Exam 4: Plato the Beginning of Everything

Mackie calls the question, "Can an omnipotent being make things which he cannot subsequently control?" the Dilemma of Determinism.

Lammenranta says of Descartes's arguments, "These passages entail that clear and distinct perception is not sufficient for knowledge or certainty. One must know in addition that God exists and is not a deceiver."

Pascal says, "We know truth, not only by our reason, but also by our ________; and it is from this last that we know first principles; and reason, which has nothing to do with it, tries in vain to combat them."

Mackie says that a theologian "can admit that no rational proof of God's existence is possible. And he can still retain all that is essential to his position, by holding that God's existence is known in some other ..."

Joyce says, "The existence of moral evil, however, becomes explicable, when it is admitted that man's life is a probation." Do you agree with Joyce?

Lammenranta tells us that "Descartes says in one passage that without knowledge of ________________ he does not see how he can ever be certain of anything."

Philo says, "From observing the growth of a hair, can we learn anything concerning the generation of a man? Would the manner of a leaf's blowing, even though perfectly known, afford us any instruction concerning the vegetation of a tree?" Philo's point is that a posteriori arguments essentially rest on truths of reason.

Conway says, "let us suppose the duration of this world to be 600,000 years, or any other number of years, as great as can be by any reason conceived. Now, I demand whether it could be that the world was created before this time? If they deny it, they limit the power of God to a certain number of years; if they affirm it, they allow time to be before all time, which is a manifest ..."

Joyce says, "The existence of hell constitutes a far greater difficulty than does heaven."

Joyce says, "The sufferings of men are directed primarily to the good of the sufferer himself, while they also afford to others an opportunity for the practice of metaphysics."

Mackie says, "In its simplest form the problem is this: God is omnipotent; God is wholly good; and yet God is unknown. There seems to be some contradiction between these three propositions, so that if any two of them were true the third would be false."

According to Demea, "We must, therefore, have recourse to a ________________ Being, who carries the reason of his existence in himself, and who cannot be supposed not to exist, without an express contradiction. There is, consequently, such a Being; that is, there is a Deity."

Explain what James means by a momentous option.

Explain what James means by a genuine option.

Explain what Kierkegaard means by the following statement: "What then is the Unknown? It is the limit to which the Reason repeatedly comes."

Do you agree with Demea's general principle that "Whatever exists must have a cause or reason of its existence"?

What is Pascal's point when he says, "We know truth, not only by our reason, but also by our heart"?

Berkeley says, "Hence, it is evident that matter is known as certainly and immediately as any other mind or spirit whatsoever distinct from ourselves."

Cleanthes asserts, "Therefore, the words necessary existence have no meaning; or, which is the same thing, none that is consistent."

According to Cleanthes, "There is no being, therefore, whose non-existence implies a contradiction. Consequently there is no being, whose existence is ..."