Intro to Philosophy to the Human Person

An argument, as philosophers use this term, is:

• a. a contentious debate, leading to physical violence.

• b. an irrational contest, leading to a victor.

• c. a polite dispute, leading to tea and crumpets.

• d. a group of statements, leading to a conclusion.

• e. all of the above.

Which of the following is not an example of a philosophical question?

• a. How many planets are ther in the Milky Way Galaxy?

• b. Are minds distinct from bodies?

• c. What is the nature of morality?

• d. Do numbers exist independently of our thoughts about them?

• d. Does every event have a cause?

Philosophy (at least according to Baldner) studies questions that......

• a. are just too complicated for scientists to understand.

• b. cannot have true answers.

• c. can be answered simply on the basis of observation and empirical evidence.

• d. cannot be answered by abstract reasoning alone

• e. cannot be answered simply on the basis of observation and empirical evidence.

The premises of an argument are.......

• a. always true.

• b. the reason or evidence offered for believing the conclusion.

• c. probably unimportant.

• d. usually false.

• e. the point the argument is trying to establish.

The study of philosophy includes the study of all of the following except.

• a. metaphysics.

• b. morality

• c. recreational pharmacology

• d. reason or logic.

• e. the nature of knowledge

An inductive argument tries to show that.....

• a. either the premises are probably true or the conclusion is certainly false.

• b. all of the premises are true, whether or not the conclusion is true.

• c. if the premises are all true, the conclusion is probably true.

• d. if the premises are all true, the conclusion could not possibly be false.

• e. all of the premises are true, and so is the conclusion.

In a reductio ad absurdum argument:

• a. you begin by assuming the very thing you want to prove, which is an absurd thing to do.

• b. you begin by assuming the opposit of what you want to prove in order to show that this assumption leads to a contradiction.

• c. you demonstrate that your own beliefs are absurd.

• d. all of the premises are true, but not the conclusion.

• e. none of the above describe a reductio ad absurdum argument.

The conclusion of an argument is.

• a. always the last statement .

• b. when everybody is too tired to cntinue.

• c. the evidence or reasoning presented.

• d. the claim the premises argue for.

• e. none of the above

Consider the following argument:

All college teachers are full of themselves.

Baldner is a college teacher.

Therefore, Baldner is full of himself.

The argument is......

• a. a valid deductive argument.

• b. an argument you'd better not make in class if you want a good grade.

• c. an invalide argument.

• e. a Cosmological argument

The term "validity" as used in philosophy is means:

• a.truth

• b. Plausibility

• c. Probability

• d. It is impossible for the conclusion to be true if the premises are all false.

• e.It is impossible for the conclusion to be false if the premises are all true.