Rev. Exam #2

Stephens, The Person: 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?
~~27. Would William Rowe agree or disagree with Broad about the rationality of believing in a personal God? Explain in detail.~~

Ch. 28: Smullyan, “Is God a Taoist?”

1. State the FIVE possible relationships between God and the Mortal (248).
2. What is the most important fact of the universe? (249)
3. What does God say about objects and subjects? (247)
4. Explain God’s conception of a person and the personal (250). What gives rise to this conception?
5. Explain God’s view of free will and rational beings (242-252).
6. Explain what God is as presented in this dialogue (247, 249).
7. Explain the nature of sin and evil as presented in this dialogue (246-249).
8. What beliefs constitute the Mortal’s “ethical morbidity”? (252-253) How does God try to dispel it?
9. What is the Devil, according to God? (249)
10. What does God say about trees and other aspects of nature? (253)
11. Explain God’s conception of moral duty, right, and wrong (253).

~~Ch. 3: Cicero, Ch. 4: Epictetus, Ch. 5: Clement~~

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. Explain Epictetus’ conception of prosōpon. What does the term mean? How can it guide one’s actions?
5. What two factors does Epictetus think judgments of what is rational and irrational flow from?
6. What is Epictetus’ example of holding a chamber-pot meant to show?
7. Describe the story of Agrippinus and Florus. Explain Epictetus’ interpretation of it.
8. How does Epictetus say he would respond to being told to shave off his beard? Explain the significance of this.
9. What does Epictetus use the examples of dramatic actors to show?
10. What does Clement of Alexandria describe the Savior, the Son, as doing?

~~Ch. 6: Boethius~~

1. Present Boethius’ diagram (taxonomy) of the classes and subclasses of substances. Give examples of the members of the lowest subclasses.
2. State Boethius’ definition of ‘Person.’
3. Present Boethius’ argument for his definition of ‘Person.’
4. Present Boethius’ argument for the nature of the Divine Trinity.
5. Present Nestorius’ argument that Christ is two persons.
6. Present Boethius’ counterargument to Nestorius’ argument that Christ is two persons.

1. Carefully explain Hume’s account of personal identity. Does he think each of us is conscious of a SELF? Why or why not?
2. Explain Hume’s view of the relation between (sense-)impressions and perceptions (or ideas). What is the nature of impressions?
3. Where does Hume think the idea of the self comes from?
4. Explain Hume’s Bundle Theory of the Self (110).
5. What does Hume say the MIND is like on p.110? What warning does he issue about this comparison?
6. What does Hume say about the identity we attribute to plants and animals, compared to the identity of a self/person?
7. What does Hume think about the notions of soul, self, and substance? (110–111)
8. What are the three types of relations Hume identifies? (111)
9. Explain Hume’s example of the old church that is rebuilt from new material. Explain his example of a river (112). What are these meant to show?
10. What does Hume say identity is on p.113?
11. What is the role of memory in Hume’s account? (114)
12. In discussing causation, what does Hume compare the SOUL to (on p.114)?
13. What does Hume say about “all the nice and subtile questions concerning personal identity” on p.114?

1. Present Taylor’s Argument for Buddhistic Physicalism.
2. State the FOUR possibilities regarding what a person is, according to Taylor.
3. Present the Linguistic Argument that a person is not identical to her body.
4. Present Taylor’s reply to the Linguistic Argument.
5. Present the Metaphysical Duplicate Descriptions Argument that a person is not identical to her body.
6. Present the Metaphysical “Matter can’t think” Argument that a person is not identical to her body.
7. Present Taylor’s reply to both Metaphysical Arguments.
8. Explain why Taylor thinks that the following is an invalid argument:
    (1) Inanimate, physical objects, e.g. bricks, cannot think.
    (2) Human bodies are physical objects.
    (3) Therefore, human bodies cannot think. Only non-physical minds can.
9. Present Taylor’s (final) Argument for Physicalism. (It starts with the same first premise as the invalid argument above.)
10. Very briefly state what Taylor says Buddha’s anattā doctrine is.

Richard Taylor, “Metaphysics and Meaning”
1. What does Taylor say are the two basic impulses to study metaphysics?
2. Explain Taylor’s argument that it would not matter had each of us never existed (The Bummer Argument).
3. What did Schopenhauer say about religion?
4. Explain Taylor’s view of religion, tradition, and meaning. How does he think metaphysics and religion importantly differ?
5. What does Taylor think most people are occupied with? (p.133)
6. Explain Taylor’s view of human history. What is it the result of?
7. Explain Taylor’s view of the nature of meaningfulness. Whose lives are meaningful and why, according to him?
8. Explain Taylor’s Argument for Meaningfulness. Explain his analysis of Sisyphus' task and its relation to meaning.
9. Contrast Taylor’s view of nature with the activity of rational beings and historical time.
10. What was Schopenhauer’s dictum about talent and genius? (p.138)
11. List Taylor’s examples of various creations great and small (p.139).
12. What is the difference between procreation and creation, according to Taylor?
13. Explain Taylor’s criticism of the view that everyone is equally special and that every human life is invested with meaning just by virtue of our common humanity.
14. What does Taylor say people tend to do? (p.140)
15. What part of the Bible does Taylor think is very significant for the position he defend in this chapter? (p.140)
16. What facts does Taylor think are not significant? (p.140)
17. List the exceptional persons Taylor regards as creative geniuses (p.141).
18. Explain Taylor’s view of the relation between the world and the “fruits of creative genius” (p.141).

Ch. 30: Peter French, “The Corporation as a Moral Person”
1. Name the three different notions of personhood distinguished by French.
2. State the two different positions on the relationship between metaphysical persons and moral persons, according to French.
3. What is French’s definition of a juristic person?
4. What is French’s THESIS in this essay? (264)
5. Which entities qualify as metaphysical persons, according to French? (265)
~~6. Explain the Fiction Theory, the Legal Aggregate Theory, and the Reality Theory of corporate bodies.~~
7. What is French’s definition of a moral person? (268)
8. Why does French think a mob doesn’t qualify as either a metaphysical or moral person?
9. Briefly explain French’s notion of a corporation’s internal decision structure.
10. Why does French think that corporations have REASONS? (272)
11. What does French mean by “non-eliminatable agency”?