HUM 1020 Midterm Exam
Fall
Please be sure to answer each question on the Midterm thoughtfully and thoroughly. Please be sure to submit your exam as one document and with all the answers numbered under the appropriate heading. You must answer these questions on your own, without assistance. You are free to survey Internet resources, but use them responsibly – and make sure you cite your sources appropriately. Documents that are submitted without proper citation (whether the passage in question is a direct quote or a paraphrase) will not be accepted and will receive 0/100 as a score.
I am interested here in your own thinking. These are not research questions, and you are to put responses in your own words and use your own examples.
Good luck!
Part I: Short-Answer (5 points each)
Please define and explain the following terms in two or three precise, clear, thoughtful sentences:
- Epistemology
- Applied Philosophy
- Theory of Forms (Plato)
- “Cogito ergo sum” (Descartes)
- Criterion of verifiability (page 334)
- Free will
- Determinism
- Existentialism (Sartre)
- Behaviorism (Skinner)
- The Method of Doubt (Descartes)
Part II: Essay (25 points each)
Please respond to both essays below and write a thoughtful, concise response (250-300 words each).
- What are the strengths and weaknesses of A.J. Ayer’s epistemology (Logical Positivism)? (Be sure to explain the theory in detail before considering its strengths and weaknesses).
- How is determinism a threat to the idea of free will? What is at stake in the debate over determinism and freedom (e.g., what would this mean for our views of personal responsibility, morality, and punishment)?
[place-order-2]
Extra Credit (essay – 250-300 words, 10 points possible):
Philosophy has been characterized as both the love of wisdom and as a thinking activity. Explain each of these views and then discuss how the two views are related (e.g., how they complement each other, or how they are logically connected). HUM 1020 Midterm Exam