Review for Final Exam
Exam Format

25-35 multiple choice questions

Three essay questions from a choice of
five

Five essay choices from following list of
nine general topics
Essay questions
1)
Skepticism. What can you know?
2)
Applying a system of ethics (i.e. virtue ethics, Kantian ethics and/or
utilitarianism) to a concrete moral dilemma, and evaluating the system of
ethics.
3)
A discussion of a controversial topic where protectionism conflicts with
rights, e.g. euthansia, recreational drug use.
4)
Personhood: what gets to count as a person. Evaluation of some
controversial cases, e.g. apes.
5)
Animal rights: a question of the rights and wrongs of an animal rights
issue, e.g. vegetarianism, animal experimentation.
Essay questions
6)
Dualism vs. materialism about the mind. Which do you
believe is more plausible and why?
7)
The meaning of life. Can life be meaningful? Under
what circumstances? Evaluation of some particular
circumstances.
8)
Free Will. Do we have free will? Comparison of
different theories.
9)
Time travel. What are the potential logical problems
involved? Do they make time travel impossible?
Skepticism
Plato’s cave
Spectrum of reality
 Shadows,reflections/ordinary objects/Forms, Reality
 Descartes
 Radical skepticism
 Dream argument
 Evil demon hypothesis
 I think therefore I am
 Thoughts, ideas and perceptions are real
 Maybe the external world is not real
 Brain-in-a-vat
 The Matrix
 A simulated world


Morality and Ethics












Plato’s Euthyphro argument against “morality comes
from God”
Aristotle
Virtue ethics
Eudomonia
The virtues
Kant
Rule-based ethics
The categorical imperative
The principle of universalizability
Absolute moral duties
Independent of consequences
Never treat a person as just a means, but always as an
end
Morality and Ethics (cont.)
Mill
Utilititarian ethics
 Consequentialist
 Intrinsic good
 Instrumental good
 Happiness and the absence of suffering are the only
intrinsic goods
 “the greatest good for the greatest number”
 Act utilitarianism
 Preference utilitarianism
 Rule utilitarianism
 Trolley case
 Transplant case


Paternalism vs. Individual Rights
Paternalism
 Individual rights
 The harm principle
 Free speech
 Euthanasia
 Smoking in public places

Personhood
Personhood
 “Persons”
 Candidates for personhood
 Moral agents (Kant)
 Morally responsible
vs. morally considerable
 Apes as persons
 Reciprocal rights

Animal rights
Indirect vs. direct duties to animals
Vegetarianism
vivisection
Peter Singer
Ethics evolving to include animals
Speciesism
Sentience
Vague line (perhaps between a clam and a
shrimp)
 The argument from borderline cases
 Individuals vs. species vs. biosystems








Animal rights (cont.)







Tom Regan
Animal rights
Beings of moral standing should not be treated
as mere means, but as an end to themselves
Subjects-of-a-life
Normal mammals of a year or more
Carl Cohen
Reciprocality of rights
Consciousness
Physicalism
 Dualism
 Substance dualism
 Property dualism
 Matter vs mind
 Chalmers
 Zombies
 The conceivability argument

Consciousness (cont.)







The interaction problem of dualism
Ockham’s razor
Idealism
The easy problems vs. the hard problem of
consciousness
Nagel – what is it like to be a bat
Qualia
Objective scientific knowledge vs. subjective experience
Free Will
Free will
Determinism
 Fate
 Determinism by God vs. determinism by physical laws
 Incompatiblism
 Libertarianism
 Hard determinism
 Compatibilism
 The garden of forking paths
 Indeterminism
 Agent causation
 Deliberation
 Moral responsibility


The Meaning of Life
Subjective vs. objective theories
Eudomonia (the good life) – Aristotle
 Positive psychology
 The meaning of life is the search for the meaning of life
 Otherworldly religion
 Utilitarianism
 Environmentalism
 Family
 Human progress
 The present moment
 Zen
 Nihilism
 Existentialism


Time Travel
Presentism
 Eternalism
 Time travel to the future vs. time travel to the past
 Grandfather paradox
 Butterfly effect
 Causal loops
 Coherent time travel
 Novato self-consistency principle
 Time travel and free will
 Travel through parallel universes
 Constant creation of new alternative universes
