Descartes
1) Are there any propositions which Descartes knows to be true at the
end of the first Meditation? If so, which and why? If not, why not?
2) Do you find Descartes' doubt-strategy persuasive? In view
of his separation of doubt from everyday life, do you think he really doubts
he has a body?
3) Is 'I think, therefore I am' a deductive argument? If so, what are
its premises? If not, what sort of argument is it? Why would 'I walk, therefore
I am' not do?
4) Why do I know the wax through intellectual inspection and not through
imagination or the senses?
5) Is D's claim that the ultimate cause of an idea I containing property
F objectively must contain F formally or eminently convincing? If so, why?
If not, why not?
6) Why does D. believe that divine infinity cannot be understood as
mere absence of limits?
7) How does D. reply to the accusation that he is reasoning in
a vicious circle? Is his reply satisfactory?
8) Is D's account of judgment satisfactory?
9) Is the recourse to the Big Picture Theory a cop-out on D.'s side?
If so, why? If not, why not?
10) Is liberty of indifference necessary for freedom of the will?
11) What does D. mean when he claims that the will is infinite? Is
he right?
12) Why, according to D., is the idea of triangle innate?
13) Is D's version of the Ontological Argument convincing? If so, why?
if not, why not?
14) What is D.'s evidence that the essence of matter is extension?
15) How does D. argue to show that the external world exists?
16) What is the difference between imagination and understanding?
17) What does D. mean when he claims that the mind and the body are
"really distinct?" Is his argument convincing?
18) What are the basic features of the mind for D?
19) Are D's two tests for attributing a mind to another being satisfactory?
Do you think animals have minds?
20) Why does D. reject naturalism?
21) Why does D. feel compelled to claim that animals are machines?
22) Why are we not in our bodies as pilots are in their ships?
23) For D., what are the senses good for? why?
24) Why there seem to be a problem in D.'s interactionism?
25) What are the main goals of D's Meditations, and what's their importance?
Spinoza
1) What is the difference between real and merely nominal definitions?
What are S.'s definitions, at least allegedly?
2) What is a substance for S? An attribute? A mode? Give examples.
3) How does S. prove Ip5 (prop. 5 in part I)? Why is this prop.
especially important? Why does it conflict with Descartes' views? Is S.'s
proof satisfactory?
4) Why does God exist necessarily? Why does God have infinitely many
attributes? What is the essence of God?
5) Why must S. hold that God has all the possible attributes?
Name two divine attributes and at least two modes in each attribute.
5) How can corporeal substance be indivisible?
7) What does Ip14 say exactly? How is it proved? Why is it important?
8) According to S., how many things are there? Why?
9) What is an infinite mode? Give an example.
10) Why does S. need Ip28? What does this prop. say exactly?
11) Is there anything uncaused in S.'s universe? If so, why? if not,
why not?
12) What is the difference between natura naturans and natura
naturata?
13) Is S.'s God intelligent? Is S's God a person? If so, why? If not,
why not?
14) According to S., what's wrong with the belief in final causes?
15) What is an idea for S.? How is S.'s view different from Descartes'?
16) Why are IIp5-6 an implicit attack on Descartes?
17) What does IIp7 say exactly? Is it ambiguous? if so, how?
18) What's the point of IIp12? Of IIp13? Why are they problematic?
19) What is S's analysis of the will? How is it different from
Descartes'?
20) For S., what is the relation between the mind and the body? How
is it different from Descartes'?
20) If S. is right, what has he achieved at the end of Ethics, part
I and part II props. 1-13?
21) Is S. an atheist? If so, why? If not, why not?
22) For S., what is the relation between substance and attributes?
Locke
1) What is Representationalism? Direct Realism? Idealism? What are
the main problems characteristic of each of these positions?
2)What is an idea for Lk? Is he an idealist? If so, why? if not, why
not?
3) What is the origin of our ideas according to Lk?
4) What's Lk's basic argument against innate ideas? Is it successful?
How could an innatist reply? How did Leibniz reply?
5) What is the distinction between primary and secondary qualities?
Why is it important for Lk? What are Lk's arguments in its support? Are
they convincing?
6) What do you think Lk means when he claims that the representations
of primary qualities resemble them?
7) For Lk, what is the difference between will and desire?
8) For Lk, what is freedom? Can we say of a body that it is free? Can
we say it of the will? Is God free for Lk? If so, why? If not, why not?
9) For Lk, what's the difference between freedom and voluntariness?
10) What's the difference between an internalist and an externalist
theory of motivation? Which one does Lk adopt? Why? Is he right?
11) What's the difference between a compatibilist and a free-willist
theory of human freedom? Which of the two, if any, does Lk adopt?
12) What's the difference between nominal and real essence for Lk?
13) For Lk, what is substance? How is Lk's view different from Descartes'?
Spinoza's? What is the relation between substance and real essence?
14) For Lk, what are the identity conditions for material particles?
Spirits? Organisms and machines? How would Lk solve the problem of Theseus's
ship? Is his solution satisfactory?
15) For Lk, what's a person? A man? Can his theory of personhood satisfy
the religious requirements of an afterlife? If so, how?
16) For Lk, what are the identity conditions for persons? What objections
have been raised against his view? Can Lk's theory be modified to meet
these objections? If so, how? If not, why not?
17) For Lk, what's knowledge? What's the difference among intuitive,
demonstrative and sensitive knowledge? Is Lk's definition of knowledge
compatible with his views about my knowledge of my own existence?
18) Can Lk go beyond the veil of perception? If so, how? If not, why
not?
19) For LK, why is our knowledge of necessary coexistence very limited?
20) Since Lk suspect that matter might think, how can he prove that
God is immaterial?
21) What are some of the problems of Lk's proof of God's existence?
21) For Lk, what's the relation between reason and faith? Is he a deist?
Leibniz
1) For Leibniz, what are the chief characteristics of substance?
2) What are the similarities and the differences between Leibniz' notion
of substance and Spinoza's? Descartes'?
3) What is a a monad?
4) For Leibniz, how does an idea represent its object?
5) What is a minute perception?
6) What's the difference between bare monads, animals and spirits?
7) What is the difference between mere perception, apperception and
reflection?
8) For Leibniz, what is the difference between truths of reason and
truths of fact?
9) How does Leibniz try to prove that God exists?
10) What is PSR? What is the Principle of non-Contradiction?
What's the identity of indiscernibles?
11) How does Leibniz try to solve the problem of the relation between
mind and body? How is his solution different from Descartes' and Spinoza's?
12) What is matter for Leibniz?
13) What is Leibniz' theory Pre-established Harmony?
14) What is Leibniz's theory of space and time? Why does he think
that absolute space and time do not exist?
15) What are Leibniz's views on free will? What is necessitarianism?
Why does he reject absolute freedom of indifference?
Berkeley
1) What is corpuscularianism? Why is it dangerous according to Bk?
2) In what does the being of an idea consist? Is perception an action
for Bk?
3) What's Bk's critique of abstract ideas? Is it cogent?
4) What are some of Bk's arguments against the existence of matter?
Are they convincing?
5) For Bk, why do we perceive only ideas? Is he right?
6) For Bk, why do ideas resemble only ideas? Is he right?
7) Why does Bk believe that ideas are inactive?
8) Does my kicking a pebble show that matter exists?
9) Can Bk distinguish between ideas from sense and imagination?
10) In Bk's system, can we both perceive the same table?
11) How can Bk account for the existence of a table nobody is looking
at?
12) For Bk, can I have an idea of spirits? If not, how can I talk about
them?
13) For Bk, can two spirits perceive or act at the same time?
14) For Bk, how can the existence of God be proved?
15) What's Bk's analysis of the apparent causality among physical objects?
Why do the pointers of a clock need the mechanism to keep the time?
16) For Bk, what causes my ideas?
17) For Bk, what is a physical object?
18) For Bk, can the notion of imperceptible corpuscle be used in science?
19) What's Bk's critique of Newton's absolute space?
20) For Bk, what's wrong with infinitesimal calculus?
21) Suppose the notion of matter is consistent. Can Bk still make the
case that his system is superior to Locke's?
22) Supposing Bk's system satisfactory, what has he achieved?
Hume
1) What's H's ambition ragarding what he calls "moral psychology"?
2) For H, what's the difference between impressions and ideas? Is it
a difference of kind or only of degree? How would Descartes react?
3) What are the basic laws of association of ideas for H?
4) For H, what's the difference between relations of ideas and matters
of fact?
5) What role does the Uniformity Principle play in H's analysis of
induction?
6) What could H reply to the claim that although it is not certain
it is probable that the future will resemble the past?
7) Does H think that the view that some events are related to others
by causal necessity is justified? If so, why? If not, why not?
8) For H, what is a belief? What is H's analysis of the fact
that upon seeing an unsupported stone I expect that it will fall?
9) For H, what are the basic features of our idea of cause? Is his
analysis plausible? Why don't we think that day causes night? Does H think
that the claim that every event must have a cause can be justified?
10) How does H try to show that we never have an impression of necessary
connection (causal power)? How does his analysis compare to Lk's?
11) For H, what's the source of our idea of necessary connection?
12) Why does H think that the claim that human actions are necessary
is unproblematic?
13) What is H's account of liberty? Is it plausible? Compare it with
Lk's.
14) How does H argue for the claim that the view that human actions
are necessary is not only compatible, but presupposed by morality?
15) For H, to what extent are our mental capacities different from
those of higher animals? Compare his views to Descartes' and Leibniz'
16) What's H's definition of miracle? What's his a-priori argument
against the possibility of miracles?
17) What's the Argument from Design and why was it important? How does
H try to show that it is both highly uncertain and useless?
18) What's H's ground for claiming that one cannot live one's uninsulated
skepticism? What's H's proposed solution to the conflict between maths
and "common sense"? Why does H claim that Bk's system leads to skepticism?
20) What's H's critique of the distinction between primary and secondary
qualities? How does it relate to Bk's?
Kant
1) What is the difference between analytic and synthetic judgments?
2) What's the difference between a priori and a posteriori judgments?
3) Why does K try to show how synthetic a priori judgments are possible?
4) How does K try to show that maths is synthetic a priori? Are his
arguments good?
5) What is a transcendental argument?
6) What's the difference between intuitions and concepts?
7) Why are space/time the transcendental conditions of empirical intuition?
8) What does K mean when he claims that space and time are transcendentally
ideal and empirically real?
9) For Kant, what are the differences between critical idealism (Kant's),
empirical idealism (Descartes') and mystical idealism (Berkeley's)?
10) What's a category? Give at least two examples of Kantian
categories. Why is a Transcendental Deduction of the categories needed?
11) What is the transcendental unity of apperception? Why is it important?
12) What's the conclusion of sec. 16 of the Transcendental Deduction?
Is it justified?
13) What is an object for K?
14) Why is the unification of the intuitive manifold an act of judgment?
15) What's the gist of K's general argument for the claim that the
intuitive manifold must be subject to the categories? Is his argument convincing?
16) What's the aim of the Second Analogy? What's the gist of Kant's
argument? Is it successful against Hume? What's the refutation of
idealism?
17) What's the difference between concepts and ideas?
18) What's an antinomy? How can an antinomy be solved?
19) What are K's solutions to the first and third antinomies?
20) Can metaphysics be a science for K?