Study Questions for Velasquez, PHILOSOPHY, 8th ed., Chapter 2
PHIL 120 Spring 2002 (Garrett)
Revised February 21, 2002.
2.1 WHY STUDY HUMAN NATURE?
1. Why, according to the author, is a person's answer to the question regarding human nature a highly significant one? (76)
2. What view of human nature is contained in the brief excerpt from Freud on pp. 76-77?
3. What is psychological egoism? (See pp. 77-78). What metaphysical view (i.e., about the "whole mass of things that are") does Thomas Hobbes' combine with his psychological egoism? (77)
On pp. 78-80, Velasquez suggests that one's philosophy of human nature corresponds to one's attitudes about religious experience and political philosophy. However, there is a danger of oversimplification here: There are political pessimists among those who hold that humans contain an immortal soul--an example is Augustine--and there are political optimists (or at least "meliorists"--from the Latin root for "better") among those who deny the supernatural--an example is John Dewey.2.2 WHAT IS HUMAN NATURE?
6. What four basic propositions (statements) sum up what V calls "the traditional [rationalist] view" of human nature?
7a. What three elements or parts does Plato ("Socrates" is his mouthpiece here) claim to find in the human soul (or "inner self")? (83) Please use the technical term six lines from the bottom on p. 83 for the middle element.
7b. Can these parts conflict? What does each part naturally desire? What is the ideal relationship between these parts? What, according to Plato, must the rational part of the soul perceive and know if the soul is to become wise? (83-84)
8. In what ways did Aristotle agree with Plato about the importance of reason? (Top p. 85) In what way did Aristotle disagree with Plato regarding knowledge of human nature? (Top p. 85) How do they agree regarding the purpose of human nature? (Middle p. 85)
9. How does Plato's Socrates use the theory of the Forms or Ideals to explain the nature of the human soul? (85-86)
10. In what morally questionable way has the "traditional rationalist view" been used? (86-87)
11a. How does Augustine's Christian philosophy modify the "traditional rationalist view" of Plato? (87-89)
11b. How does Thomas Aquinas' Christian view modify the "traditional rationalist view" of Aristotle? (90)
11c. Very few philosophers are highly optimistic about improving the situation of human life on earth. But many believe that human beings and human societies can do better and that philosophy and our own efforts can essentially help. These "meliorists" include Plato, Aristotle, and probably Thomas Aquinas. But Augustine seems to be a different case. What evidence is there that Augustine is a pessimist about human progress (http://www.wku.edu/~jan.garrett/august.htm)?
12. Is the traditional Judaeo-Christian view (a version of the traditional rationalist view of human nature) historically linked to colonialism and the destruction of cultural diversity on a world scale? Explain. (90)
13a. Explain Darwin's notions of "variations" and "struggle for existence." How do these help explain the emergence of new living types. (91-93)
13b. What was "a disturbing new thought" to many people of Darwin's time? (93) What was especially "shocking" about the extension of this thought to human beings?
13c. What clash does there seem to be between Darwin's view and the "traditional rationalist view" of human nature? How does Darwin's view seem to conflict with the Judaeo-Christian view? (93-94)
13d. How does Stephen J. Gould modify traditional Darwinian theory? (94-95)
14. What is George Mavrodes' "theistic" understanding of evolution? (95)
15. How does Gould respond to the idea that the evolutionary process has been working for vast periods of time in order to produce human beings? (95-96) Notice how Gould's view is more radical than Darwin's--after all, Darwin allows himself to use words like "improvement" and "progress" (93) which suggest that evolutionary change has a direction.
16. Read the webpage on John Dewey (http://www.wku.edu/~jan.garrett/dewey.htm). (a) How is Dewey influenced by Darwinism? (b) Would Dewey accept Mavrodes' "theistic" understanding of evolution? ( c) What is the key idea that Dewey uses to explain diverse human activities? (d) Does Dewey believe that the study of ethics and the fine arts (traditionally among the "free" or liberal arts) is valuable? (e) Does Dewey agree with Plato's tendency to equate reality with what is eternal?
17a. What is Sartre's conception of human nature? In what does our freedom consist? (96)
17b. For what should we take full responsibility? Does Sartre believe that emotions are things that just come over us and for which we are not responsible? Explain. (96, bottom 98-top 99)
17c. How is Sartre's view different from the "traditional rationalist view" and the "Judaeo-Christian view"? (96, 98)
18. What does Sartre mean by "bad faith" (sometimes rendered "self-deception")? How does the woman in the excerpt from Sartre's Being and Nothingness engage in self-deception? (97-98)
19a. What do we learn from the passage from Plato's Phaedo on pp. 99-100 about the Platonic "rationalist's" view of the body and the soul? (Note especially the political metaphor introduced into the discussion.)
19b. How does Aristotle give the traditional rationalist view a "sexist bias"? (100-101) How does this issue show up in the Christian philosophy of Augustine? (101)
20. How, according to feminist critics of traditional (rationalist and Judaeo-Christian) views, do these traditionally influential philosophies rationalize the subjugation of women? (101-102) (See also the questions Velasquez himself raises at mid p. 102.)
21. Some "feminine" thinkers, rather than arguing that women are just as good as men in the traditional highly valued "male" qualities and activities, have argued that we should place more or equal value on so-called "female" qualities and activities. What advantages and disadvantages does this approach have? (See discussion by Lloyd and Velasquez's comments on 102-103.)
2.3 HOW DO MIND AND BODY RELATE?
22a. In what way is it obvious we have bodies? (104)
22b. In what way is it obvious we have minds? (104)
23a. What sort of awareness is consciousness, according to Velasquez? What does it mean to say that it is "subjective"? (105)
23b. Why does it seem not to be physical? What view of human nature seems obvious to most of us according to Velasquez? (105)
23c. On what kind of occasions does mind seem to interact with body? (105)
24a. How does Descartes "prove" the existence of a mind distinct from body? (105-106)
24b. What is the essence of mind for Descartes? (106)
24c. What is the essence of body, according to Descartes? (106) Is Descartes a dualist? Explain. (106)
25a. What problem arises for the dualist view of Descartes? (106) How does he try to resolve this problem? Why was his solution ridiculed? (107)
25b. How does Descartes' disciple Nicholas Malebranche try to resolve the problem? (108)
26a. What is Hobbes' position on the mind-body problem?
26b. What is "reductionism"? What is materialism? Is reductionism widespread today, over 300 years after Descartes? (108-109)
27a. What does the identity theory maintain? What claim do identity theorists make about the future of scientific discovery? (109)
27b. What two objections does Norman Malcolm raise about identity theory? (111)
27c. Recently, scientists discovered that when people are feeling especially loving (e.g., mothers nursing infants) their brains are excreting unusually high amounts of a certain hormone. How is this relevant to the position of identity theory?
28a. What is the key idea of behaviorism as a materialist position on the mind-body problem? (111-12)
28b. How does Hilary Putnam criticize behaviorism? (112) Explain the joke at the bottom of p. 112.
29a. According to functionalism, how should humans be understood? What is a belief according to functionalism? (112-13)
29b. How is functionalism an advance over earlier forms of behaviorism? (113) What does functionalism leave out? (113-14)
30. What does eliminative materialism maintain? What do materialists of this type mean by "folk psychology"? (114)
2.4 IS THERE AN ENDURING SELF?
31. What assumption about our selves do we typically make? Why is this important for friendship and for ethical practices such as promise-keeping? (118-19)
32. What other things would be impossible if we were not the same persons from one moment to the next? (119)
33. What questions about personal identity do some accidents and Alzheimer's disease raise? (119-20)
34. Is there any plausibility in Lisa's claim that she and John are not the same as the two persons who married 20 years ago? Explain. (120)
35. What is the point of the comparison of the human body to a ship that is rebuilt plank by plank while it is sailing on the ocean? (121)
36a. Consider the idea that bodily continuity proves personal identity over time. Is this idea plausible in all cases? Explain. (122)
36b. If bodily continuity is needed for personal identity, what does this imply for personal immortality? (122)
36c. Consider the fictional story about Manny and Maryann. What does this "thought experiment" show us about the equation of personal identity with bodily continuity? (122-23)
37. What is the chief answer of the traditional Western view regarding the problem of the enduring self? (123)
38a. What is John Locke's solution to the problem of personal identity? (124)
38b. What are the advantages of this solution? (124-25) What problems does it seem to leave unresolved? (See "other problems" in next to last paragraphy of 125.)
39. How is the Theravada Buddhist view of the self radically different from the Western notion of the enduring self? What is the source of all pain and suffering on this view? What is the "self" according to this view? (126-27)
40a. According to David Hume, do we really have any idea of the self? Explain. (128)
40b. How is Hume's view like the Theravada Buddhist's? (129) In what way does Hume's view of the idea of the self differ from that of the Buddhist? (130) Note that Hume treats the problem of the self as chiefly an epistemological problem, while for Buddhism it is especially an ethical problem.
2.5 Are We Independent and Self-sufficient Individuals?
[questions for Section 2.5 not modified for 8th edition]41. What view do Walt Whitman and René Descartes seem to share? (132-34) In what way is Immanuel Kant a radical individualist? (134)
42a. How does Charles Taylor criticize traditional individualism? (134)
42b. What did Aristotle declare about humans in the passage cited on p. 135? What is the key idea in Hegel's discussion of the self and identity? (135-137)
42c. According to Taylor, can we be free individuals just by making up our minds to be so, regardless of society and culture? Explain. (137-39)
43. What somewhat odd conclusion does William James draw? What leads him to it? (139-40)