Review for Final Exam

Exam Format 25-35 multiple choice questions Three essay questions from a choice of six Five essay choices from following list of ten

Essay questions 1) Could you be wrong about almost everything you think you know (for example, if you are dreaming or if you are a brain in a vat)? If not, why not? If so, is there anything that you could not be mistaken about? 2) Discuss a concrete moral dilemma in terms of at least two of the three ethical systems we have covered (i.e. virtue ethics, Kantian ethics or utilitarianism). Which system of ethics do you think is best? 3) Discuss one of the following: Euthanasia Marijuana Cigarette smoking For the topic you choose, discuss whether you think it should be legal or not and why. If you think it should be legal, do you think there should be certain restrictions applied?

Essay questions 4) What qualifies someone to be considered a “person”? For each of the following cases, discuss whether this being should be or could be considered a person A two-year-old child A chimpanzee A pig who could talk as well as an intelligent person (e.g. Babe) An intelligent and human-like robot (e.g. Andrew from Bicentennial Man) An alien (imagined any way you like) Is it wrong to eat meat? Why or why not? If yes, does this include all types of meat? Are there certain conditions under which it may be permissible? If no, does this include all types of meat? Are there certain conditions under which it may be wrong?

Essay questions 6) Does the “Chinese Room” thought experiment convince you that programmed computers could not be truly intelligent? Why or why not? 7) Do you think that consciousness arises from purely physical stuff? Why or why not? Why might some people disagree with you?

Essay questions 8) Do you think that people have free will? Why or why not? Does your answer depend on whether or not the mind is a deterministic system? 9) Can life be meaningful? If not, why not? If so, what makes life meaningful? Are there circumstances (real or imagined) in which life is not (or could not be) meaningful? 10) What are some of the problems with time travel? Are there versions of time travel that are possible?

Skepticism Plato’s cave Spectrum of reality Shadows,reflections/ordinary objects/Forms, Reality Descartes Radical skepticism Dream argument Evil demon hypothesis I think therefore I am Thoughts, ideas and perceptions are real Maybe the external world is not real Brain-in-a-vat The Matrix A simulated world

Morality and Ethics Plato’s Euthyphro argument against “morality comes from God” Aristotle Virtue ethics Eudomonia The virtues Kant Rule-based ethics The categorical imperative The principle of universalizability Absolute moral duties Independent of consequences Never treat a person as just a means, but always as an end

Morality and Ethics (cont.) Mill Utilititarian ethics Consequentialist Intrinsic good Instrumental good Happiness and the absence of suffering are the only intrinsic goods “the greatest good for the greatest number” Act utilitarianism Preference utilitarianism Rule utilitarianism Trolley case Transplant case

Paternalism vs. Individual Rights The harm principle Free speech Euthanasia Smoking in public places

Personhood Personhood “Persons” Candidates for personhood Moral agents (Kant) Morally responsible vs. morally considerable Apes as persons Reciprocal rights

Animal rights Indirect vs. direct duties to animals Vegetarianism vivisection Peter Singer Ethics evolving to include animals Speciesism Sentience Vague line (perhaps between a clam and a shrimp) The argument from borderline cases Individuals vs. species vs. biosystems

Animal rights (cont.) Tom Regan Animal rights Beings of moral standing should not be treated as mere means, but as an end to themselves Subjects-of-a-life Normal mammals of a year or more Carl Cohen Reciprocality of rights

Consciousness Physicalism Dualism Substance dualism Property dualism Matter vs mind Chalmers Zombies The conceivability argument

Consciousness (cont.) The interaction problem of dualism Epiphenomenalism Emergent non-physical properties Panpsychism Ockham’s razor Idealism The easy problems vs. the hard problem of consciousness Nagel – what is it like to be a bat Qualia Objective scientific knowledge vs. subjective experience

The Chinese Room Searle – the Chinese Room argument The Turing Test Strong AI vs. weak AI Semantics vs. syntactics Searle: semantics alone cannot produce semantics I.e. manipulation of symbols cannot produce real understanding The systems reply The robot reply The complexity reply

Free Will Free will Determinism Fate Determinism by God vs. determinism by physical laws Incompatiblism Libertarianism Hard determinism Compatibilism The garden of forking paths Indeterminism Agent causation Deliberation Moral responsibility

The Meaning of Life Subjective vs. objective theories Eudomonia (the good life) – Aristotle Positive psychology The meaning of life is the search for the meaning of life Otherworldly religion Utilitarianism Environmentalism Family Human progress The present moment Zen Nihilism Existentialism

Time Travel Presentism Eternalism Time travel to the future vs. time travel to the past Grandfather paradox Butterfly effect Causal loops Coherent time travel Novato self-consistency principle Time travel and free will Travel through parallel universes Constant creation of new alternative universes