PHL 221 (YCP) (“Introduction to Philosophy”) Study Guide page 2

The following terms, names, and issues will be covered on the quizzes. Use your notes and textbook to go into more detail.

If I give you a term, I expect you to know what it means, and its significance in the philosophy which uses it. If I give you a name of a person or group, be able to identify him (it) and summarize what he (it) thought. If I give you a phrase, be able to explain it. If I ask a question, be able to answer it.

The items are listed in the order they are addressed in the notes.


PHL 221 (YCP) (“Introduction to Philosophy”) Study Guide page 2

Quiz #1

· The Sophists

· Relativism

· Cognitive relativism

· ethical relativism

· Individual relativism

· cultural relativism

· Problem of conflict

· problem of the reformer

· Protagoras

· Thrasymachus

· “Justice is the interest of the stronger”

· “Moral Realism

· Might makes right

· Callicles

· Superior individual

Quiz #2

· “what is, is”

· “two-worlds theory”

· Becoming/Being

· Forms

· Allegory of the Cave

· Epistemology

· Descartes

· evil demon

· clear and distinct

· Cogito ergo sum

· Innate ideas

· Empiricism

· Tabula rasa

· John Locke: Experience, Sensation, Reflection, Idea


Quiz # 3

· George Berkeley

· Idealism

· Esse est percipi

· Berkeley’s arguments that only ideas are real

· God as universal perceiver

· David Hume

· Ideas & impressions

· Matters of Fact

· Relations of Ideas

· Hume’s critique of causality

· Custom as basis of Belief

· Immanuel Kant

· A posteriori knowledge

· A priori knowledge

· Analytical judgment

· Synthetical judgment

· Synthetical Judgments a priori

· Categories of understanding

· In what does Locke locate the self?

· “Substance” may vary without changing identity

· David Hume: two classes of perceptions

· The empirical criterion of meaning

· Bundle theory of the self


Quiz #4

· Aristotle & the good

· Teleological ethics

· Happiness (Aristotle)

· Eudaimonia

· Moral virtue

· Moral vice (know 2 extremes)

· Habit

· Character

· “the mean”

· Kant

· Intention versus consequences

· Good will

· deontological” ethics

· “sorrowful philanthropist”

· The Categorical Imperative

· know 4 examples

· The Kingdom of Ends

· unconditional worth

· “ends in themselves”

Quiz #5

· hedonism

· Utilitarianism

· Jeremy Bentham

· The principle of utility

· Hedonic Calculus

· How is John Stuart Mill’s version of utilitarianism different from Bentham’s?

· The empirical criterion

· Distinguish happiness from contentment

· How do people find true happiness?

· Altruism

· Social Happiness


Quiz #6

· The “five ways” of Thomas Aquinas

· Potentiality

· Actuality

· infinite regress

· “Efficient cause”

· contingent

· necessary

· This quiz will be short answer only.

Quiz #7

· Arguments of Hume against design

· Critique of use of cause-effect arguments

· Order vs. design

· Matter may be able to cause itself

· Ordering is in the mind

· Arguments of Paley for design

· Knowledge of Design is not disproved by…

· Knowledge of Design is not explained by…

· self-reproducing watch is not a maker

· disposition of parts


PHL 221 (YCP) (“Introduction to Philosophy”) Study Guide page 2