PHIL 437A: MIDTERM REVIEW QUESTIONS
The Midterm Exam will
take place in class on Thursday, Nov. 2.
PLEASE BRING A BLANK EXAM BOOK AND A PEN TO THE
EXAM. EXAM BOOKS WITH NOTES WRITTEN ON
THEM OR WITH PAGES MISSING WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. Please answer all questions completely, but
concisely. Answer in complete
sentences. In preparing for the exam,
you are encouraged to discuss these questions with other members of the class,
and to discuss what the relevant considerations would be in answering
them. However, each student is expected
to develop his/her own answers to the questions. You should not discuss the wording of an
answer or attempt to come up with an agreed upon answer. If you draft answers to the questions, you
should not show your draft answers to others, nor should you read or copy
someone else's draft answers. The exam
will consist of selections from the following questions.
1. Explain the following distinctions in Hume's philosophy:
(a) impression/idea
(b) memory/imagination
(c) simple/complex ideas
(d) general/particular ideas
(a) intuitive/demonstrative knowledge
(b) knowledge/probability
2. What are the two kinds of perceptions? What is the main difference between them?
3. What does Hume mean by "There is no question of importance, whose decision is not compriz'd in the science of man."(T, p. 4)? Is he confusing the descriptive with the normative? Make a case for both sides.
4. Hume says that all our simple ideas are derived from simple impressions. Does he believe there are any exceptions to this general principle? If Hume himself acknowledges an exception, why does he state it as a general principle? Is there a general principle that Hume would accept that has no exceptions? Think about it. Would you agree with that principle?
5. Hume distinguishes between simple impressions (and ideas) and complex impressions (and ideas). Give an example of each and use it to explain the distinction.
6. The Picture Theory of Ideas. Hume not only says that all ideas are derived from impressions, he specifies the relation between them? What is it? How might someone agree that ideas are derived from impressions but disagree with Hume on what the relation between them must be?
7. What are the three ways that ideas are associated in imagination?
8. A big issue for Hume's psychology is the explanation of abstract ideas. What is Hume's account? Infinity plays an important role in Hume's account. But infinite is an abstract idea. Can Hume give an account of the abstract idea of infinity? If not, is this a flaw in his account of abstract objects?
9. Why does Hume's psychology imply that there are no innate ideas? Do you agree with this conclusion? Explain.
10. The
11. What is Hume's distinction between knowledge and probability? What is Hume's distinction between knowledge and belief?
12. Hume's investigation of the idea of cause. Why does he conclude that being a cause is not a quality of an object? What are the impressions of sense from which the idea of cause is derived? What part of the idea of cause does not correspond to an impression of sense? What is it derived from?
13. Hume on temporal priority. What do we mean by the asymmetry between cause and effect? According to Hume what is the explanation of the asymmetry between cause and effect. Give an example of a relation that is generally understood as a causal one, even though we cannot distinguish in our perception between the time of the occurrence of the cause and the time of the occurrence of the effect. How would Hume explain our belief in the asymmetry between cause and effect in your example?
14. Hume thinks we can distinguish the products of memory and imagination. How? Is he correct? How would Hume explain the phenomenon of false memory?
15. What is Hume's theory of belief?
16. Hume on necessary connection. What does Hume mean that "the necessary connection depends on the inference, instead of the inference's depending on the necessary connection"? On Hume's account, is there really any idea of necessary connection in objects? If not, how was I able to refer to that idea in the previous question? [This is a deep question for Hume.]
17. Hume on induction. What principle would be required in order for the faculty of Reason to be able to infer an effect from a cause? Why does Hume believe that Reason could never establish that principle?
18. Hume on the unconscious role of memory in inference. What does Hume mean by saying that past experience (via memory) may produce a belief concerning causes and effects by a "secret operation" (T 1.3.8.13)? Explain the example he provides? On his own account of causal inference, could we ever acquire a belief in a "secret cause" of the kind he describes? Explain.
19. According to current psychological theory, we are born with the ability to recognize faces without any conscious inference? Why would our ability to recognize faces without any conscious inference raise a problem for Hume's psychology? How would Hume explain face recognition?
20. What is Hume's explanation of learning a cause from one instance?
21. Hume claims that like causes produce like effects? Does he acknowledge exceptions to this generalization? Give an example.
22. Hume is usually considered a sceptic about causes. In Chapter 3, Baier says that Hume is a "true sceptic," not a "despairing sceptic". What do these terms mean?
23. The puzzle of the necessary connection. Why does Hume think we cannot observe a necessary connection among objects?
24. Why does Hume think it is a mistake to take our experience of own willing of actions as a basis for an idea of causal efficacy? Does Hume's account of how we mistakenly come to believe in causes work for our belief in the efficacy of our choices?
25. A circularity problem? In T 1.3.14.20 Hume's account of the source of the idea of cause is that our experience produces a new impression in us. Hume describes this feeling as a feeling of determination of the mind to pass from one object to its usual attendant (and later as a propensity to pass from the one object to the other. But note that Hume is using causal terms (e.g., produces, determination, propensity) to explain the origin of the idea of cause. This seems objectionably circular. Baier claims that it is not.
Why not? What do you think: Is it objectionably circular?
26. The Normative Puzzle. In T 1.3.14, Hume is explaining our concept of necessary connection and its role in our reasoning. This is part of Hume's descriptive project. In the next section, Hume provides some rules by which we may know when objects are causally related. This is a normative project. (a) Explain why it is normative. (b) Explain why it was a mistake for Hume to use the word "know" in describing the project. What should he have said? (c) Does it make sense for Hume to make normative claims about causal reasoning? If causal reasoning is not really reasoning at all, but a kind of psychological determination of the mind, how could it make sense to recommend better ways of doing it?
27. Baier's solution to the normativity puzzle. Baier claims that Hume's idea of normativity is successful reflexivity. Alternatively, she says that Hume endorses those rules that pass the test of reflexive employment? What is this test? Why would Baier think that anything that passes the test would be endorsed by Hume?
28. Hume thinks that his theory is supported by the observation of non-human animals (beasts). According to Hume, how does the observation of animal behavior help us to draw conclusions about their minds? Why does Hume think his theory is the only one that can explain causal reasoning in both humans, including "children and the common people in our own species" and non-human animals?
29. Why is Hume's philosophy referred to as empiricist?
30.
31. According to Hume, can we have any idea of objects that exist external to our perceptions? Why or why not?
32. What does Hume mean when he says that "belief is more properly an act of the sensitive, than of the cogitative part of our natures"(T 1.4.1.8)?
33. Why does Hume say: "We may well ask, What causes induce us to believe in the existence of body? but 'tis vain to ask, Whether there be body or not?"(T 1.4.2.1) According to Hume: What is a body? What are the causes that induce us to believe in body? This question raises a deep puzzle about Hume's philosophy: How could we ever come to have the idea of body?
34. What does Hume mean by continued existence? What does he mean by distinct existence? What is the feature of experience that he uses to explain our belief in continued existence? What is the feature of experience that he uses to explain our belief in distinct existence? Why doesn't Hume regard them as good reasons to believe in continued and distinct existence? Pay particular attention to his examples in T 1.4.2.20.
35. Why does Hume think we cannot get the idea of continued or distinct existence from the senses? Why does he think we cannot get it from reason? Where does it come from? How?
36. You should be able to give a summary of Hume's view of the role of senses, memory, reason, and imagination in our beliefs about the continued and distinct existence of bodies.
37. What are the vulgar opinions that Hume rejects about external objects? What are the experiments that Hume uses to cast doubt on the vulgar opinion?
38. What is the opinion of double existence? Why does Hume reject it?
39. Why does Hume expect us to agree with the following claim: "[W]e may observe a conjunction or a relation of cause and effect betwixt different perceptions, but can never observe it betwixt perceptions and objects" (T 1.4.2.47)? Do you agree? Explain.
40. What is the difference between opinions we form after a calm and profound reflection and those that we embrace by instinct or natural impulse (T.1.4.2.51)? Which does Hume favor?
41. According to Hume, what is the ultimate judge of all systems of philosophy? How doe we distinguish between the part of the imagination that is the foundation for all thoughts and actions from the part that Hume thinks misleads us? How can Hume's account of this difference ground normativity for him?
42. According to Hume, what is the supposed distinction between primary and secondary qualities? Why does Hume deny that there are any primary qualities? What is a presupposition of Hume's argument? Hint: Consider his argument against primary qualities as a chicken-egg problem. How might a non-Humean solve this chicken-egg problem?]
43. Fogelin distinguishes two ways that Hume reaches skeptical results: an argumentative strategy and a genetic strategy. Explain the difference.
44. What does Hume mean by "a sceptical solution" to his sceptical doubts?