Format: The exam will consist of two parts: short answer and
long answer. There will be 7 short answer questions of which you pick 5.
Answers should be anywhere from one to five sentences. There will be 3 long
answer questions, of which you pick 2. Answers should be about 2 blue-book
pages, front and back. The exam is scheduled for Wednedsy June 10 at 11:30,
our regular class time, our regular class place. There will be a brief review
in class on Tuesday, and on the discussion forum, if you choose to use it.
Some Terms
Deductive Arguments
Valid/Invalid
Soundness
Inductive Arguments
Strong/Weak
Cogent
A Priori
A Posteriori
Living/Dead, Forced/Avoidable, Trivial/Momentous Options (James)
Unfalsifiable Theories
Omnipotence, Omniscience, Omnibenevolence
The Paradox of Omnipotence
The Paradox of Omniscence (with Free Will)
Moral vs. Natural Evil
The Free Will Thesis
Causal Determinism
Incompatibilism
Hard Determinism
Libertarianism
Compatibilism
Divine Command Theory
Slave Morality
Transvaluation of Values
Principles, Arguments, and Objections
Pascal's Wager
'Beliefs are Not Voluntary' Objection
'Beliefs in God Cannot be the Result of a Wager' Objection
The Anti-God Objection
W. K. Clifford's Objection
James' Response
Unfalsifiable Theories and How this Applies to Pascal's Wager (e.g., The
Dragon in My Garage, and the Gardner Parable., etc.)
The Problem of Evil
Attempted Solutions to the Problem of Evil (on hand-out and in the Mackie
article), and why they fail (according to Mackie).
Free Will and the Problem of Evil: Defense and Objections
The Free Will Problem
Science vs. Religion (Worrall's Arguments)
The Euthyprho Problem
Nietzsche's Theory of "Good" and "Bad"