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Notes for LAP (tests)
These notes will help you stay focused when reading Looking at Philosophy. They will provide you with a
guideline of concepts and figures to which you should pay attention as you read. I strongly suggest that
you write yourself some notes about each of these figures and subjects as you read – several of them will
show up on tests. Remember – I am available for help after school every single day (if you need it); I am
also usually here in the morning before school. Also, don’t forget to note that there is a glossary at the end
of the book. One final note: anything we discuss in class is fair game; don’t assume that this guide tells
you every single thing that might appear on a test.
Introduction:
After reading the introduction, you should be familiar with the following terms and concepts:
1) logos
2) mythos
3) atheism
4) cosmology
5) cosmogony
6) ontology
7) axiology
8) moral philosophy
9) logic
10) conceptual analysis
You should also be able to answer the following questions:
1) What is the difference between logos and mythos?
2) In what way is myth more conservative than philosophy?
3) Why did Western philosophy likely spring up in Greece? (four reasons are given)
4) What is essentially optimistic about philosophy? (see page 7)
Chapter One: The Pre-Socratic Philosophers
After reading this chapter, you should be familiar with the following terms and concepts:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
11)
12)
13)
reductionism
entropy
naturalism
monism
numerology
aphorism
reductio ad absurdum
empiricism
rationalism
evolution
deux ex machina
materialism
determinism
You should pay attention to the beliefs and contributions of the following figures:
1)
2)
3)
4)
Thales
Anaximander
Anaximenes
Pythagoras
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5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
11)
Heraclitus
Parmenides
Zeno
Empedocles
Anaxagoras
Leucippus
Democritus
You should be able to answer the following questions:
1) How did the philosophers in this chapter “answer” the question of the makeup of things? How did
they arrive at their conclusions? What are the flaws in their explanations?
2) According to the distinction between logos and mythos discussed in the Introduction, into which
camps (logos or mythos) do some of the philosophers discussed in Chapter One fall?
3) What would be the practical consequences of accepting the philosophical claim of either
Heraclitus or Parmenides? In other words, how would it affect how we live our lives if either one
of them were believed to be correct?
4) What were two of the famous paradoxes of Zeno? How did these paradoxes cause a crisis in the
philosophy of the time?
Chapter Two: The Athenian Period
After reading this chapter, you should be familiar with the following terms and concepts:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
11)
12)
13)
14)
15)
skepticism
cynicism
relativism
sophism
subjectivism
nihilism
epistemology
ontology
ethics
aesthetics
metaphysics
mystical
dualism
teleology
catharsis
You should pay attention to the beliefs and contributions of the following figures:
1) The Sophists, including
a. Protagoras
b. Gorgias
c. Thrasymachus
d. Callicles and Critias
2) Socrates
3) Plato
4) Aristotle
You should be able to answer the following questions/respond to the following prompts:
1) How did sophism differ from the philosophies of the pre-Socratics?
2) How did sophism differ from the philosophies of Socrates and Plato?
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3) Based on what you have read about Socrates (including the handout “Crito”, if I have assigned it
to your class), what might he have meant when he said that “[t]he unexamined life is not worth
living”?
4) Explain Plato’s Myth of the Cave.
5) Explain Plato’s Simile of the Line.
6) Explain how the Myth of the Cave explains the Line. In other words, explain the relationship
between the Cave Myth and the Line.
7) In the debate between Plato and Aristotle over the status of art, with which philosopher do you
agree? Why? First explain what each philosopher thought about art and why they thought it.
8) In Plato’s Republic, the healthy city is explained in terms of the same model as the healthy
individual. Explain the congruity.
9) In this chapter, the author uses the examples of an acorn and of a statue to show Aristotle’s theory
of the four causes. Choose two other examples – one from nature and one from human
manufacturing – to illustrate Aristotle’s four causes. Be able to explain what the four causes are,
too.
10) Explain Aristotle’s objections toward some forms of government and his approval of others.
11) Why, according to Aristotle, is engaging in moral action a necessary condition but not a sufficient
condition to achieve the “good life”?
12) If I have given you any handouts during our discussion of Chapter Two, you are responsible for all
material they contain – be prepared.
Chapter Three: The Hellenistic and Roman Periods
After reading this chapter, you should be familiar with the following concepts:
1) hedonism
2) asceticism
3) pantheism
You should pay attention to the beliefs and contributions of the following figures/schools of thought:
1) The Epicureans, particularly Epicurus
2) The Stoics
3) Neoplatonism, particularly Plotinus
You should be able to answer the following questions:
1) What is the difference between Epicurus’ philosophy and the version of Epicureanism produced
by the Roman Epicureans? How does it involve the definition of “pleasure”?
2) What, according to Epicurus, is the difference between natural desires and vain desires? Between
necessary desires and unnecessary desires? Be able to give examples of all types.
3) In this chapter, you read that it is possible that an emperor and a slave could both follow the
principles of stoicism? Do you believe that this is true? Why or why not? Be able to explain the
principles of stoicism.
4) What did the Stoics mean by “happiness” and “freedom”?
5) Compare and contrast Plato’s Simile of the Line with Plotinus’ version of it.
6) If I have given you any handouts during our discussion of Chapter Three, you are responsible for
all material they contain – be prepared.
Chapter Four: Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy
After reading this chapter, you should be familiar with the following concepts:
1) Eschatology
2) Polytheism
3) monotheism
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4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
11)
12)
13)
dogma
canon
Manicheanism
Mechanistic
Pelagianism
Dialectic
A posteriori
Beatific Vision
Scholasticism
Ockham’s razor
You should pay attention to the beliefs and contributions of the following figures/schools of thought:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
Christian belief (which greatly affects Western philosophy from this point on)
Saint Augustine
The Encyclopediasts
John Scotus Eriugena
Saint Anselm
Muslim philosophy
Averroes
Maimonides
Saint Thomas Aquinas
William of Ockham
You should be able to answer the following questions/respond to the following prompts:
1) According to the information in this chapter, what is the relationship among the three major
Western religions (Judiasm, Christianity, Islam)? Be able to discuss the similarities and
differences between the three religions.
2) Defend or argue against Augustine’s solution to the problem of God’s foreknowledge. First be
able to explain his solution.
3) Explain how John Scotus Eriugena, despite being a Christian philosopher, argued that God
belongs in the category of things that do not exist.
4) How did Saint Anselm argue that the statement “God does not exist” is self-contradictory?
5) Explain how, if true, the philosophy of William of Ockham would undermine the philosophy of
Thomas Aquinas, Plato and Aristotle.
6) Explain the cosmological proof of God’s existence and discuss its strengths and weaknesses.
7) Explain the ontological proof of God’s existence and discuss its strengths and weaknesses.
8) Explain the teleological proof of God’s existence and discuss its strengths and weaknesses.
9) If I have given you any handouts during our study of Chapter 4, you are responsible for any
material they contain – be prepared.
Chapter Five: Continental Rationalism and British Empiricism
After reading this chapter, you should be familiar with the following concepts:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
Cartesian
Naïve realism
Substance
Pantheism
Randomness
Monism
Naturalism
Principle of identity
Propositions
Analytic propositions
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11)
12)
13)
14)
15)
16)
17)
18)
19)
20)
21)
22)
23)
24)
25)
26)
Synthetic propositions
Principle of noncontradiction
Empiricism
Tabula rasa
Representative realism
Psychological atomism
Sense data
Solipsism
Causality
Induction
Deduction
Noumenal world
Categorical imperative
Psychological egoism
A priori
A posteriori
You should pay attention to the beliefs and contributions of the following figures/schools of thought:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
Descartes
Hobbes
Spinoza
Leibniz
Locke
Berkeley
Hume
Kant
You should be able to answer the following questions/respond to the following prompts:
1) Are you convinced that Descartes’ method of “radical doubt” achieved the goal he set to establish
an absolutely certain foundation for philosophy? Why or why not?
2) Defend or criticize Hobbes’ thesis of psychological egoism. First explain it.
3) How did Hobbes justify the legitimacy of governments and the absolute power of sovereigns?
4) Defend or criticize Berkeley’s claim that descriptions of primary qualities are really only
interpretations of secondary qualities.
5) What is the difference between the rationalists and the empiricists?
6) How did Galileo’s discovery that Jupiter had moons affect Descartes’ philosophy?
7) How did Leibniz justify his belief that ours must be the best of all possible worlds?
8) In what ways is Locke’s philosophy obviously influential upon the foundation of the United
States?
9) It has been suggested that in conditions of abundance, Locke’s optimistic view of human nature
may be correct, and in conditions of scarcity, Hobbes’ pessimistic view may be correct. Defend or
argue against this belief.
10) Defend or argue against the view that Hume’s conclusions were an inevitable result of empiricist
belief.
11) Why, according to this chapter, would the history of philosophy have ended with Hume had his
views prevailed?
12) If I give you the cartoon on page 212, explain what it shows.
13) Use the categorical imperative to prove that people should or should not pirate software, music or
movies, that people should or should not cheat on tests, and that people should or should not
donate part of their incomes to charity.
14) What does Kant’s theory of knowledge have in common with rationalism? With empiricism?
15) Defend or attack Kant’s view that it is always wrong to use people for one’s own purposes.
16) If I have given you any handouts during our discussion of Chapter 5, you are responsible for any
material they contain – be prepared.
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Chapter Six: Post-Kantian British and Continental Philosophy
This chapter deals with one of the liveliest and most important times in the history of Western philosophy.
After reading this chapter, you should be familiar with the following concepts and terms (several of which
appear in earlier chapters and may be review for you):
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
11)
12)
13)
14)
15)
16)
17)
18)
19)
20)
21)
22)
23)
24)
25)
26)
27)
28)
29)
30)
alienation
dialectic
thesis
antithesis
synthesis
phenomenology
noumenal
sublimation
principle of the excluded middle
existentialism
ideology
bourgeoisie
proletariat
false consciousness
philology
nominalism
ontology
epistemology
reification
anthromorphism
Utilitarianism
Platonism
Nihilism
Hedonism
Empiricism
Skepticism
Causality
Laissez-faire
Analytic philosophy
Realism
You should pay attention to the beliefs and contributions of the following figures/schools of thought:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
Hegel
Schopenhauer
Kierkegaard
Marx
Nietzsche
Bentham
Mill
You should be able to answer the following questions/respond to the following prompts:
1) Use Hegel’s master/slave dynamics to explain relations in traditional society between husband and
wife, parent and child, teacher and student and employer and employee.
2) Discuss those features of Schopenhauer’s philosophy that are in agreement with Kant as well as
those that are in disagreement.
3) Hegel’s philosophy is teleological. Explain how progress takes place in his system, and why,
according to Hegel, that advancement may appear to us to be backsliding.
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4) Explain what you think Nietzsche means when he recommends that we lie creatively.
5) Defend the statement that Kierkegaard, Marx and Nietzsche demanded a whole new kind of
human.
6) What would you say is the strongest and weakest points of Kant’s categorical imperative? Of
Bentham’s greatest happiness principle?
7) Defend or attack Mill’s view that pleasure is the ultimate criterion of value and that some
pleasures are more valuable than others.
8) Explain how you believe Kant and how utilitarianism would each treat the following cases (and
why):
a. The case of a physician assisting the suicide of a terminally ill patient.
b. The case of a poor person stealing money from a careless millionaire who will never
know she’s been robbed.
c. The case of a woman lying to her dying father who urges her to promise that she will not
marry anyone of a religion different from the father’s.
d. The case of a person offered a large sum of money to assassinate another person whom
everybody hates.
9) If I give you any handouts during our study of Chapter Six, you are responsible for any material
they contain – be prepared.
Chapter Seven: Pragmatism, the Analytic Tradition, and the Phenomenological Tradition and Its
Aftermath (the 20th century)
. After reading this chapter, you should be familiar with the following concepts/terms (several of which
appear in earlier chapters and may be review for you):
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
11)
12)
13)
14)
15)
16)
17)
18)
19)
20)
21)
22)
23)
24)
25)
26)
27)
28)
29)
30)
pragmatism
semiology
Cartesian
Empiricism
Metaphysical
Correspondence theory
Coherence theory
Rationalism
Idealism
Epistemology
Ockham’s razor
Law of the excluded middle
Synthesis
Logical positivism
Analytic
Synthetic
Incorrigibility
Atomic facts
Linguistic
Reductionism
Holism
Quantum mechanics
Phenomenology
Etymologies
Neologism
Absurd (in the philosophical sense of the word)
Signifier and signified
Structuralism
Functionalism
Psychoanalysis
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31)
32)
33)
34)
35)
36)
37)
Metonymy
Deconstruction (in the philosophical sense of the word)
Phallocentrism
Patriarchy
misogyny
pre-oedipal
Existentialism
You should pay attention to the beliefs and contributions of the following figures/schools of thought:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
11)
12)
13)
14)
William James
John Dewey
George Edward Moore
Bertrand Russell
Ludwig Wittgenstein
William Quine
Edmund Husserl
Martin Heidegger
Jean-Paul Sartre (you will also be reading Sartre’s plays in Senior Seminar)
Ferdinand de Saussure
Claude Levi-Strauss
Jacques Lacan
Jacques Derrida
Luce Irigaray
You should be able to answer the following questions/respond to the following prompts:
1) Analyze the three following assertions, first using William James’ pragmatic theory of meaning
and then his theory of truth:
a. The world is flat.
b. Reality is only a dream.
c. After your death, your soul will be directed to either heaven or hell, depending on God’s
judgment of your life.
2) What in general is the pragmatists’ idea of useless thought? What kind of thinking is useful?
3) According to the logical positivists, all assertions are either analytic, synthetic, or nonsense. What
function does this thesis have for the logical positivists? What is the main weakness of the logical
positivists’ thesis?
4) What would the logical positivists like about Quine’s philosophy? What would they dislike?
5) Attack or defend Quine’s “indeterminacy of translation” thesis.
6) What does Heidegger mean when he “calls us back to a remembrance of Being”? What stands in
the way of our responding to this call, according to Heidegger?
7) Compare Heidegger and Sartre on the topic of our relations to other people.
8) Explain how Saussure’s linguistic theory influenced Lacan’s version of psychoanalysis and
Derrida’s deconstruction.