Question 1

James says, "There is, I mean, no aboriginal stuff or quality of being, contrasted with that of which material objects are made, out of which our thoughts of them are made; but there is a function in experience which thoughts perform, and for the performance of which this quality of being is invoked. That function is knowing."

Accepted Answer

James is stating that there is no essential, inherent quality that distinguishes thoughts from material objects. However, he does believe that there is a function in experience that thoughts serve, which is knowing.

Question 2

James says, "My thesis is that if we start with the supposition that there is only one primal stuff or material in the world, a stuff of which everything is composed, and if we call that stuff pure experience, then knowing can easily be explained as a particular sort of relation towards one another."

Accepted Answer

This is a statement made by James and it is true according to his thesis.

Question 3

According to James, "a given undivided portion of experience, taken in one context of associates, play the part of a knower, of a state of mind, of consciousness, while in a different context the same undivided bit of experience plays the part of a thing known, of an objective content. In a word, in one group it figures as a thought, in another group as a thing."

Accepted Answer

This is a quote from William James, and it is true that he makes this statement about how a given portion of experience can play different roles in different contexts.

Question 4

James says, "The physical and the mental operations form curiously incompatible groups. As a room, the experience has occupied that spot and had that environment for thirty years. As your field of consciousness it may never have existed until now."

Accepted Answer

James suggests that the experience of a room as a physical entity and as a part of one's consciousness are two different things and may not coexist in the same way.

Question 5

James says, "So far, all seems plain sailing, but my thesis will probably grow less plausible to the reader when I pass from dualism to monism, or from the case of things presented to that of things remote."

Accepted Answer

The answer of James says, "So far, all seems plain...

Question 6

James says, "As material we say that the experience represents; as formal it is represented. What represents and what is represented is here numerically the same; but we must remember that no dualism of being represented and representing resides in the experience per se."

Accepted Answer

The answer of James says, "As material we say that...

Question 7

James says, "If the world were then and there to go out like a candle, it would remain truth absolute and objective, for it would be the last word, would have no critic, and no one would ever oppose the thought in it to the reality intended."

Accepted Answer

James is saying that if the world were to end abruptly, whatever Truth existed at that moment would be absolute and objective because it would be the final and unchallenged state of reality.

Question 8

James says that "Epistemology is only a collective name for all these sensible natures, and save for time and space (and, if you like, for 'being') there appears no universal element of which all things are made."

Accepted Answer

This statement by James is not an accurate characterization of epistemology, which is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge and belief. It does not refer to "sensible natures" or the composition of things.

Question 9

Explain what James means when he says, "The physical and the mental operations form curiously incompatible groups. As a room, the experience has occupied that spot and had that environment for thirty years. As your field of consciousness it may never have existed until now."

Accepted Answer

The answer of Explain what James means when he says,...

Question 10

Explain what James means when he says, "So far, all seems plain sailing, but my thesis will probably grow less plausible to the reader when I pass from percepts to concepts, or from the case of things presented to that of things remote."

Accepted Answer

The answer of Explain what James means when he says,...

Question 11

James says, "As subjective we say that the experience represents; as objective it is represented. What represents and what is represented is here numerically the same; but we must remember that no dualism of being represented and representing resides in the experience per se." Explain what James means when he says that "no dualism of being represented and representing resides in the experience per se."

Accepted Answer

The answer of James says, "As subjective we say that...

Question 12

James says, "If the world were then and there to go out like a candle, it would remain truth absolute and objective, for it would be the last word, would have no critic, and no one would ever oppose the thought in it to the reality intended." Explain James's meaning in this passage.

Accepted Answer

The answer of James says, "If the world were then...

Question 13

Explain what James means when he says, "Experience is only a collective name for all these sensible natures, and save for time and space (and, if you like, for 'being') there appears no universal element of which all things are made."

Accepted Answer

The answer of Explain what James means when he says,...

Question 14

Theories that attempt to reduce mental events to physical events are called ...

Accepted Answer

Theories that attempt to reduce mental events to physical events are called reductionist.

Question 15

Nagel claims that "Without consciousness the mind-body problem would be much less interesting. With consciousness it seems ..."

Accepted Answer

Nagel argues that consciousness adds a layer of complexity to the mind-body problem, making it seem "hopeless" to fully understand or solve, due to the subjective nature of conscious experience.

Question 16

Nagel says of consciousness, "No doubt it occurs in countless forms totally unimaginable to us, on other planets in other solar systems throughout the universe. But no matter how the form may vary, the fact that an organism has conscious experience at all means, basically, that there is something ..."

Accepted Answer

Nagel's famous assertion is that consciousness involves something that is subjective and cannot be reduced to objective, third-person descriptions. He argues that consciousness involves a subjective point of view or a subjective "what it is like" to be that organism. Therefore, choice B is the correct answer. The other options are not relevant to Nagel's argument.

Question 17

Nagel says, "It is useless to base the defense of materialism on any analysis of mental phenomena that fails to deal explicitly with their ____________________. For there is no reason to suppose that a reduction which seems plausible when no attempt is made to account for consciousness can be extended to include consciousness."

Accepted Answer

Nagel is arguing that any defense of materialism (the belief that everything can be reduced to physical matter) must address the subjective character of mental phenomena, i.e. the fact that there is something it is like to experience them from a first-person perspective. Without this consideration, any reduction of mental phenomena to physical processes is incomplete and inadequate.

Question 18

Nagel says, "Let me first try to state the issue somewhat more fully than by referring to the relation between the __________ and the __________, or between the pour-soi [for-itself] and the en-soi [in-itself]."

Accepted Answer

Nagel is contrasting the subjective (for-itself) and objective (in-itself) aspects of experience, so the best choice is B. A, C, and D do not address this distinction.

Question 19

Nagel says, "Reflection on what it is like to be a bat seems to lead us, therefore, to the conclusion that there are facts that do not consist in the truth of propositions _______________________________. We can be compelled to recognize the existence of such facts without being able to state or comprehend them."

Accepted Answer

Nagel argues that subjective experiences, such as what it is like to be a bat, cannot be fully captured or understood through language or propositional statements. Therefore, these subjective experiences cannot be expressed in a human language, thus making option C the best choice. Options A and D are not related to Nagel's argument about the limitations of language and subjective experience, while option B is not explicitly discussed in this context.

Question 20

According to Nagel, "If the subjective character of experience is fully comprehensible only from __________________, then any shift to greater objectivity-that is, less attachment to a specific viewpoint-does not take us nearer to the real nature of the phenomenon: it takes us farther away from it."

Accepted Answer

Nagel argues that the subjective character of experience cannot be fully comprehended from a single point of view, and any attempt to increase objectivity by moving away from a specific viewpoint only takes us farther away from fully understanding the nature of subjective experience. Scientific experiments, logical frameworks, and rigid designators all involve some degree of objectivity and detachment from a specific viewpoint, so they would not provide a more comprehensive understanding of subjective experience according to Nagel.

Quiz 5: René Descartes Mind and Body

James says, "The physical and the mental operations form curiously incompatible groups. As a room, the experience has occupied that spot and had that environment for thirty years. As your field of consciousness it may never have existed until now."

James says, "So far, all seems plain sailing, but my thesis will probably grow less plausible to the reader when I pass from dualism to monism, or from the case of things presented to that of things remote."

James says, "As material we say that the experience represents; as formal it is represented. What represents and what is represented is here numerically the same; but we must remember that no dualism of being represented and representing resides in the experience per se."

James says, "If the world were then and there to go out like a candle, it would remain truth absolute and objective, for it would be the last word, would have no critic, and no one would ever oppose the thought in it to the reality intended."

James says that "Epistemology is only a collective name for all these sensible natures, and save for time and space (and, if you like, for 'being') there appears no universal element of which all things are made."

Explain what James means when he says, "The physical and the mental operations form curiously incompatible groups. As a room, the experience has occupied that spot and had that environment for thirty years. As your field of consciousness it may never have existed until now."

Explain what James means when he says, "So far, all seems plain sailing, but my thesis will probably grow less plausible to the reader when I pass from percepts to concepts, or from the case of things presented to that of things remote."

James says, "If the world were then and there to go out like a candle, it would remain truth absolute and objective, for it would be the last word, would have no critic, and no one would ever oppose the thought in it to the reality intended." Explain James's meaning in this passage.

Explain what James means when he says, "Experience is only a collective name for all these sensible natures, and save for time and space (and, if you like, for 'being') there appears no universal element of which all things are made."

Theories that attempt to reduce mental events to physical events are called ...

Nagel claims that "Without consciousness the mind-body problem would be much less interesting. With consciousness it seems ..."

Nagel says, "Let me first try to state the issue somewhat more fully than by referring to the relation between the and the , or between the pour-soi [for-itself] and the en-soi [in-itself]."

According to Nagel, "If the subjective character of experience is fully comprehensible only from __________________, then any shift to greater objectivity-that is, less attachment to a specific viewpoint-does not take us nearer to the real nature of the phenomenon: it takes us farther away from it."