PHI 210 MIDTERM EXAM QUESTIONS
AND ANSWERS |2026 UPDATE
What are Aristotle's four causes? - Answer- Efficient = energy transfer
Formal = principle of being (shape and structure)
Material = principle of becoming
Final = purpose/goal/end
What does Aristotle think the forms are? - Answer- Causes in individual things
What is primary matter? - Answer- Pure potentiality
What is secondary matter? - Answer- Formed matter we can see
When there is a chance in a substance, what cause changes? - Answer- Formal
When there is a chance to a substance, what cause changes? - Answer- Material
What are essential properties? - Answer- Qualities that define or explain an object
What are accidental properties? - Answer- Qualities that can change without the
individual thing changing
What does essentialism state? - Answer- Individual things are distinct from objects not
of their kind
What does Occam's razor state? - Answer- Simplest explanation is the right one
What is the interaction problem? - Answer- The body and soul are nowhere near each
other and are supposed to relate
What does the principle of no action at a distance say? - Answer- Things have weaker
relations as they are farther apart
What is the pairing problem? - Answer- The soul and body may not be paired
What is the causal dependency problem? - Answer- The soul is affected to things
happening to the body even though the soul is not in the body
AND ANSWERS |2026 UPDATE
What are Aristotle's four causes? - Answer- Efficient = energy transfer
Formal = principle of being (shape and structure)
Material = principle of becoming
Final = purpose/goal/end
What does Aristotle think the forms are? - Answer- Causes in individual things
What is primary matter? - Answer- Pure potentiality
What is secondary matter? - Answer- Formed matter we can see
When there is a chance in a substance, what cause changes? - Answer- Formal
When there is a chance to a substance, what cause changes? - Answer- Material
What are essential properties? - Answer- Qualities that define or explain an object
What are accidental properties? - Answer- Qualities that can change without the
individual thing changing
What does essentialism state? - Answer- Individual things are distinct from objects not
of their kind
What does Occam's razor state? - Answer- Simplest explanation is the right one
What is the interaction problem? - Answer- The body and soul are nowhere near each
other and are supposed to relate
What does the principle of no action at a distance say? - Answer- Things have weaker
relations as they are farther apart
What is the pairing problem? - Answer- The soul and body may not be paired
What is the causal dependency problem? - Answer- The soul is affected to things
happening to the body even though the soul is not in the body
