Review Guide for Exam # 2

1. Explain Cicero’s Four Personae Theory, including examples where appropriate.
2. How does Cicero contrast the nature of beasts and the nature of man? Which path of life does he urge us to follow?
3. Explain Cicero’s analysis of the exemplars Marcus Cato, Ulysses, and Ajax.
4. Briefly explain Cicero’s account of Heracles.

Ch. 23: C. D. Broad, “The Validity of Belief in a Personal God”

1. How does Broad define ‘a personal God’?
2. Does Broad think we can define the term ‘PERSON’?
3. What are Broad’s examples of persons and non-persons?
4. Identify each of the FOUR necessary and jointly sufficient conditions for a SUBSTANCE to be a PERSON
5. Explain Broad’s account of an IDEAL person.
6. Does Broad think it is logically possible to be a mind without immediately (rather than inferentially) knowing oneself to be a mind?
7. Does Broad think there are different degrees of personality? Explain.
8. What does Broad say about “the rudiments of personality” and intelligent domestic animals?
9. Explain Broad’s account of love: X loves Y if and only if.... ?
10. What three senses of ‘God’ does Broad identify?
11. What examples of Gods in the popular sense does Broad give?
12. Is God in the popular sense a person? Explain.
13. Describe Broad’s account of the theological sense of ‘God’ and the Trinity. What attributes does this God have?
14. Explain why Broad thinks the society of Olympus does not constitute a God in the theological sense.
15. Describe Broad’s account of the philosophical sense of ‘God’ and the universe.
16. Compare and contrast Deism, Pantheism (Spinoza), and the Hegelian conceptions of God as presented by Broad.
17. To what does Broad think we ought to confine the word ‘God’?
18. Identify, and then explain, the THREE ways someone might try to justify belief in the existence of a divine person.
19. What criticisms does Broad have of claiming to know that the statement ‘God exists’ is self-evident? What blinds people who claim this, according to Broad?
20. What criticisms does Broad have of claiming to know that the statement ‘God exists’ is true in some supersensible way?
21. What three means of testing our sense-perceptions does Broad describe? Explain his discussion of these.
22. What does Broad say about the Ontological Argument and the Cosmological Argument?
23. Explain Broad’s criticisms (some borrowed from Hume) of the Design Argument; how is polydeism relevant?
24. Why does Broad think there is no good reason to suppose that the metaphysical Reality which manifests itself to mystics is PERSONAL?
25. State the two separate sufficient conditions for a legitimate appeal to authority discussed by Broad. Why doesn’t he think either applies to the belief in a personal God?
26. What does Broad say about polytheism at the very end of his essay?

Ch. 36: A. O. Rorty, “Persons and Personae”

1. What does Rorty say a society’s conception of agency is closely linked to?
2. What is the “philosophical dream” Rorty describes?
3. Identify Rorty’s seven distinct but sometimes overlapping concepts of what a person is. Cite examples of the members and contrast class of each of those seven concepts and, where appropriate, their sub-concepts.
4. Describe the two possible conclusions Rorty draws from her explication of the seven concepts.
5. What does Rorty think hangs on the choice between these two conclusions (in 4)?
6. What kind of appeals are the appeals to the various conceptions of the person? Hint: a single adjective.

Ch. 42: The Boyd Group “The Moral Status of Non-human Primates: Are Apes Persons?”

1. Historically, how have children, women, slaves, and members of other ethnic groups been conceived relative to adult, land-owning Euro-American men?
2. What is said about the view that all and only members of the species Homo sapiens are persons?
3. Compare and contrast Dennett’s views of persons, intentionality, and linguistic capacity with those of Gómez.
4. Present Gómez’ argument [reconstructed in 5-steps in class] for the position that apes are persons.
5. Contrast Gaita’s view of animals and friendship with that of Smuts. Why does Smuts think that Safi is a person?
6. Explain the difference between moral agents and moral patients. Give examples of each. Explain the relationship between moral agents and moral patients.

Nicholas Wade, “Scientist Finds the Beginnings of Morality in Primate Behavior”

1. According to primatologist Frans de Waal, in what can the roots of morality be seen?
2. In what does human morality begin, according to de Waal?
3. State the four kinds of behavior that are the basis of sociality.
4. How does de Waal define morality? Who possesses morality and who doesn't, according to de Waal?
5. According to de Waal, how is a sense of community related to morality? On his view what provided this sense of community in evolution?

Mark Jenkins, “Virunga Gorillas”

1. Who was Senkwekwe? What happened to him? (39)
2. Which human factions vie for control in the crown jewel of African parks? (39–45)
3. According to Emmanuel de Merode, which is arguably the greatest national park on the planet? What makes it so? (40)
4. What forces endanger this park and the lives of both humans and Nanimals in this park?
5. What atrocities have been perpetrated (on people) in this park?
6. What is the main source of energy, and evil, in North Kivu? (47)

Ch. 39: Oswald Hanfling, “Machines as Persons?”

1. What problem does Hanfling see in asking whether machines could think or be persons?
2. What problem does Hanfling see in asking whether robots could be people?
3. What makes the difference between a person and a nonperson, according to Hanfling?
4. Explain what “artifactism” is, according to Hanfling.
5. Present Hanfling’s Wittgensteinian Argument against Artifactism.
6. Briefly explain Wittgenstein’s concept of a language game.
7. What does Hanfling try to show with the case of Edward?
8. What is solipsism?

Stephen Mulhall, “Picturing the Human (Body and Soul): A Reading of Blade Runner” and the film Blade Runner

Part 1) Acknowledging Human Mortality
1. Are Nexus 6 Replicants artificial-persons? Defend your view in an essay. Specify the different senses of ‘person’ discussed by Rorty that apply.
2. If Nexus 6 Replicants are NOT a-persons, is Deckard morally justified in “retiring” them? Explain your judgment.
3. If Nexus 6 Replicants ARE persons, is Deckard morally justified in “retiring” them? Explain your judgment.
4. Rachael (the Nexus 6 Replicant portrayed by Sean Young) seems to engage the sympathy and respect of Deckard. If so, then is Deckard right to consider Rachael an a-person?
5. Why does Roy (the Nexus 6 Replicant portrayed by Rutger Hauer) save Deckard’s life? Is Roy’s act merciful? If so, is this a good reason to consider Roy to be a person?
6. Are Leon, Pris, and Roy friends? Defend your answer. Is friendship only possible among persons?
7. Evaluate Tyrell and Roy on moral grounds. Who is more admirable and who is more despicable? Defend your judgment.
8. What question does Mulhall say the film Blade Runner is explicitly concerned with (obsessed with)?
9. What does Mulhall say is the GOAL of the film Blade Runner?
10. What understanding of the relationship between the human mind (or soul) and the human body does M say Blade Runner rejects?
11. Present Mulhall’s 6-step (in the handout) Argument against Cartesian Dualism.
12. What does M say about the emotional maturity of Replicants and of Bryant?
13. What makes M. think that acknowledging the humanity of another is important? How does this play out with Deckard and Rachael?
14. Describe Mulhall’s account (drawn from what Tyrell says in the film) of how one lives one’s life authentically. What are the THREE ingredients of authentic living?
15. Explain M’s account of how authenticity and mortality are related in Blade Runner. Present the 8-step (in the handout) Argument Contrasting Deckard’s Inauthenticity (in the face of death) with Roy’s Authenticity (in the face of death) during the scene near the end of the film in which Roy chases Deckard through the Bradbury building.
16. What does Roy think follows from someone not being able to play?
17. What does M say acknowledging someone else’s death involves?
~~Part 2) What Becomes of People on Film?~~
18. In the second section of Mulhall’s essay (What Becomes of People on Film?) what does M say BR is a film about?
19. Describe at least FOUR different things in the film that M says are used as a, or represent a kind of, ~~CAMERA.~~

Cetaceans (Whitehead, Simmonds, Fields, Cavalieri)

Whitehead et al., “Culture in Whales and Dolphins”
1. Briefly describe several examples of culture in cetaceans.
2. What does sympatric mean?
3. How do the authors define culture? Identify the four elements of the definition.
4. What do the authors say about conserving human cultural diversity?
5. Why is nonhuman culture important to the species that display it?
6. What is the THESIS of this essay?

M. P. Simmonds, “Into the Brains of Whales”
1. Describe at least five methodological difficulties of evaluating cetacean intelligence.
2. Identify Russon & Bard’s five signs of intelligence (as reported in this essay).
3. Identify the two evolutionary pressures likely to have produced high cognitive functioning in cetaceans.
4. What kind of brains do cetaceans have?
5. What is echolocation? How sensitive is the echolocation ability of bottlenose dolphins (BNDs)?
6. Describe the learning abilities of BNDs. Describe the imitation abilities of BNDs.
7. On what kinds of things can BNDs report?
8. How do dolphins point?
9. What two examples of BNDs using tools (manipulating objects) does S describe?
10. What evidence of self-recognition is there for BNDs?
11. List the types of emotions some have attributed to cetaceans.
12. What does Frohoff make of the inconsistency in dolphins’ “altruistic” saving of dolphins?
13. What kinds of behavior and abilities suggest that dolphins use language?
14. What examples of group living are given by S?
15. What ethical conclusion does Simmonds draw from his argument for cetacean intelligence? (E.g. regarding whaling)

Helen Fields, “An Appetite for Whaling”
1. Why do Japanese whalers consider their of hunting Baird’s beaked whales, dolphins, and other small cetaceans exempt from the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling?
2. Where do Japanese whalers mainly hunt large whales? How is this whaling considered legal, given the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling?
3. How does a country get a permit to kill whales for research?
4. How many large whales has Japan killed since 1987?

Paola Cavalieri, “Whales as Persons”
1. Present Cavalieri’s Argument that Whales are Persons with a Right to Life.

Ch. 34: Mary Midgley, “Persons and Non-Persons”

1. Explain Midgley’s criticism of Judge Doi’s ruling in the Le Vasseur case.
2. What three things does Midgley cite as examples of nonhuman persons?
3. What is the word ‘person’ in origin mean?
4. State the definition of ‘person’ that Midgley quotes from the Oxford Dictionary.
5. What examples of human non-persons does Midgley cite?
6. What question does Midgley think the question ‘Who is a person?’ not like? What question is it much more like?
7. How is C. S. Lewis’ word hnau used in the novel Midgley mentions?
8. Explain Midgley’s criticism of Kant's view on cruelty to animals.
9. What does Midgley think makes creatures our fellow beings, entitled to basic consideration?
10. What does Midgley say about articulate apes and the Government?
11. What three powers are relevant to higher moral consideration nearer that due to humans?
12. Explain Midgley’s position on the moral claims of intelligent computers.