1. Review for Final Exam

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

3. 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?

4. 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?

5. 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?

6. 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?

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

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

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

12. 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

13. 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

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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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