MA Philosophy 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: David Hume's problem of induction challenges the justification of inductive reasoning primarily because:
- Inductive conclusions are always false
- Past regularities cannot logically guarantee future ones without circular reasoning (Correct answer)
- Inductive arguments are deductively valid
- Science does not use inductive reasoning
Correct answer: Past regularities cannot logically guarantee future ones without circular reasoning
Hume showed that justifying induction by appealing to its past success is circular, since that appeal is itself inductive, leaving no non-circular logical basis for inductive inference.
Question 2: In Aristotle's ethics, eudaimonia is best translated and understood as:
- Pleasure and hedonistic satisfaction
- Dutiful obedience to moral rules
- Flourishing or living and faring well in accordance with virtue (Correct answer)
- The absence of pain and disturbance
Correct answer: Flourishing or living and faring well in accordance with virtue
Aristotle defines eudaimonia as activity of the soul in accordance with virtue, constituting human flourishing rather than mere subjective pleasure.
Question 3: Which of the following philosophers is most associated with the development of pragmatism as an American philosophical tradition?
- William James and John Dewey (Correct answer)
- Bertrand Russell and G.E. Moore
- Martin Heidegger and Jean-Paul Sartre
- Gilbert Ryle and A.J. Ayer
Correct answer: William James and John Dewey
William James and John Dewey, building on Charles Peirce's work, are the central figures of classical American pragmatism, emphasizing truth as what works in practice.
Question 4: The 'trolley problem,' introduced by Philippa Foot and extended by Judith Jarvis Thomson, is primarily designed to test intuitions about:
- The validity of social contract theory
- Whether there is a morally significant difference between doing harm and allowing harm (Correct answer)
- The justification of retributive punishment
- Epistemic responsibilities in moral judgment
Correct answer: Whether there is a morally significant difference between doing harm and allowing harm
The trolley problem probes whether actively causing a death (e.g., redirecting a trolley) is morally equivalent to allowing deaths to occur, testing distinctions central to consequentialism and deontology.
Question 5: Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of the 'will to power' is best understood as:
- A desire for political domination over others
- A fundamental drive for self-mastery, creative expression, and overcoming resistance (Correct answer)
- The inevitable will of the Übermensch to rule society
- A biological instinct for sexual reproduction
Correct answer: A fundamental drive for self-mastery, creative expression, and overcoming resistance
Nietzsche's will to power refers primarily to an affirmative drive for self-overcoming, creative achievement, and the expansion of one's capacities, not merely political power over others.
Question 6: The 'mind-body problem' as formulated by Descartes arises because he held which two seemingly incompatible theses?
- Mind and body are both material substances of different densities
- Mind is an extended substance and body is a thinking substance
- Mind is an unextended thinking substance and body is an extended non-thinking substance (Correct answer)
- Mind and body are both immaterial substances
Correct answer: Mind is an unextended thinking substance and body is an extended non-thinking substance
Descartes's substance dualism posited res cogitans (thinking, unextended mind) and res extensa (extended, non-thinking body), making causal interaction between them deeply puzzling.
Question 7: Which of the following is the central claim of philosophical anti-realism about science?
- Scientific theories are literally true descriptions of unobservable entities
- Successful science requires belief in the existence of theoretical entities
- We should remain agnostic or instrumentalist about unobservable theoretical entities (Correct answer)
- Science and metaphysics are identical disciplines
Correct answer: We should remain agnostic or instrumentalist about unobservable theoretical entities
Anti-realists such as van Fraassen hold that science aims for empirical adequacy rather than truth about unobservable entities, counseling agnosticism about what lies beyond observation.
MA Philosophy 2
David Hume's problem of induction challenges the justification of inductive reasoning primarily because: