Question 1

Personal memory,according to your textbook,is
A) our ability to remember how to do something that we learned in the past.
B) is our ability to remember all the facts that make up our knowledge of the world.
C) our ability to bring into our present consciousness a representation of events that we directly experienced in the past.
D) our ability to bring into our present consciousness a representation of imaginary beings.

Accepted Answer

Personal memory refers to our ability to recall events and experiences from our past, and bring them into our present consciousness. This involves accessing the stored representations of those events in our brain and using them to reconstruct the experience. Option A refers to procedural memory which is related to learning motor skills or how to do things. Option B refers to semantic memory which is related to general knowledge about the world. Option D refers to imagination which involves creating mental representations of things or events that are not present in the moment.

Question 2

Carried to an extreme Berkeley's thinking can become
A) Rationalism
B) Atheism
C) Solipsism
D) Materialism

Accepted Answer

Berkeley's philosophy is based on the idea that the material world is a product of perception, and therefore is not truly existent. This can be taken to an extreme form of solipsism, where the individual maintains that only their own consciousness truly exists and that everything else is a product of their own mind.

Question 3

George Berkeley called his position
A) skepticism.
B) rationalism.
C) materialism.
D) immaterialism.

Accepted Answer

George Berkeley's position is immaterialism, which is the idea that there is no material substance or matter, and that everything exists as ideas or concepts in the mind, or in the minds of spiritual beings.

Question 4

Who was a Romantic philosopher?
A) Kant
B) Copernicus
C) Hegel
D) Humboldt

Accepted Answer

The answer of Who was a Romantic philosopher?
A) Kant
B) Copernicus
C)...

Question 5

Who offered a view now termed transcendental idealism?
A) Kant
B) Berkeley
C) Hume
D) Locke

Accepted Answer

Transcendental idealism is a term coined by Immanuel Kant, who argued that the mind actively structures experience and that this structure is partly responsible for the way that we perceive the world. He believed that there are both noumenal (things as they are in themselves) and phenomenal (things as they appear to us) aspects of reality, and that our knowledge is limited to the latter.

Question 6

What philosopher argued that scientific claims or hypotheses must be capable of being falsified through empirical observations?
A) William Whewell
B) John Stuart Mill
C) Karl Popper
D) Isaac Newton

Accepted Answer

This question refers to Karl Popper's concept of falsifiability, which holds that scientific claims must be falsifiable through empirical observations. William Whewell and John Stuart Mill were also influential philosophers of science but did not focus specifically on the concept of falsifiability. Isaac Newton was a natural philosopher who preceded the development of modern scientific methodology and was not primarily concerned with the falsifiability of scientific claims.

Question 7

What philosopher argued that hallucinations,dreams and other illusions give rise to errors that we "sublate" when we see that they are contradicted by other things our senses show us in the world around us?
A) G. W. F. Hegel
B) Rene Descartes
C) Shankara
D) John Locke

Accepted Answer

The answer of What philosopher argued that hallucinations,dreams and other...

Question 8

What,according to Shankara,was real?
A) The self
B) The world
C) Ultimate reality
D) Ultimate knowledge

Accepted Answer

According to Shankara, only Ultimate reality, also known as Brahman, is real. The self and the world are considered illusory or temporary manifestations of Brahman. Ultimate knowledge is the realization of the unity of the self with Brahman.

Question 9

Who claimed that the claim that the world must conform to the mind was a kind of Copernican revolution in knowledge?
A) Hume
B) Locke
C) Descartes
D) Kant

Accepted Answer

Immanuel Kant famously claimed that his philosophy was a "Copernican revolution" in knowledge because, much like Copernicus shifted our understanding of the universe from geocentric to heliocentric, Kant shifted our understanding of knowledge from the world conforming to the mind to the mind conforming to the world. This revolution in knowledge is a central theme in Kant's philosophy, and is closely tied to his epistemological and metaphysical ideas.

Question 10

Descartes argued that human beings are born with innate ideas of the three fundamental kinds of things in the universe:
A) sense perception, ideas and concepts.
B) God, minds and material bodies.
C) understanding, sense perception and material bodies.
D) God, material bodies and properties of material bodies.

Accepted Answer

Descartes argued that human beings are born with innate ideas of God, minds and material bodies. These three things constitute the fundamental kinds of things in the universe according to Descartes.

Question 11

According to Jainism,the practice of ____ is key to our future liberation.It basically means the avoidance of all aggression,injury,or harm to other living things.
A) ahimsa
B) empiricism
C) rationalism
D) satyagraha

Accepted Answer

The key practice according to Jainism is ahimsa, which means non-violence or avoidance of harm to all living things. This is seen as the key to achieving liberation in the future. Empiricism, rationalism, and satyagraha are not directly related to Jainism's core spiritual principles.

Question 12

Rationalism is the view that
A) All knowledge is acquired through reason
B) No knowledge can be acquired through the senses
C) Reason can arrive at some knowledge
D) Reason can arrive at all knowledge

Accepted Answer

Rationalism holds that some knowledge can be acquired through reason, but not necessarily all knowledge. It does not dismiss the role of the senses entirely.

Question 13

The empricist believes that
A) the only source of genuine knowledge is sense experience.
B) apart from experience, reason is an unreliable and inadequate route to knowledge.
C) there is no evidence of innate ideas within the mind.
D) all of these choices

Accepted Answer

Empiricism is the philosophical belief that knowledge is acquired through experience and observation. Therefore, the empiricist believes that the only source of genuine knowledge is sense experience (A), and that reason alone is not enough to establish knowledge (B). Additionally, empiricists deny the existence of innate ideas or knowledge within the mind (C). Therefore, all of the choices listed are correct for an empiricist.

Question 14

The British empiricists,according to your text,are
A) John Locke, George Berkeley and David Hume
B) Plato, Rene Descartes and John Locke
C) Gottfried Leibniz, John Locke and David Hume
D) Plato, Gottfried Leibniz and George Berkeley

Accepted Answer

The British empiricists refer to a group of philosophers who advocated for the idea that all knowledge comes from experience. John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume are considered the main figures of this school of thought. Therefore, option A is the correct answer. Option B is incorrect because while John Locke is a British empiricist, Plato and René Descartes are not. Option C is incorrect because while John Locke and David Hume fall into this category, Gottfried Leibniz is a rationalist. Option D is incorrect because only George Berkeley falls into the category of British empiricists.

Question 15

Descartes' methodological point of departure was
A) Empiricism
B) Rationalism
C) Skepticism
D) Theism

Accepted Answer

Descartes' methodological point of departure was skepticism, which called into question all knowledge and required that individuals doubt everything they believed to be true in order to arrive at certain knowledge.

Question 16

Who compared the mind to a blank slate?
A) John Locke
B) Francis Bacon
C) Rene Descartes
D) Thomas Aquinas

Accepted Answer

John Locke's theory of empiricism suggested that the mind is a blank slate or "tabula rasa" at birth, and is gradually shaped by our experiences and interactions with the world around us.

Question 17

According to Kant,statements that give us information about the world are
A) Synthetic statements
B) Analytic statements
C) Skeptical statements
D) Agnostic statements

Accepted Answer

According to Kant, statements that give us information about the world are synthetic statements. Synthetic statements are those that add new information to our understanding of concepts and cannot be derived from the definitions of those concepts alone. For example, the statement "the cat is on the mat" is synthetic because it adds new information (the location of the cat) to our understanding of the concepts of "cat" and "mat".

Question 18

What philosopher argues that space and time are structures within our minds?
A) Immanuel Kant
B) David Hume
C) John Locke
D) Gottfried Leibniz

Accepted Answer

Immanuel Kant argued that space and time are not objective features of the world but are instead structures within our minds that we impose on the world in order to make sense of it. According to Kant, space and time are not things that exist independently of us, but instead are necessary parts of our subjective experience of the world.

Question 19

Who did not rely on God to save him from skepticism?
A) Descartes
B) Locke
C) Berkeley
D) Hume

Accepted Answer

Hume did not rely on God to save him from skepticism, in fact, he rejected the idea of supernatural entities altogether. He argued that all knowledge comes from sensory experience and that there is no rational basis for believing in God or any other supernatural being.

Question 20

Innate ideas are ideas that
A) are acquired through experience.
B) based on an individual's cultural traditions.
C) can never be known to be true.
D) the mind possesses from birth.

Accepted Answer

Innate ideas refer to the notion that the mind possesses certain ideas or knowledge from birth, without the need for sensory experience. This idea was championed by philosophers such as Rene Descartes and John Locke, who debated the extent to which knowledge is acquired through experience versus innate ideas. Thus, the correct answer is D, as innate ideas refer to ideas that are possessed from birth.

Quiz 5: The Sources of Knowledge

Personal memory,according to your textbook,is

Carried to an extreme Berkeley's thinking can become

George Berkeley called his position

Who was a Romantic philosopher?

Who offered a view now termed transcendental idealism?

What philosopher argued that scientific claims or hypotheses must be capable of being falsified through empirical observations?

What philosopher argued that hallucinations,dreams and other illusions give rise to errors that we "sublate" when we see that they are contradicted by other things our senses show us in the world around us?

What,according to Shankara,was real?

Who claimed that the claim that the world must conform to the mind was a kind of Copernican revolution in knowledge?

Descartes argued that human beings are born with innate ideas of the three fundamental kinds of things in the universe:

According to Jainism,the practice of ____ is key to our future liberation.It basically means the avoidance of all aggression,injury,or harm to other living things.

Rationalism is the view that

The empricist believes that

The British empiricists,according to your text,are

Descartes' methodological point of departure was

Who compared the mind to a blank slate?

According to Kant,statements that give us information about the world are

What philosopher argues that space and time are structures within our minds?

Who did not rely on God to save him from skepticism?

Innate ideas are ideas that