Philosophy 110

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all the questions should be answered in an essay form. the questions are found in the attached file and they are 14 questions about the fields of: Identity, Mind and Body, Death.

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Philosophy 110 – Study Questions for Exam 2 1. What is the puzzle of Theseus’s Ship? Be sure to explain the “small changes don’t matter” principle and the “same parts, same configuration, same object” principle. Also explain how these principles generate the puzzle. 2. Explain van Inwagen’s approach to the ship of Theseus. (Hint: he denies that ships exist at all.) How does he deal with ordinary talk about ships? 3. I argued in class that souls do not help very much in solving the puzzles of personal identity. What was my argument? 4. Explain the difference between the bodily continuity view of personal identity and the psychological continuity view. How might they differ in the case of the Star Trek transporter, for example? 5. Recount Sider’s “justice” argument for the psychological continuity view. Are you persuaded by the argument? Why or why not? 6. What is the fission puzzle about personal identity? The possible answers to this puzzle seem to be the following: the original person is destroyed, the original is identical to one or the other of the resulting people, or the original is identical to both of them. Why is each of these possible answers seemingly problematic? 7. Explain Gertler’s version of the disembodiment argument for the claim that some psychological states are not identical to any physical state of the brain. 8. Explain the multiple realizability argument against the identity theory. Be sure to say what the identity theory is. 9. Explain the Chinese Room argument against the functionalist view that mental states are functional states. 10. State one of the attempts to analyze death that we considered and raise an objection to it. 11. What is Olson’s notion of radical resurrection? Why does Olson think that radical resurrection is impossible? 12. Recount Epicurus’s argument that we should not fear death. 13. Epicurus says that all good and evil consist in sensations. Views like this are sometimes called hedonism. Is hedonism plausible? Why or why not? 14. What is the symmetry problem for deprivation theories of the badness of death? How does Nagel try to solve this problem?
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Running head: PHILOSOPHY 110

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Philosophy 110
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PHILOSOPHY 110

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Question One

Puzzle of the Ship of Theseus is amazing. Theseus Ship was rebuilt in honor of a
legendary king in ancient Greece who fought for many naval battles. The Ship of Theseus stayed
for hundreds of years until it started rotting away. To prevent this, rotting planks were replaced
with new planks. Some people maintained that changing one plank changes the ship while others
claim that as long as there is an original plank from the ship, it remains original hence the
principle of ‘small changes does not matter’. Others do agree that a changed ship always remain
the same since it has original form hence the principle of ‘same parts, same configuration, and
same object’. The puzzle of Ship of Theseus is because none of the statement is treated neither
wrong nor right.
Question Two
Peter Van Inwagen refutes the claim of existence of the ship of Theseus. Central point in
his statement is that fossils/artifacts such as tables, ships and chairs do not exist. Therefore,
provided that one appreciates the substantive thought of non-existence of ships, then ancient
puzzle of identity of the Ship of Theseus is indeed very weak. Because of the nature of the
puzzle of the ship of Theseus, Ivan Inwagen says that there are no ships hence there are no
puzzles about the identities of the ships. He supports his claim by retelling a story in a different
language which does not make even make any apparent reference to ships.
Question Three
You said that if persons are not identical to souls then souls are part and parcel of human
possessions. This is a clear indicator that souls are effective in providing solutions to the problem
of personal identity and giving comprehensive explanation on what entails being a person over

PHILOSOPHY 110

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time. For example, in the event that cells in one body become deceased and are replaced one by
one at ago, the resulting individual will be same person with a new body. Weakness of human
soul is associated with identity is because some people remember little about their childhood
moments while others have trouble remembering recent deeds they were involved.
Question Four
There are notable differences between the bodily continuity view of personal identity and
the psycholo...


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