Questions for the First Philosophy Test (0)

Questions for the First Philosophy Test
a. Introduction
1. How would you characterize Modern philosophy? Commanding outlook , power, will, Man is God.
2. How would you characterize Classical philosophy? Contemplative outlook, truth , intelligence, God is truth.  
b. Descartes
3. What is the main question that Descartes is trying to answer ? How can I be certain [sure] that I am in the truth?
4. Which are precepts of Descartes' method ? Only accept what is self-evident. Analysis . Synthesis . Enumeration.
5. Descartes will only accept one specific kind of ideas : which and why? He will only accept clear and distinct ideas that are indubitable. Because the complex ideas could then be constructed using the simple ideas.
6. How does Descartes call his method and why is it not skeptical? Methodic doubt . Because the goal of this doubt is not to be skeptical but to prove that some things can not be doubted.
7. “I think, therefore I am”. What does this phrase means? If I think, I cannot doubt my own existence.
8. What kind of idea is for Descartes the idea of God? What does it mean ? Innate idea. If God is God, he should be perfect.
9. How does Descartes prove the existence of God? The fact that I have an idea of God implies its existence. Also unicorns
10. Why God's truthfulness is important for Descartes? If God is the truth, and he created our minds, we can trust that our minds are good means to reach the truth.
11. According to Descartes, by what elements is man constituted and how are they connected? Human beings are formed by the union of a res cogitans ( thinking thing - mind/ soul ) and a res extensa (an extended thing - material substance), that are united in the pineal gland.
12. What is the main problem of Descartes philosophy? Dualism . Idea-Things; soul- body
c. Hume
13. What is the problem that Hume is trying to solve? What answer he gives to this problem? Can we be certain about anything ? He wants to show that this pretension is absolutely false.
14. What is Empiricism?
15. What is Skepticism? Skepticism is generally any questioning attitude towards knowledge , facts, opinions or beliefs stated as facts, or doubt regarding claims that are taken for granted elsewhere.
16. According to Hume, what different kind of mental perceptions can we find in human mind? Ideas(thoughts), impression(sensation and feelings ).  
17. What does Hume think about general abstract ideas? Why? “ There is no such thing as abstract or general ideas, properly speaking”.
18. According to Hume, what is the difference between relations of ideas and matters of fact? Matters of fact are the more common truths we learn through our experiences . Mathematical propositions assert relations between ideas, and ideas only. The truth of a mathematical proposition is independent of questions about existence.
19. What does Hume think about the notion of cause - effect ? We understand matters of fact according to causation. The notion of cause-effect is a complex idea that is made up of three more foundational ideas: priority in time, proximity in space , and necessary connection .
20. What does Hume think about the notion of substance? Hume held that since substance cannot be perceived, it should not be assumed to exist . What we call substance is simply a bundle of qualities created by our minds – it is an association of ideas. If qualities were all removed there would be nothing else there. Therefore, substance does not exist.
21. What does Hume thinks about the notions of God, the world and the self? Why? God, the world and even the self, don't exist.
22. According to Hume, what is belief and why is it important for life? Belief is a feeling , a “guide for life”, but we must accept that our knowledge will always be limited, probable and insecure.
d. Kant
23. Who said the phrase: “I had to set limits to knowledge in order to make place for faith”? Immanuel Kant
24. What is Kant's philosophy goal? Kant's goal is to save religion from reason and at the same time to save science from skepticism.
25. For Kant, what is a priori knowledge? A priori knowledge is the necessary and universal knowledge we have independent of experience , such as our knowledge of..
26. For Kant, what is a posteriori knowledge? A posteriori knowledge is the particular knowledge we gain from experience.
27. For Kant, what is synthetic a priori judgement? Why are they important? In a synthetic judgement, the predicate concept contains information not contained in the subject concept, and so is informative.
28. Why Kant believes that his philosophy is a Copernican Revolution ? According to Kant the mind of man is not passive but an active organ which molds and coordinates sensations into ideas, an organ which transforms the chaotic multiplicity of experience reported.
29. What are the pure forms of perception? Which are them ? From the external world we receive different stimuli. the sense of space, and the sense of time.
30. What are the pure forms of conception? In a second stage, the mind raises the perceptual knowledge of objects into the conceptual knowledge of relationships, sequences and laws .
31. What is the difference between noumena and phenomena? Noumena, which is the world of things-in-themselves. Phenomena are often, but not always, understood as 'appearances' or 'experiences'. These are themselves sometimes understood as involving qualia.
32. What does Kant say about metaphysics and religion?
e. Hegel
33. What is the goal of Hegel's philosophy? His goal was to reduce reality to a more synthetic unity within the system of absolute idealism , to achieve the absolute.
34. For Hegel, what is the Absolute? The Absolute is, in principle, the relation between two different things, that ties these things together.
35. What kind of process is the Absolute? Understandable. If two things are opposed, it’s a relationship between them.
36. How would Hegel characterize the idea of Nature ? Nature is no other than Spirit . Indeed it is the 'other' of the Spirit.
37. How would Hegel characterize the idea of God? God is only a very advanced form of thinking the totality . Yet God is only a limited symbol .
38. What is the connection between the Spirit and human reason? Spirit is a rationality that manifests itself in human reason.
39. What is the name of the method that Hegel uses to explain the activity of the Absolute? The dialectic method.
40. What are the consequences of Hegel's philosophy? The priority of the principle of Immanence. Excessive rationalism. The risk of pantheism.
f. Marx
41. What kind of philosopher is Marx? A materialist philosopher
42. Which are the three elements of Marxist dialectic? Thesis, antithesis, synthesis
43. For Marx, which is the only possible way to impose Socialism? Revolution of the working
44. What does it mean that man is “homo oeconomicus”? Man is solely a material being and as such his activity is solely material. Human has only material needs and everything is for the economy .
45. For Marx, what is the structure? Struggle between thesis and antithesis.
46. For Marx, what is the superstructure? The man's manner of understanding himself and interpreting his relations with the world. Synthesis ( result of thesis and antithesis)??
47. What is the cause of alienation? The cause of this alienation is found in the economic structures that uphold society, and more specifically in the relations of production ,which historically have been based on private property.
48. What should be the goal of Marxist revolution? To eliminate the causes of alienation in the hopes of creating the new man, redeemed from socioeconomic injustices.
49. Who said the phrase: “religion is the opium of the people”? Karl Marx
50. What is the communist paradise? To establish a society without classes, no private possessions and where everyone is equal.