Eldridge

Intro to Philosophy

Spring 2005

Take Home Exam

DUE Friday, 4 March (or by email: 7 March)

Note:  Write two essays that enable you to show a broad grasp of the material, choosing from questions 1, 2 and 3 or one essay in response to either number 4 or 5.  Your essays should be full, clear, interesting, informative and precise.  Please note that an excellent essay will not be a mechanical answer to each of the subquestions.  Rather you should use them as guides to the intent of the main question.

1.      What does Socrates think philosophy is?  Why does he regard his practice of philosophy as a service of the god?  Why does he think this service is beneficial to Athens?  Your answer should make use of material in the readings, as well as what was discussed in class.

2.      John Mackie is sceptical of "objective prescriptivity," regarding it as an "error theory."  What does he mean by "objective prescriptivity"? Why does he think it is an error to think this?  Is he right or wrong?

3.      John Dewey thinks that both believers and unbelievers assume that religious beliefs necessarily involve the supernatural.  He proposes to cut this tie.  What is the alternative he develops in the first chapter of A Common Faith?  Explain why he distinguishes between “religion,” “a religion” and “the religious in experience.”

4.      Describe Turnbull’s understanding of philosophy and use it to evaluate the thinking (and approach) of Socrates and one of the other two philosophers we have studied thus far.  Then use the thinking-approach of Mackie and Dewey to evaluate Turnbull’s  understanding of philosophy.

5.      The philosophers we have studied thus far have all paid careful attention to language—the meanings of particular words—and logic, including assumptions and implications.  Moreover the beliefs they have examined are about significant matters—human excellence, morality, and religion.  Describe the work of two of the philosophers we have studied, showing how they have examined both meanings and logic.