1
A physicalist might hold which view?
Choose one answer.
a. The mind is identical to the brain.
b. The mind is dependent on the brain.
c. The mind is the soul.
d. The brain is dependent on the soul.
e. The mind is an immaterial substance.
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Question 2
A simple argument from the best explanation in favor of the existence of the soul might assert that the soul is necessary in order to explain which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. Free will
b. The animation of the body
c. The decay of the corpse
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
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Question 3
According to Descartes, if we limit ourselves to only our most basic and unquestionable beliefs, we realize which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. Physicalism is true.
b. We just "are" our minds.
c. We just "are" our bodies.
d. Both A and B
e. Both A and C
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Question 4
According to physicalism, which of the following statements is true?
Choose one answer.
a. There are no souls.
b. There are no minds.
c. There are no brains.
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
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Question 5
According to Plato's "argument from recollection," why must the soul be immortal?
Choose one answer.
a. We can "remember" things that will happen in the future.
b. We can remember things that we learned before we were born.
c. All knowledge is simply recollection.
d. Both A and B
e. Both A and C
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Question 6
According to Plato's argument from recycling, why do souls survive death?
Choose one answer.
a. The parts that make up a person, including the soul, existed before the person did, and will be reused after the person dies.
b. The universe is inherently rational and not wasteful, so there is no reason for souls to be destroyed when the body dies.
c. Souls are broken down into their component parts and reassembled.
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
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Question 7
According to Plato, how is the soul like roundness?
Choose one answer.
a. They are non-physical entities.
b. They are indestructible.
c. They are things that exist in theory only, not in reality.
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
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Question 8
According to Plato, the soul is like which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. An eternal and unchanging form
b. The changing world of sense experience
c. Universal concepts like beauty, justice, and goodness
d. Both A and B
e. Both A and C
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Question 9
Fill in the blank. A dualist might argue that physicalism is absurd, because it implies that human beings are very similar to _______________.
Choose one answer.
a. Gods
b. Angels
c. Corpses
d. Robots
e. Rocks
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Question 10
Fill in the blank. According to Simmias, the majority of Greeks believed that the soul was destroyed by _________________.
Choose one answer.
a. Decomposing into dust
b. Losing the animating force of the body
c. Being dispersed like smoke
d. Being forgotten by the living
e. Returning to the world of forms
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Question 11
Fill in the blank. According to the concept of supervenience, minds are to physical things as computer images are to _____________.
Choose one answer.
a. Paper
b. Words
c. Information
d. Pixels
e. Thoughts
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Question 12
Fill in the blank. An argument from the best explanation in favor of the existence of the soul is analogous to a scientific argument for the existence of ______________.
Choose one answer.
a. Light
b. Gravity
c. Water
d. People
e. The sun
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Question 13
Fill in the blank. One of the strongest arguments in favor of the existence of the soul is that no purely physical entity could ______________.
Choose one answer.
a. Beat a grand master at chess
b. Act happy or sad
c. Have qualitative experiences
d. Be rational
e. Survive death
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Question 14
Fill in the blank. The view that mental phenomena are non-physical properties of physical phenomena is called _______________.
Choose one answer.
a. Substance dualism
b. Substance physicalism
c. Property dualism
d. Property physicalism
e. Phenomenal dualism
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Question 15
In order for most of Plato's arguments for the immortality of the soul to work, we need to accept that which of the following exists?
Choose one answer.
a. A soul
b. An extra-empirical realm of forms
c. A form of the soul
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
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Question 16
Plato gives all of the following as counter-arguments against Simmias' objection that the soul is like a harmony, EXCEPT
Choose one answer.
a. That the harmony cannot exist prior to the existence of the lyre, but the soul clearly does.
b. Harmonies come in a variety of degrees, but souls do not.
c. Good souls are said to be harmonious and evil ones disharmonious, and if we accept Simmias' analogy, we would have to talk about harmonious and disharmonious harmonies.
d. The relation between the lyre and the harmony is a relationship between two physical things, but the relation between the body and the soul is not.
e. The soul is able to control the body, but a harmony cannot control a lyre.
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Question 17
Plato wrote in dialogue form in order to do which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. Accurately report the conversations of Socrates and his friends
b. Create plays that could be performed by actors
c. Demonstrate his method of philosophical inquiry
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
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Question 18
Plato's argument from simplicity states which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. The soul must be immortal, because this is the simplest explanation for the cycle of rebirth.
b. The soul has no parts, and things with no parts cannot be destroyed.
c. The idea that the soul is immortal is so simple that it cannot be denied.
d. The soul must be immortal, because only people who are very "simple" (ignorant) argue that it is not.
e. The soul is simple and can be understood intuitively, and therefore no argument for its immortality is required.
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Question 19
Refuting Plato's claim that the soul is immortal, Simmias asserts that the soul is like which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. A lyre
b. A harmony
c. Smoke
d. A body
e. God
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Question 20
Someone who believes that free will cannot exist because everything is causally determined is known as which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. A compatibilist
b. An incompatibilist
c. A determinist
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
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Question 21
Someone who believes that our actions are causally determined and that we have free will is known as which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. A compatibilist
b. An incompatibilist
c. A determinist
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
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Question 22
The ancient Greeks used the same word for "ensouled" as they did for which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. Intelligent
b. Alive
c. Immortal
d. Rational
e. Musical
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Question 23
The soul would cease to exist after the death of the body if which of the following analogies holds true?
Choose one answer.
a. The soul is like a lyre, and the body is like a harmony.
b. The body is like a lyre, and the soul is like a harmony.
c. The soul is like a string, and the body is like a lyre.
d. The body is like a string, and the soul is like a lyre.
e. The soul is like the sun, and the body is like the earth.
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Question 24
What is important about the setting of Phaedo?
Choose one answer.
a. It takes place in Socrates' trial at an Athenian law court and is a comment about courage in the face of severe punishment.
b. It takes place in Socrates' prison cell just before he is to be executed and is illustrates courage in the face of death.
c. It takes place in Socrates' house in Athens just before he is arrested by soldiers and illustrates his willingness to turn himself over to authorities determined to kill him.
d. It takes place in an Athenian burial site and is thus about life after death.
e. It takes place in an Athenian marketplace, illustrating a purely biological understanding of life .
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Question 25
Which of the following best describes the perspective of dualism?
Choose one answer.
a. The soul might survive death, or it might not.
b. The is divided into good and evil "sides."
c. The soul exists in addition to the body.
d. The soul is merely an epiphenomenon of the body.
e. The soul is attached to the body through the brain.
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Question 26
Which of the following best describes the perspective of physicalism?
Choose one answer.
a. Bodies exist; souls do not.
b. Consciousness is completely explained by physical phenomena.
c. The soul is a physical part of the brain.
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
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Question 27
Which of the following does Plato NOT suggest as a reason for believing in the immortality of the soul?
Choose one answer.
a. The soul is essentially alive.
b. The soul is like the forms, which are immortal.
c. Everything comes from and returns to its opposite.
d. The soul existed before birth and therefore will also exist after death.
e. The soul is like water, which can freeze or melt or be diverted, but can never be destroyed.
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Question 28
Which of the following is a key premise in the "free will argument" for the existence of the soul?
Choose one answer.
a. Only a purely physical entity could have free will.
b. No purely physical entity could have free will.
c. Only a purely physical entity could be causally determined.
d. No purely physical entity could be causally determined.
e. Every purely physical entity is causally determined.
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Question 29
Which of the following is a reason often cited by philosophers for rejecting the logic used in the "free will argument" for the existence of the soul?
Choose one answer.
a. There is a great deal of disagreement about whether human beings have free will.
b. A soul is required in order to have free will.
c. Free will cannot be explained in purely physical terms.
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
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Question 30
Which of the following is NOT a way in which Plato thinks the soul is like the forms?
Choose one answer.
a. They are both indestructible.
b. They both have to do with knowledge.
c. They are both eternal.
d. They both exist outside of the sensible world.
e. They are both empirically observable.
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Question 31
Which of the following objections poses a serious problem for Plato's argument from recollection?
Choose one answer.
a. Our "innate" knowledge might have been acquired in another life before we were born.
b. Even if the soul existed before birth, this does not mean it will continue to exist after death.
c. The soul must have been in close contact with the forms before birth in order to acquire all of the knowledge it has.
d. We cannot remember our existence prior to being born.
e. Everyone has the same knowledge from before they were born.
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Question 32
Which of the following, if true, would lend support to the view that souls exist?
Choose one answer.
a. There is a difference between living bodies and corpses.
b. Consciousness cannot be explained by physical phenomena alone.
c. Near-death experiences provide accurate information about the afterlife, and they happen all the time.
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
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Question 33
Why do dualists seek to establish that people have free will?
Choose one answer.
a. Because if people have free will, then people must also have souls
b. Because free will means that people are not guided completely by outside forces
c. Because physicalism is logically incompatible with free will
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
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Question 34
All arguments for the immortality of the soul presuppose which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. The soul is like a harmony.
b. The soul is attached to the body through the brain.
c. The soul exists.
d. The body could be immortal.
e. "Soul" and "consciousness" mean the same thing.
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Question 35
According to John Perry (actually, his character Weirob), which of the following theories of personal identity do we use in practice most of the time?
Choose one answer.
a. The soul theory
b. The body theory
c. The personality theory
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
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Question 36
According to Locke, the identity of an animal over time depends on which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. The atoms that make up the animal
b. The animal's consciousness
c. The continuation of the animal's life by the functional organization its atoms
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
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Question 37
According to Locke, which of the following statements is true of person and man?
Choose one answer.
a. "Person" and "Man" mean the same thing.
b. A person is a personality or a consciousness.
c. A man is personality or a consciousness.
d. A person is a certain functional organization of atoms.
e. A person is a certain body.
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Question 38
According to most proponents of existentialism, what is the ordinary response to the fact of our own death?
Choose one answer.
a. Fear
b. Trembling
c. Anxiety
d. Nihilism
e. Despair
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Question 39
According to Professor Kagan, imagining what it is like to be dead is analogous to which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. Knowing what it is like to be alive
b. Imagining what it is like to be reincarnated
c. Imagining what it is like to be a cell phone or a pen
d. Imagining what it is like to be born
e. Imagining what it is like to be someone else
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Question 40
According to Professor Kagan, what is a person?
Choose one answer.
a. A soul
b. A body
c. A body that is P-functioning
d. A singular personality
e. An evolving personality
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Question 41
According to Professor Kagan, what is one major difficulty with the soul theory of personal identity?
Choose one answer.
a. The soul could be constantly changing, while the personality stays the same.
b. There is no way to tell whether the soul remains constant over time.
c. We would not want to say that someone is the same person, if he or she has a different soul, but the same body, from one moment to the next.
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
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Question 42
According to Sigmund Freud, which of the following statements on death is true?
Choose one answer.
a. Nobody believes that he himself (or she herself) will die.
b. Nobody believes that he or she will survive death.
c. Nobody believes that he or she has a soul.
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
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Question 43
An argument in favor of the view that nobody really believes that they will die relies on which of the following claims?
Choose one answer.
a. Everybody is a little bit religious.
b. Nobody can imagine being dead.
c. Nobody has proof that we do not survive death.
d. Everybody is already both alive and dead.
e. Everybody can conceive of life after death.
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Question 44
At the end of Tolstoy's novella, Ivan Ilyich announces which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. His life is finished.
b. His life is just beginning.
c. Death is finished.
d. Death is terrifying.
e. Death is just the beginning.
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Question 45
Fill in the blank. According to most proponents of existentialism, the fact that we will die prompts us to live _______________.
Choose one answer.
a. Quickly
b. Hedonistically
c. Authentically
d. In fear
e. In joy
.
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Question 46
Fill in the blank. According to Professor Kagan, what matters in surviving my death is that the person who survives death has _______________.
Choose one answer.
a. My body
b. A body like mine
c. My personality
d. A personality like mine
e. My soul
.
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Question 47
Fill in the blank. Professor Kagan suggests that a third category alongside "alive" and dead" may be necessary to account for cases of _______________.
Choose one answer.
a. Brain death
b. Suspended animation
c. Near-death experiences
d. Cardiopulmonary failure
e. Reincarnation
.
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Question 48
Fill in the blank. Proponents of the "higher brain approach" to the standard for human death argue that death requires the irreversible cessation of __________________.
Choose one answer.
a. Functioning in the whole brain
b. Functioning in the whole body
c. The capacity for philosophical thought
d. The capacity for speech
e. The capacity for consciousness
.
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Question 49
Fill in the blank. To say that a tennis ball is the same one that I showed you yesterday is to say that the two tennis balls are ________________ identical.
Choose one answer.
a. Qualitatively
b. Quantitatively
c. Numerically
d. Comparatively
e. Functionally
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Question 50
In Tolstoy's novel, Ivan Ilyich is surprised by which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. His personality will cease to exist.
b. His soul will cease to exist.
c. His body will die.
d. His family will go on living without him.
e. He will have to pay for his own funeral.
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Question 51
Locke was motivated to provide an account of personal identity that did not depend on the body in order to explain which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. How the same person could persist despite the fact that his or her atoms keep changing
b. How the same person could appear before God on the day of judgment, if the parts of his or her original body had been widely dispersed
c. How the same person could persist despite the fact that his or her personality changes considerably over a lifetime
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
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Question 52
One major problem with the personality theory of personal identity is the hypothetical possibility of "branching," which is best described by which of the following statements?
Choose one answer.
a. A single personality is copied into different bodies.
b. A single personality splits into several distinct personalities, as in schizophrenia.
c. Multiple personalities exist in the same body.
d. Multiple personalities converge to become a single personality.
e. Multiple personalities share the same soul.
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Question 53
Professor Kagan argues which of the following as a reason that people really do believe that they will die, or at least that their bodies will die?
Choose one answer.
a. People report this belief verbally.
b. People have inductive evidence that everybody dies.
c. People do not really believe in religious claims to the contrary.
d. People take out life insurance policies.
e. People spend a great deal of time avoiding the topic.
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Question 54
The brain-transplant thought experiment is designed to help us decide between which two theories of personal identity?
Choose one answer.
a. The brain theory and the body theory
b. The personality theory and the body theory
c. The soul theory and the body theory
d. The soul theory and the personality theory
e. The personality theory and the brain theory
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Question 55
The case of Ivan Ilyich illustrates the distinction between which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. Living well and living poorly
b. Really believing something and merely paying lip service to a belief
c. Living with faith and living without it
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
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Question 56
The conditional, "If you really believed you were going to die, you would constantly just scream in terror" is presented in support of which view?
Choose one answer.
a. Death is painful.
b. Death is bad.
c. Everybody dies alone.
d. Nobody dies alone.
e. Nobody believes that he will die.
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Question 57
The fact that we cannot empirically check whether someone has the same soul from one moment to the next implies which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. The soul theory is necessarily false.
b. The soul theory could be true, but it is impossible to verify.
c. The body theory is necessarily true.
d. The personality theory is necessarily true.
e. The soul theory is unlikely to be true.
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Question 58
The most widely accepted standard for human death requires the irreversible cessation of functioning in which part of the body?
Choose one answer.
a. The whole brain, including the brain stem
b. The higher brain
c. The cardiovascular system
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
.
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Question 59
The widespread use of cardiopulmonary respirators, beginning in the 1950s, raised the question as to whether a patient might still be considered alive even after which of the following occurs?
Choose one answer.
a. The heart stops beating
b. The blood stops circulating
c. The brain ceases to function
d. The lungs stop breathing
e. The digestive system stops working
.
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Question 60
To say that one person is an identical copy of another person is to say that the two people are
Choose one answer.
a. Qualitatively identical
b. Quantitatively identical
c. Numerically identical
d. Comparatively identical
e. Functionally identical
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Question 61
Which of Plato's beliefs about the soul, if sound, would recommend the soul theory of personal identity over the body and personality theories?
Choose one answer.
a. The soul is simple.
b. The soul is immortal.
c. The soul is like the forms.
d. The soul existed before birth.
e. The soul can be recycled.
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Question 62
Which of the following accurately describes a claim about death that physicalism has a difficult time explaining?
Choose one answer.
a. Death occurs when the brain stops functioning.
b. Death occurs when the heart stops beating.
c. Death occurs when B-functioning stops.
d. Death occurs when P-functioning stops.
e. Death is essentially mysterious.
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Question 63
Which of the following is a reason that John Perry offers for thinking that the body theory of personal identity is false?
Choose one answer.
a. Disfiguring or removing parts of the body does not affect the identity of the person whose body it is.
b. One body could have multiple souls.
c. One can imagine waking up in a different body.
d. We have no way of knowing if someone has the same soul each time we see them.
e. One soul could have multiple bodies.
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Question 64
Which of the following is NOT a consequence of the body theory of personal identity?
Choose one answer.
a. There is no way of surviving the complete dissolution of the body.
b. Identical twins are actually the same person.
c. Someone's personality can change completely without his or her becoming a different person.
d. The soul has nothing to do with personal identity.
e. Immortality would have to involve the continuing existence of the body.
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Question 65
Which of the following statements is true, according to most proponents of existentialism?
Choose one answer.
a. Life is absolutely meaningless.
b. Existence is a philosophical problem.
c. Nobody believes that he or she will die.
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
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Question 66
Which of the following theories holds the view that a person's identity is constituted by his or her thoughts, desires, memories, and so on?
Choose one answer.
a. Soul theory
b. Personality theory
c. Psychological theory
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
.
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Question 67
Which of the following theories of personal identity is NOT susceptible to the problem of fission?
Choose one answer.
a. The body theory
b. The soul theory
c. The personality theory
d. All of the above
e. None of the above
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Question 68
The problem of personal identity is best phrased by which of the following questions?
Choose one answer.
a. How do we identify a person at one time as that same person at another time?
b. How does a person come to have the identity that they do?
c. How does someone's identity as a person influence their view of whether souls exist?
d. Does personal identity depend on the body?
e. Does personal identity depend on the soul?
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Question 69
According to Epicurus, death cannot be bad for you because of which reason?
Choose one answer.
a. Death is a release from pain and suffering.
b. The dead are honored and remembered by their friends.
c. Everybody dies, so nobody is better off or worse off in the end.
d. In order for something to be bad for you, you need to exist.
e. Death is when you are rewarded for your good deeds in life.
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Question 70
According to Lucretius, why is death not bad?
Choose one answer.
a. Nonexistence cannot be bad.
b. It was not bad to exist prior to being born.
c. Death places a limit on life and gives it meaning.
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
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Question 71
According to Montaigne, which of the following is the best sort of death?
Choose one answer.
a. A death for which one is not prepared
b. A death for which one is well prepared
c. A death that is painless
d. A death that takes place at home
e. A death that takes place amongst one's friends
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Question 72
According to Professor Kagan, the value of life is a function of which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. The contents of life
b. The narrative arc of life
c. The amount of good and bad in life
d. All of the above
e. None of the above
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Question 73
According to Professor Kagan, the “badness” of death cannot be argued based upon the deceased leaving friends behind. Why?
Choose one answer.
a. Because those friends will eventually die too
b. Because there are always more living people to be friends with
c. Because one can lose friends in many ways other than their dying
d. Because friendship continues even after one friend dies
e. Because friendship is not the most important thing in life
.
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Question 74
According to Professor Kagan, what is the reason that some people enjoy skydiving?
Choose one answer.
a. It allows them to do something that would ordinarily kill them with no risk attached.
b. It allows them to do something that is thrilling and includes a very small, but nonetheless present, risk of death.
c. It allows them to face the possibility of death directly.
d. It allows them to be completely alive and completely remove the thought of death from their minds.
e. It floods their nervous systems with adrenaline.
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Question 75
According to Professor Kagan, which must be true in order for fear to be an appropriate response to something?
Choose one answer.
a. The thing one is afraid of must be bad.
b. There must be a non-negligible chance of the bad state of affairs happening.
c. There must be a certain amount of uncertainty about whether the bad thing will occur.
d. All of the above
e. B and C only
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Question 76
According to Professor Kagan, which of the following statements about the desirability of immortality is true?
Choose one answer.
a. Immortality would be desirable, because there is an endless number of new experiences we could have.
b. Immortality would be desirable, because death is worse by comparison.
c. Immortality would be undesirable, because there is nothing that we can imagine doing that we would be satisfied doing for an eternity.
d. Immortality would be undesirable, because you would eventually experience every possible kind of suffering and discomfort.
e. Immortality would be undesirable, because life without a time limit would have no meaning.
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Question 77
According to Professor Kagan, which of the following is NOT a possible factor that contributes to the badness of death?
Choose one answer.
a. Death's unpredictability
b. Death's necessity
c. Death's ubiquity
d. Death's unknowability
e. Death's variability
.
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Question 78
According to Professor Kagan, why do most of us want to believe that there are souls?
Choose one answer.
a. Because we believe that death is bad
b. Because we want to be like our peers who believe in souls
c. Because we think that having a soul means having a personality
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
.
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Question 79
According to the neutral container theory of the value of life, the value of one's life depends on which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. The contents of one's life
b. The length of one's life
c. Life itself
d. Both B and C
e. None of the above
.
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Question 80
According to the valuable container theory of the value of life, which of the following statements is true?
Choose one answer.
a. The contents of life are intrinsically valuable.
b. The contents of life and life itself are intrinsically valuable.
c. The contents of life are instrumentally valuable.
d. The contents of life and life itself are instrumentally valuable.
e. The contents of life are intrinsically valuable and life itself is instrumentally valuable.
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Question 81
According to Thomas Nagel, for most life events, whether the event is good or bad depends on which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. Whether it causes pleasure or pain
b. Whether it is experienced alone or in company
c. The time at which it occurs in a person's life history
d. How one chooses to interpret the event
e. Whether the event is deserved or not
.
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Question 82
According to Thomas Nagel, why is death bad?
Choose one answer.
a. It amounts to a loss for the friends we leave behind.
b. The process of dying is sad and frightening.
c. It causes us to live our lives in anxiety.
d. It means we can no longer enjoy the good aspects of being alive.
e. It is unknowable.
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Question 83
According to Walter Kaufmann, what is the best attitude to have toward death?
Choose one answer.
a. To hope to survive it
b. To live intensely and welcome death when it comes
c. To avoid thinking about it
d. To live cautiously and avoid risk
e. To realize that it is better than a life of suffering
.
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Question 84
Fill in the blank. According to Fred Feldman, it is irrational to regard early death as a greater misfortune than _______________.
Choose one answer.
a. Late death
b. Early birth
c. Late birth
d. No birth at all
e. No death at all
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Question 85
Fill in the blank. The deprivation account of the badness of death claims that death is ________________ bad.
Choose one answer.
a. Intrinsically
b. Extrinsically
c. Inherently
d. Comparatively
e. Temporarily
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Question 86
In Jonathan Swift's tale, which of the following is true of the immortal Struldbrugs?
Choose one answer.
a. They live lives of endless discovery and fascination.
b. They have the benefit of ancient wisdom.
c. They envy mortals for their ability to die.
d. They wander endlessly in pursuit of new experiences.
e. They spend their time happily talking and drinking.
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Question 87
In Jonathan Swift's tale, why is Gulliver initially enthusiastic about the immortal Struldbrugs?
Choose one answer.
a. Because he imagines that they live without the fear of death
b. Because he imagines that they have the benefit of ancient wisdom
c. Because he imagines that they experience endless discovery and fascination
d. All of the above
e. A and C only
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Question 88
In order to solve the various puzzles about the goodness or badness of death, Fred Feldman presupposes which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. The actual world is just one of many possible worlds.
b. The actual world is the only possible world.
c. The amount of pleasure and pain one experiences in life can be measured.
d. All of the above
e. A and C only
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Question 89
Professor Kagan introduces the hypothetical person Larry in order ask about which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. Whether everybody dies alone
b. Whether it is bad never to have existed
c. Whether it is bad to live only for a short time
d. Whether death can be good
e. Whether death is inevitable
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Question 90
Robert Nozick’s "experience machine," a thought experiment, intends to convince us of which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. Pleasure is not the only intrinsic good.
b. Pleasure is the only intrinsic good.
c. Pleasure is an instrumental good.
d. Pleasure is the only instrumental good.
e. Pleasure is not the only instrumental good.
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Question 91
Someone who thinks that immortality would be good, even if eternal life ends up being extremely tedious and loathsome, would probably subscribe to which theory?
Choose one answer.
a. The neutral container theory
b. The modest valuable container theory
c. The fantastic valuable container theory
d. The immortal container theory
e. The intrinsic container theory
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Question 92
Suicide is never rational, based on which of the following theories that value human life?
Choose one answer.
a. The neutral container theory
b. The fantastic valuable container theory
c. The modest valuable container theory
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
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Question 93
The existentialist school of thought is associated with which philosopher?
Choose one answer.
a. Martin Heidegger
b. Jean-Paul Sartre
c. Michel de Montaigne
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
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Question 94
The fact that we typically regard early death as a greater misfortune than late birth is likely due to which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. Our symmetrical attitude toward time
b. Our asymmetrical attitude toward time
c. The fact that the future is open and the past is fixed
d. Both A and C
e. Both B and C
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Question 95
Utilitarians argue that suicide is sometimes moral, because the pain and suffering of life may outweigh its pleasure and happiness. In this respect, utilitarianism is similar to which of the following?
Choose one answer.
a. Existentialism
b. Deontology
c. Hedonism
d. Physicalism
e. Dualism
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Question 96
Which of the following presents a challenge to the idea that death is inherently a bad thing?
Choose one answer.
a. Friends and relatives eventually "get over" the fact that you have died.
b. Headaches are bad for you, too, but they are not bad for you once you are dead.
c. A life of unbearable pain and suffering is a fate worse than death.
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
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Question 97
Which of the following questions is suggested by the deprivation account of the badness of death?
Choose one answer.
a. Why don't we regard death as good, since it deprives us of the bad things in life?
b. Why should death deprive us of anything at all, since the dead experience nothing?
c. Why don't we regard it as bad that we were born later rather than earlier, since late birth also deprives us of the good things in life?
d. All of the above
e. A and B only
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Question 98
Which of the following supports Cicero’s claim that to study philosophy is to learn how to die?
Choose one answer.
a. Studying philosophy is a horrible fate.
b. Studying philosophy requires withdrawing oneself from life and everyday concerns.
c. Philosophy has a great deal to teach us about death.
d. Both A and B
e. Both B and C
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Question 99
Which of the following versions of the "existence claim" still allows for it to be possible that death is bad for you?
Choose one answer.
a. In order for something to be bad for you, you need to exist.
b. In order for something to be bad for you, you need to have existed at some time.
c. In order for something to be bad for you, you need to exist at the same time as that something.
d. All of the above
e. B and C only
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Question 100
Fill in the blank. According to Professor Kagan, it is ________________ that everyone dies alone.
Choose one answer.
a. True
b. Interesting
c. Necessary
d. Uninteresting
e. Bad
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