1. A priori + give an example of an an a priori belief.
2. A posteriori + give an example of an a posteriori belief.
3. Rationalism
4. Empiricism
5. Qualia
6. What is the JTB theory of knowledge?
7. In process reliablism, what makes a process reliable?
8. Folk psychology?
9. The veil of perception?
Paragraph Answers
Epistemology Choose 2
1. Explain, using examples, the difference between primary and secondary qualities.
2. What are Gettier cases supposed to show and how do they do this?
3. Give an example of a reliable process that confers justification: Explain why it is considered a reliable process.
4. How can Berkeley reply to Russell's cat argument?
Philosophy of Mind (choose 4)
1. What is the interaction problem and why is it a problem for substance dualism?
2. What is eliminative materialism and what is the reference argument against folk psychology?
3. What is functionalism and how does Fodor use it as an argument against reductionism?
4. Explain the Mary the Color Scientist thought experiment: what is it supposed to prove?
5. What is the hard problem of mind and why is it "hard"?
6. Explain one of Patricia Churchland's objections to the hard problem, and explain why it shows the hard problem might not be hard.
7. Explain either the Conceivability Argument or the Divisibility Argument and give one objection.
Philosophy of Religion
11. Give one version of the Cosmological Argument and one objection.
Short Essay (No more than 3 paragraphs)
In Whitney Houston's famous song "How Will I Know" she asks us "what we know about these things":
How will I know
How will I know (Love can be deceiving)
How will I know
How will I know if he really loves me
I say a prayer with every heart beat
I fall in love whenever we meet
I'm asking you what you know about these things
Notice, in the background (Don't trust your feelings/Love can be deceiving), there is epistemological skeptic. Perhaps, we can never know for sure if someone loves us, but surely we can have justified beliefs about it. Help Mrs. Houston out with her epistemological quandary: (1) How can we justify our own belief that another person loves us? Give an argument for whether, in ascertaining the love of another, we should be process reliablists (e.g., rely on emotions, maybe) or current-time slice theorists (i.e., rely on some sort of argument to prove the person loves us). (2) (a) If you chose process reliablism, give an argument for which process could reliably justify Whitney's belief that the boy loves her; (b) if you chose current-time slice theory, give an example of an argument that could justify Whitney's belief that the boy loves her.
