LOCS Moral Philosophy
Chapter 2: Wisdom Questions in Moral Philosophy
Review Exercises
Use course glossaries and notes to fill-in the worksheet.
1. Formulate a philosophical answer to the wisdom-ish question, What is a romantic
comedy? Start by compiling (on the right side) a list of pre-theoretical judgments about
cases. Keep track of general theoretical considerations on the left side. Formulate a
theory as a set of necessary and sufficient conditions. Does the theory fit the initial
judgments about cases? Does it fit with other general theoretical considerations? Can
the theory be modified (by changing the wording) to balance them more effectively.
General
Theoretical
Considerations
Pre-theoretical
judgmetns
about cases
E.g., Movies have
plots.
_____ is NOT a
romantic comedy
E.g., Some plots
feature love interests.
_____ is a romantic
comedy.
Something is a romantic comedy if and only if ______________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
2. Describe the five major components of a disputed
The Article
The Initial Appearances
The Sed Contra
The Respondeo
The Replies
3. Sort
these
questions
1. Who shot Lincoln? 2. How far to the moon? 3. What causes malaria? 4.
Do mosquito nets prevent malaria? 5. Are we just complex machines? 6.
Do we have duty to aid those afflicted by malaria? 7. Is piety what all the
gods love? 8. Did the Greeks really believe in many gods? 9. What is
faith? 10. Can we trust our capacities to reason?
Knowledge Questions:
Wisdom Questions:
4. Explain how each option leads to the same conclusion.
Either we know what we are looking for at the outset
of inquiry or we do not.
If we do not know what we are looking for,
If we do know what we are looking for,
Therefore, inquiry is pointless.
5. All of the following terms were introduced in chapter 2. Check course glossary for
completeness.
Philosophy
The unitive aspect of love
The treasuring aspect of love
Knowledge
Knowledge Questions
Wisdom
Wisdom Questions
The practical dimension of wisdom questions
The theoretical dimension of wisom questions
The forced character of wisdom qeustions
Socratic elenchus
The Euthyphro Dilemma
Pre-theoretical beliefs about cases
Other theoretical beliefs brought to inquiry
Two tests for philosophcial theories
Two obstacles to philosophical progress
Thomistic disputed questions
The five components of a disputed quetsion
Reflective equilibrium
The paradox of inquiry
The iquirer's faith