Term Essay Prompts, Fall 2023

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Philosophy

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Dec 6, 2023

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Dr. Nicholas Barber Introduction to Philosophy Fall 2023 PHI 205 Final Essay Prompts 1. In Plato’s “Apology,” Socrates disavows knowledge but claims to be wise. Explain how Socrates disavows knowledge while maintaining confidence in certain moral truths. 2. In Plato's "Meno" (80c-e), Meno prompts a paradox of rational inquiry: either we already know for what we're searching (rendering rational inquiry useless), or we don't know for what we're searching at all (rendering rational inquiry impossible). Discuss the paradox of rational inquiry and how to dissolve it, if possible. 3. Toward the conclusion of Plato's "Meno," Socrates asks Meno whether there is any difference in value between true belief/opinion and knowledge. Socrates uses the example of someone giving directions to Larissa: in both cases, there appears to be no difference in value because the person has true directions. However, what is the difference between the two in terms of virtue, the main topic of the dialogue? In other words, what is the difference between someone with a true belief about what is virtuous and someone with knowledge of what is virtuous? Reference the text, specifically the discussion between Socrates and Meno about true belief/opinion and knowledge, and posit an answer. 4. Edmund Gettier's "Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?" specifies two examples aimed to undermine the traditional model of knowledge, whereby a subject (S) knows (P) if and only if (S) 1) believes (P); 2) has evidence or justification for believing (P); 3) (P) is true. Gettier's examples show that these three conditions are jointly insufficient for (S) knows (P), where (P) is any proposition about the external world. Analyze the results of one of Gettier's examples and assess its implications for the traditional model of knowledge. 5. In Meditations Book One, Rene Descartes employs the method of hyperbolic doubt presumably to secure an indubitable foundation for knowledge. Discuss the motivations involved and how Descartes applies this using Book One. 6. Descartes ends Book One of Meditations by positing a skeptical scenario: What if it were the case that an evil genius has possessed my mind and led me to believe that all my knowledge of the external world is flawed? Explain why Descartes posits this scenario and the implications of doing so. 7. In Meditations Book Two, Descartes discusses a burning wax that simultaneously causes the alteration of the wax's sensible qualities even though the wax is still knowable. Analyze the wax passage and provide the example's upshot or implications.
Dr. Nicholas Barber Introduction to Philosophy Fall 2023 8. John Stuart Mill’s Qualitative Hedonism or Utilitarian Ethic is based on utility or the greatest happiness principle, which holds that "actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong in proportion as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness" where “ happiness" is pleasure and the absence of pain; "unhappiness" pain and lack of pleasure. Discuss a specific example to illustrate a defect or virtue of Utilitarianism or Qualitative Hedonism. 9. In "Experience Machine," an excerpt from The Examined Life (1989), Robert Nozick presents a thought experiment that attacks hedonic theories of well-being, according to which people's well-being consists only of the balance of pleasure over pain. Nozick captures the essay's crux: "Notice this is a thought experiment, designed to isolate one question: Do only our internal feelings matter to us?" Discuss Nozick's thought experiment and its implications for hedonic notions of happiness/well-being (or the value of our inner subjectivity). 10. Immanuel Kant holds that the form of morality can be found in what he calls the "Categorical Imperative" (CI), which requires autonomy and universality. State one formulation of the CI, delineate what the formulation means, and state your position as to whether to act for the sake of the CI. Use counterexamples and independent reasoning to buttress your argumentative stance. 11. Kant's deontological (duty-based) ethic conflicts with Mill's utilitarian (consequential) ethic. Explain the salient differences between the two ethical theories these two thinkers put forth and argue for the ethic you find most compelling, and this can be choosing one side over and against the other, offering a position that combines the intuitive thrust behind both ethical theories in some way, or rejecting both in favor of a third alternative. 12. One of Kant’s main projects in the Critique of Pure Reason is to synthesize rationalism and empiricism. Kant states, “All knowledge begins with experience , but not all knowledge is derived from experience. Explain how Kant synthesizes these two schools of thought. 13. (Toughest prompt) Kant’s notion of a transcendental unity/identity of apperception is his view of self-consciousness. Provide an interpretation of what Kant means by “T.U.A.” and explain what self -consciousness (his conception of self) amounts to for Kant. 14. Friedrich Nietzsche's thought of the eternal recurrence of the same “Heaviest Burden” is considered by many, including Nietzsche himself, to be his greatest contribution to philosophy. Analyze the passage from the Gay Science and provide
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