Note:  This exam should give you some idea of the style of question I may ask on your final exam.  Don't use the content of the questions as a guide to what I will or won't ask you about.

Philosophy 1200:002 - Andrew Latus
Final Exam
Dec. 13, 2000

Part I - Short Answer Questions. Answer five out of the following six questions. (6 points per question. 30 points total)
 

1. In the Crito, why does Socrates say he wishes that "the majority could inflict the greatest evils"?
2. Briefly explain Descartes' distinction between objective and formal reality.
3. What is mind-body dualism?
4. What is Cartesian Foundationalism?
5. Suppose someone tried to prove that God exists in the following way.

P1: There are things in motion in the world.
P2: If there is motion now, there must be an original source of that motion.
P3: Only God could be that original source of motion.
C: God exists.
Which sort of argument for the existence of God is this argument (i.e., is it cosmological, teleological or ontological)? Why?
6. (a) Which great philosopher, in addition to Descartes, is associated with the Ontological Argument?
(b) Which great philosopher made famous an objection to the Ontological Argument based on the idea that existence is not a property?

Part II - Explanatory Question. Answer one of the following questions. (30 points)

1. Explain how Descartes argues for the view known as rationalism in Meditation II.
2. Explain the cogito. What does it tell us & how does it work?

Part III - Essay Question. Answer one of the following questions. (40 points)

1. Socrates argues in several ways in the Phaedo that the soul can exist without the body. Explain the argument we called the 'Argument from Memory'. (Make sure you explain Plato's Theory of Forms in the process.) Does the argument succeed? Defend your position.
2. Explain and discuss the Ontological Argument for God's existence. Does it succeed? Defend your position.

[Philosophy 1200]