PHIL 4150: Analytic Philosophy

University of West Georgia

Spring 2009

Date: Wednesday April 1

This test will be worth 20% of your total course grade. This is a timed test; you will have 50 minutes to complete the test.

You are required to provide your own blue book for the test. Blue books are mini notebooks designed especially for writing tests. They are available from the UWG Bookstore and come in two sizes: small and large. Small should be large enough, unless you have really large handwriting, in which case you may want to use a large bluebook. They are very inexpensive (less than $.50 each).

Section I will consist of definitions [10-20% of total test grade]. I will give you a short list of terms and phrases to define. Typically, only a sentence or two is necessary for a satisfactory answer. The terms and phrases will come from the following list:

· metaphysics

· ontology

· logical positivism

· the Verification Principle

· empirical

· “The Elimination of Metaphysics through the Logical Analysis of Language” [state author, year, and something about contents]

· Law of Non-Contradiction

· Law of Excluded Middle

· falsificationism

· “Two Dogmas of Empiricism” [state author, year, and something about contents]

· “On What There Is” [state author, year, and something about contents]

· Ockham’s razor

· identity conditions

· a “taste for desert landscapes” [who said it, and what does it mean?]

· “no entity without identity” [who said it, and what does it mean?]

· realism [in the sense in which it is opposed to nominalism]

· nominalism

· conceptual scheme

· hypostasis

· phenomenalism

· physicalism

· anti-Realism

· reductio ad absurdum

Your definitions should as be as detailed, clear and precise as possible. For example, the following is not an adequate definition of the term "a priori": "independent of experience." This would get you partial credit, but not full credit. A much better definition is this: "An a priori statement is one that can be known to be true or false independent of sense experience, for example, ‘All bachelors are unmarried’ and ‘Triangles have three sides.’"

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Section II will consist of short answer questions [30-40% of total test grade]. Your answers to these questions should be as detailed, clear and precise as possible. Typically, a paragraph of about five to seven sentences is sufficient for a satisfactory answer. The questions will be drawn from the following list:

· Explain Kant’s distinctions among analytic and synthetic judgments and a priori and a posteriori judgments. What four possible categories of judgment do these distinctions yield, and what types of judgment occur in each category, according to Kant?

· Explain how the Logical Positivists (including Carnap) categorized various types of statement.

· Explain Quine’s claim that “to be is to be the value of a variable.”

· Explain what Quine means by “semantic ascent” and illustrate with at least one example.

· Explain the three claims that combine to make up Realism (in the sense of “Realism” in which it is opposed by anti-Realism).

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Section III will consist of one discussion question [50% of total test grade].

You will be given two questions and allowed to choose one to answer. Your answers should be as detailed, clear and precise as time allows. In other words, tell me everything you know about the question asked. If you omit something that is relevant to the question, I will assume that you do not know the material you are omitting.

· Discuss Carnap’s 1932 account of meaning and how he used that account in his criticism of metaphysics.

· Discuss Quine’s approach to “the problem of non-being” (a.k.a. “Plato’s beard”), including his criticism of alternative approaches.

· Discuss Quine’s approach to the problem of universals, including his criticism of alternative approaches.

· Discuss Quine’s doctrine of the inscrutability of reference and how he illustrates that doctrine with his example of “radical translation.”

· Discuss Putnam’s version of anti-Realism, including his use of the doctrine of the inscrutability of reference and the different aspects of his internalism.

In studying for this portion of the test, I recommend that you practice composing essays that explain the arguments and other moral considerations relevant to each issue and that incorporate relevant facts (from the lecture notes and/or the textbook) where appropriate.

I expect that you will spend between 20 and 25 minutes on this essay during the 50 minutes you will have to take the test. I realize that, for some essay questions on this study guide, we may have covered more material than you can address in that length of time. So in preparing for the test, you should select which arguments, moral issues, and relevant facts you plan to discuss while writing your answers. It is unwise to study by simply reading through the lecture notes and textbook again and again and then to attempt to compose an essay “on the fly,” while taking the test. In preparing to take the test, you should, at the very least, construct an outline of each of the essays you may be asked to write. I recommend that you go beyond simply constructing outlines and actually practice writing your essays as much as possible while preparing for the test.