Philosophy and Worldview Flashcards
7 cards from real CLT practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Philosophy and Worldview flashcards as text
Plato argued that mathematical objects and Forms are more real than physical things because?
Answer: They are eternal, unchanging, and knowable with certainty
For Plato, the Forms are the true objects of knowledge (episteme) because they are eternal and unchanging, while physical things are mere shadows subject to change.
Aristotle identified four causes to fully explain any natural thing. Which of the following is NOT one of Aristotle's four causes?
Answer: The mathematical cause (its quantitative properties)
Aristotle's four causes are material, formal, efficient, and final — there is no 'mathematical cause' in his framework.
Stoic philosophers held that human happiness (eudaimonia) depends primarily on?
Answer: Virtue and right reason alone, regardless of external circumstances
Stoics distinguished between 'goods' (virtue and reason, entirely in our control) and 'indifferents' (health, wealth, reputation), teaching that only virtue is necessary for happiness.
Natural law theory, as developed by thinkers like Cicero and Aquinas, holds that moral norms are?
Answer: Grounded in human nature and discoverable by reason
Natural law theory holds that there is a universal moral law written into human nature and the cosmos, accessible to reason and binding on all people regardless of their positive laws.
The philosophical problem of universals concerns the question of whether?
Answer: Abstract concepts like 'redness' or 'humanity' have real existence independent of particular things
Realists (like Plato) held universals exist independently; nominalists (like Ockham) held only particular things exist and universals are names we apply to groups.
The classical transcendentals — Truth, Goodness, and Beauty — are described as transcendental because?
Answer: They are properties convertible with Being itself and applicable to everything that exists
In classical and scholastic metaphysics, the transcendentals are attributes coextensive with Being — everything that exists is in some degree true, good, and beautiful.
Blaise Pascal's 'Wager' argument holds that one should believe in God because?
Answer: The rational expectation of infinite gain from belief outweighs the finite cost of commitment
Pascal argued that if God exists and you believe, you gain infinite reward; if He doesn't exist, you lose little — making belief the rationally dominant strategy under uncertainty.