Midterm Review

A. [speaking of calculative thinking ] "Its peculiarity consists in the fact that whenever we plan, research, and organize, we always reckon with conditions that are given. We take them into account with the calculated intention of their serving specific purposes. Thus we can count on definite results. This calculation is the mark of all thinking that plans and investigates. Such thinking remains calculation even if it neither works with numbers nor uses an adding machine or computer. Calculative thinking computes. It computes ever new, ever more promising and at the same time more economical possibilities. Calculative thinking races from one prospect to the next. Calculative thinking never stops, never collects itself. Calculative thinking is not meditative thinking, not thinking which contemplates the meaning which reigns in everything that is."

Question: which statement best describes calculative thinking?

1. Calculative thinking is thinking which employs the methods of mathematics.

2. Calculative thinking looks for the meaning in things.

3. Calculative thinking is concerned with the means for serving some given purpose.

4. Calculative thinking takes everything into account.


B. "Let us suppose, then, that we are dreaming, and that all these particulars--namely, the opening of the eyes, the motion of the head, the forthputting of the hands- are merely illusions; and even that we really posses neither an entire body nor hands such as we see. Nevertheless it must be admitted at least that the objects which appear to us in sleep are, as it were, painted representations which could not have been formed unless in the likeness of realities; and, therefore, that those general objects, at all events, namely, eyes, a head, hands, and an entire body, are not simply imaginary, but really existent. For, in truth, painters themselves, even when they study to
represent sirens and satyrs by forms the most fantastic and extraordinary, cannot bestow upon them natures absolutely new, but can only make a certain medley of the members of different animals; or if they chance to imagine something so novel that nothing at all similar has ever been seen before, and such as is, therefore, purely fictitious and absolutely false, it is at least certain that the colors of which this is composed are real. And on the same principle, although these general objects, viz. [a body], eyes, a head, hands, and the like, be imaginary, we are nevertheless absolutely necessitated to admit the reality at least of some other objects still more simple and universal than these, of which, just as of certain real colors, all those images of things, whether true and real, or false and fantastic, that are found in our consciousness (cogitatio), are formed. . . ."


In this passage Descartes gives us a reason for thinking that even if we are dreaming when we think we are awake, there must be a real world outside the mind since . . .

1. painters have such extraordinary imaginations.

2. dreams are often more true than reality.

3. dreams are constructed from basic elements, e.g. colors and three-dimensional shapes, which are not themselves the products of dreaming.

4. an evil deceiver might be powerful enough to fool us even about the existence of a world outside of the mind.

C. "Desire and aversion, though powerful, are but habits. And we can train ourselves to have better habits. Restrain the habit of being repelled by all those things that aren't within your control, and focus instead on combatting things within your power that are not good for you.
Do your best to rein in your desire. For if you desire something that isn't within your own control, disappointment will surely follow; meanwhile, you will be neglecting the very things that are within your control that are worthy of desire.
Of course, there are times when for practical
reasons you must go after one thing or shun another, but do so with grace, finesse, and flexibility."

1. Epictetus advises us to allow ourselves to be led by our desires since they are the best guides to what is good for us.

2. Epictetus thinks that desire and aversion are things in us over which we have no control. Hence, we should form the habit of accepting the desires and aversions we have.

3. Epictetus thinks that we should train ourselves not to desire things which are not within our control.

D. "If we are not to rely solely upon accident for the innovations which give rise to cultural evolution, we must accept the fact that some kind of control of human behavior is inevitable. We cannot use good sense in human affairs unless someone engages in the design and construction of environmental conditions which affect the behavior of men. Environmental changes have always been the condition for the improvement of cultural patterns, and we can hardly use the more effective methods of science without making changes on a grander scale. We are all controlled by the world in which we live, and part of that world has been and will be constructed by men. The question is this: Are we to be controlled by accident, by tyrants, or by ourselves in effective cultural design?"

1. Skinner believes that people's actions should be directed by their own thought and choice.

2. Skinner believes that the methods of science should be used to control and thereby improve the patterns of human behavior.

3. Skinner thinks that the natural environment is the controlling condition for improving cultural patterns of human behavior.

E. "Legends and fairy tales tell of the knight who suddenly sees a rare bird and chases after it, because it seems at first to be very close; but it flies again, and when night comes, he finds himself separated from his companions and lost in the wilderness where he now is. So it is also with desire's possibility. Instead of taking the possibility back into necessity, he chases after possibility‹and at last cannot find his way back to himself."

The kind of person that Kierkegaard is describing using the story of the knight chasing the bird is most apt to be:

1. Someone who sticks with a task until it is done.

2. Someone who never finishes anything.

3. Someone who gets confused while trying to solve a problem.

F. "To this war of every man, against every man, this also is consequent; that nothing can be unjust. The notions of right and no, in civil wrong, justice and injustice have there no place. Where there is no common power, there is no law: where no law, no injustice. Force, and fraud, are in war the two cardinal virtues. Justice, and injustice are none of the faculties neither of the body, nor mind. If they were, they might be in a man that were alone in the world, as well as his senses, and passions. They are qualities, that relate to men in society, not in solitude."

1. Hobbes claims that society is a state of war of every man against every man.

2. Hobbes claims that in the absence of society life would be a war of every man against every man where neither justice nor injustice would exist.

3. Hobbes claims that the mind of man is naturally either just or unjust.

G. "My friend's offering was considerably larger than mine, and I said to him: "You are right; next to the pleasure of feeling surprise, there is none greater than to cause a surprise." "It was the counterfeit coin," he calmly replied as though to justify himself for his prodigality."

1. The man who "gives" the counterfeit coin is an ethical altruist.

2. The man who "gives" the counterfeit coin is an ethical egoist.

3. The man who "gives" the counterfeit coin is neither an altruist nor an egoist.

4. The man who "gives" the counterfeit coin wants to be altruistic without any cost to himself.

H. "Altruism declares that any action taken for the benefit of others is good, and any action taken for one's own benefit is evil. Thus the beneficiary of an action is the only criterion of moral value‹and so long as that beneficiary is anybody other than oneself, anything goes."

"3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs."

Compare what Ayn Rand says about altruism with what St. Paul says about love. Which of the following statements is most correct?

1. St. Paul is saying that a loving person should care nothing at all about herself or himself.

2. Rand's claim about altruism is a fair reading of what St. Paul says about love.

3. What St. Paul says about love is compatible with someone having an obligation to care about herself or himself.




I. "The Objectivist ethics holds that the actor must always be the beneficiary of his action and that man must act for his own rational self-interest. But his right to do so is derived from his nature as man and from the function of moral values in human life and, therefore, is applicable only in the context of a rational, objectively demonstrated and validated code of moral principles which define and determine his actual self-interest. It is not a license "to do as he pleases" and it is not applicable to the altruists' image of a 'selfish" brute nor to any man motivated by irrational emotions, feelings, urges, wishes or whims."

Read carefully what Rand says above and then, thinking about the other philosophers in this unit, decide which of the following courses the ethical egoist ("objectivist") would approve when it comes to making use of the ring of Gyges.

1. An ethical egoist is permitted to use the ring in any way he or she wishes.

2. An ethical egoist should not use the ring to gain an advantage over others since other people should be respected as self-interested and so not used as mere means.

3. Rand and Hobbes are both psychological egoists and so believe that a person would use the ring if he or she had it.

J. "1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
. . .
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

Which of the following statements is most correct?

1. St. Paul believes that we should be ethical egoists?

2. St. Paul believes that we should be neither ethical altruists nor ethical egoists?

3. St. Paul believes that we should be ethical altruists?

4. St. Paul believes that we should be both ethical egoists and ethical altruists?

K. "All objects of the inclinations have only a conditional worth; for if the inclinations and the wants founded on them did not exist, then their object would be without value. But the inclinations themselves being sources of want are so far from having an absolute worth for which they should be desired, that, on the contrary, it must be the universal wish of every rational being to be wholly free from them. Thus the worth of any object which is to be acquired by our action is always conditional."

Which statement is most correct?

1. Kant believes that an apple would have value even if no one ever was inclined or wanted to eat one.

2. Kant believes that an apple has absolute value.

3. Kant believes that the desire for an apple is of absolute worth.

4. Kant believes that apples are of only conditional value, that is, valuable only insofar as we want to eat them.

L. "Now I say: man and generally any rational being exists as an end in himself, not merely as a means to be arbitrarily used by this or that will, but in all his actions, whether they concern himself or other rational beings, must be always regarded at the same time as an end."

Which of the following acts follows Kant's moral prescription that we treat one another as ends?

1. Christof creates a storm to make Truman turn back.

2. Skinner becomes President of BGSU and all courses are taught according to the principles of conditioning.

3. Cypher tells Agent Smith where Morphius is.

4. Sylvia warns Truman that his whole world is a TV show.

M. Which of the following statements is correct?

1. Determinism means that the future is open, not fixed, by the past.

2. Descartes is skeptical about his own existence.

3. Releasement toward things is an essential aspect of calculative thinking.

4. Kierkegaard holds that since "what will be, will be!" all possibilities are mere illusions.

5. Epictetus thinks we should be afraid of death.

6. Rand believes that we have an obligation to develop our own talents and to seek our own happiness.

7. Kant holds that we can use one another as means so long as we don't forget to treat each other as ends.

8. Ethical egoism and psychological altruism contradict each other.

9. Psychological altruism and psychological egoism contradict each other.

Short answer: Briefly defend one of the following statements. Be sure to define your basic philosophical concepts:

1. When Neo goes to save Morphius's life he is acting altruistically.

2. When Neo goes to save Morphius's life he is acting egoistically.

Correct answers to A-M.

A. 3
B. 3
C. 3
D. 2
E. 2
F. 2
G. 4
H. 3
I. 2
J. 3
K. 4
L. 4
M. 6, 7, 9