PHILOSOPHY 1301 FINAL EXAM SHEET QUESTIONS AND
ANSWERS
When Socrates engages in "dialectic," one sees: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Socrates undermining Truth by
questioning everything.
Like the Sophists, Socrates is interested in the arts of communication and argument. However, it is at
just this point where we find the deepest difference between them. The Sophists aim for victory in
argument, or put another way, they wish to persuade their audience. Whereas Socrates is interested in
the Truth. - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅True.
Dialectic is better at discovering error than discovering truth. - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅True.
Pretty much everything we know today of Socrates came from the writings of: - CORRECT
ANSWER✅✅Plato.
The final charges against Socrates that resulted in his execution were: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Impiety
and corrupting the youth.
In talking with others, Socrates: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Often confessed ignorance of the subject being
discussed.
Conversations with Socrates generally ended with: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Agreement that a
satisfactory answer had not been reached.
Socrates believes that: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅All wrongdoing is due to ignorance.
Socrates roamed Athens, requiring only minimal sums for his services and teachings. - CORRECT
ANSWER✅✅False.
Socrates was an advocate of the written word as the best means of distributing ideas. - CORRECT
ANSWER✅✅False.
, If the Great Conversation can be viewed as a game, then Plato and the Sophists had different goals. The
goal for the Sophists was: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Persuading the audience.
"Philosophy" means: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅"Love of wisdom."
The British philosopher North Whitehead once said, "The safest general characterization of the
European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato." - CORRECT
ANSWER✅✅True.
What is epistemology? - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The study of knowledge (how we know what we know)
For Parmenides, "being" is: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Eternal.
For Pythagoras, all is number. - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅True.
What thinker do we attribute with the creation of "reductio ad absurdum?" - CORRECT
ANSWER✅✅Xenophanes.
Heraclitus eliminated "Being", while Parmenides did the reverse---he eliminated "Becoming".
Parmenides did this by demonstrating that to think always involves something being thought about, and
therefore, there can be no "becoming". Things either are, or are not, but if they can be conceived, then
they already exist. - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅False.
Heraclitus and Parmenides set the stage for the Great Debate between Empiricists and Rationalists that
will come later in Western philosophy. - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅True.
The Theogony, which means "birth of the gods", was written by whom? - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Hesiod.
For centuries, people listened to or read the stories of Homer much as they might read which book in
current times? - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The Bible.
ANSWERS
When Socrates engages in "dialectic," one sees: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Socrates undermining Truth by
questioning everything.
Like the Sophists, Socrates is interested in the arts of communication and argument. However, it is at
just this point where we find the deepest difference between them. The Sophists aim for victory in
argument, or put another way, they wish to persuade their audience. Whereas Socrates is interested in
the Truth. - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅True.
Dialectic is better at discovering error than discovering truth. - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅True.
Pretty much everything we know today of Socrates came from the writings of: - CORRECT
ANSWER✅✅Plato.
The final charges against Socrates that resulted in his execution were: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Impiety
and corrupting the youth.
In talking with others, Socrates: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Often confessed ignorance of the subject being
discussed.
Conversations with Socrates generally ended with: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Agreement that a
satisfactory answer had not been reached.
Socrates believes that: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅All wrongdoing is due to ignorance.
Socrates roamed Athens, requiring only minimal sums for his services and teachings. - CORRECT
ANSWER✅✅False.
Socrates was an advocate of the written word as the best means of distributing ideas. - CORRECT
ANSWER✅✅False.
, If the Great Conversation can be viewed as a game, then Plato and the Sophists had different goals. The
goal for the Sophists was: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Persuading the audience.
"Philosophy" means: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅"Love of wisdom."
The British philosopher North Whitehead once said, "The safest general characterization of the
European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato." - CORRECT
ANSWER✅✅True.
What is epistemology? - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The study of knowledge (how we know what we know)
For Parmenides, "being" is: - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Eternal.
For Pythagoras, all is number. - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅True.
What thinker do we attribute with the creation of "reductio ad absurdum?" - CORRECT
ANSWER✅✅Xenophanes.
Heraclitus eliminated "Being", while Parmenides did the reverse---he eliminated "Becoming".
Parmenides did this by demonstrating that to think always involves something being thought about, and
therefore, there can be no "becoming". Things either are, or are not, but if they can be conceived, then
they already exist. - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅False.
Heraclitus and Parmenides set the stage for the Great Debate between Empiricists and Rationalists that
will come later in Western philosophy. - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅True.
The Theogony, which means "birth of the gods", was written by whom? - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Hesiod.
For centuries, people listened to or read the stories of Homer much as they might read which book in
current times? - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅The Bible.
