Review Guide for Exam #1 HRS 318 Spring 2007
Ch. 3: Cicero, Ch. 4: Epictetus, Ch. 5: Clement
1. Explain Ciceros 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 Ciceros analysis of the exemplars Marcus Cato, Ulysses, and
Ajax.
4. Explain Epictetus conception of prosōpon.
What does the term mean? How can it guide ones 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, Contra Eutychen
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.
Ch. 23: Broad,
The Validity of Belief in
a Personal God
1. How does Broad define
a personal God?
2. Explain Broad's account of an ideal person.
3. Identify each of the FOUR necessary and jointly
sufficient conditions for a SUBSTANCE to be a
PERSON.
4. Does Broad think it is logically possible to be a mind without
immediately (rather than inferentially) knowing oneself to be a mind?
5. Does Broad think there are different degrees of personality?
Explain.
6. What does Broad say about the rudiments of personality and
intelligent domestic animals?
7. Explain Broads account of love: X loves Y if and only if....
Ch. 35: Legenhausen,
Is God a Person?
1. Present the main arguments for the claim that God is a person.
2. Briefly discuss criticisms of the arguments in (1.)
3. Present the main arguments against the claim that God is a person.
4. Briefly discuss criticisms of the arguments in (3.)
5. In the Muslim conception of God, what image has been used to portray
Gods immanence?
6. What does Legenhausen say about Cartesian dualism and the mind-body
problem?
7. Present the physicalists argument for atheism. How might the theist respond to it?
Ch. 28: Smullyan,
Is God a Taoist?
1. State the five possible relationships between God and the Mortal.
2. Explain Gods conception of a person and the personal. What gives
rise to this conception?
3. Explain Gods view of free will and rational beings.
4. Explain what God is as presented in this dialogue.
5. Explain the nature of sin and evil as presented in this dialogue.
6. What beliefs constitute the Mortals
ethical morbidity? How does
God try to dispel it?
7. What is the Devil, according to God?
8. What does God say about trees and other aspects of nature?
9. Explain Gods conception of moral duty, right, and wrong.
Ch. 30: French,
The Corporation as a Moral
Person
1. Explain the logical relationships among metaphysical, moral, legal, and
biological persons, according to French.
2. Explain Frenchs definition of a moral person.
3. Explain why a mob is not a metaphysical person, according to French.
4. Explain Frenchs argument for the claim that corporations are moral
persons. What person-making features do corporations have, according
to French?
5. How do the goals and purposes of corporations compare to those of human
beings?
6. Explain Frenchs analysis of intention.
7. Explain Frenchs account of responsibility ascriptions.
Ch. 39: Hanfling,
Machines as Persons? and Blade Runner
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 Hanflings Wittgensteinian Argument against Artifactism.
6. Are Nexus 6 Replicants artificial-persons? Defend your view in an
essay.
7. If Nexus 6 Replicants are NOT a-persons, is Deckard
morally justified in retiring them? Explain your judgment.
8. If Nexus 6 Replicants ARE persons, is Deckard
morally justified in retiring them? Explain your judgment.
9. 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?
10. Why does Roy (the N6 Replicant portrayed by Rutger Hauer) save Deckards
life? Is Roys act merciful? If so, is this a good reason to
consider Roy to be a person?
11. Are Leon, Pris, and Roy friends? Is friendship only possible among
persons? Defend your views in an essay.
12. Evaluate Tyrell and Roy on moral grounds. Who is more admirable
and who is more despicable? Explain your judgment.
Ch. 34: Midgley,
Persons and Non-Persons
1. Explain Midgleys criticism of Judge
Dois 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 Midgleys 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 Midgleys position on the moral claims of intelligent computers.
Rendell & Whitehead,
Culture in Whales and
Dolphins
1. Briefly describe several examples of culture in cetaceans.
Herman, Exploring the Cognitive World of the Bottlenosed
Dolphin
1. Briefly describe an example of dolphins ability to process semantic and
syntactic information.
2. Briefly describe an example of a dolphins ability to understand symbolic
references.
3. Briefly describe an example of a dolphin discriminating between a
televised image and the real world.
4. What does Herman conceive of intelligence? Why does Herman think
dolphins are intelligent?
Ch. 42: Boyd Group
The moral status of
non-human primates: Are apes persons? and #21 Gomez,
Are Apes Persons? The Case for Primate Intersubjectivity
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 Dennetts views of persons, intentionality, and
linguistic capacity with those of
Gσmez.
4. Present Gσmez argument [reconstructed in 5-steps in class] for the
position that apes are persons.
5. Contrast Gaitas view of animals and friendship with that of Smuts.
Why does Smuts think Safi is a person?
Ch. 36: Rorty,
Persons and Personae
1. What does Rorty say a societys
conception of agency is closely linked to?
2. What is the
philosophical dream Rorty describes?
3. Identify Rortys
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.