Test Questions & Answers Truth & Knowledge Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Truth & Knowledge

Test Bank

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Question 1

1. Berkeley argues that an idea cannot resemble anything but an idea, so if there is an “original” object, it is itself and idea.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Question 2

2. In Hume’s view, causation was an example of knowledge as “a matter of fact.”

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Question 3

3. Leibniz argued that the senses, although necessary for all our actual knowledge, are not sufficient to give us the whole of it, since the senses never give anything except examples, that is to say particular or individual truths.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Question 4

4. John Locke held the view that we know everything from experience.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Question 5

5. Descartes believed that beliefs could be justified by experience alone.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Question 6

6. Kant argued that we experience events in a cause and effect relationship because we make our experience conform to causal rules.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Question 7

7. Kant influenced German Romantic philosophers who replaced his notion of “constitution” with the notion of “creation”.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Question 8

8. Russell said that sensations were the direct means of ascertaining the properties of objects.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Question 9

9. The correspondence theory of truth can account for all cases of necessary truth (such as mathematical truths).

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Question 10

10. Hermeneutics is a term used in philosophy to refer to the discipline of interpreting and understanding the world.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Question 11

11. According to Hume, the predicted outcome of your intention to hit one billiard ball with another is based on pure reason.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Question 12

12. Noam Chomsky attributed the similarities in human thinking to an innate capacity for language.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Question 13

13. Hume arguments against the principle of universal causation and the principle of induction are also arguments against skepticism.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Question 14

14. Kant intended for his philosophical revolution to prove that there are many truths for all of us.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Question 15

15. In Locke, primary properties ("qualities") are caused in us by objects but do not inhere in the objects themselves (e.g., color).

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Question 16

16. A necessary and sufficient condition is defined as follows: A is necessary and sufficient for B when A is both logically required and enough to guarantee B ("A if and only if B").

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Question 17

17. “Hume’s fork” is Hume's insistence that every belief be justified either as a "relation of ideas" or as a "matter of fact."

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Question 18

18. The causal theory of perception is the view that our experiences (our sensations and ideas) are the effects of physical objects acting on our sense organs (which are thereby the causes).

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Question 19

19. A priori (knowledge) is knowledge "with experience" or after experience.

a. True

b. False

Type: true-false

Title: Chapter 3 Question 20

20. Gadamer’s hermeneutics rejects the influence of tradition in the notion of truth.

a. True

b. False

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 1

1. Hume was a __________.

a. strict rationalist

b. strong idealist

c. innate idealist

d. skeptic

e. feminist

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 2

2. Descartes declares in his first meditation that a good God would not deceive him and since God is good, it must be a __________ deceiving him.

a. bad God

b. aneurysm

c. devil

d. evil genius

e. hypnotist

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 3

3. Descartes applied a philosophical technique of __________.

a. methodological doubt

b. empiricism

c. foundationalism

d. boring, silly writing

e. clear and distinct ideas

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 4

4. Before he introduced the evil deceiver, Descartes’s dream argument had shown that __________.

a. I can doubt all of the information of my senses

b. I can doubt mathematical truths and extension

c. I think, therefore I am

d. the mind is a thinking thing

e. substance can be better known than quality

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 5

5. __________ suggested that life is like a text, and the purpose of our lives is to understand that text.

a. Hume

b. Aristotle

c. Kant

d. Heidegger

e. Dilthey

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 6

6. “I think, therefore I am” served Descartes as __________.

a. a truth he cannot doubt

b. a merely grammatical remark

c. an aeschylean point from which to attack the sciences

d. a logical but not epistemological truth

e. the foundation of all skepticism

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 7

7. According to Quine, epistemology is a subset of what scientific study?

a. biology

b. chemistry

c. psychology

d. physics

e. quantum physics

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 8

8. Descartes used the wax argument to prove that __________.

a. we know mental things with greater clarity and distinctness than material things

b. we know bodily things with greater clarity and distinctness than mental things

c. universals are predicated of particulars

d. identity may change over time

e. objects are vague

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 9

9. __________ was a continental rationalist.

a. Hume

b. Aristotle

c. Descartes

d. Russell

e. Peirce

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 10

10. Prior to the wax argument, Descartes used his “dream argument” to show that __________.

a. mathematical truths cannot be doubted

b. God existed

c. esse est percipi (to be is to be perceived)

d. almost anything could be doubted

e. God is no deceiver

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 11

11. __________ proposes eliminating the idea “analytic truth” and recognizing community-wide acceptance as a more useful criterion of truth with respect to such statements?

a. Loke

b. Berkeley

c. Hume

d. Quine

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 12

12. Kant believed that we __________ our experience in the sense that we provide rules and structures according to which we experience objects.

a. discover

b. transcend

c. constitute or “set up”

d. imagine

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 13

13. According to __________, the things of the world are nothing other than ideas in the mind of God.

a. Locke

b. Berkeley

c. Hume

d. Kant

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 14

14. Which two disciplines did Kant weave together into a single cohesive philosophy?

a. Rationalism and logic

b. Empiricism and aesthetics

c. Rationalism and empiricism

d. Aesthetics and logic

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 15

15. According to Kant what does not exist “out there”, independent of our experience?

a. objects

b. God

c. Time and Space

d. color

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 16

16. An inference from one statement to another according to a set of rules of inference is called __________.

a. an induction

b. a deduction

c. a syllogism

d. a categorical imperative

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 17

17. What type of reasoning did Locke advocate as the best method for making generalizations from experience?

a. Abductive

b. Deductive

c. Inductive

d. Intuitive

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 18

18. Which is not one of Kant’s critiques?

a. The Critique of Pure Reason

b. The Critique of Practical Reason

c. The Critique of Judgment

d. The Critique of Pure Intuition

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 19

19. Hume refuses to accept the existence of __________.

a. God

b. rational thought

c. matter

d. emotion

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 20

20. __________is the belief that there are different rules for different people and therefore different truths.

a. relativism

b. skepticism

c. absolutism

d. atheism

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 21

21. __________ argues that the necessity of allowing for falsehood makes it impossible to regard belief as a relation of the mind to a single object.

a. Kant

b. Russell

c. Berkeley

d. Hume

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 22

22. __________ concluded that the idea of cause and effect must be derived from our experience of the constant conjunction of two events.

a. Russell

b. Gettier

c. Berkeley

d. Hume

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 23

23. __________ central thesis is that "to be is to be perceived."

a. Russell’s

b. Gettier’s

c. Berkeley’s

d. Hume’s

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 24

24. Kant was awakened from his dogmatic slumber by__________.

a. Russell

b. Aristotle

c. Berkeley

d. Hume

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 25

25. The tabula rasa or "blank tablet" view of the mind is __________ epistemological concept.

a. Locke’s

b. Berkeley’s

c. Hume’s

d. Kant’s

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 26

26. __________ is the study of knowledge.

a. Metaphysics

b. Epistemology

c. Logic

d. Ethics

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 27

27. Uma Narayan extends the focus of feminist epistemology by pointing to the importance of recognizing __________.

a. cultural diversity

b. women as free agents

c. gender roles

d. the intentions of women

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 28

28. __________ is an example of a conceptual truth.

a. There is a grapefruit in the refrigerator.

b. Blue is a color.

c. It is raining outside.

d. I own two dogs.

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 29

29. __________ is a type of knowledge, sense experience.

a. A priori knowledge

b. Perception

c. Intuition

d. Primary qualities

Type: multiple choice question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 30

30. __________ theory of truth says that a statement or a belief is true if and only if “it works,” if it allows us to predict certain result, if it allows us to function effectively in everyday life, and if it encourages further inquiry or helps us lead a better life.

a. coherence

b. pragmatic

c. correspondence

d. semantic

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 1

1. In your own words, what does it mean to be a relativist and what does it mean to be an absolutist? Furthermore, discuss how these two positions have shaped great debates in modern western philosophy. In your explanation be sure to cite specific philosophers on opposing sides.

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 2

2. Can you think of any way for Locke to defend his claim that substances exist but we do not know what they are? How would Locke respond to Berkeley’s conclusion that we can know only ideas?

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 3

3. Descartes reestablished his system of beliefs because of his famous statement “I am a thing that thinks.” What is the function for the thing that thinks in Locke’s system? Explain the difference between inductive and deductive reasoning and how it applies to the systems of Descartes and Locke.

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 4

4. Explain why Berkeley thinks his arguments are a response to the skepticism threatened by Locke’s epistemology. Then argue that Berkeley’s position creates a further skeptical problem. How might Berkeley respond?

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 5

5. Kant claims that after reading Hume, he “awakened from his dogmatic slumbers.” Explain what Kant means in this famous philosophical statement. How does Kant believe he has solved the epistemic problems of Hume's skepticism? Is Hume’s skepticism actually capable of being solved.

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 6

6. Why is it necessary for a feminist anaylsis of epistomplgy? Consider the work of Grosz and Narayan, what makes epistemology particularly suited to being sensitive to sexual orientation?

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 7

7. When Chuang-tzu wrote about his dream of being a butterfly almost 2,400 years ago, he penned one of the most profound epistemological conundrums ever written. He said that when he woke up, he did not know whether he was a man dreaming that he was a butterfly or whether he was a butterfly dreaming he was a man. How could he know? Discuss Chuang-tzu’s dream and the issues it raised.

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 8

8. Discuss Russell’s appearance/reality distinction. What things seem to be and what they really are may be radically different because our senses can reveal the truth only about the appearance of an object, not what its properties actually are. How does Russell argue that sensations are mere signs of properties? How accurate are the signs at revealing the world the way it really is? Is there any way to check?

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 9

9. Debate the issue of whether we all begin life as a blank slate, knowing nothing until we have experiences, or whether we come “hardwired” with some principles, rules, doctrines, expectations, and so forth, independent of learning (this is the philosophical version of psychology’s nurture/nature debate). If all our learning comes from a combination of some percentage of these two sources, then where does creativity fit in? Is it possible to learn something that was never perceived by the senses or captured by our innate cognitive faculties?

Type: essay/short answer question

Title: Chapter 3 Question 10

10. Bertrand Russell is concerned about what we actually mean by truth and falsehood. Briefly explain his concern and what inspired this approach to epistemology. What are the roles of coherence and correspondence in this argument?

Type: fill-in-blank

Title: Chapter 3 Question 1

1. Hume’s argues that simple ideas are derived from __________.

a. simple impressions

Type: fill-in-blank

Title: Chapter 3 Question 2

2.Grosz denies that the __________ of an author necessarily corresponds to the sexual orientation of a text.

a. sexual identity

Type: fill-in-blank

Title: Chapter 3 Question 3

3. __________ is a common name for Descartes circular argument, in which he argues that the proof of God's existence is in God himself.

a. “the Cartesian Circle”

Type: fill-in-blank

Title: Chapter 3 Question 4

4. Empiricism is the philosophy that demands that all knowledge, except for logical truths and principles of mathematics, comes from __________.

a. experience

Type: fill-in-blank

Title: Chapter 3 Question 5

5. Knowledge can be defined as __________.

a. justified true belief

Type: fill-in-blank

Title: Chapter 3 Question 6

6. Descartes’s “cogito ergo sum” can be translated as __________.

a. I think, therefore I am

Type: fill-in-blank

Title: Chapter 3 Question 7

7. Locke turned to the data of __________ as the ultimate source of all knowledge.

a. experience

Type: fill-in-blank

Title: Chapter 3 Question 8

8. The Americans, Charles Peirce, William James and __________ are the three philosophers most easily identified with pragmatism.

a. John Dewy

Type: fill-in-blank

Title: Chapter 3 Question 9

9. Kant refers to knowledge of our own rules with which we constitute reality as, __________ knowledge.

a. synthetic a priori

Type: fill-in-blank

Title: Chapter 3 Question 10

10. For Russell, belief is true when there is a __________ fact.

a. corresponding