. Embracing the title of “the new
fuzzies,” Rorty proposes that a notion of social solidarity replace the enlightenment
notion of objective truth.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Rorty, in one sense, “rational” means methodical; in another sense, it

means something like
a. scientific.
b. objective.
c. lawful.
d. civilized.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

2. According to Rorty, for the notion of objectivity, we should substitute the idea of
a. the rationality of science.
b. theory-independent inquiry.
c. intersubjective agreement.
d. unfuzzy standards.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. According to Rorty, the pragmatist holds a view that could be described as

a. objectivist.
b. ethnocentric.
c. self-refuting.
d. equivocal.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. According to Rorty, we would be better off without the traditional distinctions between
a. belief and opinion.
b. solidarity and inquiry.
c. knowledge and justified true belief.
d. knowledge and opinion.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Thomas Kuhn has said that there is no theory-independent way to examine reality.
 97

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. Rorty wants to drop the distinction between objective and subjective.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Rorty thinks that inquiry is destined to converge on the truth.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Rorty says that pragmatists want to reduce objectivity to solidarity.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Rorty says that distinctions between hard facts and soft truth are awkward and clumsy
instruments.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Rorty says that what he calls “pragmatism” might also be called left-wing
Kuhnianism.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Rorty says that what he calls “pragmatism” might also be called right-wing
relativism.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Rorty embraces the new fuzziness.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. Rorty argues that our judgments about the world are objective.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 98

14. Rorty distinguishes two types of relativism.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Most philosophers agree with Rorty.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 99

31. Daniel Dennett: Postmodernism and Truth

Summary
In this essay Dennett argues that postmodernist ideas, such as Rorty’s, fail to understand
the importance of truth. They either reject the concept in favor of an irrational cognitive
relativism or undervalue truth, giving it minor importance.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Dennett, Rorty’s view of truth and reality is that it is all about
a. objectivity.
b. science.
c. conversations.
d. ignorance.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. According to Dennett, the claim that the Holocaust happened during World War II is
a. a metaphor.
b. a truth about an event that really happened.
c. a subjective truth.
d. a mind game.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

3. According to Dennett, the point of asking questions is to

a. discover answers that members of a community can agree on.
b. play a language game.
c. continue the conversation.
d. find true answers.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

4. According to Dennett, the methods of science are not foolproof, but they are
a. indefinitely perfectible.
b. useful though false.
c. infallible.
d. relative to cultures.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Dennett says that the recognition of the difference between appearance and reality is a
human discovery.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 100

6. Dennett points out that, like science, religion is willing to abandon its orthodoxy in the
face of irresistible evidence.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Dennett maintains that doubt has provoked humans to seek better truth-seeking
methods.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Dennett is repulsed by the professor who wanted an epistemology whether or not it

was true.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Dennett says philosophers need not hold themselves responsible for what they say.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Dennett mostly agrees with Rorty.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Dennett says Rorty encourages a postmodernist skepticism about truth.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Dennett says that we are not the species that discovered doubt.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Dennett rejects cognitive relativism.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Dennett doesn’t think that Rorty deserves his large and enthralled readership in the
arts and humanities.
 101

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Dennett says there is a gap between appearance and reality.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 102

32. Eve Browning Cole: Philosophy and Feminist Criticism

Summary

Eve Browning Cole is associate professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota,

Duluth. Her areas of specialty include feminism, feminist theory, and ancient Greek
philosophy. She is co-editor of Explorations in Feminist Ethics: Theory and Practice and
Heart and Mind: Essays in Feminist Philosophy. She explains the recent feminist
critiques of the dominant theories of knowledge and cautions against postmodernist
views.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Cole says Lorraine Code contends that the dominant theories of knowledge from the
Western philosophical tradition have focused on what she calls
a. a commodity of distrust.
b. solid scientific truth.
c. the unknowns.
d. a commodity of privilege.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

2. The kind of feminist who suggests that philosophy’s shortcomings with regard to all
the nonprivileged can be remedied by a more careful adherence to philosophy’s stated
mission is known as known as a
a. postmodernist.
b. feminist empiricist.
c. Marxist feminist.
d. standpoint theorist.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

3. According to some feminists, Aristotle was wrong about the number of teeth women
have because
a. the empirical method of observation is worthless.
b. he rejected empiricism
c. he failed to consider women’s opinion.
d. he failed to be a good enough empiricist.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

4. Those who advocate the construction of a feminist-standpoint epistemology argue that

the feminist standpoint
a. has certain inherent epistemic advantages over male-centered epistemologies.
b. cannot be articulated.
c. has certain inherent epistemic disadvantages.
d. favors an androcentric science.
 103

Answer: a Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Cole favors a kind of epistemic anarchism in which all claims, no matter how bizarre
or contradictory, are equally valid.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. Cole is a scientific postmodernist.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Feminist postmodern epistemologies are essentially uncritical.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Some feminist philosophers express serious concerns about postmodernism as a viable

basis for epistemology or for feminist politics in general.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. According to Cole, if gender identity is an entirely social construct, there would be a

strong basis for feminist thinking.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. The prospects for a better philosophical understanding of human existence will not
improve as larger numbers of women enter the domains in which “received knowledge”
is processed.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Philosophy’s history has issued predominantly from the minds of privileged white
males.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 104

12. Feminist-standpoint epistemologies seek to uncover and describe women’s

knowledge-making activities as these have originated in and been shaped by men’s daily
work and men’s values.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. The feminist empiricist maintains that philosophers and scientists need to be told to
“look again!”
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Feminist critics have shown strong skepticism regarding philosophers who have
presumed to speak for “Reason itself.”
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. All articulate women are feminists.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 105

33. Alison Ainley: Feminist Philosophy

Summary
Alison Ainley is head of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at Anglia
Ruskin University in Cambridge and Chelmsford, United Kingdom. Her areas of research
include feminist philosophy, phenomenology, and contemporary European philosophy.
Ainley defines feminist philosophy and discusses the major issues with which feminist
philosophers have grappled.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. The strands of feminist thinking in philosophy are

a. unified.
b. scientific.
c. diverse.
d. ancient.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. A key philosophical issue among feminist philosophers is the question of

a. sexual anomalies.
b. sexual difference.
c. sexual truth.
d. sexual timidity.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

3. Carol Gilligan has suggested that sexual difference is

a. of little concern.
b. unrelated to politics.
c. trivial.
d. significant.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

4. Feminism is concerned with identifying and remedying harm against and

disadvantages to women
a. in business.
b. in academia.
c. in the sciences.
d. arising from biases against women.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. All women philosophers are feminist philosophers.

a. True
 106

b. False
Answer: False

6. Gender is synonymous with sex.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. It may be a historical accident that philosophy has been an activity associated with
men.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Along with Foucault and some Marxist theorists, some feminists have argued that sex
itself is a social or cultural construct.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Women have not been active philosophers in the past.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Feminists have presented philosophical critiques of philosophers’ images of women.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. In the past it has been argued that sex creates or causes gender.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Historical research into the work of past women philosophers have found no evidence
that women’s work was unjustly disregarded.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. There is wide agreement among feminist philosophers that philosophy can be trusted
to be neutral on the question of sexual difference.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 107

14. Philosophers agree that women’s minds are not allied with reason and order.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Feminists reject the notion of embodiment.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 108

34. David Hume: Skeptical Doubts Concerning the Operations of the Understanding

Summary
Regarding the principle of induction, David Hume asserts, “It is impossible … that any
arguments from experience can prove this resemblance of the past to the future; since all
these arguments are founded on the supposition of that resemblance.” He holds that we
rely on the principle of induction not because it is an established truth but rather because
it is a habit of mind. Because of our long experience of seeing one event repeatedly
follow another, we develop a feeling of expectation that the event will always follow the
another.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. The difficulty of justifying the assumption that the future will be like the past is known
as
a. the problem of science.
b. the problem of deduction.
c. the problem of induction.
d. the problem of incoherence.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. Hume argues that the principle of induction can be neither an a priori truth nor
a. an a priori falsehood.
b. an a posteriori falsehood.
c. a truth of mathematics.
d. an a posteriori fact.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. Hume observes that to argue that the principle of induction can be established by
experience is to
a. make a valid argument.
b. prove too much.
c. state the obvious.
d. beg the question.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

4. According to Hume, we rely on the principle of induction because

a. it is an established truth.
b. it is a habit of mind.
c. it is confirmed by science.
d. it is inductively proven.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

True/False
 109

5. Hume’s argument shows that science should stop relying on the principle of induction.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. Empirical evidence can show that the principle of induction is true.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. The principle of induction cannot be justified a priori.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Hume refuses to use the principle of induction in his daily life.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Hume asserts that causes and effects are discoverable not by reason but by experience.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Hume argues that all reasonings are of two kinds—demonstrative reasoning and
reasoning concerning matters of fact and existence.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Hume says that custom can be no guide of human life.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Science has proved that the future will resemble the past.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Hume proves the impossibility of scientific progress.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 110

14. Hume’s argument shows that science should stop relying on the
principle of induction.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Hume was confident that someone would solve the riddle of induction.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 111

35. Wesley C. Salmon: The Problem of Induction

Summary
In this reading Salmon explains the problem of induction raised by David Hume and
examines several answers to it, including inductive, probabilistic, and pragmatic
solutions.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Salmon thinks that the problem of induction is

a. illusory.
b. overblown.
c. a genuine problem.
d. a nonproblem.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. Salmon thinks that pragmatic solutions to the problem of induction

a. succeed.
b. are on the right track.
c. are by far the best answers.
d. fail.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. Salmon argues that the inductive solution to the problem of induction is

a. adequate.
b. inadequate.
c. underrated.
d. satisfactory.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. Salmon thinks that the probabilistic solution

a. is mostly correct.
b. succeeds.
c. is powerful.
d. fails.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Salmon solved the problem of induction.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 112

6. Salmon thinks that Hume misstates the problem.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. The problem of induction concerns whether we should use the principle of induction in
science.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Salmon thinks that science has an impressive record of success in predicting the future.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Salmon says that one of the basic differences between knowledge and belief is that
knowledge must be founded on evidence.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Hume’s answer to the problem of induction was basically skeptical.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Some thinkers have denied that inductive inference is needed in science.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. No one has yet provided a solid pragmatic justification for induction.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. The problem of induction does not concern the foundations of science.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Salmon says that science at bottom is a matter of faith.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 113

15. Salmon thinks we should not give up trying to solve the problem of induction.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 114

IV. Philosophy of Mind: The Mind–Body Problem

36. René Descartes: Substance Dualism

Summary
According to Descartes, there are three kinds of objects or substances in the universe: (i)
the eternal substance, God; (ii) God’s creation in terms of mind; and (iii) God’s creation
in terms of matter: “We may thus easily have two clear and distinct notions or ideas, the
one of created substance which thinks, and the other of corporeal substances, provided
we carefully separate all the attributes of thought from those of extension.” We are
thinking substances or embodied minds:

For I am not only lodged in my body as a pilot in a ship, but I am very

closely united to it, and so to speak so intermingled with it that I seem to
compose with it one whole. For if that were not the case, when my body
hurt, I, who am merely a thinking thing, should perceive this wound by the
understanding only, just as the sailor perceives by sight when something is
damaged in his vessel.

The two kinds of substances that make us each a person intermingle in such a way that
they causally act upon each other. Although it might be that a mind interacts with each
part of its body separately, Descartes’s view is that mind interacts only with the brain.
The material event that causally stimulates one of our five senses (e.g., light hitting the
retina of the eye) results in a chain of physical causation that leads to a certain brain
process from which a certain sensation results. Then, in turn, being affected by the brain,
the mind through mental events acts on the brain, which in turn affects the body.
Descartes thought he could pinpoint the place in the brain where the interaction between
mind and brain took place—the pineal gland. It functions, according to Descartes, as the
intermediary that transmits the effects of the mind to the brain and the effects of the brain
to the mind.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Descartes, the mind, or soul, is

a. a thinking and extended thing.
b. a thinking and unextended thing.
c. identical to the body.
d. an unthinking and unextended thing.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. According to Descartes, the mind is distinct from the body and

a. cannot exist without it.
b. is unknowable.
c. is dependent on material substance.
 115

d. can exist without the body.

Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. According to Descartes, the great difference between mind and body is that
a. the body is indivisible, and the mind is divisible.
b. the body is distinct, but the mind is indistinct.
c. the body is divisible, and the mind is indivisible.
d. the body is the mind.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

4. If the mind is indivisible and the body is divisible, then, according to Descartes,
a. the mind is identical to the body.
b. the mind is not identical to the body.
c. the mind is indestructible.
d. the mind is material.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

5. The view that we consist of two distinct substances (body and mind) and that these two
interact is known as
a. functionalism.
b. identity theory.
c. substance dualism,
d. materialism.
Answer: c

6. Descartes believed that interaction between body and mind took place in
a. ectoplasm.
b. the brain stem.
c. the pineal gland.
d. the nervous system.
Answer: c

7. Descartes says that the chief characteristic of physical things is that

a. they cannot be measured.
b. science can study them.
c. they do not have extension.
d. they have extension.
Answer: d

True/False

8. Descartes is convinced that corporeal things exist and that he has a body.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 116

9. Descartes believes that mind and body are one.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Descartes believes that consciousness must reside in the brain.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Descartes says that the mind rests in the body as a pilot in a vessel does.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Cartesian dualism says that the mind is identical with the body.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Most contemporary philosophers reject Descartes’s theory of mind.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Descartes provides a convincing explanation of how mind and body interact.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Descartes believes that the mind cannot fall into error.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 117

37. Gilbert Ryle: Exorcising Descartes’s “Ghost in the Machine”

Summary
In this selection Ryle criticizes Cartesian dualism, which he labels “the Ghost in the
Machine,” as involving a category mistake. A category mistake is a confusion one slips
into when something that belongs to one category or context is mistakenly taken to
belong to another. Ryle argues that just because we speak of bodily functions and mental
functions as different in no way entails that they are two entirely separate entities. Ryle
believes that this functional language can be reduced to observation language.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Ryle, the “official doctrine” is

a. mind and body are distinct but have fundamentally the same properties.
b. mind and body both have extension and are publicly observable.
c. mind and body are both governed by mechanical laws.
d. mind and body are separate and fundamentally different in basic properties.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

2. According to Ryle, underlying Descartes’s view is the notion that what exists has
either
a. physical existence or mental existence.
b. physical existence or material existence.
c. mental existence or spiritual existence.
d. complete existence or incomplete existence.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

3. According to Ryle, someone who accepts the official doctrine has no good reason to
believe that
a. his own mind is real.
b. bodies are real.
c. other minds exist.
d. minds are bodies.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

4. According to Ryle, the doctrine of the ghost in the machine is

a. true.
b. false.
c. unproblematic.
d. scientific.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

True/False
 118

5. For Descartes, the mental is just another variety of the mechanical.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. Ryle argues that those who accept the ghost in the machine doctrine make a category
mistake.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. If Ryle is correct, the contrast between mind and matter will dissipate.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Ryle believes that the mind is made of a different sort of stuff than the body is.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Ryle thinks the official doctrine is absurd.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. A category mistake is a confusion one slips into when something that belongs to one
category or context is mistakenly taken to belong to another.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Ryle says that Descartes was caught between two supreme motivating factors—
science and religion or morality.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Ryle says that there is no great mystery how the body can interact with the mind.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Ryle argues that the notion of a ghost mysteriously lodged in a machine is the result
of a category mistake.
a. True
 119

b. False
Answer: True

14. Ryle says that Descartes was not a good philosopher.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Descartes did not respect science.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 120

38. J. P. Moreland: A Contemporary Defense of Dualism

Summary
Moreland defends dualist interactionism, arguing that the mind is distinct from the brain.
He compares physicalism, the view that the only thing that exists in the universe is
matter, with substance dualism, the view that mind is separate from matter. He gives
several reasons for rejecting physicalism and accepting dualism. Moreland claims that the
idea of dualism is best understood from within a wider metaphysic, such as theism.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Moreland, the mind–body problem focuses on two main issues: (i)
whether a human being is composed of one ultimate component or two and, if the answer
is two, (ii) how
a. philosophers relate to these two.
b. the two cancel out each other.
c. the two relate to one another.
d. these two components can give rise to a third.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. According to Moreland, physicalism holds that

a. matter and mind are distinct substances.
b. mind is all that exists.
c. matter/energy does not exist.
d. matter/energy is all that exists.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. According to Moreland, if theism is true, then physicalism as a worldview is

a. false.
b. true.
c. also true.
d. meaningless.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

4. According to Moreland, physicalism must be false if

a. numbers exist.
b. values exist.
c. the laws of logic exist.
d. All of the above
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

True/False
 121

5. Moreland argues that the principle of the indiscernibility of identicals shows that mind
and brain are not identical.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. Moreland says that the subjective character of experience does not count against the
doctrine of physicalism.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Moreland maintains that the fact of intentionality is evidence that the self is not
physical but mental.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Moreland asserts that the origin of minds is best explained by postulating a form of
panpsychism.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Moreland says that, applied to the mind–body problem, physicalism asserts that a
human being is just a physical system.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Property dualists hold that the mind is a property of the body.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Physicalism holds that God, souls, and nonphysical abstract entities do not exist.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Moreland argues that God does exist.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 122

13. According to Moreland, physicalists deny the existence of universals at the level of
general worldview.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Moreland says that physicalists have managed to capture, in physicalist terms, the
subjective character of experience.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Moreland says mind seems to be a basic feature of the cosmos.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 123

39. Paul Churchland: On Functionalism and Materialism

Summary
In this selection Churchland examines functionalism and the two prominent versions of
materialism in philosophy of mind. Reductivism claims that there is an identity of mental
states with brain states. Functionalism rejects any one-to-one correlation between mental
types and physical types and concentrates on the relationship between inputs and outputs.
For example, the mental event of pain could be similar in two beings that have altogether
different types of bodies and brains. Most functionalists are materialists, but someone
could be a functionalist and be a nonmaterialist. Eliminative materialism is more radical
than either of these other theories and seeks to eliminate “folk psychology”—talk of
beliefs, feelings, and perceptions—in favor of more scientific descriptions of what is
going on in the brain. Churchland concludes that the truth may be a combination of the
two materialist theories, although the evidence points more in the direction of
eliminativism.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Churchland, the identity theory finds support from the neural dependence
of
a. only some mental phenomena.
b. mind over matter.
c. all known physical phenomena.
d. all known mental phenomena.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

2. According to Churchland, the argument based on Leibniz’s law—because mental

states are introspectively known to me and because brain states are not introspectively
known to me, my mental states are therefore not identical to my brain states—is
a. true.
b. fallacious.
c. based on false premises.
d. cogent.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

3. According to Churchland, the fact that there is no single type of physical state to which
a given type of mental state must always correspond is a problem for
a. dualism.
b. functionalism.
c. the identity theory.
d. taxonomy.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website
 124

4. According to Churchland, the inverted-spectrum thought experiment and the absent

qualia problem have been used to argue against
a. functionalism.
b. dualism.
c. the identity theory.
d. the relational theory.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. The identity theory says that mental states are physical states of the brain.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. Churchland argues that specific qualia of a mental state are not essential to it.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Churchland thinks that folk psychology is a basically true conception of cognitive

activity.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Most philosophers accept eliminative materialism.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Churchland says that the identity theory gets some support from the growing success
of the neurosciences.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Churchland accepts the identity theory.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Churchland accepts the argument from introspection.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 125

12. Churchland says there are almost certainly many more ways than one for nature to put
together a thinking, feeling, perceiving creature.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. According to Churchland, functionalism is almost certainly true.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Problems crop up for functionalism regarding sensory qualia.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Churchland says that our folk psychology will eventually be shown to be an illusion.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 126

40. J.J.C. Smart: Sensations and Brain Processes

Summary
In this article, Smart states and defends mind–body identity, clarifying the theory’s
central claims and answering several objections to it.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Smart, the report of an “after-image” or “ache” is a report

of
a. sensations.
b. a brain process.
c. conscious experience.
d. a mental process.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. Smart denies that “experience” and “brain process”

a. mean different things.
b. mean anything.
c. mean something.
d. mean the same thing.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. Smart says the notion that everything should be explicable in terms of

physics except the occurrence of sensations seems
a. credible.
b. unbelievable.
c. plausible.
d. vague but roughly true.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. Smart says that the well-known philosophical objections to the mind–

body identity theory are
a. more cogent than people realize.
b. generally on the mark.
c. not as cogent as many people think.
d. trivial.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Smart denies that to say “I have a yellowish orange after-image” is to

report something irreducibly psychical.
a. True
 127

b. False
Answer: True

6. In Smart’s view, there are no sensations.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Smart argues that because an after-image is not in physical space and a

brain process is, the after-image must not be a brain process.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Smart argues that an after-image is a brain process.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Smart’s theory posits a kind of property dualism.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. In Smart’s view, there are no brain processes.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Smart contends that mental states are identical to physical brain states.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Smart says that sensations are independent of brain processes.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. The identity theory has trouble explaining how “mind” and brain interact.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Smart says that because neurons are not in physical space and a brain process is, a
neuron is not in physical space.
 128

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Smart ultimately rejects mind–body identity.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 129

41. Thomas Nagel: What Is It Like to Be a Bat?

Summary
In this essay Nagel argues that the essence of conscious experience is this: For an
organism to have conscious experience, there must be “something that it is like to be that
organism—something it is like for that organism.” This something he calls the
“subjective character of experience.” For example, there is something that it is like to be
a bat, a specific subjective experience unique to it. The conclusion to be drawn from such
facts is that consciousness does not seem to be the sort of thing that can be explained
purely in physical terms. Exhaustively cataloging the physical characteristic of a bat (or a
human) will not explain the peculiar nature of its conscious experience. Reductive
theories of mind therefore appear to be fundamentally inadequate.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Nagel, an organism has conscious mental states if and only if

a. it has humanlike physical attributes.
b. there is something that it is like to be that organism.
c. the mental states are reducible to functional states.
d. the mental states play the right causal role.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. According to Nagel, the essence of the belief that bats have experience is that
a. they have brains.
b. bat experiences are like human experiences.
c. we know what it is like to be a bat.
d. there is something that it is like to be a bat.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. According to Nagel, if the subjective character of experience is fully comprehensible

from only one point of view, then any move toward greater objectivity will
a. take us closer to the real nature of the phenomenon.
b. not take us closer to the real nature of the phenomenon.
c. give us the whole truth.
d. reveal the hidden characteristics of the experience.
Answer: b

4. According to Nagel, what we can say about physicalism is that

a. it is false.
b. it is true.
c. we do not have any conception of how it might be true.
d. we have a conception of how it might be true.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website
 130

True/False

5. Nagel declares that the objective perspective is the true perspective.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. Nagel believes that knowledge of what it is like to be a bat can be acquired through
scientific investigation.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Nagel’s argument suggests that mental states cannot be identical with brain states.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. According to Nagel, reductionist theories of mind leave something important out of the
account.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Nagel thinks that bat brains are as complicated as human brains.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Nagel thinks some things in the world cannot be adequately understood from an
objective point of view.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Nagel believes that neurobiology can reveal the subjective experience of living
creatures.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Nagel says that brain states can ultimately explain subjective mental states.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 131

13. Nagel is skeptical of reductionism.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Nagel says that gradually, as science understands more and more about the brain,
subjective experience will be fully understood.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Nagel says it’s difficult to understand what could be meant by the objective character
of an experience.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 132

42. Jerry A. Fodor: The Mind–Body Problem

Summary
In this article Fodor criticizes traditional mind–body theories and argues for
functionalism, a distinctive departure from both dualism and identity theory. “In the
functionalist view,” he says, “the psychology of a system depends not on the stuff it is
made of (living cells, metal or spiritual energy) but on how the stuff is put together.”
Mental states are functional states—systems of causal relationships—typically realized
in, or supported by, the brain. But these relationships need not occur only in neurons; any
suitable material will do. The mind is like computer software (a system of functional or
logical relationships), which can be realized in, or run on, any suitable hardware.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Fodor, in the functionalist view the psychology of a system depends not
on the stuff of which it is made but rather on
a. what psychologists say about the stuff.
b. how the stuff relates to modern physics.
c. what kind of stuff it is.
d. how the stuff is put together.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

2. According to Fodor, the radical behaviorist’s prediction that psychologists will find it
increasingly possible to explain behavior without postulating mental causes has proven to
be
a. correct.
b. incorrect.
c. incomplete.
d. confusing.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

3. According to Fodor, as a doctrine about mental properties, type physicalism is

a. plausible.
b. true.
c. not plausible.
d. incoherent.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

4. According to Fodor, functionalism is compatible with

a. central-state identity theory.
b. dualism.
c. logical behaviorism.
d. spiritualism.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website
 133

True/False

5. Traditional philosophies of mind can be divided into dualist theories and materialist
theories.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. Fodor thinks that functionalism is a reductionist thesis.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Qualitative content is not a problem for functionalism.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Functionalism posits the existence of an immaterial substance.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Fodor thinks that dualism is a tenable theory.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Fodor says that dualism is incompatible with the practice of working psychologists.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Fodor believes that behaviorism is at odds with modern psychology.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Logical behaviorism is a semantic theory about what mental terms mean.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. Fodor says that mental states interact in generating behavior.

a. True
 134

b. False
Answer: True

14. Fodor says that qualitative content is a problem for functionalism.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Fodor claims that dualism is a better theory than functionalism.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 135

43. David Chalmers: Property Dualism

Summary
Chalmers argues for a theory of mind known as “property dualism” (also “nonreductive
materialism” and “naturalistic dualism”). In this view, mental states, or properties, are
distinct from physical properties, and arise from the physical properties without being
reducible to, or identical to, them (and without being some kind of Cartesian substance).
Philosophers like to say that this relationship between the mental and physical is one of
supervenience—that is, mental properties supervene on the physical ones. This means
that something possesses a mental property in virtue of having a physical property. The
mental property depends on the physical one, arises from it, but is not identical to it. If
true, reductive materialism must be false. “This failure of materialism,” says Chalmers,
“leads to a kind of dualism: there are both physical and nonphysical features of the
world.” Mental properties are features of the world that are “over and above the physical
features of the world.”

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Chalmers, it is plausible that consciousness supervenes naturally on

a. the soul.
b. the physical.
c. the immaterial.
d. logic.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. According to Chalmers, mental facts have a strong dependence on

a. dualist facts.
b. immaterial substance.
c. physical facts.
d. an infinite regress of mental facts.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. According to Chalmers, consciousness is

a. just another natural phenomenon.
b. transcendental.
c. Cartesian.
d. unnatural.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

4. According to Chalmers, we can explain consciousness in terms of

a. idealist notions.
b. behavior.
c. basic natural laws.
d. basic metaphysical laws.
 136

Answer: c Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Chalmers’s arguments lead us inevitably to Cartesian dualism.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. Chalmers’s theory is incompatible with all the results of contemporary science.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Chalmers says that to embrace dualism is to embrace mystery.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Chalmers can accept a naturalistic understanding of the world and still reject
materialism.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True`

9. Chalmers says that science shows that the physical world is more or less causally
closed.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Chalmers thinks that consciousness is a separate substance from the physical.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. According to Chalmers, consciousness arises from the brain.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Chalmers rejects naturalistic dualism.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 137

13. Chalmers believes that consciousness is a transcendental property.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Chalmers accepts the notion of a “ghost in the machine.”

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Chalmers’s view requires an alteration in the laws of nature.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 138

44. John Searle: Minds, Brains, and Computers

Summary
In this essay Searle grants that weak artificial intelligence (AI), which states that the mind
functions somewhat like a computer, might be correct. But he argues against strong AI,
which states that the appropriately programmed computer is mind and has intentions.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Searle, the appropriately programmed computer

a. has cognitive states.
b. can achieve strong AI.
c. explains human cognition.
d. cannot have cognitive states.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

2. According to Searle, the Chinese room thought experiment shows that

a. the claims of strong AI are not plausible.
b. the claims of strong AI are plausible.
c. computers can understand stories.
d. computers can understand Chinese.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

3. According to Searle, understanding Chinese (or any other language) is

a. merely a matter of symbol manipulation.
b. a matter of inputs and outputs.
c. not merely a matter of symbol manipulation.
d. computation.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

4. According to Searle, no computer program by itself, however sophisticated, is

sufficient for
a. computation.
b. symbol manipulation.
c. syntax.
d. intentionality.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Searle says that an automatic door understands instructions in basically the same way
that a human does.
a. True
b. False
 139

Answer: False

5. Searle thinks that the Chinese room thought experiment does not apply
to computers using parallel processing.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. Searle believes that an artificial, human-made machine can think.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Searle thinks that humans are machines that can think.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Searle believes in the possibility of strong AI.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Searle strongly objects to the claims of weak AI.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. In the Chinese room thought experiment, Searle does not understand a word of
Chinese.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Searle thinks that something can think and understand solely by virtue of being a
computer with the right sort of program.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Searle claims that computers do not have intentionality.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. For Searle, it is reasonable to postulate human-like mental states in a computer.

 140

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Searle says that believing in strong AI implies a belief in some form of dualism.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Searle believes that at least some computers have intentionality.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 141

45. Ned Block: Troubles with Functionalism

Summary
In this essay Block critiques functionalism, the view that the mind is the functions that
the brain performs, and finds it implausible because it fails to account for conscious
experience such as being in pain or seeing colors. Block puts forth what is known as an
“absent qualia argument.” The gist is that it is possible to introduce a functional
organization into some system so that, if functionalism is correct, a mind would be
brought into existence. But it seems intuitively obvious that no mind at all is constituted.
So functionalism is false. He makes his case using his famous “Chinese nation” or
“Chinese brain” thought experiment.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Block, functionalism is

a. implausible.
b. plausible.
c. proven empirically.
d. proven logically.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

2. Block’s Chinese nation argument is meant to show that

a. functionalism needs further development.
b. functionalism is false.
c. functionalism is too complex.
d. functionalism is too simple.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

3. According to Block, the Chinese nation system has

a. minimal awareness.
b. no mental states.
c. minimal consciousness.
d. mental states.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. Block’s Chinese nation thought experiment is an example of

a. a full qualia argument.
b. an inverted-spectrum argument.
c. an absent qualia argument.
d. an absent spectrum argument.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

True/False
 142

5. Block thinks that physicalism is a “chauvinist” theory.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. Block says that what makes the Chinese nation a counterexample to functionalism is
that there is prima facie doubt whether it has any mental states.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Block says that the Chinese nation has a functional organization that brings a mind into
existence.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. According to Block, no versions of functionalism are guilty of “liberalism.”

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Qualia are the qualitative feel of conscious experience.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. According to Block, physicalism is the doctrine that pain, for example, is identical to
a physical state.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Block tries to show that functionalism must be false because it is possible to introduce
an appropriate functional organization into some system and yet no mental states are
brought into existence.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Block says that functionalism is guilty of classifying systems that lack mentality as
having mentality.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 143

13. Block says that it is logically possible that the Chinese brain has no qualitative mental
states at all.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Block concedes that the argument based on the Chinese brain thought experiment is
incoherent.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Block’s Chinese brain thought experiment is an example of an inverted qualia

argument.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 144

46. John Locke: Our Psychological Properties Define the Self

Summary
In this selection Locke sets forth his psychological state theory of personal identity,
locating the criterion of personal identity in terms of consciousness (personality,
character, and, especially, memory). He says that personal identity consists in “the
sameness of a rational being [consciousness].” This consciousness can take on different
bodily forms and still preserve the same identity. It is possible for a prince to switch
bodies with a cobbler, yet the prince would still be the prince.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Locke, personal identity consists in

a. having the same identical substance.
b. having the same body.
c. having the same brain.
d. having the same consciousness.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

2. According to Locke, the state of being the same substance is

a. necessary for personal identity.
b. not necessary for personal identity.
c. sufficient for personal identity.
d. necessary and sufficient for personal identity.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

3. According to Locke, if personal identity consists in sameness of consciousness, then

having the same person present at the resurrection (where everyone would presumably
have a different body) would be
a. impossible.
b. implausible.
c. possible.
d. unimaginable.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

4. According to Locke, whoever has the consciousness of present and past actions is
a. not the same person to whom they both belong.
b. the same person to whom they both belong.
c. a person of divided consciousness.
d. two different persons.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

True/False
 145

5. Locke says that personal identity would be preserved even if the same consciousness
were annexed to one individual substance or a succession of substances.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. Locke believes that consciousness and the soul are synonymous.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Locke asserts that if the same man had distinct and incommunicable consciousness at
different times, the same man would at different times be different persons.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Locke argues that it is impossible to make personal identity consist in anything but
substance.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Locke thinks that personal identity depends on having the same body over time.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Locke says that to have a soul is to have the ability to reflect and reason.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Locke holds to a psychological states criterion of personal identity.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Locke says that personal identity does not require a continuous set of memories.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Our memories are continuous in our consciousness.

a. True
b. False
 146

Answer: False

14. According to Locke, the soul or essence of a person can take on different bodily
forms and still preserve the same identity.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. For Locke, different bodily forms mean different persons.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 147

47. David Hume: We Have No Substantial Self with Which We Are Identical

Summary
In this selection Hume argues that a person does not have a self. He says that learning
comes from sensory impressions and that there does not seem to be a separate impression
of the self that we experience. Therefore, there is no reason to believe that we have a self.
The most with which we can identify ourselves is our consciousness, and that constantly
changes. There is no separate, permanent self that endures over time; personal identity is
a fiction.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Hume, ideas must come from impressions, but there is no impression
from which the idea of self comes; therefore,
a. we know from reasoning that the self exists.
b. the soul exists.
c. the self is hidden to us.
d. there is no self.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

2. According to Hume, when he enters into what he calls his self, he stumbles onto
various perceptions, but he
a. can never understand the meaning of these perceptions.
b. cannot have more than one perception at a time.
c. can never observe his self, only perceptions.
d. cannot accept the reality of the perceptions.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. According to Hume, the self is nothing but

a. an immaterial substance.
b. a bundle of different perceptions.
c. a power of the soul.
d. a bundle of separate substances.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. According to Hume, the mind is

a. a monarch presiding over perceptions.
b. a unity.
c. a kind of spirit.
d. a kind of theater.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

True/False
 148

5. Hume says that the controversy concerning identity is merely a dispute of words.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. Hume maintains that we attribute identity over time to things even though they have
undergone total change.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Hume believes that the self is immaterial.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Hume thinks that the notion of perceptions is a fiction.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Hume points out that even though an animal may over time undergo a total change in
every part, we still attribute identity to it.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Hume reduces mind to a stream of consciousness.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Hume admits that beyond the stream of consciousness there is a transcendent self.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Hume says that he can never catch himself at any time without a perception and can
never observe anything but the perception.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. Hume thinks a person is nothing but a bundle of perceptions.

a. True
b. False
 149

Answer: True

14. According to Hume, in our stream of consciousness there is a kernel of unchanging

substance.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. For Hume, identity is merely a quality that we attribute to differing perceptions.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 150

V. Freedom of the Will and Determinism

48. Baron d’Holbach: We Are Completely Determined

Summary
In this reading d’Holbach argues that if we accept science, which he equates with a
system of material particles operating according to fixed laws of motion, then we will see
that free will is an illusion. There is no such entity as a soul; we are simply material
objects in motion, having very complicated brains that lead the unreflective to believe
that they are free.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to d’Holbach, all the mental and moral attributes that people think are
evidence for an immaterial soul are in fact
a. purely intellectual.
b. purely physical and natural.
c. ethereal.
d. undetermined.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. According to d’Holbach, people always act according to

a. free choices.
b. dictates of the soul.
c. necessary natural laws.
d. undetermined will.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. According to d’Holbach, the fact that a person often makes choices proves
a. that the person has free will.
b. that motives do not control the will.
c. that the person has no motives.
d. nothing about whether the person has free will.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

4. According to d’Holbach, man supposes himself a free agent because

a. he has free will.
b. he is undetermined.
c. he is ignorant of all the forces and causes that influence him.
d. physical laws do not apply to him.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

True/False
 151

5. d’Holbach says that man’s life is a course that nature compels him to take without
deviation.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. d’Holbach’s view is that science precludes the notion of free will.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. d’Holbach asserts that when we deliberate about a choice, our decision is free and
undetermined.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. d’Holbach says that religion is based on the notion of free agency.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. d’Holbach believes that nature is one grand machine, and people are machines within
the grand machine.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. d’Holbach believes that even though people are machines, they are born with souls to
guide the machines.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. d’Holbach asserts that the faculties known as intellectual and moral can be explained
in purely physical and natural terms.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. d’Holbach concedes that even if man has no free will, the notion of just punishment
still applies.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 152

13. d’Holbach asserts that because man is not a free agent, he is like a material object
moved by simple external forces.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. d’Holbach says that because of the multiplicity and complexity of causes acting on
human beings, people assume they have free will.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. d’Holbach says that it is impossible for people to deliberate.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 153

49. William James: The Dilemma of Determinism

Summary
In this essay James argues that although neither the doctrine of freedom of the will nor
the doctrine of determinism can be proved, there are good reasons to choose the doctrine
of free will. First, it makes better sense of the universe in terms of satisfying our deepest
intellectual and emotional needs. Second, it makes sense of the notions of regret,
especially moral regret that things are not better. Essentially, the choice between the two
doctrines is not intellectual but is based on different personality types: “possibility men”
and “anti-possibility men.”

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to James, indeterminism allows that the world has

a. no ambiguous possibilities.
b. a fixed future.
c. ambiguous possibilities.
d. no shadow of turning.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. According to James, the question of whether indeterminism is true is

a. readily answered.
b. insoluble.
c. meaningless.
d. unfortunate.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

3. According to James, if determinism is true, feelings of regret are

a. absurd.
b. rational.
c. expected.
d. good.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

4. According to James, in a deterministic world, murder and treachery would cease to be

a. events.
b. determined.
c. sins.
d. virtuous.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

True/False
 154

5. James says that determinism professes that those parts of the universe already laid
down absolutely decree what the other parts shall be.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. James asserts that to determine the truth about determinism and indeterminism, people
rely almost entirely on the empirical facts.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. James thinks that it is better—emotionally and morally—to believe in a deterministic

world than one of chance.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. James believes that indeterminism, or chance, allows for the possibility of free will.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. James declares that free actions are chance happenings.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. James believes that free choices are determined by previous events.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. James says that sometimes hard determinism allows for free actions.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. James thinks that evidence to decide between determinism and indeterminism is
impossible to find.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. James says that no sane person can tolerate the notion of chance in the world.
a. True
 155

b. False
Answer: False

14. James believes that chance happenings are random happenings and therefore cannot
yield free actions.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. James says that determinism denies the possibility of future volitions.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 156

50. Roderick M. Chisholm: Human Freedom and the Self

Summary
In this essay Chisholm argues that free actions are possible because they are caused not
by indefinitely long sequences of preceding events but rather by an agent (or self). He
calls the former kind of causation “event causation” and the latter “agent causation.” In
his view, when we act freely, we act like God—a prime mover that is itself unmoved, an
uncaused cause of events.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Chisholm, if the act of a sinner proceeds from God as the Prime Mover,
then
a. the sinner is responsible for what he or she does.
b. the sinner is not responsible for what he or she does.
c. God is not all powerful.
d. the sinner is blameworthy.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. According to Chisholm, the statements “he could have done otherwise” and “if he had
chosen to do otherwise, then he would have done otherwise”
a. mean the same thing.
b. are equivalent.
c. are not equivalent.
d. are nonsensical.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. According to Chisholm, the notion of responsibility for an action conflicts with

a. an indeterministic view of action.
b. a free will view of action.
c. a libertarian view of action.
d. common sense.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

4. According to Chisholm, the notion of agent causation is

a. incoherent.
b. coherent.
c. defined as transeunt causation.
d. superfluous.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

True/False
 157

5. Chisholm believes that there are two different kinds of causation.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. Chisholm says that each of us, when we act, is a prime mover unmoved.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Chisholm thinks that there is a logical connection between wanting and doing.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Chisholm rejects compatibilism.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Chisholm says that determinism is consistent with human responsibility.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Chisholm claims that it is not the case that every event involved in an act is caused by
some other event.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Chisholm says that some acts are not caused at all.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Chisholm thinks that free actions are uncaused actions.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Chisholm’s notion of agent causation is a very different kind of causation than what
science recognizes.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 158

14. Chisholm accepts the compatibilist’s definition of “could do otherwise.”

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Leibniz says that a desire or motive may “incline without necessitating.”
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 159

51. Harry Frankfurt: Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person

Summary
Frankfurt, like Stace, is a compatibilist. But whereas Stace and most compatibilists
defend their position by a controversial hypothetical interpretation of the formula “S is
free just in case S could have done otherwise,” Frankfurt offers a theory of the will to
account for our notion of freedom. What distinguishes humans from other animals is our
ability to deliberate and choose courses of actions. The strategy goes like this: Both
animals and humans have straightforward, or first-order, desires—for example, desires to
eat, to be comfortable, and to sleep—but whereas animals act directly on their wants,
humans can weigh them and accept or reject them. For example, Joan may have the first-
order desire to smoke a cigarette, but she may also want to be healthy. She compares the
two desires and forms a second-order desire, say, to refrain from smoking based on her
desire to remain healthy. But because it is possible that she may have the second-order
desire to refrain from smoking without wanting to act on it, there is one more step in the
process. She must make her desire her will, her volition, and be committed to act on the
desire not to smoke. A person must identify him- or herself with the second-order desire
and thereby make it a second-order volition. For Frankfurt, then, free actions are those
caused by second-order volitions.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Frankfurt, persons differ from other creatures in that they are able to
a. have first-order desires.
b. desire a variety of things.
c. form first-order volitions.
d. form second-order desires.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

2. According to Frankfurt, those who have desires but no second-order volitions are
a. persons.
b. wantons.
c. moral agents.
d. willing persons.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

3. According to Frankfurt, his theory accounts for our reluctance to say that free will is
enjoyed by
a. other persons.
b. members of an inferior species.
c. humans.
d. persons with preferences.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website
 160

4. According to Frankfurt, his theory explains why freedom of the will is

a. not possible.
b. an illusion.
c. desirable.
d. undesirable.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Frankfurt insists that having second-order volitions is essential to being a person.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. Frankfurt thinks that being free is fundamentally a matter of doing what one wants.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Frankfurt agrees with Chisholm’s view of human freedom.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Frankfurt argues that you are not responsible for your actions if you could not have
done otherwise.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Frankfurt says that what humans have that no animal has is a large brain.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Frankfurt says that even a wanton can have second-order desires.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Frankfurt is a compatibilist.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Frankfurt insists that even animals have freedom of the will.
 161

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Frankfurt maintains that a person’s will is free only if he is free to have the will he
wants.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Frankfurt says that his conception of freedom of the will is neutral regarding the
problem of determinism.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. According to Frankfurt’s theory, a person with only first-order desires has free will.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 162

52. David Hume: Liberty and Necessity

Summary
On the issue of free will, Hume is a compatibilist, persuaded that determinism (necessity)
can be reconciled with free will (liberty). In this reading he maintains that reconciliation
is possible if we define liberty as “a power of acting or not acting, according to the
determinations of the will.” The idea is that you act freely when your act is caused by
your will (desires, motivations, etc.), even though your will is determined. If your will
determines your actions, then they come from you, and you can therefore be held
responsible for them. A will that is not itself caused is neither possible nor desirable.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Hume, our actions are free when

a. they are caused by our will.
b. they are uncaused.
c. they proceed from second-order volitions.
d. they succeed.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

2. According to Hume, the doctrines of necessity and liberty are consistent with
a. indeterminism.
b. religion.
c. morality.
d. uncaused events.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. According to Hume, without the reality of determinism, no one can be

a. free.
b. undetermined.
c. rightly blamed for actions.
d. conscious.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

4. According to Hume, a person can be held responsible for his actions only if they are
determined by
a. God.
b. that person’s nature.
c. the will of others.
d. society.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

True/False
 163

5. Hume says that we cannot blame someone for an action that does not come from his
character.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. Hume maintains that moral judgment is impossible.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Hume thinks that an opinion is false if it leads to dangerous consequences.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Hume believes that free will and determinism are compatible.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Hume says that an opinion is not false just because it leads to bad consequences.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Hume is an incompatibilist.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Hume believes that if compatibilism is true, moral responsibility is impossible.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Hume insists that whatever definition we give for free will, it should be consistent
with matters of fact.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. Hume says that the only proper object of hatred or vengeance is a person or creature
endowed with thought and consciousness.
a. True
b. False
 164

Answer: True

14. Hume assumes that if your will is determined, you cannot act freely.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Hume says if your will determines your actions, you can be held responsible for them.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 165

53. W.T. Stace: Compatibilism

Summary
Stace (1886-1967) attempts to reconcile free will with causal determinism. He takes the
position that William James labeled “soft determinism” (compatibilism). We must have
free will to be held morally responsible, and yet it seems plausible that all our actions are
caused. How can these two apparently inconsistent ideas be brought together? Stace
argues that the problem is merely a verbal dispute and that, rightly understood, there is no
inconsistency in holding to both doctrines. Free actions are those we do voluntarily,
whereas unfree actions are those we do involuntarily.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Stace, the debate about free will is

a. a factual dispute.
b. about science.
c. merely verbal.
d. impossible to resolve.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. According to Stace, philosophers have assumed an incorrect definition of

a. determinism.
b. indeterminism.
c. cause.
d. free will.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. According to Stace, a definition is correct if

a. it accords with a common usage of the word defined.
b. it is proposed by linguists.
c. it is not disputed.
d. it accords with reality.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

4. According to Stace, free acts must be

a. uncaused.
b. caused by forces outside the agent.
c. those whose immediate causes are psychological states in the agent.
d. those whose immediate causes are the acts of other agents.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Stace thinks that determinism is incompatible with moral responsibility.

 166

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. Stace maintains that punishment can be justified even if determinism is true.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Stace believes that determinism is inconsistent with free will.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Stace rejects compatibilism.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

True/False

9. Stace argues that free actions are those we do voluntarily, and unfree actions are those
we do involuntarily.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Stace thinks that determinism rules out voluntary actions.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Stace argues that acts not freely done are those whose immediate causes are states of
affairs external to the agent.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Stace believes that free acts are rare.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Stace declares that moral responsibility requires determinism.

a. True
b. False
 167

Answer: True

14. Stace thinks that in our most common understanding of free actions, we must say that
no actions are free.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Stace says that the notion that determinism is incompatible with free will is an
illusion.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 168

VI. Ethics

54. Ruth Benedict: Morality Is Relative

Summary
Benedict views morality as dependent on the varying histories and environments of
different cultures. In this essay she assembles an impressive amount of data from
anthropological research of tribal behavior on an island in northwest Melanesia from
which she draws her conclusion that moral relativism is the correct view of moral
principles.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Benedict, modern civilization is

a. a necessary pinnacle of human achievement.
b. not a necessary pinnacle of human achievement.
c. superior to simpler societies.
d. normal.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. According to Benedict, the concept of normality is

a. defined the same across cultures.
b. validated by science.
c. consistent across time.
d. culturally defined.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. According to Benedict, the concept of the normal is a variant of the concept of

a. the abnormal.
b. the wise.
c. the good.
d. the sane.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

4. According to Benedict, the small number of deviants in any society is testament to

a. the discovery of fundamental sanities.
b. the fact that most people readily take any shape that is presented to them by
society.
c. the consistency of values across cultures.
d. objective morality.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

True/False
 169

5. Benedict believes that cultural variations in moral principles or practices show that
morality is relative.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. Benedict says that our culture is one entry in a long series of possible adjustments.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Benedict claims that some cultures are better than others.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Benedict is a moral relativist.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Ethical relativism is the view that some moral principles are universally valid.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Ethical relativism amounts to moral absolutism.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Ethical relativists can legitimately claim that slavery is evil in any culture.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Benedict acknowledges that at least some moral principles are universally valid.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. For Benedict, many cultures are abnormal.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 170

14. Benedict says that those we regard as abnormal may function well in other cultures.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. According to Benedict, normality is objectively defined.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 171

55. James Rachels: Morality Is Not Relative

Summary
Rachels analyzes the structure of ethical relativism, which he calls “cultural relativism,”
to show that the claims made by its proponents go beyond what the facts or arguments
can establish. He contends that the central argument, “the cultural difference argument,”
is invalid because even if there is broad cultural disagreement over morality, it does not
prove that there is no truth in the matter any more than the fact that flat-Earthers disagree
with round-Earthers proves that there is no independent truth of that matter. Rachels
points out three unfavorable consequences of cultural relativism that make it implausible.
He also points out two virtues of the doctrine.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Rachels, cultural relativism says that

a. all cultures have the same moral code.
b. there are objective standards in ethics.
c. there is no such thing as universal truth in ethics.
d. some cultures have better moral codes than others.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. According to Rachels, the first premise in the cultural differences argument is

a. different cultures have the same moral codes.
b. different cultures have common values.
c. different cultures see objective moral truth differently.
d. different cultures have different moral codes.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. According to Rachels, from the fact that different cultures have different moral codes
we cannot conclude that
a. there is no objective moral truth.
b. cultures differ.
c. moral codes exist.
d. moral codes differ.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

4. According to Rachels, the cultural differences argument proves

a. its conclusion.
b. nothing.
c. the existence of relative truth.
d. the existence of objective truth.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

5. Rachels asserts that cultural relativism implies that the idea of moral progress is
 172

a. plausible.
b. reasonable.
c. dubious.
d. coherent.
Answer: c

6. Rachels argues that often the differences between cultures lie not in their values but in
their
a. geography.
b. moral systems.
c. belief systems.
d. ethical standards.
Answer: c

7. Rachels shows that the main problem with the cultural differences argument is that
a. there is no objective truth in morality.
b. there are too many premises.
c. the conclusion follows from the premises.
d. the conclusion does not follow from the premises.
Answer: d

8. If cultural relativism were true, we could no longer say that the customs of other
societies are
a. a reality.
b. technologically inferior to our own.
c. different from our own,
d. morally inferior to our own.
Answer: d

9. If cultural relativism were true, social reformers

a. can be morally right.
b. cannot be morally right.
c. would be revered.
d. cannot be morally wrong.
Answer: b

10. Rachels believes that infanticide among the Eskimos

a. does not signal a fundamentally different attitude toward children.
b. signals a fundamentally different attitude toward children.
c. is a myth.
d. shows a total disregard for the welfare of children.
Answer: a

11. Cultural relativism implies that deciding whether actions are right or wrong is a
matter of consulting the moral standards of
a. personal conscience.
 173

b. one’s society.
c. universal morality.
d. religious codes.
Answer: b

True/False

12. Cultural relativism logically entails tolerance for other cultures.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. If people’s moral judgments differ from culture to culture, moral norms are relative to
culture.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Rachels denies that different cultures have different moral codes.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. The cultural differences argument shows that cultural relativism is true.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 174

56. Plato: Why Should I Be Moral? Gyges’s Ring and Socrates’s Dilemma

Summary
In this selection Glaucon, who is Plato’s older brother, asks Socrates whether justice is
good in itself or only a necessary evil. Playing the devil’s advocate, Glaucon puts forth
the hypothesis that egotistic power-seeking in which we have complete freedom to
indulge ourselves might be the ideal state of existence. However, the hypothesis
continues, reason quickly shows us that others might seek to have the same power, which
would interfere with our freedom and cause a state of chaos in which no one was likely to
have any of one’s desires fulfilled. So we compromise and limit our acquisitive instincts.
Justice or a system of morality is simply the result of that compromise. It has no intrinsic
value but is better than chaos and worse than undisturbed power. It is better to
compromise and limit our acquisitive instincts. To illustrate his point, Glaucon tells the
story of a shepherd named Gyges who comes upon a ring, which at his behest makes him
invisible. He uses it to escape the external sanctions of society—its laws and censure—
and to serve his greed to the fullest. Glaucon asks whether it is not plausible to suppose
that we all would do likewise. Then he offers a thought experiment that compares the life
of the seemingly just (but unjust) man who is incredibly successful with the life of the
seemingly unjust (but just) man who is incredibly unsuccessful. Which would we
choose? Socrates counters that to be just is indeed always better than to be unjust.
Immorality corrupts the inner person, making one truly worse off psychologically and
spiritually.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Glaucon’s story of Gyges’s ring is meant to show that

a. given the opportunity, people will always choose justice over injustice.
b. justice is a myth.
c. all people believe in their hearts that injustice is more profitable than justice.
d. if people could be invisible, they would never do any wrong.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. Glaucon argues that the unjust life is

a. not as good as the just life.
b. neither better nor worse than the just life.
c. impossible.
d. better than the just life.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. Glaucon says that the perfectly unjust man is one who

a. seems unjust but is just.
b. seems just but is unjust.
c. appears unjust and is unjust.
d. appears just and is just,
 175

Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. Glaucon tries to show that compared to the seemingly unjust but actually just man, the
seemingly just but actually unjust man is
a. less happy.
b. equally happy.
c. confused.
d. happier.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Glaucon argues that justice is not intrinsically good.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. Socrates believes that it pays for a man to be perfectly unjust if he appears to be just.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Socrates thinks that people should be ruled by morality, even if it must be imposed on
them from without.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Glaucon thinks that a man’s getting away with injustice makes him worse.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Socrates insists that there will be justice only when reason rules.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Gyges uses the ring to escape the laws and morals of society and to serve his greed.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Socrates thinks that all people are corrupt.

a. True
b. False
 176

Answer: False

12. Socrates argues that it is to our advantage to be moral.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. Glaucon holds that immorality corrupts the inner person.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Socrates finally convinces Glaucon to strive to be moral whether or not morality is
advantageous.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Socrates believes that being good is good for you.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 177

57. Louis P. Pojman: Egoism and Altruism: A Critique of Ayn Rand

Summary
In this essay Pojman makes a case against the kind of ethical egoism defended by such
thinkers as Thomas Hobbes and Ayn Rand. Appealing to the paradox of egoism, he
distinguishes between two levels of thinking about the self. On a higher (tier 2) level, a
person legitimately concerns him- or herself with prospects for his or her happiness, but,
in so reflecting, he or she rationally concludes that the best way to realize happiness on
an everyday (tier 1) level is to develop a strong (nonegoistic) disposition toward altruism.
Limited, reciprocal altruism offers us the best chance for happiness.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Pojman, personal egoism is a description of

a. a moral theory.
b. a personality type.
c. human nature.
d. altruism.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. According to Pojman, universal ethical egoism is the theory that everyone should
always
a. serve my best interest.
b. be selfish.
c. be egotistical.
d. serve his or her own self-interest.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. According to Pojman, Rand’s argument for the virtue of selfishness seems flawed by
the fallacy of
a. equivocation.
b. the straw man.
c. false dilemma.
d. division.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

4. Pojman asserts that the paradox of egoism is that to reach the goal of egoism, one must
a. give up altruism.
b. give up egoism and become an altruist.
c. follow both Rand and Hobbes.
d. embrace psychological egoism.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

5. Pojman maintains that the main argument for ethical egoism

 178

a. rests on psychological egoism.

b. rests on utilitarianism.
c. rests on altruism.
d. denies self-interest.
Answer: a

True/False

6. Pojman holds that the primitive notion of reciprocity seems necessary in a world like
ours.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Pojman says that the publicity argument actually supports Rand’s position.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Pojman accuses Rand of committing the fallacy of false dilemma.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Ethical egoism requires you to avoid actions that help others.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Ethical egoism implies that in pursuing one’s interests one ought always to do what
one wants to do.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. According to ethical egoism, you should do whatever you desire to do or whatever
gives you the most immediate pleasure.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Pojman thinks that the argument from counterintuitive consequences is unsound.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 179

13. Mackie argues that the real name for Suckers is “Christian.”
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Pojman rejects ethical egoism.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Pojman thinks that ethical egoism conflicts with our considered moral judgments.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 180

58. Joel Feinberg: Psychological Egoism

Summary
A common form of psychological egoism says that people perform actions—even actions
that appear to be altruistic or selfless—solely to obtain satisfaction, happiness, or
pleasure. But Feinberg argues that this view of the matter is muddled. It is much more
likely that we act to obtain particular things, not satisfaction itself, and that we experience
satisfaction as a byproduct of obtaining those things. We don’t seek satisfaction; we seek
certain things that give us satisfaction when we acquire them. If the things themselves
were not the object of our desires, it would be difficult to see how we could get any
satisfaction from our attaining them.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Personal egoism is a description of

a. a moral theory.
b. a personality type.
c. human nature.
d. altruism.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. Psychological egoism is the doctrine that the only thing anyone is

capable of desiring or pursuing ultimately is
a. entirely selfish goals.
b. his or her own self-interest.
c. the happiness of others.
d. the good of one’s own culture.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

3. Psychological egoism is a theory about

a. what ought to be the case.
b. moral duty.
c. what is in fact the case.
d. what we should do.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

4. Ethical egoism says that all people ought to pursue

a. psychological stasis.
b. the greatest overall utility.
c. their own well-being.
d. moral perfection.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

5. The doctrine that the only thing people are capable of ultimately
 181

desiring is their own pleasure is called

a. hedonistic monism.
b. psychological egoistic hedonism.
c. psychological ethics.
d. psychological egoistic morality.
Answer: b

True/False

6. According to Feinberg, empirical evidence is seldom presented in

support of psychological egoism.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. According to Feinberg, the arguments for psychological egoism fail.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Feinberg says that from the fact that all our successful actions are
accompanied or followed by pleasure, it follows that the objective of every
action is to get pleasure for oneself.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Feinberg asserts that an exclusive desire for happiness is the surest way
to prevent happiness from coming into being.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Psychological egoism is an empirical thesis.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Ethical egoism is a moral theory.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Almost no one accepts psychological egoism.

a. True
b. False
 182

Answer: False

13. Psychological egoism is supported by moral arguments.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Feinberg accepts psychological egoism.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Feinberg thinks nearly everyone is an ethical egoist.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 183

59. Immanuel Kant: The Moral Law

Summary
In this reading Kant rejects ethical theories in which morality is contingent and
hypothetical. The moral sentiment view is contingent in that it is based on human nature
and, in particular, on our feelings or sentiments. Had we been created differently, we
would have a different nature and, hence, different moral duties. Moral duties or
imperatives are hypothetical in that they depend on our desires for their realization. For
example, we should obey the law because we want a peaceful, orderly society. Kant
argues that ethics is not contingent but rather absolute and that its duties or imperatives
are not hypothetical but rather categorical (unconditional). Ethics is based not on feeling
but rather on reason. Because we are rational beings, we are valuable and capable of
discovering moral laws binding on all persons at all times. As such, our moral duties are
not dependent on feelings but rather on reason. They are unconditional, universally valid,
and necessary, regardless of the possible consequences or opposition to our inclinations.
Kant’s first formulation of his categorical imperative is, “Act only on that maxim
whereby thou canst at the same time will that it would become a universal law.” This
imperative is given as the criterion by which to judge all other principles. If we could
consistently will that everyone would do some type of action, then there is an application
of the categorical imperative enjoining that type of action. If we cannot consistently will
that everyone would do some type of action, then that type of action is morally wrong.
Kant argues, for example, that we cannot consistently will that everyone make lying
promises because the very institution of promising entails or depends on general
adherence to keeping the promise or having an intention to do so.
Kant offers a second formulation of the categorical imperative: “So act as to treat
humanity, whether in your own person or in that of any other, in every case as an end and
never as merely a means only.” Each person by virtue of his or her reason has dignity and
profound worth, which entails that he or she must never be exploited or manipulated or
used merely as a means to the general good.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Kant, nothing can be called good without qualification except

a. right action.
b. good consequences.
c. happiness.
d. a good will.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

2. According to Kant, if an action is to have moral worth, it must be done

a. from a sense of kindness.
b. from a sense of duty.
c. according to custom.
d. with an eye to one’s purpose.
 184

Answer: b Appears: Student Website

3. According to Kant, when trying to decide whether an action is morally permissible, we

must ask if we can consistently will that the maxim of our action should become
a. a rule for maximizing happiness.
b. a contingent law.
c. a universal law.
d. a rule of thumb.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

4. According to Kant, making a lying promise would be wrong because

a. lying to people can cause them harm.
b. lying to people harms society.
c. you cannot consistently will that everyone should make lying promises.
d. most people condemn the practice.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

5. Kant’s principle of respect for persons says that we should always treat persons
a. as a means to an end.
b. never merely as a means to an end.
c. according to the relevant consequences.
d. according to their preferences.
Answer: b

6. Kant says that through reason and reflection we can derive our duties from
a. hypothetical imperatives.
b. experience.
c. the categorical imperative.
d. utilitarian calculations.
Answer: c

True/False

7. Kant declares that we should never in any circumstances treat people as a means.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Deontological ethics is equivalent to the Golden Rule.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Kant accepts Hume’s theory of moral sentiments.

a. True
b. False
 185

Answer: False

10. Kant believes that morality consists of hypothetical imperatives.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Kant believes that morality is contingent.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Kant endorses the divine right of kings in a kingdom of ends.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Kant’s theory puts strict limits on what can be universalized.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Kant says that rational beings are called “persons.”

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Kant believes that we should not treat persons merely as a means except when
society’s welfare is at stake.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 186

60. John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism

Summary
In this selection Mill argues for utilitarianism, the teleological view that “actions are right
in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the
reverse of happiness.” He equates happiness with pleasure, just as Jeremy Bentham, the
doctrine’s early architect, did. But addressing a common criticism of Bentham’s version,
Mill maintains that pleasures can vary not only in quantity, as Bentham thought, but also
in quality—from lower pleasures (such as eating and having sex) to higher ones (such as
pursuing knowledge and creating art).

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Mill, to determine whether one pleasure is more valuable than another,
we must
a. determine which one is objectively most pleasurable.
b. determine which pleasure most experienced people prefer.
c. consult philosophers of the past.
d. consult science.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. According to Mill, the ultimate end of utilitarianism is an existence as free of pain as

possible and as rich as possible in
a. lower pleasures.
b. spiritual attainment.
c. social achievement.
d. enjoyments.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. According to Mill, the Greatest Happiness Principle is

a. one of several principles of morality.
b. the standard of morality.
c. endorsed by all the major religions.
d. embodied in the Ten Commandments.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. According to Mill, utilitarianism says that right actions are those that produce the
greatest happiness for
a. each individual.
b. one’s own family.
c. all concerned.
d. those who deserve it.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website
 187

5. According to Mill, the experience of happiness can vary

a. only quantitatively
b. only in the way Bentham describes.
c. referentially.
d. qualitatively.
Answer: d

6. Mill declares that it is better to be Socrates dissatisfied than

a. a pig satisfied.
b. Socrates satisfied.
c. a fool satisfied.
d. a fool dissatisfied.
Answer: c

True/False

7. Mill thinks that some kinds of pleasures are more valuable than others.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Mill believes that the moral worth of an action depends on one’s motives.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Mill asserts that happiness is the sole end of human action.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. For Mill, a beast’s pleasures can satisfy a human being’s conception of happiness.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Bentham insists that pleasures should be measured by their quantity, not quality.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Mill rejected Bentham’s moral theory.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 188

13. Mill says his view is a “pig philosophy.”

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Mill contends that the quantity of happiness is more important than its quality.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Bentham says, “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better
to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.”
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 189

61. Russ Shafer-Landau: Consequentialism: Its Difficulties

Summary
Russ Shafer-Landau is professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
He is the author, editor, or coeditor of several books including The Fundamentals of
Ethics, fourth edition (2017) and The Ethical Life, fourth edition (2017). He is also the
editor of Oxford Studies in Metaethics. In this reading he reviews some common
criticisms of utilitarianism and argues that although some of them are less than decisive,
others pose serious problems for the theory. Utilitarianism’s most crippling shortcomings
are its insistence that there is no intrinsic wrongness (or rightness) and its requirement
that we must maximize well-being even if justice is thwarted.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Shafer-Landau notes that a problem for utilitarianism is that it cannot make room for
a. maximum utility.
b. pleasure.
c. supererogation.
d. the general welfare.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. Shafer-Landau says that the impartiality required by utilitarianism is

a. a substantial drawback of the theory.
b. a perversion of moral theory.
c. a mark against the theory.
d. a substantial benefit of the theory.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. According to Shafer-Landau, contrary to utilitarianism, morality sometimes seems to

recommend
a. absolutism.
b. partiality.
c. cruelty.
d. injustice.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. A major criticism of Shafer-Landau’s is that utilitarians deny that any type of action is
a. intrinsically wrong.
b. morally right.
c. morally wrong.
d. optimific.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

5. It seems that utilitarianism sometimes must advocate cases of

 190

a. universal mercy.
b. supererogation.
c. vicarious punishment.
d. intrinsic justice.
Answer: c

6. Some utilitarians deny that their theory ever requires us to commit

a. moral relativism.
b. sin against God.
c. injustice.
d. exemplary acts.
Answer: c

True/False

7. Classic utilitarianism depends heavily on a strong sense of impartiality.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. In utilitarianism, the moral worth of an action depends on one’s motives.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Shafer-Landau says that utilitarianism’s moral flexibility comes from its refusal to
absolutely prohibit any kind of action.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Utilitarians deny that any type of action is intrinsically right.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. According to Shafer-Landau, it’s not clear that utilitarianism gives justice the
importance it deserves.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Shafer-Landau argues that maximizing both well-being and justice will solve the
justice problem in utilitarianism.
a. True
b. False
 191

Answer: False

13. Some utilitarians deny that their theory ever requires us to commit injustice.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Some utilitarians concede that well-being and justice sometimes conflict, but when
they do, it is justice and not well-being that must take a backseat.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Some utilitarians claim that our deepest moral convictions reflect a utilitarian
framework.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 192

62. Aristotle: The Ethics of Virtue

Summary
In this selection Aristotle first discusses the nature of ethics and its relationship to human
existence. He next turns to the nature of virtue, which he characterizes as traits that
enable individuals to live well in communities. To achieve a state of well-being
(eudaimonia, happiness), proper social institutions are necessary. Thus, the moral person
cannot really exist apart from a flourishing political setting that enables the individual to
develop the requisite virtues for the good life. For this reason Aristotle considers ethics to
be a branch of politics. After locating ethics as a part of politics, Aristotle explains that
the moral virtues are different from the intellectual ones. Although the intellectual virtues
can be taught directly, the moral ones must be lived to be learned. By living well, we
acquire the right habits. These habits are in fact the virtues. The virtues are to be sought
as the best guarantee to the happy life. But, again, happiness requires that one be lucky
enough to live in a flourishing state. The morally virtuous life consists in living in
moderation, according to the “Golden Mean.”

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Aristotle, we always desire happiness

a. as a means to something else.
b. for its own sake.
c. for the sake of honor.
d. for the sake of pleasure.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. According to Aristotle, the function of man is

a. to be alive.
b. activity of the senses.
c. activity of the soul in accordance with God’s law.
d. activity of the soul in accordance with reason.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. According to Aristotle, moral virtues can best be acquired through

a. study.
b. practice and habit.
c. physical exertion.
d. great teachers.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. According to Aristotle, virtues are

a. moral states.
b. emotions.
c. faculties.
 193

d. physical conditions.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

5. Aristotle says that virtue aims at

a. the extreme.
b. the mean.
c. the center.
d. the other.
Answer: b

True/False

6. According to virtue ethics, the central task in morality is knowing and applying
principles.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Aristotle thinks that the highest good is an instrumental good (good for the sake of
something else).
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Aristotle makes a distinction between moral and intellectual goods.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. According to Aristotle, only divine activities aim at the good.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Aristotle says that a good man chooses to do what is noble and right for its own sake.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Aristotle says that virtue is a mean lying between two vices.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Aristotle believes that simply studying philosophy will make one virtuous.
a. True
 194

b. False
Answer: False

13. Aristotle thinks that it is easy to be good because it is easy to find the mean in
anything.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Aristotle guides his life by several moral principles.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. For Aristotle, virtue is a means to an end.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 195

63. Virginia Held: The Ethics of Care

Summary
In this reading Held explores the moral perspective known as the “ethics of care,”
identifying its central themes, showing how it relates to an “ethic of justice” and
distinguishing it from virtue ethics.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Held, virtue ethics emphasizes the character of individuals, but the ethics
of care focuses more on
a. nurturing connectedness among people.
b. an ethic of justice.
c. Kantian values.
d. utilitarian concerns.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

2. According to Held, the ethics of care

a. rejects emotion.
b. redefines emotion.
c. values emotion.
d. is neutral regarding emotion.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. According to Held, the ethics of care calls into question the

a. feelings of individuals.
b. relationships of dependence.
c. caring attitude.
d. abstract rules of the dominant moral theories.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

4. According to Held, care is both

a. a practice and a value.
b. a theory and a rule.
c. a sense of justice and a mode of deliberation.
d. a moral law and a virtue.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

5. The notion that men and women have dramatically different styles of moral decision-
making was highlighted in research done by
a. Annette Baier.
b. Alison Jaggar.
c. Virginia Held.
d. Carol Gilligan.
 196

Answer: d

True/False

6. Held favors the liberal individualist concept of a person.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Held thinks there has been too much emphasis on an ethic of justice.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. For Held, virtue ethics and the ethics of care are synonymous.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Held thinks that virtue ethics is a failed moral theory.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. The ethics of care shifts the focus of moral theories to the unique demands of specific
situations and virtues.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. The ethics of care is, at its core, a Kantian moral theory.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Caring is an essential part of morality.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. Principles and not virtues are a necessary part of the moral life.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 197

14. The ethics of care rejects the view of the dominant moral theories that the more
abstract the reasoning about a moral problem the better.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. The ethics of care values all emotion.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 198

64. Alison M. Jaggar: Feminist Ethics

Summary
Jaggar provides an instructive overview of feminist ethics and the issues with which it
wrestles. She traces the development of the field in modern times, provides a survey of its
main complaints against traditional ethics, rebuts common misconceptions, and reviews
many of the topics that have recently preoccupied its practitioners.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Jaggar, feminist approaches to ethics are distinguished by an explicit

commitment to
a. Kantian theory.
b. correcting male biases.
c. adopting absolutist principles.
d. establishing the ethics of care.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. The notion that men and women have dramatically different styles of moral decision-
making was highlighted in research done by
a. Annette Baier.
b. Alison Jaggar.
c. Virginia Held.
d. Carol Gilligan.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. The feminist charges against Western ethics include

a. lack of concern for ethics.
b. an overemphasis on women’s needs.
c. lack of concern for women’s interests.
d. too much focus on virtues.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

4. Jaggar says that Western ethics has neglected

a. moral principles.
b. women’s issues.
c. Eastern perspectives.
d. moral actions.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. According to Jaggar, nonfeminist approaches to ethics are necessarily anti-feminist.

a. True
 199

b. False
Answer: False

6. According to Jaggar, feminist ethics has been misconstrued by proponents and critics.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. According to Jaggar, justice and care are incompatible.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. According to Jaggar, many feminist writers insist that the values and virtues inherent in
most traditional moral theories typically reflect a masculine perspective.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Jaggar says that feminist ethics has sometimes been wrongly identified with putting
women’s interests first.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Jaggar says that feminist ethics has sometimes been wrongly identified with accepting
women (or feminists) as moral experts or authorities.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Jaggar says that feminist ethics is a systematic extrapolation of women’s moral
experience, exclusive of men’s.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Jaggar says that feminist ethics can never begin by assuming that women and men are
similarly situated.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. Jaggar believes that feminist approaches to ethics should not try to provide guidance
on issues of so-called private life.
a. True
 200

b. False
Answer: False

14. Jaggar says that what is feminist often will turn out to be very different from what is
feminine.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. According to Jaggar, morality on most Enlightenment views is a system of rationally

justified rules or principles that guide action in specific cases.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 201

65. Annette C. Baier: The Need for More than Justice

Summary
Baier makes a case for moral theories that can accommodate both an ethic of justice
(thought by some to be the traditional male view) and an ethic of care (the alleged female
view). “I think,” she says, “that the best moral theory has to be a cooperative product of
women and men, has to harmonize justice and care.”

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Baier asserts that there is little disagreement that justice is

a. a perverse perspective.
b. harmful to women.
c. an outmoded concern.
d. a social value.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

2. Baier says that the best moral theory has to

a. downplay justice.
b. see justice as part of the problem.
c. discount female insights.
d. harmonize justice and care.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. Baier says that care is

a. mercy that is to season justice.
b. a felt concern for the good of others and for community.
c. the cold jealous virtue of disregard.
d. the root of justice.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. Baier insists that the best moral theory has to be a product of women and
a. subjective concerns.
b. feminist virtues.
c. men.
d. moral authorities.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Baier says holds the best moral theory is a combination of Kantian and utilitarian
values.
a. True
b. False
 202

Answer: False

6. Baier says that the first society to which we belong, one that fits or misfits us for later
ones, is that of the state.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Baier says it is increasingly obvious that there are many male philosophical
spokespersons for the care perspective.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Baier contends that the ethics of care is a challenge to moral theories that take
emotional needs into account.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Baier believes that Gilligan challenges the liberal orthodoxy of rationalism.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Baier charges that the moral tradition that developed the concept of rights, autonomy,
and justice is the same tradition that provided “justifications” of oppression.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Baier points out that the Christian church still insists on the maleness of the God it
worships.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Baier argues for the discarding of moral principles and rules.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Baier thinks that the justice perspective has value.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 203

14. Baier says that now many philosophers suggest that justice is only one virtue among
many.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Baier asserts that liberty and equality are being found inadequate without fraternity.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 204

66. Jean-Paul Sartre: Existentialist Ethics

Summary
In this essay Sartre sets forth the principles of atheistic existentialism: that we are
completely free; that because there is no God to give us an essence (a function or
purpose), we must create our own essence; that we are completely responsible for our
actions and are responsible for everyone else, too; and that because of the death of God
and the human predicament, which leaves us totally free to create our values and our
world, we must exist in anguish, forlornness, and despair. Yet, a certain celebration and
optimism exist in knowing that we are creators of our own values. A key idea is that
“existence precedes essence.” Sartre says that if there were a God, our essence would
precede our existence—that is, God would give us a function or purpose when God
created us. But because there is no God, our existence must precede our essence—we just
find ourselves existing and must then create our own essence.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Sartre, what existentialists have in common is that they think that
a. essence precedes existence.
b. objectivity must be a starting point.
c. existence is a myth.
d. existence precedes essence.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

2. According to Sartre, there is at least one being in whom existence precedes essence,
and this being is
a. God.
b. man.
c. primitive man.
d. future man.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

3. According to Sartre, the first principle of existentialism is that

a. God is dead.
b. man is all-powerful.
c. man is nothing else but what he makes of himself.
d. man is nothing.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

4. According to Sartre, if God does not exist,

a. everything is permissible.
b. moral values must come from nature.
c. moral values still exist.
d. man does not exist.
 205

Answer: a Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Sartre says that man is condemned to be free.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. Sartre thinks that man’s future is predestined.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Sartre says forlornness comes from the realization that God does not exist and that we
must face all the consequences of this.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Sartre advocates withdrawing from human endeavors.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Sartre says that we should celebrate the fact that we are creators of our essence and our
values.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Sartre believes that God must define our essence.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Sartre believes that there is a God, but this God is unresponsive to humankind.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Sartre thinks that God’s existence or nonexistence is irrelevant to man’s situation.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 206

13. Sartre holds that there is no human nature.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Sartre says that it is impossible for man to transcend human subjectivity.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Sartre contends that man can easily escape the feeling of his total responsibility.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 207

67. James Rachels: The Divine Command Theory

Summary
Does morality depend on God for its legitimacy? Specifically, is an action right (or
wrong) because God commands that it be so—or is it right (or wrong) independent of
God’s commands, so that God must in fact answer to the moral law? The view that
morality does depend on God is known as the “divine command theory,” and Rachels
critiques it in this reading. He argues that this conception of morality is false and that
neither the theist nor the nontheist should accept it.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Rachels, the divine command theory says that “morally right” means
a. producing the greatest happiness.
b. self-evidently permissible.
c. commanded by God.
d. perceived by God.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. The doctrine that morality depends on religion is called

a. natural law theory.
b. intuitionism.
c. the divine command theory.
d. the categorical imperative.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. According to Rachels, if right conduct is right because God commands it, then
a. morality is independent of God.
b. God’s commands are arbitrary.
c. morality existed before God existed.
d. God is not all-powerful.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. According to Rachels, if good and bad are defined by God’s will, then the notion of
God’s goodness
a. is coherent.
b. is deprived of any meaning.
c. transcends human knowledge.
d. is a necessary truth.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

5. According to Rachels, if God commands us to do certain things because they are right
(independent of God’s will), then
 208

a. God’s commands are not arbitrary, and the idea of the goodness of God is
preserved.
b. God’s commands are immoral.
c. the divine command theory is true.
d. God’s commands are not arbitrary, but the idea of the goodness of God is
rendered meaningless.
Answer: a

True/False

6. Many religious people reject the divine command theory.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Rachels argues that the divine command theory leads to impious results.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. St. Thomas Aquinas accepted the divine command theory.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Rachels thinks that the divine command theory presents difficulties for both believers
and unbelievers.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Rachels points out that if we accept the divine command theory, we are caught in a
dilemma.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. The arbitrariness problem refers to the difficulty of discovering God’s will.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. The divine command theory solves the old problem of the objectivity of ethics.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 209

13. The main problem with the divine command theory was first noted by Plato.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Rachels says the arbitrariness problem is merely a semantic difficulty.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Leibniz accepted the divine command theory.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 210

68. Thomas Nagel: Moral Luck

Summary

Thomas Nagel is professor of philosophy at New York University and the author of
several works in moral and political philosophy. In this selection Nagel challenges the
Kantian way of viewing morality, which assumes that we are all equal rational
participants in the moral enterprise, each having the same opportunity to be moral. Nagel
suggests that this view is simplistic and fails to take into account the manner in which
external factors impinge upon us. They introduce the idea of moral luck, which he defines
thus: “Where a significant aspect of what someone does depends on factors beyond his
control, yet we continue to treat him in that respect as an object of moral judgment, it can
be called moral luck.”
Four types of moral luck are considered: constitutive luck, circumstantial luck,
consequential luck in which consequences retrospectively justify an otherwise immoral
act (or fail to justify an otherwise moral act), and consequential luck in which the
consequences affect the type of blame or remorse (or moral praise).

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Thomas Nagel argues that the Kantian way of viewing morality is

a. superior.
b. simplistic.
c. logical.
d. complete.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. Nagel thinks that our notion of moral responsibility is

a. plausible.
b. workable.
c. useful.
d. incoherent.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. Nagel says, “Where a significant aspect of what someone does depends on factors
beyond his control, yet we continue to treat him in that respect as an object of moral
judgment, it can be called
a. God’s will.”
b. moral luck.”
c. absurdity.”
d. strange.”
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. Nagel says that our “prior to reflection” intuition is that people cannot be
 211

a. the victim of luck.

b. morally assessed for what is not their fault.
c. guilty.
d. lucky.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

5. According to Nagel, the problem of moral luck is based on the conflict between (i) our
intuition that someone’s moral status cannot be altered by luck and (ii) the possibility that
luck
a. can indeed affect someone’s moral status.
b. is destructive of moral decision-making.
c. plays no role at all.
d. makes morality obsolete.
Answer: a

True/False

6. Nagel’s central question is: Can luck ever make a moral difference?
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Nagel argues that luck helps us control the results of our actions.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Nagel contends that ultimately the problem of luck never arises.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Kant says that there cannot be moral risk.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Nagel is concerned that very little about what we do is under our control.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Nagel believes that a truck driver who accidentally runs his truck into a pedestrian is
not affected by moral luck.
a. True
b. False
 212

Answer: False

12. According to Nagel, a person can be morally responsible only for what he does, but
what he does results from a great deal that he does not do.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. Nagel’s argument is related to the problem of free will.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Nagel puts forth a solution to the problem of moral luck.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. For Nagel, a person can be legitimately judged to have committed an immoral act
even though the action was not under her control.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 213

69. Susan Wolf: Moral Saints

Summary

Susan Wolf is a professor of philosophy at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill,
working mostly in ethics and the related areas of philosophy of mind, philosophy of
action, political philosophy, and aesthetics. In this selection, she examines the idea of
moral saints, exploring the implications of moral sainthood for utilitarianism, Kantian
ethics, and moral philosophy generally.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Susan Wolf, a moral saint should not serve as a

a. divine being.
b. religious figure.
c. moral model of evil.
d. moral model to be emulated.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

2. Wolf observes that there seems to be a limit to how much

a. morality we can stand.
b. pleasure we can stand.
c. godliness we can stand.
d. pain we can inflict.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

3. Wolf says that a particularly dominating morality seems to require either the lack or
the denial of the existence of
a. a life of rules.
b. sainthood.
c. an identifiable, personal self.
d. deontological laws.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

4. Wolf says that the utilitarian would not support

a. moral actions.
b. moral sainthood as a universal ideal.
c. the principle of utility.
d. a sainthood of utilitarianism.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

5. Wolf suggests that some people might regard the absence of moral saints in their lives
as
a. a blessing.
 214

b. a curse.
c. a problem to be remedied.
d. a disadvantage.
Answer: a

True/False

6. Two models of the moral saint are the Loving Saint and the Rational Saint.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Wolf says that one might naturally wonder whether a moral saint is too good.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Wolf insists that a moral saint can encourage the discovery and the development of
nonmoral interests and skills.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Wolf explicitly condemns the moral saint or the person who aspires to become one.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. According to Wolf, a person may be perfectly wonderful without being perfectly
moral.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Wolf’s views raise the question of whether it is always better to be morally better.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. It seems that moral sainthood and fully developed personhood cannot coexist.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. Wolf contends that moral values are our sole preeminent values.
a. True
 215

b. False
Answer: False

14. Wolf thinks that we should all strive to be moral saints.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. One worry is that a moral saint will have to be dull-witted or humorless.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 216

VII. Justice and Political Philosophy

70. Robert Paul Wolff: In Defense of Anarchism

Summary
Wolff sets forth a version of anarchism, holding that all forms of government violate our
overriding duty to act autonomously. Wolff’s argument (and essay) can be divided into
two parts. In the first he describes the meaning of political authority, distinguishing it
from mere power. In the second part he defines autonomy and argues that it is
incompatible with accepting authority.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Wolff, the fundamental assumption of moral philosophy is that men are
a. bound by authority.
b. guided by universal law.
c. without free will.
d. responsible for their actions.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

2. According to Wolff, taking responsibility for one’s actions involves attempting to

a. discern the will of the state.
b. obey the law.
c. determine what one should do.
d. determine the will of authority.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. According to Wolff, the responsible man knows that he is

a. not bound by moral restraints.
b. bound by moral restraints.
c. bound by the will of others.
d. free from all possible restraint.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. According to Wolff, moral autonomy is a combination of

a. moral anarchy and freedom.
b. freedom and submission to the state.
c. freedom and responsibility.
d. freedom and moral anarchy.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

True/False
 217

5. Wolff argues that anarchism is the only political doctrine consistent with the virtue of
autonomy.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. An anarchist must sometimes view the commands of the state as legitimate.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Wolff believes that there is no state whose subjects have a moral obligation to obey its
commands.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Wolff thinks that the only legitimate response to the state is violence.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Wolff says that authority is the right to command and, correlatively, the right to be
obeyed.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Wolff argues that states do not exist.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Wolff asserts that the responsible man acknowledges that he is bound by moral
restraints, but this man insists that he alone is the judge of those restraints.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. According to Wolff, the primary obligation of man is to obey the authority of the
state.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 218

13. According to Wolff, man has an obligation to obey the laws of the state simply
because they are laws.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Wolff says that the anarchist may grant the necessity of complying with the law under
certain circumstance.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. According to Wolff, autonomy, for the anarchist, is the highest value.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 219

71. Thomas Hobbes: The Absolutist Answer: The Justification of the State Is the
Security It Affords

Summary
Hobbes develops a moral and political theory based on psychological egoism. He argues
that we are all egoists who always act in our own self-interest to obtain gratification and
avoid harm. However, we cannot obtain any of the basic goods because of the inherent
fear and insecurity in an unregulated “state of nature” in which life is “solitary, poor,
nasty, brutish, and short.” We cannot relax our guard because everyone is constantly in
fear of everyone else. In this state of anarchy the prudent person concludes that it really is
in everyone’s self-interest to make a contract to keep to a minimal morality of respecting
human life, keeping covenants made, and obeying society’s laws. This minimal morality,
which Hobbes refers to as “the laws of nature,” is nothing more than a set of maxims of
prudence. To ensure that we all obey this covenant, Hobbes proposes a strong sovereign
or “Leviathan” to impose severe penalties on those who disobey the laws because
“covenants without the sword are but words.”

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Hobbes, whenever and wherever men live without a common power to
keep them all in awe, there is
a. negotiation.
b. war.
c. democracy.
d. freedom.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. According to Hobbes, in the state of nature, notions of right and wrong or justice and
injustice
a. still apply to the actions of men.
b. refer to objective standards.
c. have no place.
d. serve as guiding ideals.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. According to Hobbes, in the condition of man in which there is a state of war of

everyone against everyone, every man has a right to
a. some things.
b. lawful treatment.
c. due process.
d. everything.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

4. According to Hobbes, the definition of injustice is

 220

a. disobedience to a sovereign.
b. disobedience to God’s law.
c. failure to abide by a contract.
d. failure to respect inherent rights.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

5. According to Hobbes, in physical and mental abilities, nature has made us basically
a. equal.
b. unequal.
c. powerless.
d. superior.
Answer: a

6. Hobbes says that we exchange some of our liberty for

a. communal life.
b. democracy.
c. a social contract.
d. a parliament.
Answer: c

7. During the English civil wars, Hobbes supported

a. Oliver Cromwell.
b. Parliament.
c. Spain.
d. the Royalists.
Answer: d

8. Hobbes never claimed that

a. life in a state of nature is brutish and short.
b. we need an enforceable set of rules.
c. a pure state of nature ever existed.
d. we need a Leviathan.
Answer: c

9. Hobbes found that a principal cause of conflict among people is

a. covenants.
b. competition.
c. empathy.
d. reason.
Answer: b

True/False

10. For Hobbes, liberty is the absence of external impediments.

a. True
b. False
 221

Answer: True

11. Hobbes says that good and evil merely refer to our desires and aversions.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. For Hobbes, the most reasonable form of government is a democracy.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. In Hobbes’s view, the commonwealth must share some power with those who are
governed.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Hobbes believed in the divine right of kings.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Hobbes uses the term Leviathan to refer to democratic government.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 222

72. John Locke: The Democratic Answer: The Justification of the State Is Its
Promotion of Security and Natural Human Rights

Summary
Locke sees “the state of nature” as an inferior state caused by lack of adequate
cooperation and common laws but still as one in which our natural rights are enjoyed.
Humans are not all as egoistic or innately cruel as Thomas Hobbes would make out.
Government arises through a social contract in which individuals agree to be bound by
the laws of a central authority that represents the will of the majority. The will of the
majority and natural rights to life, liberty, and property limit the government. The
government loses its legitimacy if it ceases to represent the will of the people and
becomes tyrannical. In that case, revolution is warranted.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Locke, every man, by consenting with others to make one body politic
under one government, puts himself under an obligation to everyone in that society to
submit to the determination of
a. his own will.
b. the king.
c. the judges.
d. the majority.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

2. According to Locke, a man in the state of nature will relinquish his absolute freedom to
the state because
a. he will also enjoy absolute freedom when subject to the state.
b. in the state of nature the enjoyment of his freedom is very uncertain and
vulnerable.
c. he wants to have absolute power over others.
d. he rejects the laws of the state of nature.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

3. According to Locke, the chief end of men’s uniting into a commonwealth is

a. domination over other commonwealths.
b. the preservation of the state of nature.
c. the preservation of their property.
d. the preservation of their absolute power.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

4. According to Locke, the legislative power is limited by

a. the impartial rule of established laws.
b. different rules for rich and poor.
c. laws established for the good of the state.
 223

d. a monarch.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

5. The philosopher who argues that humans have inherent, God-given rights whether or
not a government is around to guarantee them is
a. Locke.
b. Hobbes.
c. Marx.
d. Berkeley.
Answer: a

True/False

6. Locke says that even if the legislators try to take away and destroy the property of the
people, the people still have an obligation to obey.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Locke argues that the people should be the judge of when revolution is warranted.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Locke would favor a theocracy.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Locke thinks that the majority has the right to rescind the rights of the minority.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Locke’s ideas heavily influenced the framers of the Declaration of Independence and
the Constitution.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Locke is a pessimist about human nature; he thinks people are basically greedy and
treacherous.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 224

12. Locke argues that a social contract requires a Leviathan to reign supreme.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Locke says to be in the state of nature is to be in a “war of all against all.”
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Locke asserts the right to rebel against a government that misuses its power.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Locke thinks the state should be constituted by a strong, even ruthless, authority.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 225

73. John Stuart Mill: A Classical Liberal Answer

Summary
Mill rejects the notion of natural rights and argues that we should promote a democracy
dedicated to individual liberty because that will maximize happiness. But he cautions
against the “tyranny of the majority,” asserting that every educated adult must be free to
do what he or she desires. “The only freedom which deserves the name,” he says, “is that
of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others
of theirs.” The only legitimate reason for a government to interfere with someone’s
liberty against his or her will is to prevent harm to others.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Mill, if an action concerns only the individual, his independence from
interference should be
a. conditional.
b. restricted.
c. absolute.
d. subject to law.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. According to Mill, the silencing of the expression of an opinion

a. protects the public.
b. contributes to social stability.
c. robs the human race.
d. protects the liberty of the majority.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. According to Mill, he who lets the world choose his plan of life has no need of
a. apelike imitation.
b. intelligence.
c. life.
d. God.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. According to Mill, allowing individual liberty for people to pursue particular lifestyles
will
a. necessarily cause injury to others.
b. destabilize society.
c. promote happiness and progress.
d. eventually cause wars.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

True/False
 226

5. Mill believes that a government’s interfering with a person’s liberty is legitimate if the
interference is for the person’s own good.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. Mill thinks that traditions and customs are essential for human happiness.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Mill says that a very common view is that individual spontaneity has no intrinsic
worth.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Mill favors censorship of opinions to protect the public.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Mill’s principle of liberty would disallow censorship of homosexuals, pagans, and

pornographers.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Mill says that the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any
member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Mill’s view is strongly anti-paternalistic.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Mill would never agree to restrict a person’s liberty.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Mill would sanction the restriction of liberty for someone who offends the majority.
 227

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Mill thinks it’s appropriate for government to punish someone who criticizes religion.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Mill believes that his social policies would promote happiness.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 228

74. John Rawls: The Contemporary Liberal Answer

Summary
In this excerpt from A Theory of Justice, Rawls sets forth a contract theory in which the
hypothetical bargainers go behind a “veil of ignorance” to devise a set of fundamental
agreements that will govern society. No one knows his or her place in society, class
position or social status, fortune in the distribution of natural assets and abilities, or even
intelligence. Rawls calls this situation the “original position.” In it each rational person—
that is, one who is normally self-interested but who does not know his or her place in
society—can judge impartially. By denying individuals knowledge of their natural assets
and social position, Rawls prevents them from exploiting their advantages, thus
transforming a decision under risk (where probabilities of outcomes are known) to a
decision under uncertainty (where probabilities are not known). To the question, “Why
should the individual acknowledge the principles chosen in the original position as
morally binding?” Rawls answers, “We should abide by these principles because we all
would choose them under fair conditions.” That is, the rules and rights chosen by fair
procedures are themselves fair because these procedures take full account of our moral
nature as equally capable of “doing justice.”

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Rawls, behind the veil of ignorance, the principles of justice are
a. the result of coercion.
b. the result of a fair agreement or bargain.
c. chosen arbitrarily.
d. impractical.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. According to Rawls, the phrase “justice as fairness” conveys the idea that the
principles of justice are agreed to in an initial position that is
a. rational.
b. artificial.
c. constitutional.
d. fair.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. According to Rawls, each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic
liberty compatible with
a. social utility.
b. a similar liberty for others.
c. traditional morality.
d. economic stability.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website
 229

4. According to Rawls, all social values (opportunity, liberty, income, wealth, etc.) are to
be distributed equally unless an unequal distribution is
a. to everyone’s advantage.
b. beneficial to the majority.
c. consistent with utility.
d. deserved.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Rawls thinks that the principle of utility is incompatible with the conception of social
cooperation among equals for mutual advantage.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. Rawls thinks that institutions in society can be justified on the grounds that the
hardships of some people would be offset by the greater good of society as a whole.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Rawls says that some people deserve their more favorable starting place in society.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. The original position is an actual historical state of affairs.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Rawls says traditional theories are based on the assumption that there is a wall of
separation between private and public life and that only public life is the proper concern
of political theory.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. For Rawls, utility always trumps equality.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Rawls believes that the veil of ignorance sometimes actually exists in society.
a. True
 230

b. False
Answer: False

12. Rawls detests the welfare state.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Rawls says that people in the lower levels of society deserve their lot in life.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Rawls say that we do not deserve our natural talents and abilities.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Rawls’s views are politically conservative.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 231

75. Robert Nozick: Against Liberalism

Summary
Nozick rejects the notion of distribution of society’s benefits based on equality or desert.
He maintains that if we rightfully possess any goods (i.e., we obtained them legitimately),
then we own them; they are not ours because we are entitled to equal shares of them or
because we deserve them.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Nozick proposes a state that is

a. large and extensive.
b. minimal.
c. authoritarian.
d. socialist.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. Nozick says that the term “distributive justice” is

a. equivalent to communism.
b. abhorrent.
c. neutral.
d. not neutral.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. Nozick claims that a more-than-minimal state will

a. eventually shrink.
b. benefit no one.
c. violate citizens’ rights.
d. interfere with the prerogatives of the state.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

4. Nozick says that the minimal state is

a. just.
b. unjust.
c. unstable.
d. harmful.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Nozick maintains that whether a distribution of goods is just depends upon how it
came about.
a. True
b. False
 232

Answer: True

6. Nozick says that in a “time-slice principle” of distribution, all that needs to be looked
at, in judging the justice of a distribution, is who ends up with what.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Nozick asserts that a utilitarian theory of justice can never lead to an unjust
distribution.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Nozick favors patterned systems of distribution.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Nozick says that almost every suggested principle of distribution is patterned.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Nozick’s preferred principle of distribution is not patterned.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Nozick rejects the notion of distribution of society’s benefits based on equality or
desert.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Nozick insists that redistribution of goods does not violate people’s rights.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Nozick believes that taxation of earnings from labor is on a par with forced labor.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 233

14. To Nozick, seizing the results of someone’s labor (e.g., through taxes) is equivalent to
seizing hours from him and directing him to carry on various activities.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Nozick declares that no end-state principle or distributional patterned principle of

justice can be continuously realized without continuous interference with people’s lives.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 234

76. Martin Luther King Jr.: Nonviolence and Racial Justice

Summary
Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) is known for his central, galvanizing role in the
American civil rights movement and for his compelling calls for justice and equality,
pleas that challenged the country to live up to its democratic ideals. He is also recognized
for developing the philosophical underpinnings of his nonviolent activism. His speeches
and writings often had a religious flavor (he was a minister and the son and grandson of a
minister), but he directed his arguments to the religious and nonreligious alike and
appealed to what he took to be universal values. He alluded to biblical stories and
metaphors while citing the moral courage and insight of Socrates, Aquinas, and
Augustine. He was inspired by the work and words of Gandhi, the modern world’s
greatest and most successful practitioner of nonviolent activism, and he in turn inspired
future generations who would seek social change through peaceful means.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. King thinks nonviolent resistance is the middle road between

a. agreement and disagreement.
b. capitulation and resistance.
c. militant violence and nonviolent action.
d. power and submission.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. King refers to ______ theory and method of nonviolent action

a. Gandhi’s
b. Buddha’s
c. Socrates’s
d. Aristotle’s
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

3. According to King, “A just law is a manmade code that squares with”

a. the moral law alone.
b. the moral law or the law of God.
c. God’s law alone.
d. existing legal practice.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. King insists that nonviolent resistance is passive physically but

a. strongly active spiritually.
b. strongly active legally.
c. weakly active historically.
d. strongly active religiously.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website
 235

True/False

5. Among other things, Martin Luther King Jr. is recognized for developing the
philosophical underpinnings of nonviolent activism.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. King was an advocate of militant action in the struggle for civil rights in the United
States.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. King argues that nonviolent resistance is morally superior to violence.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. King says that nonviolent resistance is not a method for cowards.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. King says that nonviolent resistance is directed at specific individuals.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. King says that in the struggle for racial justice, the basic tension is not between races.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. King says we are out to defeat injustice and not white persons who happen to be
unjust.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. King says that at the center of nonviolence is the principle of racial guilt.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 236

13. King says that the method of nonviolence is based on the conviction that the universe
is on the side of justice.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. King was pessimistic about the prospects of racial justice.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. King says the nonviolent resistor is just as strongly opposed to the evil of injustice as
the person who uses violence.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 237

77. Susan Moller Okin: Justice, Gender, and the Family

Summary
Susan Moller Okin (1946–2004) was a feminist political philosopher and author, teaching
at several universities including the University of Auckland, Brandeis, Harvard, and
Stanford. She contends that traditional theories are based on the assumption that there is a
wall of separation between private and public life and that only public life is the proper
concern of political theory. But women have largely been relegated to the private sphere,
where issues of rights and equality are not supposed to apply. Consequently, women have
been left out of traditional theories of justice, an omission that ensured women would not
be treated as the moral equals of men.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Okin asserts that substantial inequalities between the sexes

a. are apparent but not real.
b. have been resolved.
c. still exist in our society.
d. do not exist now.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. Okin agrees that an equal sharing between the sexes of family responsibilities,
especially child care, is
a. the great revolution that has not happened.
b. an established fact.
c. the great revolution that has finally happened.
d. a reality.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

3. According to Okin, the fact that women are doing more paid work does not imply that
a. they are unequal.
b. they are more equal.
c. equality has not been achieved.
d. the political system is maturing.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. Okin says that the typical current practices of family life, structured to a large extent by
gender, are
a. not just.
b. fair.
c. workable systems.
d. just.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website
 238

True/False

5. Okin avers that a central source of injustice for women these days is that the law, most
noticeably in the event of divorce, treats more or less as equals those whom custom,
workplace discrimination, and the still-conventional division of labor within the family
have made very unequal.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. According to Okin, the old assumption of the workplace, still implicit, is that workers
have wives at home.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Okin declares that, contrary to expectation, gender-structured marriage does not make
women vulnerable.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. According to Okin, one-half of poor and three-fifths of chronically poor households

with dependent children are maintained by a single female parent.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Okin says that the often-repeated claim that we are living in a postfeminist era
(because women have “made it”) is false.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Okin asserts that serious and committed members of the work force (regardless of
class) have primary responsibility, or even shared responsibility, for the rearing of
children.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Okin says that employed wives still do by far the greatest proportion of unpaid family
work, such as child care and housework.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 239

12. Okin says we live in a society that has over the years regarded the innate
characteristic of sex as one of the clearest legitimizers of different rights and restrictions,
both formal and informal.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. For Okin, gender is sociologically and ethically unimportant.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Okin says the core idea of most contemporary feminism is that “the personal is
political.”
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Okin asserts that the sphere of family and personal life is so separate and distinct
from the rest of social life that theories of justice can justifiably ignore it.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 240

78. Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Women

Summary
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797) was a political radical, a social critic with a strong
egalitarian bent, a distinguished novelist, and one of the great forebears of feminist
thought. What she wrote about women’s rights and women’s situation in society is still
relevant today—and still considered radical by many. By law and by custom, middle-
class English women in her day were thought to be subordinate to men in countless ways.
They lived under the weight of a damaging presumption: women exist for the sake of
men. Women were denied property ownership, expected to defer to men in important
matters, barred from almost all professions, excluded from voting and government posts,
deprived of higher education, and judged by different moral standards than those applied
to men. Few societies in the rest of the world treated women any better.
Wollstonecraft studied the conditions in which women found themselves, and she
read what prominent men had to say about the character, duties, and education of women.
Thus much of her literary output was in response to the views of the famous Edmund
Burke, who wrote in support of aristocratic rights and privileges, and to Rousseau, who
considered women inferior to men. Her greatest works are A Vindication of the Rights of
Men (1790) and A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792).

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Wollstonecraft asserts that men prefer to keep women in ignorance but call this state
a. stupidity.
b. courageous.
c. innocence.
d. genius.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. According to Wollstonecraft, women are told from their infancy and taught by the
example of their mothers that a little cunning and outward obedience will obtain for them
a. the protection of man.
b. a good education.
c. men’s respect for their intelligence.
d. lasting beauty.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

3. According to Wollstonecraft, men try to keep women always in a state of

a. adulthood.
b. childhood.
c. equality.
d. sympathy.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website
 241

4. According to Wollstonecraft, it is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do

not result from the exercise of
a. its own reason.
b. its own body.
c. cunning.
d. justice.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Wollstonecraft says Rousseau believes that the whole tendency of female education
ought to be directed to one point: to render women pleasing.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. According to Wollstonecraft, men recommend as the cardinal virtues of women

intelligence, creativity, and wisdom.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Wollstonecraft asserts that men recommend as the cardinal virtues of women

gentleness, docility, and a spaniel-like affection.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Wollstonecraft says men think that woman was created to be the toy of man.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Wollstonecraft advocates a reeducation of men.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Wollstonecraft advocates a revolution in female manners.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Wollstonecraft says that although women have preserved their dignity, they have lost
some of their beauty.
a. True
 242

b. False
Answer: False

12. According to Wollstonecraft, the most perfect education is one that enables the
individual to attain such habits of virtue as will render the individual dependent and wise.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Wollstonecraft says that the follies and caprices of women are a direct result of
ignorance inculcated by men.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Wollstonecraft admits that women do not have sufficient strength of mind to acquire
what really deserves the name of virtue.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Wollstonecraft says that the civilized women of her century, with a few exceptions,
are eager to inspire love when they ought to cherish a nobler ambition and thereby gain
respect.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 243

VIII. What Is the Meaning of Life?

79. Epicurus: Moderate Hedonism

Summary
Epicurus identified good with pleasure and evil with pain. This doctrine (repeated later in
Bentham) is called “hedonism” (from the Greek word for pleasure). However, contrary to
popular opinion, Epicurus was not proposing what “Epicureanism” sometimes has been
taken to mean: a sensuous, profligate life. He believed that the true life of pleasure
consists in an attitude of imperturbable emotional calm that needs only simple pleasures,
a good diet, health, a prudent moral life, and good friends. Only good or bad sensations
(pleasure or pain, respectively) should concern us, and death is not a sensation, so we
should not fear death.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Epicurus, death is nothing to us because as long as we exist, death is not

with us, but when death comes, then
a. we have eternal life.
b. we do not exist.
c. we still exist.
d. we feel pain.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. According to Epicurus, the aim of a blessed life is

a. a profligate life.
b. the soul’s freedom from sensation.
c. suffering.
d. the soul’s freedom from disturbance.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. According to Epicurus, the standard by which we judge every good is

a. pain.
b. death.
c. pleasure.
d. disturbance.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

4. According to Epicurus, excessive drinking, reveling, and luxurious eating

a. can produce a pleasant life.
b. should be preferred over simple pleasures.
c. cannot produce a pleasant life.
d. help make the soul truly free.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website
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True/False

5. Epicurus says that we should seek every kind of pleasure possible.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. Epicurus believes that it is not possible to live pleasantly without living virtuously.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Epicurus is an atheist.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Epicurus favors a life of social and public involvement.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Epicurus cherished friendship above all.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Epicurus insists that independence from desire is a great good.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Epicurus maintains that the virtuous life is the pleasant life.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. For Epicurus, ignorance is bliss.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Epicurus favored the life of the ascetic.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 245

14. Epicurus deserves his reputation as a debauchee.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Epicurus sought an imperturbable emotional calm.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 246

80. Epictetus: Stoicism: Enchiridion

Summary
In these short selections we get a glimpse of stoic philosophy from three of its greatest
proponents—Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, and Epictetus, who gets the longest excerpt here.
Marcus Aurelius urges that our every act should be done deliberately and attentively,
following the dictates of reason and avoiding the distracting disorder of the passions.
Seneca endorses suicide as a legitimate option in life because “mere living is not a good,
but living well . . . [T]he wise man will live as long as he ought, not as long as he can.”
Epictetus distinguishes between those things in life that are up to us (intentions, desires,
etc.) and those things that are not up to us (our bodies, property, reputation, etc.). If we
confuse these two, we will be troubled and impeded. But if we keep them straight, we
will be free of burdens, harm, and grief. “Don’t seek for things to happen as you wish,”
he says, “but wish for things to happen as they do, and you will get on well.”

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Epictetus, it is not things that upset people but rather

a. the gods.
b. power behind the things.
c. the reality behind the things.
d. ideas about things.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

2. According to Epictetus, if you want what is not up to you to be up to you and what is
not yours to be yours, then
a. you will achieve serenity.
b. you are a fool.
c. you are an optimist.
d. you are master of your will.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

3. According to Epictetus, you are an actor in a drama, and your job is to

a. resent the playwright.
b. desire an alternate role.
c. play your assigned role well.
d. pray for a better role.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

4. According to Epictetus, nothing in the world is

a. intrinsically evil.
b. outside your control.
c. to be desired.
d. real.
 247

Answer: a Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Seneca says that the wise man always reflects on the quantity of life, not its quality.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. Epictetus says that the wise man knows that if he is richer than another person, he is
therefore better than that person.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. To Epictetus, illness is an impediment of the body but not of the will.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Epictetus claims that someone with the position and character of a philosopher expects
all help and harm to come from himself.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Epictetus declares that some things are up to us and some are not up to us.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Epictetus thinks that the correct response to the death of a loved one is enormous
grief.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Epictetus says that when we see someone weeping in grief at some loss, we should
understand that it is not the circumstances that cause the distress but the idea that the
person has about them.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Epictetus believes that the only legitimate reactions to someone else’s good fortune
are jealousy and envy.
 248

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Epictetus insists that we fight against our fate.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Epictetus says that the gods are unjust.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Epictetus says that riches await those who are serene and undisturbed.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 249

81. Albert Camus: Life Is Absurd

Summary
In this selection we see Camus’s overall assessment that life is absurd, meaningless. The
only important philosophical question is, why not commit suicide? Life is compared with
the myth of Sisyphus, wherein man is condemned by the gods to roll a huge stone up a
mountain, watch it roll back down, and retrieve it, only to repeat the process endlessly.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Camus, the question of the meaning of life is

a. unimportant.
b. not worth asking.
c. the most urgent of questions.
d. not a philosophical question.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. According to Camus, the sense of the absence of a profound reason for living is the
feeling of
a. joy.
b. triumph.
c. numbness.
d. absurdity.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. Being aware of one’s life and one’s freedom is

a. unnecessary.
b. living to the maximum.
c. living reduced to its minimum.
d. living with illusion.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. Camus says that judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the
fundamental question of
a. philosophy.
b. modernism.
c. the arts.
d. science.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

5. The myth of Sisyphus is tragic because

a. its hero is conscious.
b. its hero is unaware of his situation.
c. Sisyphus believes in the gods.
 250

d. Sisyphus is unconscious.
Answer: a

True/False

6. Camus says that Sisyphus is a hero.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Camus thinks that Sisyphus is sustained by his sense of hope.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Camus says that one cannot imagine Sisyphus to be happy.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Sisyphus triumphs because he knows he can escape his fate.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Camus takes pleasure in the thought that there is a God.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Camus says, “Is it better to be slaves [of God] with a role in the universe or to be free
people left to create a role for ourselves?”
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. For Camus, religion gives meaning to life.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Sisyphus finally gives up.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 251

14. Camus says it is better not to know that we are eventually going to die.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Camus thinks we should have no illusions about our lives and our deaths.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 252

82. Julian Baggini: Living Life Forward

Summary
Baggini examines the teleological view of life, the notion that life has meaning only
when it is lived toward future goals and objectives. He concludes that if life has meaning
only because of some goal set in the future, “we would never be able to catch up with the
purpose of life’s existence and so purpose would permanently elude us, whether there is
life after death or not…. [W]e also need to find a way of living which is worthwhile in
itself.”

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Baggini says that life’s purpose can be realized only by

a. looking to some future goal.
b. looking backward to life’s origins.
c. finding a teleological purpose.
d. finding a way of living that is worthwhile in itself.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

2. According to Baggini, if life is to be meaningful, the “why/because” series of questions

a. must find an answer in immortality.
b. cannot extend indefinitely into the future.
c. must never come to an end.
d. must extend indefinitely into the future.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

3. According to Baggini, after goal-oriented people achieve their ambitions, they may
feel
a. no need for further meaning in life.
b. a renewed sense of purpose.
c. fulfilled.
d. empty.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

4. Baggini accuses pessimists of mixing up the two senses of

a. philosophy.
b. religion.
c. meaning.
d. time.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

5. Baggini says if we were here to do God’s will, our lives would have a purpose for the
being that created us but
a. not a purpose for animals.
 253

b. not for other deities.

c. not for future people.
d. not a purpose for us.
Answer: d

6. Baggini asks, What could seem more unlikely than that a supreme being would need to
create human beings solely so that it
a. can have creatures to serve it?
b. can save the world?
c. can fulfill its destiny?
d. can bless human beings?
Answer: a

7. Baggini says that almost all deniers of meaning in life really seem to be rejecting only
the idea that life has
a. internal meaning.
b. external meaning.
c. religious meaning.
d. secular meaning.
Answer: b

8. Most of those who take the externalist approach to meaning view the matter from a
_____ standpoint.
a. secular
b. nonreligious
c. religious
d. pragmatic
Answer: c

9. According to Baggini, we need to find a way of living that is

a. dependent on some future event.
b. worthwhile in itself.
c. lived entirely in the moment.
d. lived in the past.
Answer: b

True/False

10 Baggini rejects the notion that we are here to do God’s will, to carry out God’s plan
for our lives.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Baggini argues that the notion of a God assigning a purpose to humans should be
objectionable to believers and nonbelievers alike.
 254

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Baggini concludes that life has no meaning.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. A teleological view of life focuses on the past.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. For Baggini, life after death makes mortal life meaningful.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Baggini concludes that religion cannot give meaning to life.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True
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83. Louis P. Pojman: Religion Gives Meaning to Life

Summary
In this essay Pojman argues that religion, specifically theistic religion, gives special
meaning to life, unavailable in secular worldviews. Furthermore, the autonomy that
secularists prize (and sometimes value beyond its worth) is not significantly diminished
by religious faith.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Pojman, if theism is true and there is a benevolent sovereign of the

universe,
a. chance and necessity will still rule the world.
b. we will have no answer to the problem of why be moral.
c. we have an answer to the problem of why be moral.
d. believers will be of more moral worth than unbelievers.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. According to Pojman, if theism is true and there is a benevolent sovereign of the

universe,
a. evil will always counterbalance the good.
b. there is no hell.
c. there is life after death.
d. there is no life after death.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. Because we do not know whether theism is true, we should

a. reject theism.
b. live as if theism is true.
c. bet that theism is true.
d. reject morality.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. According to Pojman, the argument that we cannot have both autonomy and purpose in
life presents
a. a true dilemma.
b. a strong case against theism.
c. a false dilemma.
d. a strong case against the need for autonomy.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Pojman thinks that we know whether theism is true.

 256

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. Pojman believes that theism does not deprive us of any autonomy that we have in
nontheistic systems.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Pojman thinks that religion and autonomy are mutually exclusive.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Pojman says that if secularism is true, then there is no obvious basis for human
equality.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Pojman prizes meaning but not autonomy.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Pojman says religion gives us a satisfying explanation of the origin of the universe.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Pojman realizes that theism cannot explain why we should be moral.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. For Pojman, cosmic justice reigns in the universe.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. Pojman thinks that we are all of equal worth because God has created us in his image.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 257

14. Pojman says that we know perfectly well that religion is true.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Pojman appeals to a pragmatic argument similar to Pascal’s.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 258

84. Thomas Nagel: The Absurd

Summary
In this selection Nagel reflects on the sense of absurdity that most of us feel from time to
time. The sense of absurdity arises, he says, from the “collision between the seriousness
with which we take our lives and the perpetual possibility of regarding everything about
which we are serious as arbitrary, or open to doubt.” Nagel thinks that Camus’s response
to the absurd (defiance or scorn) is inappropriate; it’s “romantic and slightly self-
pitying.” He prefers instead to approach the absurd with acceptance, with irony instead of
heroism or despair.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Nagel, the sense of the absurd comes from the contrast between the
seriousness with which we take our lives and
a. the meaning inherent in the universe.
b. the meaning inherent in some larger enterprise.
c. our sense that our seriousness is arbitrary.
d. our despair.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. According to Nagel, the standard arguments for absurdity appear to

a. show that life is serious.
b. show that life has meaning.
c. succeed.
d. fail.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. According to Nagel, when we recognize that what we do is arbitrary, we tend to

a. disengage from life.
b. lose our ability to see life.
c. continue being engaged in life.
d. live as animals do.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

4. According to Nagel, a role in some larger enterprise or plan

a. can in itself give our lives significance.
b. cannot in itself give our lives significance.
c. is not possible.
d. proves the significance of the enterprise or plan.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

True/False
 259

5. Nagel says that the absurdity of our situation derives from a collision between our
expectations and the world.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. Nagel thinks that even the life of a mouse is absurd.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Nagel believes that we should approach our absurd lives with irony.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Nagel agrees with Camus’s attitude toward the absurd.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Nagel says that the standard arguments for absurdity appear to fail.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Nagel says that in ordinary life a situation is absurd when it includes a conspicuous
discrepancy between pretension or aspiration and reality.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Nagel asserts that one’s life is actually absurd.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Nagel argues that what makes life absurd is the clash between the seriousness with
which we take our lives and the continual possibility of regarding our seriousness as
arbitrary or dubious.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. Nagel says that none of us actually takes life seriously.

a. True
 260

b. False
Answer: False

14. Nagel observes that humans have the special capacity to step back and survey
ourselves.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Nagel says that a role in some larger enterprise cannot confer significance unless that
enterprise is itself significant.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 261

85. Richard Taylor: The Meaning of Life

Summary
Richard Taylor (1919–2003) was an American philosopher who taught at major
universities and wrote several influential books, including Metaphysics (1963), Good and
Evil (1970), and Virtue Ethics (1991). In this essay, he rejects the notion that meaning in
life is assigned to us from a source outside us. “The meaning of life,” he says, “is from
within us, it is not bestowed from without, and it far exceeds in both its beauty and
permanence any heaven of which men have ever dreamed or yearned for.”

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Taylor thinks the question of whether life has any meaning is important and
a. should be given a traditional answer.
b. has no answer.
c. ought to have a significant answer.
d. cannot be given an intelligent answer.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. Taylor says that what deprives the labors of Sisyphus of meaning is that they
a. are repetitious.
b. never end.
c. are arduous.
d. come to nothing.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. In the ruins of once great civilizations and in the remains of once thriving ordinary
lives, Taylor sees
a. nihilism.
b. only pointlessness.
c. only meaninglessness.
d. meaningfulness that once was.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

4. For Taylor, the point of living is

a. to die.
b. simply to be living.
c. to become immortal.
d. to discover life’s pointlessness.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. According to Taylor, the meaning of life is from within us.

 262

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. Taylor says the meaning of life is bestowed from without.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. A perfect image of meaninglessness is found in the myth of Sisyphus.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Taylor contends that meaninglessness is essentially endless pointlessness, and

meaningfulness is therefore the opposite.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Taylor thinks that because our lives are ultimately tragic, they are a kind of hell.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Taylor says that the strange meaningfulness that our lives possess is that of the inner
compulsion to be doing just what we were put here to do.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Taylor believes that life does not and cannot contain any meaning.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. For Taylor, real meaningfulness is bestowed from heaven.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13.Taylor says that the point of any living thing’s life is nothing but life itself.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 263

14.Taylor thinks that all our labors culminate in something lasting.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. For Taylor, the picture of Sisyphus is the picture of the existence of individual
persons, of nations, and of the human race.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 264

86. Susan Wolf: Meaning in Life

Summary
Susan Wolf, philosopher and author of Meaning in Life and Why It Matters, argues that
meaning in life must consist of both subjective and objective elements. As she says,
“meaningful lives are lives of active engagement in projects of worth.” Active
engagement is involvement in something that grips or excites a person, something that
arouses passion. But this subjective response alone is not enough to add significant
meaning to someone’s life. Mere passion about an activity is, in itself, insufficient to
contribute meaningfulness to a life. The passion must be directed at projects that are in
themselves worthwhile. “What is clear to me,” she says, “is that there can be no sense to
the idea of meaningfulness without a distinction between more and less worthwhile ways
to spend one’s time, where the test of worth is at least partly independent of a subject’s
ungrounded preferences or enjoyment.”
This view belies the often expressed notion that what someone does doesn’t
matter as long as the person enjoys it or prefers it or gets satisfaction out of it. But people
do wonder sometimes if an activity they enjoy is in fact worthwhile. Some people with
satisfying lives do feel that their existence is meaningless.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Wolf thinks that meaningful lives are lives of active engagement in

a. projects of introspection.
b. episodes of pleasure.
c. projects of worth.
d. projects of understanding.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. Wolf says that the opposites of active engagement are

a. excitement and interest.
b. boredom and alienation.
c. faith and eagerness.
d. enthusiasm and concentration.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

3. Wolf says that “projects of worth” involve a commitment to some sort of

a. subjective value.
b. social preference.
c. personal choice.
d. objective value.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

4. Wolf says that there can be no sense to the idea of meaningfulness without a
distinction between more and less
 265

a. worthwhile ways to spend one’s time.

b. enjoyable ways to spend one’s time.
c. perfect ways to spend one’s time.
d. profitable ways to spend one’s time.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Wolf argues that what you do with your life doesn’t matter as long as you enjoy or
prefer it.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. Among the things that can count as meaningful, Wolf lists relationships with friends
and relatives and aesthetic enterprises.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Wolf believes that things are worthwhile simply because we desire them.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Wolf thinks that a life is meaningless if it lacks active engagement with anything.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. According to Wolf, a person who is actively engaged may live a meaningless life if the
objects of her engagement are worthless.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Wolf thinks that some projects are worthwhile but too boring or mechanical to be
sources of meaning.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Wolf asserts that people do not get meaning from recycling or from writing checks to
Oxfam.
a. True
b. False
 266

Answer: True

12. Wolf thinks meaningless lives include those of Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Albert
Einstein.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. To Wolf, to be actively engaged in something is always pleasant.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Wolf notes that people often have concerns about the meaningfulness of their lives
even though their lives have been satisfying.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Wolf declares that meaning arises when subjective attraction meets objective
attractiveness.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 267

IX. Contemporary Moral Problems

87. Don Marquis: Why Abortion Is Immoral

Summary
In this reading Marquis examines the moral permissibility of abortion by first asking
what makes killing someone wrong. His answer is that killing is wrong because it robs
the victim of a future—all possible “experiences, activities, projects, and enjoyments.” In
the same way, abortion is (almost always) wrong because it deprives the fetus of an
experienced future.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Marquis, the arguments both for and against abortion

a. are sound.
b. are valid.
c. possess certain symmetries.
d. have nothing in common.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. According to Marquis, the anti-abortion principle “It is prima facie seriously wrong to
kill a human being” is
a. ambiguous.
b. true.
c. immoral.
d. acceptable.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

3. The pro-choice notion of personhood, Marquis argues, is problematic because

a. psychological characteristics plausibly define personhood.
b. personhood must be defined as “biologically human.”
c. persons have no moral rights.
d. there is no good reason to think that psychological characteristics should make
a moral difference.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

4. What makes killing wrong in Marquis’s view is

a. the loss of personhood.
b. the loss of the victim’s future.
c. its violation of the sanctity of life.
d. the genetic attributes of the victim.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

True/False
 268

5. Marquis’s view entails that euthanasia is wrong.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. Marquis’s view entails that it is prima facie seriously wrong to kill children and
infants.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Marquis thinks that only infants, children, and adults can be said to have a future.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Marquis says his analysis entails that contraception is wrong.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Marquis argues that killing someone is wrong because it is illegal.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Marquis says that what makes killing wrong is neither its effect on the murderer nor
its effect on the victim’s friends and relatives.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. The natural law position on abortion as articulated in Roman Catholicism is that the
fetus is an innocent person from the moment of viability.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Marquis seemed to have no objections to Judith Jarvis Thompson’s argument.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Marquis thinks that it is morally permissible for a pregnant woman to have an
abortion in self-defense.
 269

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Marquis sees abortion as a form of murder.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Marquis accepts Warren’s argument.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 270

88. Francis J. Beckwith: Arguments from Bodily Rights

Summary
Beckwith evaluates several arguments for the permissibility of abortion and concludes
that they all fail. He finds fault with the argument from a woman’s right over her own
body, the argument from abortion being safer than childbirth, and Judith Jarvis
Thomson’s famous “violinist” argument.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Beckwith rejects the argument by

a. Marquis.
b. Thomson.
c. Smart.
d. English.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. Beckwith thinks that compared to childbirth, abortions are

a. safer.
b. less traumatic.
c. riskier.
d. better.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. Beckwith asserts that the unborn entity in the pregnant woman’s body is
a. indeterminate.
b. not a part of her body.
c. unknown.
d. a part of her body.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

4. Beckwith says that Adler and Tribe are

a. typical.
b. cogent.
c. correct.
d. mistaken.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Beckwith admits that at least some arguments for abortion succeed.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 271

6. Beckwith finds fault with the argument from a woman’s right over her own body.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Beckwith rejects Thomson’s violinist argument.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Beckwith asserts that a woman has a right to control her own body and therefore has a
right to an abortion.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Beckwith admits that the unborn entity is not fully human.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Beckwith contends that statistics do not support the notion that abortions are safer
than childbirth.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Beckwith says the violinist argument is sound but irrelevant.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Beckwith accuses Thomson of assuming volunteerism.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. Beckwith thinks that Thomson’s argument is fatal to family morality.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Beckwith claims that the unborn does not have a prima facie right to her mother’s
body.
a. True
 272

b. False
Answer: False

15. Beckwith says that abortion is not killing but is the withholding of treatment.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 273

89. Mary Anne Warren: On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion

Summary
In this paper Warren defends the liberal view that abortion is always morally permissible.
She attacks John Noonan’s anti-abortion argument on the basis of an ambiguity in the use
of the term “human being,” showing that the term has both a biological and moral sense.
What is important is the moral sense, which presupposes certain characteristics, such as
self-consciousness and rationality, that a fetus does not have. At the end of her article, she
addresses the issue of infanticide.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Warren, we must distinguish between two senses of human being—

human in the genetic sense and human in the
a. physical sense.
b. religious sense.
c. material sense.
d. moral sense.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

2. According to Warren, we have no right to assume that genetic humanity is necessary

for
a. personhood.
b. human characteristics.
c. alien life.
d. prehuman traits.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

3. According to Warren, the traits most central to the concept of personhood include
a. spiritual awareness.
b. human DNA and motivation.
c. consciousness, reasoning, and self-awareness.
d. a brain, high intelligence, and instinct.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

4. According to Warren, any being that satisfies none of the designated criteria is
a. prehuman.
b. certainly not a fetus.
c. certainly not a person.
d. nevertheless human in the moral sense.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

True/False
 274

5. Warren says that whatever is genetically human is also morally human.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. Warren thinks that the concept of a person as she defines it is very nearly universal.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Warren says that all human beings are persons.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

8. Warren maintains that the potentiality of a fetus is sufficient to show that it is a person.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Warren argues that genetic humanity is equivalent to moral humanity.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Warren thinks that a trait that is most central to the concept of personhood is having
human DNA.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Warren agrees that personhood begins at conception.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Warren thinks most infants are persons.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Warren accepts Noonan’s argument.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 275

14. Warren asserts that abortion is almost never permissible.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Warren defends the liberal view of abortion.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 276

90. Judith Jarvis Thomson: A Defense of Abortion

Summary
In this essay Thomson argues that even if a fetus is a person at conception, abortion may
still be morally permissible in a few instances. With the use of a striking analogy, she
contends that a woman may sometimes be justified in having an abortion in self-defense
—to prevent her body from being used against her will, a situation that arises if she
becomes pregnant through no fault of her own (e.g., if she is a victim of rape).

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Thomson, the view that abortion is impermissible even to save the
mother’s life is properly called
a. the moderate view.
b. the extreme view.
c. the mainstream view.
d. the rationalist view.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. According to Thomson, the famous violinist has

a. an absolute right to the woman’s body.
b. no right under any circumstances to the woman’s body.
c. no right in many cases to the woman’s body.
d. a right to be killed by the woman.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. According to Thomson, unborn persons whose existence is due to rape have

a. a right to use their mothers’ bodies.
b. an absolute right to life.
c. unlimited rights.
d. no right to the use of their mothers’ bodies.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

4. According to Thomson, even if it is permissible for a woman to have an abortion, she

does not also have a right to
a. perform the abortion herself.
b. secure the death of the unborn child.
c. defend her life.
d. detach herself from a fetus.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

5. Thomson argues that

a. killing a fetus is always wrong.
b. the unborn’s right to life is absolute.
 277

c. unjustly killing a fetus is always wrong.

d. killing a fetus is always permissible.
Answer: c

True/False

6. Thomson says that the fetus is a person with whom the woman automatically has a
special relationship.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Thomson argues that a woman can defend her life against the threat to it posed by the
unborn child, even if doing so involves its death.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Thomson believes that people have a right to do anything whatsoever to save their
lives.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Thomson grants that the fetus is a person from the moment of conception.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Thomson argues that even if the unborn is a person from the moment of conception,
abortion may still be morally justified.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Some reject Thomson’s argument by contending that it holds only if the woman bears
no responsibility for her predicament.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Thomson takes an extreme position on abortion.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 278

13. Thomson believes infanticide is permissible.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Thomson assumes that a fetus does not have a right to life.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Thomson says it is permissible to kill a fetus at any stage of development.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 279

91. Jane English: The Moderate Position: Beyond the Personhood Argument

Summary
English argues that the issue of whether a fetus is a person cannot be resolved and that
the very concept of personhood is not clear or decisive enough to bear the weight of a
solution to the abortion debate. Advancing a moderate position, similar to that of F. W.
Sumner, English argues that regardless of whether a fetus is a person, the principle of
self-defense permits a woman to have an abortion in some cases, especially in the early
stages of pregnancy. On the other hand, even if the fetus is not a person, it is too much
like a baby in the later stages of pregnancy to permit an abortion—except to avoid
significant injury or death.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to English, both the conservative and liberal positions on abortion are
a. correct.
b. possibly mistaken.
c. neither true nor false.
d. clearly mistaken.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

2. According to English, a conclusive answer to the question of whether a fetus is a

person is
a. unattainable.
b. possible.
c. unnecessary.
d. sufficient.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

3. According to English, our concept of a person is

a. sharp and decisive enough to give us a solution to the abortion controversy.
b. correct but counterintuitive.
c. not sharp or decisive enough to give us a solution to the abortion controversy.
d. the basis for a solution to the abortion question.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

4. According to English, killing an innocent person is

a. always wrong.
b. sometimes permissible.
c. not permissible even in self-defense.
d. always permissible.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

True/False
 280

5. English argues that if pregnancy presents a serious threat to the woman, she may kill
the fetus that poses such a threat, even if it is an innocent person.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. English says that nonpersons should get no moral consideration at all.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. English thinks that in the later months of pregnancy, abortion seems to be wrong
except to save the woman from serious injury or death.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. English thinks that the belief that a fetus is not a person implies that you can do to it
anything you wish.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. English accepts most early-stage abortions and rejects most later-stage abortions.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. English advances a moderate position on abortion.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. English thinks that infanticide is morally permissible.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. English thinks the concept of a person points us to a solution to the abortion question.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. English argues that Tooley’s conclusions about abortion are wrong.
a. True
 281

b. False
Answer: True

14. English completely rejects Thomson’s argument.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. English points out that animals are not persons, yet to kill or torture them for no
reason at all is wrong.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 282

92. Burton Leiser: The Death Penalty Is Permissible

Summary
Leiser rejects the idea that the death penalty constitutes a denial of the criminal’s worth
and dignity. Just the reverse, argues Leiser. He argues that the death penalty, based on
retributivism, actually affirms the offender’s dignity and worth because it treats him or
her as a fully responsible person. In the last part of the essay Leiser discusses the limits of
the death penalty.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Leiser, only the most heinous offenses against the state and against
individual persons seem to deserve
a. leniency.
b. imprisonment.
c. the ultimate penalty.
d. mercy.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. According to Leiser, on retributive grounds, terrorists should be subject to

a. life in prison.
b. torture.
c. cruel and unusual punishment.
d. the death penalty.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. According to Leiser, if a person is so deranged as to be legally insane,

a. the death penalty is called for.
b. imprisonment is justified.
c. no punishment is appropriate.
d. any punishment is appropriate.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

4. According to Leiser, capital punishment is

a. cruel and unusual punishment.
b. sometimes justified.
c. an affront to human dignity.
d. inconsistent with contemporary moral standards.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Leiser thinks that the vast majority of murders should not be regarded as capital
crimes.
 283

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. Leiser believes that the death penalty should be imposed only when it is a deterrent to
crime.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Leiser says that no man may deliberately cause another to lose his life without some
compelling justification.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Leiser thinks that the death penalty can actually affirm the offender’s dignity and
worth.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Leiser says that the death penalty is “cruel and unusual.”

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Leiser thinks the death penalty constitutes a denial of the criminal’s worth and
dignity.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Leiser admits that retributive justice amounts to revenge.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Leiser declares that only the most heinous offenses against the state and against
individual persons seem to deserve the ultimate penalty.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. Leiser concludes that any murder (as opposed to a mere homicide) committed in a
particularly vile, wanton, or malicious way ought to be punishable by death.
 284

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Leiser contends that terrorists should not be subject to the death penalty.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Leiser believes that murder committed by a person who is serving a life sentence
ought to be punishable by death.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 285

93. Hugo Adam Bedau: No, the Death Penalty Is Not Morally Permissible

Summary
In this selection Bedau first draws an analogy between self-defense and the death penalty.
Just as in defending ourselves we are to use no more force than is necessary to prevent
harm, so in punishing criminals we are to use no more violence than is necessary to
adequately punish the criminal. Bedau then argues that neither the deterrence nor the
retributive argument for capital punishment is a good argument. He thinks that the literal
application of the lex talionis is barbaric and that long-term imprisonment is adequate
punishment.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Bedau, the claim that the death penalty is a better deterrent than
imprisonment for such crimes as murder is
a. supported by evidence.
b. easily proven.
c. meaningless.
d. not supported by evidence.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

2. According to Bedau, an important principle is that unless there is a good reason for
choosing a more severe rather than a less severe punishment for a crime,
a. no penalty is justified.
b. the less severe penalty is no more justified than the more severe one.
c. the less severe penalty is to be preferred.
d. all penalties should be minimal.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. According to Bedau, a cost–benefit analysis of the death penalty must take into
account
a. possible incitement to murder.
b. the risks of executing an innocent person.
c. the high costs of implementing the death penalty system.
d. All of the above
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

4. According to Bedau, the principle that crimes should be punished is

a. in dispute between proponents and opponents of the death penalty.
b. not likely to be in dispute between proponents and opponents of the death
penalty.
c. rejected by death penalty opponents.
d. rejected by the Supreme Court.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website
 286

5. Bedau believes that the death penalty is

a. applied consistently and promptly.
b. a good deterrent.
c. not applied consistently and promptly.
d. cost effective.
Answer: c

True/False

6. Bedau believes that it is never rational to risk the death of another to prevent death or
grave injury to oneself or to others.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Kant defended the death penalty.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Bedau says that the principle that the punishment of death best fits the crime of murder
turns out to be extremely difficult to interpret and apply.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

9. Bedau thinks that the principle of “a life for a life” suffices to justify the execution of
murderers.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Bedau claims that the application of the death penalty is biased.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Bedau points out that determining whether the death penalty is an effective deterrent
is very difficult.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. According to Bedau, Kantian moralists would base their entire case for the morality
of the death penalty on the way it is thought to provide just retribution.
 287

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

13. Bedau thinks the principle of “life for a life” can justify the execution of murderers.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. Bedau notes that not even the biblical world limited the death penalty to the
punishment of murder.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Bedau argues that there is reason to believe that the death penalty deters the most
violent criminals.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 288

94. Lawrence Blum: “Racism”: Its Core Meaning

Summary
Blum offers a history of the term “racism” and argues that all forms of racism involve
one of two elements: inferiorization or antipathy. Inferiorization refers to the belief or
attitude that some racial groups are inferior to others. Historically, inferiorization has
been the key ingredient in slavery, segregation, imperialism, apartheid, and Nazism.
Race-based antipathy involves bigotry, hostility, and hatred and is often the main feature
of contemporary racism. Blum wants to curb society’s overuse and misapplication of
“racism” because using it to apply to anything and everything racial robs it of its moral
power to shame. “‘Racism’ and ‘racist’ should be reserved for certain especially serious
moral failings and violations in the area of race,” he says. “They should not be permitted
to spread to include everything that someone might justifiably disapprove of.”

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Blum, the heart of racism is

a. Jim Crow discrimination.
b. using the term “racist.”
c. inferiorization and antipathy.
d. indifference.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

2. Blum argues that not every instance of racial conflict, insensitivity, or discomfort is
a. racial.
b. worthy of concern.
c. racist.
d. identifiable.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. Blum contends that people who work in systems or institutions of racism

a. are invariably guilty of racial prejudice.
b. are personally to blame for racism.
c. are innocent of racial prejudice.
d. may or may not be guilty of racial prejudice.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

4. Blum argues that inferiorizing and antipathy racism are

a. synonymous.
b. distinct.
c. one and the same.
d. sometimes justified.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website
 289

True/False

5. Blum says the term “racism” was first used by European social scientists in the 1930s
to characterize and condemn the Nazi belief system.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

6. According to Blum, racist doctrines were not fully used to justify slavery in the
Americas until the nineteenth century.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

7. Not every race hater regards the target of her hatred as inferior.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. According to Blum, all antipathy is prejudice.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

9. Blum says that prejudice is always conscious.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

10. Blum insists that the term “racist” has been conceptually inflated.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11. Blum claims that someone can act in a racist manner on some occasions without
being a “racist.”
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Blum maintains that people who are racist in their character cannot learn to be
otherwise.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 290

13. According to Blum, symbols, jokes, and images can be racist in their own right, apart
from people’s motives in using them.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Blum avers that like the swastika, the Confederate battle flag is a racist symbol.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Blum declares that telling a racist joke makes someone a racist.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 291

95. Kwame Anthony Appiah: Racisms

Summary
Kwame Anthony Appiah is a British-born Ghanaian-American philosopher and author.
His books include Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race, Cosmopolitanism:
Ethics in a World of Strangers, and the introduction to philosophy Thinking It Through.
He examines the concepts of race and racism and the popular presuppositions that
underlie them. He distinguishes between racialism (“that there are heritable
characteristics, possessed by members of our species, that allow us to divide them into a
small set of races”) and racism (“which presupposes racialism”). Racialism is false and
not inherently dangerous. But racism, which comes in two main forms, is harmful. One
form, called extrinsic racism, might be successfully countered by presenting the extrinsic
racist with relevant counterevidence. The other, intrinsic racism, cannot be undone by
showing the intrinsic racist any opposing evidence.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Appiah, much of what we say about the concept of racism is

a. logical.
b. inconsistent.
c. accurate.
d. thoughtful.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. Appiah says that racialism is

a. inherently dangerous.
b. true but dangerous.
c. false but not inherently dangerous.
d. sometimes false.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. Appiah says the extrinsic racist believes that racial essence entails
a. no morally relevant qualities.
b. the inherent inferiority of blacks.
c. the inherent superiority of Europeans.
d. certain morally relevant qualities.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

4. Appiah maintains that for the intrinsic racist, no amount of evidence can undermine his
a. racism.
b. self-confidence.
c. hate.
d. respect for others.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website
 292

True/False

9. Some people who deserve the label of “racist” seem to suffer from a kind of cognitive
incapacity.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. Appiah points out that an inability to change your mind in the face of appropriate
evidence is a cognitive incapacity, but it is one that all of us surely suffer from in some
areas of belief.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

11.In Appiah’s view, intrinsic racism is a moral error.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

12. Intrinsic racism does not require any arbitrary distinctions.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. Appiah contends that intrinsic racism is mistaken because it violates the basic moral
principle of making moral distinctions only on morally relevant grounds.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. According to Appiah, an inability to change our minds in the face of appropriate
evidence is a tendency that we are powerless to resist.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Appiah believes that “racial prejudice” is a deformation of rationality in judgment.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True
 293

96. Peter Singer: Famine, Affluence, and Morality

Summary
Peter Singer advocates a fundamental shift in the attitudes of people in affluent countries
toward the poor and starving of the Third World. His argument is that (i) suffering and
death from lack of food and other necessities are bad; (ii) “if it is in our power to prevent
something bad from happening” without excessive sacrifice, we have a moral duty to do
it; therefore, (iii) we have a moral duty to help the poor and starving of the world
(regardless of their proximity to us or how many other people are in a position to help). If
this argument is sound, it shows that giving to famine relief and similar causes is not an
act of charity (and therefore optional)—it is a stringent moral obligation.
The second premise comes in two forms, strong and weak. The strong version
says that we have a duty to prevent something bad from happening if we can do it
without “sacrificing anything of comparable moral importance.” This principle requires
us to give aid to the level of “marginal utility”—to the point where we could not give any
more without causing as much suffering to ourselves or our families as we would ease by
our giving. We must reduce our circumstances almost to the same degree of hardship
experienced by those we are trying to aid.
Singer thinks the strong principle is the correct one, but he believes the weak
version would also transform how we view our obligations to the needy. According to
this less stringent principle, we have a duty to prevent something bad from happening if
we can do it without “sacrificing anything morally significant.” It requires us not to
sacrifice to the point of marginal utility but rather to stop spending money on
comparatively trivial things. It would have us give money to famine relief instead of
spending it on a new car or new clothes.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. According to Singer, we have a moral duty to help the poor and starving of the world
regardless of
a. their ability to pay us back.
b. their proximity to us.
c. their moral status.
d. their intentions.
Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. Singer’s strong principle requires us to give aid to the level of

a. minimal utility.
b. differentiated sacrifice.
c. least disruption.
d. marginal utility.
Answer: d Appears: Student Website

3. A criticism of Singer’s view is that the strong principle

 294

a. compels us to be mindful of others.

b. allows the needs of others to be taken into consideration.
c. allows the needs of others to outweigh or overrule our own legitimate rights
and needs.
d. contradicts the weak principle.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

4. Singer’s less stringent principle says that we have a duty to prevent something bad
from happening if we can do it without
a. affecting overall utility.
b. violating principles of equality.
c. sacrificing anything morally significant.
d. sacrificing anything.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

5. Singer contends that if we have the power to prevent a very bad thing from occurring
and if we can prevent it without “sacrificing anything morally significant,” then
a. we are not obligated to help.
b. we have a moral duty to help.
c. we must give preference to ourselves and loved ones.
d. we should empathize but not necessarily help.
Answer: b

Appears: Student Website

6. According to Singer, giving to famine relief and similar causes is not an act of charity
but
a. an act of equality.
b. a supererogatory choice.
c. an act of respect.
d. a stringent moral obligation.
Answer: d

Appears: Student Website

7. Some 80 percent of the world’s wealth belongs to

a. 75 percent of its people.
b. 40 percent of its people.
c. 17 percent of its people.
d. 1 percent of its people.
Answer: c

Appears: Student Website

8. Singer’s view on aiding the poor and hungry is

a. deontological.
 295

b. libertarian.
c. utilitarian.
d. conservative.
Answer: c

9. A common criticism of Singer’s view is that it overlooks duties that we have to

a. ourselves and those close to us.
b. Third World countries.
c. our own government.
d. children.
Answer: a

True/False

10. Singer suggests that we should give 100 percent of our wealth to the poor and hungry.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Singer believes that giving to the poor can be justified through Kantian ethics.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Singer thinks we have a greater obligation to give to the needy nearby than to those
far away.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. If we adhered stringently to Singer’s principles, our lifestyles would be transformed.

a. True
b. False
Answer: True

14. Singer believes that giving to the poor can violate their autonomy.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

15. Singer believes that giving to the poor can violate their need for independence.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
 296

97. Garrett Hardin: Living on a Lifeboat

Summary
In this article Hardin argues that the affluent should not aid the poor and starving people
of the world because doing so will lead only to disaster for everyone, rich and poor.
Helping desperately needy, overpopulated countries is morally wrong. He makes his case
using several metaphors, the “lifeboat” being the most memorable.
Imagine, he says, that the affluent nations are lifeboats carrying rich people in a
sea dotted with the desperately poor, many of them trying to clamber aboard or seize
some of the passengers’ supplies. Each lifeboat has a limited carrying capacity, just as
each rich nation does. For safety’s sake, a lifeboat should carry fewer passengers than it
can actually accommodate, just as a country should have a population small enough to
guarantee excess carrying capacity to offset emergencies such as droughts or crop
failures. No lifeboat can take on more passengers or give handouts without risking
disaster for everyone. If all those trying to climb aboard are taken into a boat, it will
capsize and everyone will drown. If only some of the poor people are let on board—
enough to fill the craft to maximum capacity—the safety factor is eliminated, and the
boat will sink sooner or later. The third option, unthinkable to some, is to turn away all
the poor. Many will perish, but the lucky few already on board will survive. Given these
cruel realities, the morally right course for affluent nations is clear: Do not aid the people
of desperately poor, overpopulated countries.
Hardin bolsters his argument with another metaphor, “the tragedy of the
commons.” The commons is any land or resource that is open to all to exploit. In any
arrangement based on a commons system—such as public field where all shepherds can
freely graze their sheep or a social system in which all goods are shared alike—it is in
each member’s self-interest to use the system’s resources to the maximum. It is in each
shepherd’s interest, for example, to graze as many sheep as possible to support his
family. There is no incentive for him to think about the common good, to act responsibly
so the field is not overgrazed and ruined for everyone. The result is disaster; the field is
destroyed. This is the tragedy of the commons: “mutual ruin” from a well-meaning
system of sharing.
Hardin claims that in a world where all resources are shared and reproduction in
the impoverished countries is uncontrolled, the tragedy of the commons is inevitable. The
catastrophe will come when rich countries let the poor inundate their lifeboats or when a
world food bank becomes an international commons that shares the Earth’s food reserves.

Test Questions

Multiple Choice

1. Hardin argues that the affluent should not aid the poor and starving people of the world
because
a. doing so will raise their standard of living.
b. doing so will lead only to disaster for everyone, rich and poor.
c. the poor are undeserving.
d. the rich have no moral obligations.
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Answer: b Appears: Student Website

2. Hardin says that in the lifeboat analogy the morally right course of action is to
a. allow everyone to climb into the boat.
b. allow only some poor people to climb into the boat.
c. turn away all the poor.
d. purposively sink the boat.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

3. According to Hardin, the tragedy of the commons is

a. mutual ruin from a well-meaning system of sharing.
b. the overabundance of resources.
c. the waste of some resources.
d. mutual destruction through violence.
Answer: a Appears: Student Website

4. Hardin claims that in a world where all resources are shared and reproduction in the
impoverished countries is uncontrolled, the tragedy of the commons is
a. undetectable.
b. possible.
c. inevitable.
d. instructive.
Answer: c Appears: Student Website

True/False

5. Hardin thinks that the World Food Bank is a good idea.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

6. Hardin uses the lifeboat analogy to show that the resources of the developed world are
limitless.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

7. Hardin argues that aiding the poor will increase their suffering.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

8. Hardin says that the tragedy of the commons is only a theoretical possibility.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False
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9. Hardin believes that the problems of poverty and starvation are due to uncontrolled
population growth.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

10. In the field of practical demography, Hardin thinks that the wisest course is to rely on
Adam Smith’s notion of the power of the “invisible hand.”
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

11. Hardin endorses the notion of a freedom to breed.

a. True
b. False
Answer: False

12. Hardin believes that we can control the long-term breeding of mankind by an appeal
to conscience.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

13. To deal with human population growth, Hardin says, we must above all not rely on
mutual coercion.
a. True
b. False
Answer: False

14. The only way we can preserve and nurture other freedoms, Hardin says, is by
relinquishing the freedom to breed.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True

15. Hardin asserts that there is no prosperous population in the world today that has a
growth rate of zero.
a. True
b. False
Answer: True
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ADDITIONAL ESSAY QUESTIONS

(Note: These questions also appear in the online Student Guide.)

I. What Is Philosophy?

1. Plato: Socratic Wisdom

a. What does Socrates mean when he says that his main task has been to urge people
to care about the greatest improvement of their souls?
b. Socrates says that the unexamined life is not worth living. Do you agree with
him? Why or why not?

2. Plato: The Allegory of the Cave

a. How is the Allegory of the Cave a metaphor for the search for the true and the
good through philosophy?
b. The prisoners scorn the enlightened one. Is this usually the way people react to
those with unconventional views? How would Plato want us to react?

3. John Locke: Of Enthusiasm and the Quest for Truth

a. How does Locke explain the relationship between reason and revelation?
b. Locke urges us to not entertain “any proposition with greater assurance than the
proofs it is built upon will warrant.” What does this mean? If you adopted this
principle, what would be your attitude toward the claims of religion? Of science?

4. Bertrand Russell: The Value of Philosophy

a. In Russell’s view, how can the uncertainty that philosophy breeds be beneficial?
b. According to Russell, how does philosophical endeavor lead to transcendence?

II. Philosophy of Religion

5. Thomas Aquinas: The Five Ways

a. Is an infinite regress impossible, as Aquinas says? Can you conceive of an infinite
series stretching back in time or forward to the future? Explain.
b. Why does Aquinas think that an infinite regress is impossible? What is his
argument?

6. William Lane Craig: The Kalam Cosmological Argument and the Anthropic Principle
a. Many scientists say that some events (e.g., on the quantum level) are literally
uncaused, and some say that the universe itself could have been uncaused. If these
claims are true, how would they affect the cosmological argument?
b. How does Craig respond to the suggestion that science shows that some events
are uncaused?

7. Paul Edwards: A Critique of the Cosmological Argument

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a. How does Edwards respond to the claim that an infinite series of causes is
impossible?
b. How does Edwards address the contention that there must be a cause of the series
of causes as a whole?

8. William Paley: The Watch and the Watchmaker

a. What are the premises and conclusion of Paley’s argument?
b. How might an evolutionary biologist respond to Paley’s argument?

9. David Hume: A Critique of the Teleological Argument

a. Why does Hume say that the order, arrangement, or adjustment of final causes is
not in itself proof of design? Is this a good argument? Explain.
b. Why does Hume say that Cleanthes has no reason to ascribe perfection to the
Deity?

10. St. Anselm and Gaunilo: The Ontological Argument

a. Critics have claimed that Anselm’s argument is an attempt to define God into
existence. Why would they say this?
b. What is Anselm’s reply to Guanilo? Does it effectively dispose of Gaunilo’s
objection? Why or why not?

11. William Rowe: An Analysis of the Ontological Argument

a. What is Rowe’s chief criticism against the ontological argument? Is it sound?
b. What is the debate surrounding the notion of existence being (or not being) a
predicate?

12. Fyodor Dostoevsky: Why Is There Evil?

a. What is the significance of the “little child” in Ivan’s argument?
b. What does Ivan mean when he says that the tears of one tortured child are not
worth the “higher harmony”?

13. B.C. Johnson: Why Doesn’t God Intervene to Prevent Evil?

a. Johnson addresses various excuses that the theist might make for God. What are
they? How does Johnson reply to them?
b. What point is Johnson trying to make with his scenario of the infant dying in a
burning house?

14. John Hick: There Is a Reason Why God Allows Evil

a. Do you believe that the idea of a person who can be infallibly guaranteed always
to act rightly is self-contradictory? Why or why not?
b. What does Hick mean by “the world is seen . . . as a place of ‘soul-making’”?

15. William L. Rowe: The Problem of Evil and Some Varieties of Atheism
a. Do you accept Rowe’s argument from evil? Why or why not?
b. What response can the theist make to Rowe?
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16. Blaise Pascal: Yes, Faith Is a Logical Bet

a. What is Pascal’s wager? Do you find his argument convincing? Why or why not?
b. Critics have accused Pascal of committing the fallacy of false dilemma. What do
they mean by this? Is their criticism valid?

17. W.K. Clifford: The Ethics of Belief

a. Do you agree that what the shipowner did was wrong because he had no right to
believe as he did? Why or why not?
b. According to Clifford, what does morality have to do with proportioning one’s
belief to the evidence?

18. William James: The Will to Believe

a. Can we make something true simply by believing it to be true? Why or why not?
Does James make this claim?
b. The world has a multiplicity of religious views, gods, and religious practices,
many of which are incompatible with one another. What would James say about
this fact? Given this state of affairs, would James’s approach to belief be useful?

19. Alvin Plantinga: Religious Belief without Evidence

a. What is the Great Pumpkin objection, and how does Plantinga respond to it?
b. What is the difference among (i) accepting a proposition because it is supported
by evidence, (ii) accepting it on faith, and (iii) accepting it because it is “properly
basic”?

20. Michael Martin: Faith and Foundationalism

a. What is Martin’s central argument against Plantinga’s claim that belief in God can
be properly basic? Do you agree? Why or why not?
b. Do you think a belief in God can be rationally justified? If so, how? If not, why
not?

21. Søren Kierkegaard: Faith and Truth

a. Would there be any danger in discovering religious truth through the holding of
extremely passionate beliefs, as Kierkegaard suggests?
b. What would Kierkegaard say about a religious group that held passionate beliefs
that were at odds with the passionate beliefs of another religious group?

22. Bertrand Russell: Can Religion Cure Our Troubles?

a. What are the premises in Russell’s argument that religion cannot cure our
troubles?
b. How does Russell compare believers and nonbelievers in terms of truthfulness
and intellectual integrity? Do you think that his observations are correct? Why or
why not?

III. Knowledge
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23. René Descartes: Cartesian Doubt and the Search for Foundational Knowledge
a. Descartes thinks that only propositions that are beyond all doubt can be
considered knowledge. Do you agree with this? Do we know things that are not
beyond all possible doubt?
b. Can unaided reason discover all truth about the empirical world? Why or why
not?

24. John Locke: The Empiricist Theory of Knowledge

a. What reasons does Locke give for rejecting the notion of innate ideas?
b. According to Locke, what is the difference between primary and secondary
qualities?

25. George Berkeley: An Idealist Theory of Knowledge

a. On what grounds does Berkeley conclude that there is a God?
b. How does Berkeley try to show that all we ever experience are ideas?

26. David Hume: The Origin of Our Ideas

a. Why is Hume skeptical about metaphysical issues?
b. In Hume’s view, what is the role of custom in human life?

27. G.E. Moore: Proof of an External World

a. What is Moore’s proof of an external world? Do you accept it? Why or why not?
b. What response can the skeptic make to Moore?

28. Bertrand Russell: The Correspondence Theory of Truth

a. In Russell’s view, what are the problems inherent in the coherence theory of
truth?
b. Russell says that coherence cannot be the meaning of truth but that it is often a
test of truth. What does he mean?

29. William James: The Pragmatic Theory of Truth

a. Is success or usefulness the correct criterion of truth? Why or why not? Can you
think of counterexamples to the theory—that is, can you find examples in which
an idea is useful or successful but seems not to be true?
b. Do you think there are any dangers in defining truth as that which would be better
for us to believe? Why or why not?

30. Richard Rorty: Dismantling Truth: Solidarity versus Objectivity

a. Do you think that truth should be defined as that on which we are able to agree? Is
it possible for us to agree on a proposition that is in fact false? Explain.
b. What is Rorty’s criticism of the correspondence theory of truth? Do you agree with
his assessment? Why or why not?

31. Daniel Dennett: Postmodernism and Truth

a. How is Dennett’s distinction between appearance and reality important to his
argument against postmodernist views of truth?
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b. What is Dennett’s point about the “goal of truth”?

32. Eve Browning Cole: Philosophy and Feminist Criticism

a. What is Cole’s argument against some postmodernist theories of knowing?
b. What is the feminist empiricist view of knowledge? Do you agree with it?

33. Alison Ainley: Feminist Philosophy

a. What are some of the complexities involved in trying to characterize the
implications of sexual difference?
b. How is sexual difference related to gender?

34. David Hume: Skeptical Doubts Concerning the Operations of the Understanding
a. Why can the principle of induction not be justified empirically or a priori?
b. If the principle of induction cannot be proven, does that mean we cannot trust the
findings of science? Why or why not?

35. Wesley C. Salmon: The Problem of Induction

a. Do you agree with Salmon that the inductive solution to the problem of induction
is inadequate? Why or why not?
b. In your daily life, you assume the principle of induction. Does this show that the
principle is well founded? Why or why not?

IV. Philosophy of Mind: The Mind-Body Problem

36. René Descartes: Substance Dualism

a. On Descartes’s view, can we ever know that other minds exist? Why or why not?
b. How does Descartes use the notion of divisibility to argue that the mind exists
independently from the body?

37. Gilbert Ryle: Exorcising Descartes’s “Ghost in the Machine”

a. What is the category mistake that the official doctrine is said to make?
b. According to Ryle, what is the origin of the official doctrine’s category mistake?

38. J.P. Moreland: A Contemporary Defense of Dualism

a. What reasons does Moreland give for rejecting physicalism?
b. What reasons does Moreland provide for rejecting epiphenomenalism?

39. Paul Churchland: On Functionalism and Materialism

a. What are the main arguments against the identity theory?
b. What is the “inverted-spectrum thought experiment”? What does it purport to
show?

40. J.J.C. Smart: Sensations and Brain Processes

a. What is Smart’s argument for the identity theory? What is the weakest premise?
Why?
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b. What counterargument can be made against Smart’s position?

41. Thomas Nagel: What Is It Like to Be a Bat?

a. What point is Nagel trying to make with the bat example?
b. How does the nature of subjective experience count against reductive theories of
mind?

42. Jerry A. Fodor: The Mind–Body Problem

a. What reasons does Fodor give for preferring functionalism over competing
theories?
b. Why does Fodor prefer functionalism over the identity theory?

43. David Chalmers: Property Dualism

a. How does property dualism differ from traditional substance dualism?
b. What is property dualism? Does it reject materialism? Does it posit a ghost in the
machine?

44. John Searle: Minds, Brains, and Computers

a. Why does Searle say that strong AI is false?
b. What is the Chinese room thought experiment? What does it purport to show
about strong AI?

45. Ned Block: Troubles with Functionalism

a. What is the Chinese nation argument? Are you persuaded by it? Why or why not?
b. What are some of the objections to the Chinese nation scenario that Block
considers? Do any of these convince you that the Chinese nation argument is
mistaken? Explain.

46. John Locke: Our Psychological Properties Define the Self

a. What is the point of Locke’s thought experiment about the prince and the
cobbler?
b. According to Locke, how is memory involved in the notion of personal identity?

47. David Hume: We Have No Substantial Self with Which We Are Identical
a. Do you agree with Hume that “self” is merely a stream of consciousness and not a
substance or distinct entity? Explain.
b. What is Hume’s argument for the nonexistence of the self?

V. Freedom of the Will and Determinism

48. Baron d’Holbach: We Are Completely Determined

a. What is d’Holbach’s argument that we do not have free will? Do you think the
argument is sound? Explain.
b. Why does d’Holbach maintain that choice does not prove the free agency of man?
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49. William James: The Dilemma of Determinism

a. According to James, how does indeterminism (randomness) make free will
possible? Do you agree that it does? How can randomness make someone free to
act as he or she sees fit?
b. According to James, what are the unpleasant implications of determinism?

50. Roderick M. Chisholm: Human Freedom and the Self

a. How does Chisholm distinguish between event causation and agent causation?
Why is this distinction important to Chisholm’s argument for free will?
b. Do you find Chisholm’s argument against compatibilism persuasive? How might
a compatibilist respond?

51. Harry Frankfurt: Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person
a. How does Frankfurt’s compatibilism differ from traditional compatibilism? Is it
more plausible than the traditional view? Why or why not?
b. Would you say that a woman acts freely even if her second-order desires are not
her own (due to, say, drug addiction)? Would such a case be a genuine
counterexample to Frankfurt’s compatibilism? Explain.

52. David Hume: Liberty and Necessity

a. According to Hume, under what conditions does a person act freely? Is his view
plausible? Can you think of a situation in which a person meets Hume’s
requirement for free action but still is not free?
b. Does Hume think that persons can ever be legitimately praised or blamed for an
action? Why or why not?

53. W.T. Stace: Compatibilism

a. What is Stace’s conception of freedom? Do you think it accurately captures what
we mean by free actions?
b. Do you think Stace’s analysis successfully reconciles free will and determinism?
Why or why not?

VI. Ethics

54. Ruth Benedict: Morality Is Relative

a. Does Benedict’s view imply that one culture cannot legitimately criticize another
—that, say, Americans cannot legitimately criticize a culture that condones
human sacrifices? Explain.
b. Does Benedict’s view imply that each culture is infallible on moral issues? Do
you think cultures are morally infallible? Why or why not?

55. James Rachels: Morality Is Not Relative

a. What are the premises of the cultural differences argument?
b. According to Rachels, why is there less disagreement among cultures than it
seems?
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56. Plato: Why Should I Be Moral? Gyges’s Ring and Socrates’s Dilemma
a. Do you agree with the popular view of justice explained by Glaucon? Why or
why not?
b. What is Socrates’s view of the good? Do you agree with him?

57. Louis P. Pojman: Egoism and Altruism: A Critique of Ayn Rand

a. Is universal ethical egoism a plausible moral theory? Explain.
b. What is the argument from counterintuitive consequences? Is it a good argument?
Explain.

58. Joel Feinberg: Psychological Egoism

a. What is Feinberg’s argument against psychological egoism? Is it cogent?
b. Do you believe in psychological egoism? Why or why not?

59. Immanuel Kant: The Moral Law

a. How does Kant’s categorical imperative apply to the case of the lying promise?
b. Does Kant allow any exceptions to a categorical imperative? Would you make an
exception if it could save an innocent person’s life (and harm no one else)? Why
or why not?

60. John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism

a. What is the chief difference between utilitarianism and Kant’s ethics?
b. Do you believe, with Rawls, that utilitarianism is a paternalistic violator of human
rights? Explain.

61. Russ Shafer-Landau: Consequentialism: It’s Difficulties

a. According to Shafer-Landau, why is justice the central moral problem for
consequentialist theories?
b. How have consequentialists tried to defend themselves against the charge that
their theories conflict with intuitions about justice? Do you think any of the
defenses are successful?

62. Aristotle: The Ethics of Virtue

a. What does Aristotle mean by “the function of man is activity of soul in
accordance with reason”?
b. According to Aristotle, how does a just man become just? If Aristotle is right,
what implications would his view have for the moral education of the young?

63. Virginia Held: The Ethics of Care

a. How does Held’s view of ethics differ from Kant’s? Can they be reconciled?
b. What is Held’s critique of the “ethic of justice”? Do you agree with it? Why or
why not?

64. Alison M. Jaggar: Feminist Ethics

a. What are the main goals of feminist ethics?
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b. What are some key misunderstandings about feminist ethics?

65. Annette C. Baier: The Need for More than Justice

a. Why does Baier believe that justice theories should be combined with other
perspectives?
b. Is her argument for emphasizing both justice and care cogent? Why or why not?

66. Jean-Paul Sartre: Existentialist Ethics

a. Sartre says that “everything is permissible if God does not exist.” Do you agree?
Explain.
b. Are moral decisions always as arbitrary or subjective as Sartre would have us
believe? Are there any counterexamples to Sartre’s example of the young student?

67. James Rachels: The Divine Command Theory

a. What are the premises of Rachels’s argument against the divine command theory?
b. According to Rachels, why should even religious people reject the divine
command theory? Do you agree with Rachels? Why or why not?

68. Thomas Nagel: Moral Luck

a. How, according to Nagel, does moral luck enter into our moral decision-making?
b. How does moral luck seem to undermine our moral freedom?

69. Susan Wolf: Moral Saints

a. Why does Wolf think we should not strive to become moral saints?
b. According to wolf, how might someone’s psychological development be stunted
by trying to become a moral saint?

VII. Political Philosophy

70. Robert Paul Wolff: In Defense of Anarchism

a. What is Wolff’s argument for anarchism?
b. Can political authority ever be justified? Can you imagine any situations in which
political authority would be acceptable? Explain.

71. Thomas Hobbes: The Absolutist Answer: The Justification of the State Is the Security
It Affords
a. Do you agree with Hobbes’s view of human nature? Is self-interest the only
motivation that people have in their dealings with one another?
b. Are Hobbes’s absolutist view of government and democracy in conflict? Explain.

72. John Locke: The Democratic Answer: The Justification of the State Is Its Promotion
of Security and Natural Human Rights
a. How do Locke’s view of human nature and Hobbes’s view differ?
b. What are the four limits on the legislative power that Locke proposes?

73. John Stuart Mill: A Classical Liberal Answer

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a. How would Mill’s principle of liberty apply to unpopular minorities who

performed actions that the majority thought immoral (but not harmful)?
b. What would Mill’s principle of liberty imply about the treatment of homosexuals,
pagans, and pornographers?

74. John Rawls: The Contemporary Liberal Answer

a. Rawls says that we do not deserve our natural talents and abilities. Do you agree?
Why or why not?
b. Do Rawls’s principles imply a “welfare state”? Explain.

75. Robert Nozick: Against Liberalism

a. What is Nozick’s argument against liberalism? Do you accept it? Why or why
not?
b. How would Rawls reply to Nozick?

76. Martin Luther King Jr.: Nonviolence and Racial Justice

a. What are the five points King makes about nonviolent resistance?
b. King says that the universe is on the side of justice. Is this a realistic view? Why
or why not?

77. Susan Moller Okin: Justice, Gender, and the Family

a. Why, according to Okin, have women been left out of traditional theories of
justice?
b. Detail some of the men–women inequalities that Okin describes. In your view,
how serious are these?

78. Mary Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Women

a. According to Wollstonecraft, how do men prevent women from reaching their full
potential as intelligent human beings?
b. What kind of “revolution in female manners” does Wollstonecraft envision?

VIII. What Is the Meaning of Life?

79. Epicurus: Moderate Hedonism

a. Does Epicurus deserve his reputation as a reckless, self-indulgent profligate? Why
or why not?
b. What is Epicurus’s argument for why we should not fear death? Evaluate the
argument.

80. Epictetus: Stoicism: Enchiridion

a. What does Epictetus mean by “it is not things that upset people but rather ideas
about things”?
b. What is the point of Epictetus’s distinction between what is up to us and what is
not up to us?
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81. Albert Camus: Life Is Absurd

a. What is the point Camus is making by dwelling on the myth of Sisyphus?
b. Why does Sisyphus conclude that all is well?

82. Julian Baggini: Living Life Forward

a. What is Baggini’s argument against the teleological view of life? Do you agree
with him? Why or why not?
b. Does Baggini think that we need not find meaning in this life if there is life after
death? Do you agree? Explain.

83. Louis P. Pojman: Religion Gives Meaning to Life

a. Do those who do not believe in God have resources or advantages comparable
with those that theism is supposed to provide? Explain.
b. Is it possible to live happily as if theism is true even though you know that it may
not be true? Explain.

84. Thomas Nagel: The Absurd

a. Why does Nagel say that the absurdity of our existence is not a problem for which
we must find a solution?
b. Nagel argues that if God has a plan for our lives, following that plan in itself
would not give meaning to our lives. What is Nagel’s reasoning behind this view?
Do you agree with him?

85. Richard Taylor: The Meaning of Life

a. According to Taylor, how can someone achieve meaning in life?
b. What does Taylor mean by “the point of living is simply to be living”?

86. Susan Wolf: Meaning in Life

a. Suppose someone’s life is filled with worthwhile projects—like saving lives,
helping the poor, or creating art—but she considers the work boring and pointless.
Would Wolf consider such a life meaningful? Would you agree with her
assessment? Why or why not?
b. Wolf denies the common sentiment that it doesn’t matter what people do in life as
long as they enjoy it. Do you agree with her? Why or why not?

IX. Contemporary Moral Problems

87. Don Marquis: Why Abortion Is Immoral

a. What is Marquis’s argument against abortion?
b. Do you think that Marquis’s argument is sound? Why or why not?

88. Francis J. Beckwith: Arguments from Bodily Rights

a. Why does Beckwith reject Thomson’s argument?
b. How might an abortion-rights person reply to Beckwith?
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89. Mary Anne Warren: On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion
a. How does Warren define “person”? Is her definition plausible?
b. What is Warren’s argument for the permissibility of abortion? Evaluate her
argument.

90. Judith Jarvis Thomson: A Defense of Abortion

a. How does Thomson use her thought experiment about the famous violinist to
make her case?
b. Does Thomson think that any abortion is permissible? If not, what kinds of
abortions are permissible on her account? What kinds would be wrong?

91. Jane English: The Moderate Position: Beyond the Personhood Argument
a. Do you agree with English’s moderate position on abortion? Why or why not?
b. According to English, when is abortion permissible? When is it not permissible?

92. Burton Leiser: The Death Penalty Is Permissible

a. What is Leiser’s argument for the permissibility of the death penalty?
b. Do you agree with Leiser? Why or why not?

93. Hugo Adam Bedau: No, the Death Penalty Is Not Morally Permissible
a. Why does Bedau think that neither the deterrence nor the retributive argument is
plausible?
b. What is the equal-justice argument against capital punishment? Do you accept
this argument? Explain.

94. Lawrence Blum: “Racism”: Its Core Meaning

a. What is Blum’s definition of racism? What does he mean that many things that
are racial are not necessarily racist? Do you agree?
b. How would Blum reply to the claim that “all white people are racists”? How
might he respond to the theory that racism is “prejudice plus the power to
coerce”?

95. Kwame Anthony Appiah: Racisms

a. Why does Appiah think intrinsic racism is a moral failing? Do you agree?
b. What is the difference between extrinsic and extrinsic racism? Can either view be
changed through the presentation of evidence?

96. Peter Singer: Famine, Affluence, and Morality

a. Do you have a duty to give aid to the needy in other countries? Why or why not?
b. Do we have obligations to ourselves and to our family and friends that we would
have to abandon if we adopted Singer’s notion of duties to the needy? Are we
mistaken about the strength of these duties as Singer implies?

97. Garrett Hardin: Living on a Lifeboat

a. Is Hardin’s analysis of world hunger and our moral obligations simplistic, as
some critics say? Why or why not?
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b. Will aiding the poor invariably increase their suffering? Are some ways better
than others? Explain.
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KEY TERMS

absolutism, political A political system in which the state has immense power over its

citizens to ensure peace and security.

agent causation The view that a free action is caused by an agent (person) and is not

wholly determined by previous events.

agnostic Someone who neither accepts nor denies God’s existence.

anarchism The political view that the state has no right to violate personal freedom or

autonomy.

appeal to ignorance The fallacy of arguing either that (i) a claim is true because it has

not been proven false or (ii) a claim is false because it has not been proven true.

appeal to the person The fallacy of rejecting a statement on the grounds that it comes

from a particular person, not because the statement or claim itself is false or dubious.

appeal to popularity The fallacy of arguing that a claim must be true not because it is

backed by good reasons but simply because many people believe it.

a posteriori argument An argument with premises that can be known only through

experience.

a posteriori knowledge Knowledge that depends entirely on sense experience.

a priori argument An argument that does not depend on premises known only through

experience.

a priori knowledge Knowledge acquired independently of or prior to sense experience.

argument A group of statements—one statement to be supported (the conclusion) and

one or more statements trying to support it (the premises).

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argument from evil An argument purporting to show that because there is unnecessary

evil, an all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good God must not exist.

atheist Someone who denies God’s existence.

axiology The study of value, including both aesthetic value and moral value.

begging the question The fallacy of trying to prove a conclusion by using that very

same conclusion as support.

cognitive realism The view that there is such a thing as objective truth, that there is a

way things are independently of how we represent these things to ourselves.

cognitive relativism The view that truth is relative, that the way things are depends on

how we represent them to ourselves.

compatibilism The view that free actions are compatible with causal determinism.

composition The fallacy of arguing erroneously that what can be said of the parts can

also be said of the whole.

conclusion In an argument, the statement to be supported by premises.

cosmological argument An argument that tries to show that from the fact that the

universe exists, God exists.

cultural relativism The view that right actions are those sanctioned by one’s culture.

deductive argument An argument meant to give logically conclusive support to its

conclusion.

democracy A political system based on the principles of majority decision-making and

individual rights.

deontological ethics Moral theories in which the rightness of actions is determined not

solely by their consequences but partly or entirely by their intrinsic nature.

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determinism The doctrine that every event has a cause.

dialectic A process of reasoning or intellectual conversation in which argument and

counterargument, or thesis and counterthesis, are continually juxtaposed to discover the

truth of a matter.

distributive justice (or social justice) The fair distribution of society’s benefits and

burdens—such things as jobs, income, property, liberties, rights, welfare aid, taxes, and

public service.

divine command theory The doctrine that God is the creator of morality.

division The fallacy of arguing erroneously that what can be said of the whole can be

said of the parts.

dualism The view that the mind (or soul) and the body are two separate things.

dualism, property The view that mental properties are nonphysical properties arising

from, but not reducible to, physical properties.

dualism, substance The notion that mind and body consist of two fundamentally

different kinds of stuff or substances.

empiricism The view that our knowledge of the empirical world comes solely from

sense experience.

epistemology The philosophical study of knowledge.

equivocation The fallacy of assigning two different meanings to the same significant

word in an argument.

ethical egoism The view that right actions are those that serve one’s own best interests.

ethical relativism The view that moral standards do not have independent status but are

relative to what individuals or cultures believe.

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ethics The study of morality using the methods of philosophy.

ethics of care An ethical perspective that focuses on the unique demands of specific

situations and the virtues and feelings that are central to close personal relationships—

empathy, compassion, love, sympathy, and fidelity.

evidentialism The view that we are justified in believing something only if it supported

by sufficient evidence.

fallacy A common but bad argument.

false dilemma The fallacy of unacceptable arguing erroneously that because there are

only two alternatives to choose from, and one of them is false, the other one must be true.

functionalism The view that the mind is the functions that the brain performs.

genetic fallacy The fallacy of arguing that a statement can be judged true or false based

on its source.

hard determinism The view that there is no free will.

idealism, philosophical The view that reality is in some way mental in nature.

identity theory The view that mental states are identical to physical brain states.

incompatibilism The view that if determinism is true, no one can act freely.

indicator words Words that often accompany an argument and indicate that a premise

or conclusion is present.

inductive argument An argument meant to provide probable support to its conclusion.

inference The process of reasoning from premises to a conclusion.

inference to the best explanation A form of inductive reasoning in which we reason

from premises about a state of affairs to an explanation for that state of affairs.
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liberalism, political The doctrine that a government should promote both maximum

liberty and social equality.

libertarianism The view that some actions are controlled by persons.

libertarianism, political The doctrine that people have inviolable personal freedoms and

the right to pursue their own social and economic well-being in a free market without

interference from others.

logic The study of arguments or correct reasoning.

materialism The view that the mind (or soul) is physical or can be reduced entirely to

the physical.

metaphysics The study of reality, an inquiry into the fundamental nature of the universe

and the things in it.

moral absolutism The belief that objective moral principles allow no exceptions or must

be applied the same way in all cases and cultures.

moral objectivism The view that moral truths exist and that they do so independently of

what individuals or societies think of them.

moral relativism The view that moral standards are not objective, but are relative to

what individuals or cultures believe.

ontological argument An argument that tries to demonstrate God’s existence by logical

analysis of the concept of God.

philosophy A discipline that systematically examines life’s big questions through

critical reasoning, logical argument, and careful reflection.

premise In an argument, a statement meant to support a conclusion.

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problem of free will The challenge of reconciling determinism with our intuitions or

ideas about personal freedom.

property dualism The view that mental properties are nonphysical properties arising

from, but not reducible to, physical properties.

propositional knowledge Knowledge of a proposition, or knowing that something is the

case.

psychological egoism The theory that people always act out of self-interest.

rationalism The view that through unaided reason we can come to know what the world

is like.

skepticism The view that we cannot or do not have knowledge.

slippery slope The fallacy of arguing erroneously that a particular action should not be

taken because it will lead inevitably to other actions resulting in some dire outcome.

statement (claim) An assertion that something is or is not the case and is therefore the

kind of utterance that is either true or false.

straw man The fallacy of misrepresenting of a person’s views so they can be more

easily attacked or dismissed.

substance dualism The notion that mind and body consist of two fundamentally

different kinds of stuff or substances.

teleological argument An argument that tries to show that God must exist because

features of the universe show signs of purpose or design.

teleological ethics Moral theories asserting that the rightness or wrongness of an act is

determined by some nonmoral value.

theist Someone who believes in God.

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theodicy A defense of the traditional conception of God in light of the existence of evil.

utilitarianism A moral theory that says right actions are those that result in the most

beneficial balance of good over bad consequences for everyone involved.

virtue ethics A moral theory that focuses on the development of virtuous character.
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USEFUL WEB LINKS

I. What Is Philosophy?

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

(http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/)

The Philosophy Pages (A Guide to Philosophy)

(http://www.philosophypages.com/index.htm)

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

(http://plato.stanford.edu/contents.html)

EpistemeLinks.com
(http://www.epistemelinks.com/)

Philosophy around the Web

(http://users.ox.ac.uk/~worc0337/phil_index.html)

Mission Critical (Critical Thinking Site)

(http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/itl/graphics/main.html)

II. Philosophy of Religion

Philosophy of Religion Info

(http://www.philosophyofreligion.info/)

The Philosophers’ Magazine Online: The Teleological Argument

(http://www.philosophersnet.com/magazine/article.php?id=25&el=true)

The Philosophers’ Magazine Online: The Problem of Evil

(http://www.philosophersnet.com/magazine/article.php?id=35&el=true)

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Philosophy of Religion

(http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/philosophy-religion/)

III. Knowledge

The Philosophers’ Magazine Online: Understanding Epistemology

(http://www.philosophersnet.com/magazine/article.php?id=812&el=true)

Epistemology
(http://www.rep.routledge.com/philosophy/cgi-bin/article.cgi?it=P059)

Theory of Knowledge Info

(http://www.theoryofknowledge.info/)
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The Epistemology Research Guide

(http://www.ucs.louisiana.edu/~kak7409/EpistemologicalResearch.htm)

Epistemology Links
(http://www.epistemelinks.com/Main/Topics.aspx?TopiCode=Epis)

IV. Philosophy of Mind: The Mind-Body Problem

Annotated Field Guide to the Philosophy of Mind

(http://host.uniroma3.it/progetti/kant/field/)

Socrates on the Immortality of the Soul

(http://www.san.beck.org/SOCRATES4-What2.html#12)

David Chalmers’s Website

(http://consc.net/chalmers/)

Guide to the Philosophy of Mind (List of Philosophy of Mind Entries in the Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy)
(http://consc.net/guide.html)

V. Freedom of the Will and Determinism

The Determinism and Freedom Philosophy Website

(http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~uctytho/dfwIntroIndex.htm)

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Free Will

(http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/freewill/)

Online Papers on Free Will (List by David Chalmers)

(http://consc.net/online/8.4)

Metaphysics Links
(http://www.epistemelinks.com/Main/Topics.aspx?TopiCode=Meta)

“Agent Causation” (Paper by Timothy O’Connor)

(http://php.indiana.edu/~toconnor/Agent_Causation.pdf)

VI. Ethics

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Ethics

(http://www.iep.utm.edu/e/ethics.htm)

Ethics Updates
(http://ethics.sandiego.edu/index.asp)
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Moral Philosophy
(http://www.philosopher.org.uk/moral.htm)

Applied Ethics Resources on WWW

(http://www.ethicsweb.ca/resources/)

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Race

(https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/race/)

VII. Political Philosophy and Justice

Political Philosophy Online Resources

(http://lgxserver.uniba.it/lei/filpol/filpole/homefpe.htm)

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Political Philosophy

(http://www.iep.utm.edu/p/polphil.htm)

VIII. What Is the Meaning of Life?

Philosophy Now Magazine (Article by Richard Taylor)

(http://www.philosophynow.org/archive/articles/24taylor.htm)

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: The Meaning of Life

(http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/life-meaning/)

Meaning of Life blog by Iddo Landau

Psychology Today (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/finding-meaning-in-
imperfect-world)

IX. Contemporary Moral Problems

Abortion: All Sides of the Issue

(http://www.religioustolerance.org/abortion.htm)

Abortion and Ethics

(http://ethics.sandiego.edu/Applied/Abortion/index.html)

Punishment and the Death Penalty

(http://ethics.sandiego.edu/Applied/DeathPenalty/index.asp)

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Race

(https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/race/)