week of December 2:  Please post any questions you have regarding the final exam HERE!!!

week of December 2:

Prompt 1:  Please write commentaries on two separate presentations from tonight.  Please also respond to one commentary.

week of Nov 18: Read one of the assigned articles regarding the meaning of life.  What do you take away from the article?  Does this give you any meaningful guidance or information to assist you personally in finding meaning in life?

week of November 11:  Next week we will be discussing the issue of abortion.  In what cases does Judith Jarvis Thomson see abortions as morally permissible?  In what cases does she not find them permissible?  Do you agree with her view?  Why or why not?

week of November 4:  Singer argues that we ought to give a whole lot more to the poor than we do.  How much does he think that we should give to the poor exactly?  Do you agree with his argument?  Why or why not? 

week of October 28:  On Monday of next week, you have your second test!!!!!!! Please post your questions or queries as well as your answers to other's queries here!!

You should be able to answer these study questions:

            Definitions:

natural evil, moral evil, “good 1”, “good 2”, “evil 1”, “evil 2”, “free will definition 1”, “free will definition 2”, moral agent, moral patient, intrinsic good, extrinsic good, categorical imperative, hypothetical imperative

Longer questions:

1. State and explain the atheist’s argument. What is it trying to prove?
   1. Are all of the premises true? Explain.
   2. Do they lead to the conclusion? Explain.
   3. Is the argument sound? Explain.
2. State and explain the argument posed as the Problem of Evil.
   1. What conflict underlies this argument?
   2. Why is there a conflict?
   3. What are the three GENERAL ways one might resolve the conflict?
   4. What is the argument trying to prove?
   5. What are three specific ways to deny that there is any evil in the world? Explain and evaluate each of these.
   6. What are specific ways to deny that there is any conflict between belief in God and belief that evil exists? Explain and evaluate these.
3. State and explain Pascal’s wager. What is Pascal trying to prove? What is his wager matrix? Draw and explain it.
4. 1. For each of the following objections: I. Explain it. II. Explain Lycan and Schlesinger’s reply to it. III. Evaluate L and S’s replies.
      1. My beliefs are not under my control.
      2. God would not reward a wagerer.
      3. The probability of theism being correct is not 50%.
      4. If I bet on theism, and there is no God, then my life is based on a lie.
      5. The Martyrdom Objection (Redraw the matrix to explain this objection)
      6. The Many God Objection
5. State, explain, and evaluate the Anthropic argument.
6. State, explain, and evaluate the Atheist’s argument.
   
   

CULTURAL RELATIVISM (CR):

1. Describe some examples of how cultures vary.
2. Explain the viewpoints/main tenets of CR.
3. Explain and evaluate the Cultural Differences argument.
4. Explain thoroughly the problems with CR.
5. What can CR teach us?

HEDONISTIC UTILITARIANISM

1. What is HU? What does it count as intrinsically good? To whom does it apply?
2. How does an HU go about doing a right act? Explain with an example.
3. Explain all of the problems with HU.

KANTIANISM

1. Explain Kant’s Supreme Categorical Imperative.
2. How does Kant judge the rightness of an act?
3. What four maxims does Kant use as examples?
4. Explain in full the problems with Kantian moral theory.

week of October 20:  After having heard about Kant's moral philosophy, think carefully about what you believe makes something morally right or good.  Do you believe it is one's motives?  The consequences of what one does?  The hardship involved?  Explain and justify your view.

week of Oct 14: Utilitarianism tells us to maximize net happiness.  Arguably, this might imply that we should frame one innocent man to prevent riots that would be highly likely to kill hundreds, including children.  Would you be willing to frame an innocent man for a crime in order to prevent riots and spare lives that would be lost in the riots?  Why or why not?  Do you really think such a framing would even maximize total happiness, everyone's happiness considered?

week of Oct 7:  Cultural Relativism, on one construal, says that what is morally right is time and place relative to each culture at each time.  Think about this.  What would this say about sexism or slavery or even genocide?  What do you think is positive to take away from this theory?  What is negative?

week of September 30:  What is the point of the example about the shipowner in Clifford's piece in relation to believing in God simply based on faith?  Do you think the shipowner example is relevant?  Is Clifford's point a good one?  Explain.

week of September 23:  We are going to enmesh ourselves in an argument that the existence of the traditional Judeo-Christian God is not consistent with the existence of evil in the world.  How might we explain this apparent conflict between an all-knowing, all-loving, all-powerful God and terrible things happening to undeserving people (for instance, a new infant gets stricken with a horrific and extremely painful and protracted form of cancer)???  If there is a perfect God, why would God allow such things?  Or do you think the existence of evil shows there is no perfect God?  Also, if some reason justifies the evil, why is there SO MUCH of it?

week of September 16: YOU HAVE A TEST ON MONDAY OVER THE MATERIAL UP TO AND INCLUDING THE TELEOLOGICAL ARGUMENT (PALEY AND HUME).  Please post your questions, as you study, here!!!!  Good luck!!!

week of September 9:  Next we will be reading the teleological argument for the existence of God.  You looked at this on the first day of class, if you recall.  So, my question is:  If things in nature appear to be complex and intricate and organized in the way that they work (for instance, the eye), do you think that this provides proof of a creator in any way?  How about the theory of evolution?  Does this present a rival theory?  Do you think evolution and religion are reconciliable?  Explain your thoughts.  Also: PLEASE CHECK YOUR EMAIL.  I WILL BE ABSENT FROM CLASS THIS WEEK.  PLEASE VIEW THE VIDEO ON DEMAND ON ANGEL.  THERE IS AN ASSIGNMENT CONTAINED THEREIN THAT YOU  MUST DO THIS WEEK.

Week of September 3:  You have a blog free week this week, due to class being off for the holiday!  Enjoy.


Laura

Week of August 26:  This week we are beginning to look at arguments for the existence of God.  Please discuss at least TWO of the THREE  items below in your posts. This is not an easy issue.  You

 will have to do the reading very carefully and think about it in detail.

1.Is it reasonable to believe in God if there are no perfect arguments or evidence to prove a god exists? - please explain why or why not.

2.What do you understand the ontological argument to be saying and do you think it has any merit or good to it, or do you think it is too flawed to be any good at all?  Explain.

3.  What do you understand the cosmological argument to be saying and do you think it has any merit or good to it, or do you think it is too flawed to be any good at all?  Explain.

Week of aug 19

The first part of your job this week is to create a gmail account for yourself, if you don't already have one. You may use whatever username you like- please email me your username.  You will use this account to login and post on the class blogspot: introphilthoughts.blogspot.com.  Every week you must make one thoughtful 5+ sentence post responsive to that week's prompt by Thursday at noon and then you must make posts of 5+ sentences responding to two student posts that week by Sun at noon.  There are NO makeups for missed posts!!

This week's prompt: Look through your textbook at the subject matter and types of issues discussed. Why would studying philosophy be good or useful? What difference could it make in your life?