Rev. Exam #2

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?~~

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

1. Explain in detail Marcus’ view of TIME, change, the present, the past, and the future. [ESSAY CANDIDATE]
2. Explain in detail Marcus’ view of wholes and parts. Illustrate your account with various examples. [ESSAY CANDIDATE]
3. Explain Marcus’ view of the soul. What is it made of? Why is it important? [ESSAY CANDIDATE]
4. Explain Marcus’ conception of a philosophically educated view of BEAUTY. What things can the insightful person see as beautiful that the uneducated (non-Stoics) see as ugly or fearsome?
5. Explain Marcus’ view of the VIRTUES.
6. What kinds of things does Marcus believe are worthless which most people cherish and treasure? [ESSAY CANDIDATE]
7. Which ideas of Heraclitus resonate in Marcus’ thought?
8. Which ideas of Epictetus resonate in Marcus’ thought?
9. Explain Marcus’ arguments on death, human mortality, and the afterlife. How should we understand what these things are? Why does Marcus believe that we ought not fear death? (ii. 11; iv. 14; iv. 47) [ESSAY CANDIDATE]
10. Explain Marcus’ theology. What does he believe about the gods and providence?
11. Present Marcus’ Argument for What is Pointless and What is Not (vii. 3).
12. In what way does Marcus think he should be like an emerald? (vii. 15)
13. What arguments does Marcus give against the view that we are born for pleasure and that pleasure benefits us? (viii. 10, 19)
14. Present Marcus’ Argument for the Invulnerability of the Soul. (viii. 28; cf. viii. 40, 48)
15. Present Marcus’ Argument for Building a Good Life. (viii. 32)
16. What arguments does Marcus give for the Stoic theory of indifferents? (e.g. ii. 11)
17. Present Marcus’ Get-out-of-bed Argument. (v. 1)
18. Explain Marcus’ view of harm to oneself and harm to one’s community. (v. 22)
19. What arguments does Marcus give against complaining? (x. 3; x. 6)

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?

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”?