Deck 24: Friedrich Nietzsche: The Value of Existence

Question 1

Peirce recommends the method of science for "fixing" belief because it

A) is more likely than other methods to get us true beliefs.
B) is the only way we can get certainty about the nature of reality.
C) is more precise than the others.
D) attempts to improve our beliefs by testing them against something independent of ourselves.

Answer 1

attempts to improve our beliefs by testing them against something independent of ourselves.

Question 2

What is it to believe something, according to Peirce?

A) To have a firm conviction about something.
B) To possess a habit of acting in certain ways, given certain circumstances.
C) To have a habit that always makes you act in the same way.
D) To be disposed to say yes, if someone asks you if the world is round.

Answer 2

To possess a habit of acting in certain ways, given certain circumstances.

Question 3

With respect to Descartes' procedure of methodical doubt, Peirce says,

A) you can't really do that.
B) it's a good way to get the deck cleared for some serious intellectual work.
C) you don't need it to get to Constantinople and back.
D) it's a good mental exercise and prevents dogmatism and superstition.

Answer 3

you can't really do that.

Question 4

As Peirce understands truth, it involves

A) noting the correspondence between what we say and what is real.
B) finding out what is real and then matching our beliefs to that.
C) a community of inquirers.
D) the absolute certainty of knowledge.

Question 5

In Peirce's theory of meaning,

A) signs always have a triadic structure.
B) indexes are conventional signs.
C) pragmatics deals with the word-world relationship.
D) each sign must have a meaning independent of the meaning of every other sign, lest an infinite regress ensue.

Question 6

Dewey offers us a naturalistic perspective in philosophy. By this he means:

A) Human nature is unique in the world, and we have to study it to understand ourselves.
B) Physics, the basic science of nature, gives us the only true picture of things.
C) We are not spectators of the world, but involved participants in it.
D) Values are naturally different from and opposed to facts.

Question 7

Dewey's instrumentalism means that

A) the instruments science uses are necessary to get the results it aims at.
B) ideas are tools in the service of practical ends.
C) actions are means to ends.
D) we may use other people as instruments to gain the satisfaction of our own desires only with their consent.

Question 8

Dewey says that the life of the intellect is

A) worth more than all the actions about which we usually busy ourselves.
B) basically one of problem solving.
C) devoted to finding the eternal truths.
D) an end unto itself.

Question 9

According to Dewey, values are

A) subject to appraisal by scientific methods.
B) not subject to appraisal by scientific methods.
C) purely subjective and individual, so that we all have our own values.
D) things we just like.

Question 10

What is Dewey's account of the relation of ends and means?

A) The ends justify the means.
B) The means justify the ends.
C) There is a continuum of ends and means.
D) Ends in themselves are the only things that can justify means to them.

Question 11

What is belief for Peirce, and how does it differ from doubt?

Question 12

How does Peirce understand truth and reality?

Question 13

What method does Peirce recommend for settling opinion? Why?

Question 14

How do Peirce's "clear ideas" differ from Descartes' "clear and distinct ideas"?

Question 15

What does Peirce have to say about Descartes' quest for certainty in knowledge?

Question 16

What is Peirce's critique of Descartes' project of methodical doubt?

Question 17

What does Dewey say is the impact Darwin made on philosophy?

Question 18

Problem solving, Dewey says, is the heart of intelligence. How does he understand that process?

Question 19

How does Dewey understand experience? Contrast it with an alternative.

Question 20

Dewey says that value originates in likings, but liking something doesn't mean it is valuable. Explain.

Question 21

How does Dewey think means and ends should be related?

Question 22

Descartes sets himself to build up knowledge on a foundation of absolute certainty by doubting everything until he finds something he cannot doubt. Discuss this project from the point of view of C. S. Peirce. Does knowledge have such a foundation? Does it need one?

Question 23

Compare the representational theory of knowledge with a pragmatic interactivist view.

Question 24

Sketch Dewey's value theory, bringing in the notions of ends and means, truth, liking, and the uses of intelligence.