Deck 1: Foundational Ideas from Antiquity

Question 1

Descartes believed that the best intellectual products:

A) emerge from group discussion and collaboration.
B) follow from careful study of the classics.
C) had been produced by the ancient Greeks.
D) were the work of individual minds thinking in relative isolation.

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Descartes believed that concepts such as "unity," "infinity," or "perfection," which cannot be represented by single sensory impressions,were which of the following?

A) abstractions created out of many different sensory experiences
B) innate ideas of the rational soul
C) illusions having no basis in reality
D) reverberations in nerves continuing after the cessation of sensory impressions

Answer 2

B

Question 3

According to Descartes' "Treatise of Light" the entire physical universe is made up of:

A) fire, air, water, and earth.
B) invisible particles of "heat," invisible particles of "light," and visible particles of material "earth."
C) material particles separated by void.
D) several kinds of elementary atoms which should combine to form an almost infinite variety of different compounds.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

In the "Treatise of Man," Descartes provided mechanistic explanations for all the following functions,except:

A) reason.
B) dreaming.
C) sensation.
D) both a and b

Question 5

The hydraulically-operated mechanical statues at St.Germain were important to Descartes because:

A) the mythological scenes they represented directed his attention toward important psychological problems.
B) they suggested the idea that animal bodies could be understood mechanistically as automata.
C) they inspired him to construct some experimental hydraulic models of his own.
D) all of the above

Question 6

According to scholastic philosophy,the explanatory principle accounting for the highest mental functioning in humans was the:

A) interaction of the humors.
B) animal soul.
C) rational soul.
D) "unmoved mover."

Question 7

When a stimulus ascends a particular nerve to the brain,and then initiates the flow of animal spirits through several channels and pathways there,before finally descending through a different nerve to excite a muscle,it follows Descartes' hypothetical mechanism for:

A) passions.
B) mind-body interaction.
C) innate reflexes.
D) acquired or learned reflexes.

Question 8

In Descartes' theory of the reflex mechanism,stimuli are transmitted to the brain by means of ______________,and responses are initiated by________________________:

A) columns of "light" particles; the dispersion of heat to the proper muscle
B) hydraulic pressure in a sensory nerve; hydraulic pressure in a motor nerve
C) tugs and pulls on filaments through nerves; the flow of fluids through the nerves and into the muscles
D) hydraulic pressure in the fluid within the nerve; tugs on the filaments within the nerves, connected to the muscles

Question 9

According to Descartes's theory of light,the speed of light was:

A) infinite.
B) equal to the speed of sound.
C) finite but immeasurable.
D) equal to the speed of the earth's rotation about the sun.

Question 10

In the "Treatise of Man," Descartes hypothesized that the state of _____________ occurs when the brain is relatively emptied of animal spirits,so that its nerve fibers are slack and only infrequently capable of transmitting stimulation

A) depression
B) passion
C) reflection and memory
D) sleep and dreaming

Question 11

Descartes' mathematical invention,which integrated algebra and geometry,is called:

A) analytic geometry.
B) Cartesian analysis.
C) differential calculus.
D) dioptric.

Question 12

Which of the following labels are appropriate for Descartes?

A) Dualist
B) Nativist
C) Rationalist
D) all of the above

Question 13

The first rule of Descartes' method,providing the equivalent of the geometric axioms,was:

A) to doubt everything.
B) to keep precise records of all observations.
C) to systematically manipulate one variable at a time.
D) to proceed deductively by syllogistic reasoning.

Question 14

Where did Descartes localize the most important interactions between the body and the soul?

A) throughout the brain
B) throughout the body
C) in the pineal gland
D) nowhere, since they cannot interact in space

Question 15

Descartes believed that:

A) the body usually dominates the mind.
B) the mind usually dominates the body.
C) the body really is the mind.
D) the body and mind interact and mutually influence each other, with neither always dominating.

Question 16

The only "simple natures" Descartes discerned when he applied his method to the analysis of the physical world were the concepts of:

A) subjects and objects.
B) sensations and perceptions.
C) minds and bodies.
D) extension and motion.

Question 17

Descartes accounted mechanistically for emotional influences on behavior by postulating:

A) currents and "commotions" in the reservoir of animal spirits.
B) learned reactions to external stimuli.
C) variations in the intensity with which stimuli strike the senses.
D) an "emotional" soul.

Question 18

When Descartes found he could doubt everything except the reality of his doubting itself,he gained immediate reassurance of the:

A) trustworthiness of his senses.
B) immortality of his soul.
C) reality of his rational mind.
D) existence of the material world.

Question 19

The ideas that young Descartes had at Ulm,which transformed his life and really started him on his vocation as a philosopher and scientist,were primarily about:

A) the reflex.
B) the mind-body dichotomy.
C) a method for obtaining knowledge.
D) the passions.

Question 20

Descartes believed that animals were:

A) identical to humans in most essential qualities.
B) mechanical automata, lacking consciousness.
C) psychologically similar to human beings, except less complicated.
D) so different from human begins as to be worthless as scientific subjects.

Question 21

According to Descartes' theory of visual perception,

A) the mind's conscious percept bears no necessary relationship to the real observed object.
B) the mind's conscious percept is a nearly perfect replica of the real observed object.
C) the relationship between percept and object is inconsequential, so long as mechanical action is initiated.
D) the conscious percept is an inverted, double copy of the observed object.

Question 22

According to Galileo,the qualities of matter,shape,quantity,and motion were called:

A) primary qualities.
B) secondary qualities.
C) innate qualities.
D) rational qualities.

Question 23

Descartes hypothesized that when the pineal gland is moved by eddies and currents in the cerebrospinal fluid that surrounds it:

A) it causes all the nerves in the brain to be more open to the passage of animal spirits.
B) the soul becomes conscious of a passion.
C) the soul becomes conscious of an innate idea.
D) the body is immediately set into motion.

Question 24

Galileo defined secondary qualities as:

A) qualities that do not reside inherently in matter, but arise only after the primary qualities impinge on the human senses.
B) qualities that reside inherently in matter, such as shape, quantity, and motion.
C) qualities that were the two properties of physical phenomena that could not be further analyzed or doubted.
D) qualities that are inherently innate.

Question 25

Legend has it that Descartes did much of his best thinking:

A) in the library.
B) during long walks on the moors.
C) in bed.
D) while debating others.

Question 26

Descartes believed that the passions were:

A) the conscious experiences of the body's emotions.
B) the unconscious experience of the body's emotions.
C) the consciousness of separation between the mind and body.
D) the body's unconscious reaction to emotions before they became conscious.

Question 27

Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia had an important intellectual friendship with Descartes and,while she was highly impressed by Descartes' writings,she disagreed with him on:

A) how the immaterial mind and the material body interacted.
B) his theory of doubt.
C) the importance of the reflex in his theory of mind.
D) his theory of emotion.

Question 28

In seeing the body as activated both by external stimuli from the outside world,and by emotional factors originating in the body,Descartes anticipated an important aspect of modern:

A) dynamic psychology, such as psychoanalysis.
B) behavioristic psychology.
C) Gestalt psychology.
D) neuropsychology.

Question 29

Since Descartes' time,research has shown that:

A) his theory of the body's mechanism was prophetically right in most respects.
B) his mechanistic theories were almost completely nonsense.
C) his theory of bodily mechanism was wrong in details, but highly productive in its general implications.
D) the body and mind do interact in the middle of the brain.

Question 30

Descartes' Treatise on the Passions of the Soul (1649)was highly influenced by his correspondence with:

A) Marin Mersenne.
B) Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia.
C) Galileo.
D) William Harvey.