Quiz 2: Human Nature

Who said that men possess "a powerful measure of desire for aggressiveness"? A) Sigmund Freud B) Socrates C) Plato D) Jeremy Bentham

Moritz Schlick argued for A) Ethical egoism B) Psychological egoism C) Ethical consequentialism D) Psychological consequentialism

The view that "all humans have a rational spiritual self that is distinct from its body" is the A) Buddhist view B) Rational View C) Traditional View D) Hindu View

What, for Plato, was an eternal and perfect ideal that existed in an unchanging heaven? A) Forms B) Souls C) Reason D) Spirit

Plotinus was influenced by A) Aquinas B) Augustine C) Plato D) Plutarch

Who proposed the idea of natural selection? A) Charles Darwin B) Charles Taylor C) Plotinus D) Plato

The view that humans are whatever they make themselves is termed A) Darwinism B) Buddhism C) Existentialism D) Platonism

Who wrote Being and Nothingness? A) Sartre B) Heidegger C) Nietzsche D) Darwin

J.J. A) Identify theory B) Coextension theory C) Smart endorsed what theory of human nature? C) The Traditional View D) The Existential View

The philosopher who believed that who you are depends on your relationships to others is: A) Hegel B) Plato C) Taylor D) Sartre

Freud wrote Civilization and Its Discontents.

Hobbes believed that humans were altruistic.

Schlick claimed that humans were both self-interested and material bodies.

The self is the ego.

By "soul" Plato meant "inner self".

Aristotle held that all living things have a purpose.

Aristotle claimed that barbarians could be enslaved by Greeks.

Augustine did not believe that humans have wills.

Existentialism emphasizes the free and conscious individual.

In behaviorism, our consciousness seems to have disappeared.

According to Plato, humans can control their appetites and aggressive impulses through the use of their ____________________.

Over thousands of years the process of ____________________ ____________________ can make a species change into a new species.

____________________ is the view that humans are made up of two substances.

The view that processes such as thought and life are really nothing more than physical and chemical processes is called ____________________.

One version of ____________________ is the identity theory of the mind.

Behaviorism began as a school of ____________________ that restricted the study of humans to what could be observed.

____________________ is the view that we should explain mental states in terms of perceptual inputs and behavioral outputs.

Siddhartha Gautama was the founder of ____________________.

____________________ argued that a person's culture is the mirror through which society shows her who and what she is.

Descrates' view of human nature says that humans are ____________________ minds with ____________________ bodies.

What is "psychological egoism"? Do you find it a compelling view of human nature? Why, or why not?

Do you think that humans have a different moral status than other animals? Why? If your view is that they have certain properties that other animals lack, do all humans have these properties? If not, do those that lack them lack the moral status that you ascribe to humans? If your view is that humans matter morally because they are human¾why does being human count for so much?

If we are genetically inclined to be selfish, does this justify our selfishness or merely explain it? Explain your answer.

Do you believe that there is a "you" to whom this question is addressed? Explain your answer.

Do you agree with the existentialists that humans are what they make of themselves? Why, or why not? What might the practical consequences of accepting the existentialist view be for (a) your own life, (b) social policy? Explain your answer.