Final Exam Study Questions

T. Parent

Note: The questions on the Final Exam might be somewhat different from these. But if you adequately study the questions below, you will be well-prepared for the final.

Perry

1. In the First Night, what is Weirob’s argument which she illustrates with the Kleenex box example?

2. What is Weirob’s second argument against the Soul Theory on the First Night, i.e. the argument concerning our judgments of personal identity?

3. Why does Weirob reject both the “same body, same soul” principle, as well as an analogous principle “same personality, same soul”?

4. What is Sam Miller’s argument against Weirob’s Bodily Criterion of personal identity, at the beginning of the Second Night?

5. What is the Memory Theory? How does it allow for the possibility of life after death? According Miller, how can someone make judgments of personal identity without an examination of the body?

6. What is the circularity issue which arises when discussing real vs. merely apparent memories?

7. How does Cohen propose to break out of the circle, mentions in question 6? How does Weirob show that Cohen’s proposal does not allow for life after death?

8. Miller conjectures that some memories can be “caused in the right way” by God, who extracts memories from your brain when you die, and puts them into a nonphysical host. Weirob argues, however, that this nonphysical being would not be you. Why does she think that?

9. What was the Julia North case, and how does Cohen try to use that case in support of the (materialist) Memory Theory?

10. What are the two advantages that Cohen and Miller claim for the (materialist) Memory Theory? How does Weirob argue that the theory in fact has neither of these advantages?

Williams

1. What is the trilemma we face when thinking about freewill and determinism?

2. How is ‘determinism’ defined? How does Daniel try to argue for determinism?

3. What is the issue with quantum mechanics? How does Daniel argue that quantum mechanics should not be used to reject determinism?

4. Why is Frederick worried that determinism isn’t an empirical theory? How does Daniel attempt to quell this worry?

5. How does Frederick appeal to our capacity to deliberate, in his argument for freewill? What is Daniel’s response to this argument?

6.Why does Frederick take seriously the idea that we can be “directly aware” of the freedom of the will, in introspection? In particular, how does he respond to Daniel accusation that intuition/introspection is unreliable?

7. What is the debate between Daniel and Frederick, on whether intuitions of freewill are intersubjectively verifiable (a.k.a. are “corroborated”)?

8. How does Carolyn modify Frederick’s argument from introspection? What is the notion of ‘freedom’ which falls out of her version of the argument?

9. Frederick objects to Carolyn’s notion of freedom, on the grounds that free actions must (in some important sense) be uncaused. What is Frederick’s argument here?

10. How does Carolyn respond to Frederick’s notion of uncaused actions? Why does she think free actions must be caused?

11. What is Frederick’s “before birth” argument? How does Carolyn reply to that argument?

12. What is Daniel’s view of moral responsibility? How does he justify the practice of praising and blaming someone, despite his belief in hard determinism?

13. Daniel makes a distinction between moral responsibility and causal responsibility. What is this distinction, and how does it help support his view?

14. How does Daniel suggest we view morality in general? What does moral disagreement look like on Daniel’s view? Why is he forced to adopt such a view of morality?

15. How does Carolyn understand moral responsibility, despite her belief in determinism? How does she hold Loeb and Leopold morally responsible, even though she sometimes does allow from heredity and environment as mitigating circumstances for blame?