Introduction to Philosophy
Study Guide
Buddhism to James
Buddhism
1. Buddha teaches that form, feeling, perception, formations and consciousness are impermanent. What does this tell us about the self?
2. A head-anointed, warrior-noble king has the power to fine, banish, and execute anyone in his kingdom. Why does Buddha say that even this man has no permanent self?
3. According to Buddhism what is the cause of suffering?
Radhakrishnan’s Idealist View of Life
4. What does “karma” mean?
5. Radhakrishnan says that Karma is a law of continuity, not retribution. What does this mean?
6. Does karma mean that if I do bad things, then bad (or painful) things will happen to me? If not, then what will happen to me?
7. Radhakrishnan says that an act’s physical effects may be short-lived, but that its moral effects are “worked into the character of the self.” Explain what this means, how an act can affect a person morally.
8. “Subjection to spirit is the law of universal nature.” Explain what Radhakrishnan means by this.
9. What does this mean, that freedom of the will is freedom of the self. Connect this with self-determination.
10. According to Radhakrishnan are we really free? Or are we just cogs in nature’s wheel?
11. How does the doctrine of karma encourage us to consider the misfortunes of others?
Anselm of Canterbury
12. What formula (expression in words) does Anselm rely on to prove that God exists?
13. If the Fool who does not believe in God thinks about God, then why does this mean God must really exist?
14. What is the point of Gaunilo’s “Lost Island”?
15. According to Anselm, a person contradicts himself if he denies that God exists. If so, then how can the Fool even say “there is no God”? Is the concept of God really in his mind? If not, what is?
Thomas Aquinas
16. How does Aquinas answer Anselm’s proof that God’s existence is self-evident?
17. When Anselm and Descartes prove that God exists, they look into their own minds. Where does Aquinas look for evidence?
18. According to Aquinas, what does it mean to be “self-evident”?
19. If the existence of God is not self-evident, how can we get to know that God exists? What evidence does he look for?
20. Aquinas says that motion is nothing else but “the reduction of something from a state of potentiality into a state of act.” In simple words, what does this mean?
21. Why can there not be an infinite chain of movers or efficient causes?
22. What is a “contingent” being?
23. If it were really possible that everything could not have existed, then (according to Aquinas) what would exist now? How does this show that there must be some necessary being?
24. We speak of some things being more or less good, noble, beautiful, and so on. How does Aquinas use this to prove that there must be a God?
25. In the Fifth Way how do we know that even inanimate objects always act for the best?
William James, Will to Believe
26. What is the difference between a living and a dead hypothesis? between forced and avoidable? between momentous and trivial options?
27. What’s wrong with just leaving the question of God’s existence open or unanswered?
28. Explain James’s distinction between the two principles “know truth” and “avoid error.”
29. James writes, “faith is a fact, based on need of the fact, can create the fact.” What does this mean? How is this so?
William James, Varieties of Religious Experience
30. What are the two essential things, according to James, that all religion teaches?
31. To grasp the essence of religion, James says we should not look at the teachings of different religions. What should we look at?
32. What are the two elements common to all religious creeds? How does this explain salvation?
33. Christians who identify the “MORE” with Jehovah are guilty of “overbelief.” What does James mean by “overbelief”?
34. How does James relate the reality of God to the subconscious? In other words, where does he find this “MORE” that all religions believe in?
35. According to James, why may we say that God is real?
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