Review for Final Exam - Kelly Inglis's Weblog
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Transcript Review for Final Exam - Kelly Inglis's Weblog
Review for Final Exam
Exam Format
25-35 multiple choice questions
Three essay questions from a choice of
five
Five essay choices from following list of
nine general topics
Essay questions
1)
Skepticism. What can you know?
2)
Applying a system of ethics (i.e. virtue ethics, Kantian ethics and/or
utilitarianism) to a concrete moral dilemma, and evaluating the system of
ethics.
3)
A discussion of a controversial topic where protectionism conflicts with
rights, e.g. euthansia, recreational drug use.
4)
Personhood: what gets to count as a person. Evaluation of some
controversial cases, e.g. apes.
5)
Animal rights: a question of the rights and wrongs of an animal rights
issue, e.g. vegetarianism, animal experimentation.
Essay questions
6)
Dualism vs. materialism about the mind. Which do you
believe is more plausible and why?
7)
The meaning of life. Can life be meaningful? Under
what circumstances? Evaluation of some particular
circumstances.
8)
Free Will. Do we have free will? Comparison of
different theories.
9)
Time travel. What are the potential logical problems
involved? Do they make time travel impossible?
Skepticism
Plato’s cave
Spectrum of reality
Shadows,reflections/ordinary objects/Forms, Reality
Descartes
Radical skepticism
Dream argument
Evil demon hypothesis
I think therefore I am
Thoughts, ideas and perceptions are real
Maybe the external world is not real
Brain-in-a-vat
The Matrix
A simulated world
Morality and Ethics
Plato’s Euthyphro argument against “morality comes
from God”
Aristotle
Virtue ethics
Eudomonia
The virtues
Kant
Rule-based ethics
The categorical imperative
The principle of universalizability
Absolute moral duties
Independent of consequences
Never treat a person as just a means, but always as an
end
Morality and Ethics (cont.)
Mill
Utilititarian ethics
Consequentialist
Intrinsic good
Instrumental good
Happiness and the absence of suffering are the only
intrinsic goods
“the greatest good for the greatest number”
Act utilitarianism
Preference utilitarianism
Rule utilitarianism
Trolley case
Transplant case
Paternalism vs. Individual Rights
Paternalism
Individual rights
The harm principle
Free speech
Euthanasia
Smoking in public places
Personhood
Personhood
“Persons”
Candidates for personhood
Moral agents (Kant)
Morally responsible
vs. morally considerable
Apes as persons
Reciprocal rights
Animal rights
Indirect vs. direct duties to animals
Vegetarianism
vivisection
Peter Singer
Ethics evolving to include animals
Speciesism
Sentience
Vague line (perhaps between a clam and a
shrimp)
The argument from borderline cases
Individuals vs. species vs. biosystems
Animal rights (cont.)
Tom Regan
Animal rights
Beings of moral standing should not be treated
as mere means, but as an end to themselves
Subjects-of-a-life
Normal mammals of a year or more
Carl Cohen
Reciprocality of rights
Consciousness
Physicalism
Dualism
Substance dualism
Property dualism
Matter vs mind
Chalmers
Zombies
The conceivability argument
Consciousness (cont.)
The interaction problem of dualism
Ockham’s razor
Idealism
The easy problems vs. the hard problem of
consciousness
Nagel – what is it like to be a bat
Qualia
Objective scientific knowledge vs. subjective experience
Free Will
Free will
Determinism
Fate
Determinism by God vs. determinism by physical laws
Incompatiblism
Libertarianism
Hard determinism
Compatibilism
The garden of forking paths
Indeterminism
Agent causation
Deliberation
Moral responsibility
The Meaning of Life
Subjective vs. objective theories
Eudomonia (the good life) – Aristotle
Positive psychology
The meaning of life is the search for the meaning of life
Otherworldly religion
Utilitarianism
Environmentalism
Family
Human progress
The present moment
Zen
Nihilism
Existentialism
Time Travel
Presentism
Eternalism
Time travel to the future vs. time travel to the past
Grandfather paradox
Butterfly effect
Causal loops
Coherent time travel
Novato self-consistency principle
Time travel and free will
Travel through parallel universes
Constant creation of new alternative universes