True or False? 1 point each
SELECT: 3
Q: The Stoics were a group of ancient philosophers who said that we can be totally free and happy all the
time simply by adjusting our desires so that we want what we get (a “curious” version of soft
determinism, according to Palmer).
A. True
B. False
ANSWER: A
POINTS: 1
TYPE: MC
Q: B. F. Skinner argued in favor of both hard determinism and hard behaviorism.
A. True
B. False
ANSWER: A
POINTS: 1
TYPE: MC
Q: If you explain someone's behavior by reference to desires, goals, or purposes (e.g., "Jane wanted to
fulfill her transfer requirements at the best community college in the Bay Area, so she attended West
Valley"), you are using teleological explanation.
A. True
B. False
ANSWER: A
POINTS: 1
TYPE: MC
Q: According to hard determinism, no one is ever responsible for anything.
A. True
B. False
ANSWER: A
POINTS: 1
TYPE: MC
Fill in blanks. 1 point each
SELECT: 6
Q: _____________ wrote "... a community event which suddenly bursts forth and involves me in it does not
come from the outside. If I am mobilized in a war, this war is my war; it is in my image and I deserve
it. I deserve it first because I could always get out of it by suicide or by desertion; these ultimate
possibilities are those which must always be present to us ... I did not have any excuse; for as we have
said repeatedly in this book, the peculiar character of human-reality is that it is without excuse."
A. Jean-Paul Sartre
B. Sartre
C. J-P Sartre
ANSWER: A, Jean-Paul Sartre, B, Sartre, C, J-P Sartre
POINTS: 1
TYPE: FB
Q: ___________freedom is the rejection of rationality and prudence, exhibited by Dostoyevsky's Underground
Man.
A. perverse
B. absurd
C. existential
ANSWER: A, perverse, B, absurd, C, existential
POINTS: 1
TYPE: FB
Q: The view that every voluntary act is both free and cannot happen otherwise is called
_________________.
A. soft determinism
B. compatibilism
ANSWER: A, soft determinism, B, compatibilism
POINTS: 1
TYPE: FB
Q: The movement in twentieth-century Continental philosophy that emphasizes personal freedom
(represented in our text by
Jean-Paul Sartre) is called _____________________.
A. existentialism
ANSWER: existentialism
POINTS: 1
TYPE: FB
Q: The founder of psychoanalysis, who explained mental life in terms of conflict between
the forces of id and superego, was ____________________________.
A. Freud
B. Sigmund Freud
ANSWER: A, Freud, B, Sigmund Freud
POINTS: 1
TYPE: FB
Q: _________________________________ is the view espoused by Taylor and Cambell, who argue that the soft
determinist notion of freedom is inadequate because freedom with respect to act X requires three
conditions: (1) that I want to do X; (2) that I can do X; and (3) that I really can do something other
than X.
A. indeterminism
B. libertarianism
ANSWER: A, indeterminism, B, libertarianism
POINTS: 1
TYPE: FB
Q: The physicist who discovered that subatomic particles behave unpredictably, and thus may provide an
exception to determinism, was ___________________________.
A. Heisenberg
B. Werner Heisenberg
C. W. Heisenberg
ANSWER: A, Heisenberg, B, Werner Heisenberg, C, W. Heisenberg
POINTS: 1
TYPE: FB
Q: The view that some acts are uncaused and free is called ______________________________________.
A. libertarianism
B. indeterminism
ANSWER: A, libertarianism, B, indeterminism
POINTS: 1
TYPE: FB
Q: In psychoanalysis, the anti-social, animal self is known as the __________________________ .
A. id
ANSWER: id
POINTS: 1
TYPE: FB
Essays. 2 points each.
SELECT: 2
Q: Explain the difference between hard and soft determinism.
ANSWER: Determinism is the view that everything that happens MUST happen (happens necessarily). Both hard
determinism and soft determinism accept this. But hard determinism says freedom cannot exist, while soft
determinism allows that some acts might be free. The two positions differ in their definitions of
"freedom." According to hard determinism, no acts can be free because all events are caused in accordance
with causal laws, and because physical causes force their effects, no events in the physical world are
free. Since we are embodied in the physical world, therefore, nothing we do can be free — simply
because everything we do is caused. In other words, for a hard determinist, "free" means "uncaused."
Soft determinists point out that "free" really means "voluntary." We are free with respect to act X if
we want to do X and nothing is stopping us. Our wanting X can't be otherwise, though. And the state of
the world that doesn't prevent us from doing X can't be otherwise either. So our "free" actions can't be
otherwise — but they're still free in the ordinary sense of "free."
POINTS: 2
TYPE: ES
Q: Explain Sartre's notion bad faith. Give at least one example.
ANSWER: The notion of bad faith in Sartre is a kind of self-deception. A person in bad faith attempts to
run away from freedom by pretending to be something in-itself (something whose being is fixed and
determined, like an object). A person in bad faith does not want to be the genuine authentic for-itself
whose being is free and therefore (since God is dead) absurd and terrifying. Sartre's example of bad
faith is the woman on the date with a man. He takes her hand and she pretends not to notice — she
pretends not to understand that he is making a sexual advance, because she does not know what she wants.
This is a difficult example, in my opinion. A plainer example would be a person who thinks of suicide
and then immediately says "*I* could never do that." The truth, according to Sartre, is that suicide is
ALWAYS an option. We cannot deny the reality of the option by saying our instinct for self-preservation
will automatically step in and prevent us from killing ourselves, because we ARE FREE to ignore that
instinct, whether we want to admit it or not.
POINTS: 2
TYPE: ES
Q: Explain the libertarian critique of soft determinism.
ANSWER: Soft determinists say an act X is free for an agent if two conditions are met: (1) the agent WANTS
to do X; and (2) the agent CAN do X. However, according to SD, determinism is still true: everything that
happens must happen. So our wanting X cannot be otherwise, and the world cannot be otherwise either.
Libertarians find this unacceptable. For libertarians, freedom requires that we be able to make a
genuine difference with our choice. For libertarians, there are THREE conditions that must be met for an
act X to be free for an agent: (1) the agent WANTS to do X; (2) the agent CAN do X; and (3) the agent
could have done something other than X. Condition (3) cannot obtain if determinism is true.
POINTS: 2
TYPE: ES