Category:PHL 3305 Exam 1

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Take-home exam: 3 essays

Essay 1: Why Study Classical Logic?

1. Catholic Liberal Education
   • What is it? comment on each term (Catholic, liberal, education)
     • Catholic in faith: the Faith provides the inspiration, resources, and direction of liberal education. Catholic in universality: seeking truth wherever it may be found.
     • Liberal: an education for the free man (free from mundanity of life's necessities) to pursue what is good and desirable for its own sake.
     • Education (as opposed to training), a specifically human trait oriented toward deeper understanding rather than learning an ability.
   • What are the (seven) liberal arts?

     trivium: grammar, logic, rhetoric; quadrivium: arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy

   • What is their proper place within a liberal education?

     they form a foundation not of mere information, but a framework for how to think.

   • What accounts for their grouping into the trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) and quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy)?
     • trivium: arts of the word/speech; oriented interiorly to the mind; how to understand and convey information clearly.
     • quadrivium: arts of quantity; oriented externally; how to understand the world around us.
2. Sayers, Dorothy. The Lost Tools of Learning.
   Reno, R. R. Critical Thinking and the Culture of Skepticism.
   • What does Dorothy think the purpose(s) of the trivium is/are?

     to teach students the "art of learning"

   • What stages of development does she identify?

     poll-parrot, pert, and poet.

   • How do stages relate to her account of the trivium?
     • poll-parrot: grammar, memorizing things is fun and easy
     • pert: logic, liking to "catch people out" (esp. elders) in contradiction
     • poet: rhetoric, the "difficult" creative and expressive stage
   • Why does Reno criticize the contemporary emphasis on "critical thinking"?

     It is treated as an end in itself, and too much emphasis is placed on doubt due to fear of error: people doubt everything that cannot be rigorously proven

   • What does he think should be given priority? Why?

     piety: if we start by believing everything, then using doubt to check false beliefs, we can arrive at truth. Doubting everything closes the mind to even truth.

3. Aquinas, St. Thomas. Commentary on Nicomachean Ethics.
   • What is wisdom?

     to order

   • What is the "twofold order among realities"?
     1. the order of parts in relation to each other and to the whole
     2. the order of realities oriented toward an end or purpose
   • How do these types of order relate to one another?

     we know something best when we understand its purpose, which is illuminated by how realities relate to each other.

   • What is the "fourfold way" in which order is related to reason?
     1. considering natural realities
     2. bringing order within our minds
     3. bringing order to one's actions
     4. creating external realities
   • How does the "fourfold way" help us to understand the order of the disciplines?

     we must first observe and reason about external realities before we can apply them. Sensing is natural to all animals, but the trivium enables contemplation of and reason about these sensed realities ultimately to apply them in the quadrivium.

4. Pope John Paul II. Fides et Ratio.
   • What is implicit philosophy?

     our innate desire to know the purpose of our existence

   • What evidence does he provide in support of this notion?

     the same questions, Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? etc., arise in disparate cultures around the world

   • What bearing does implicit philosophy have on a correct understanding of human reason and its distinctive task?

     Implicit philosophy orders human reason toward finding and knowing the truth, indeed, God himself.

5. Chesterton, G. K. Essays:
   1. Philosophy for the Schoolroom
      • What are the things referred to in "we believe in a number of things which are part of our existence, but cannot be demonstrated"?
        1. the world around us and people in it are real
        2. the world not only exist, but matters
        3. there is such a thing as a self or ego
        4. we have a power of choice and responsibility for action
      • Should we agree that these things can't be demonstrated?

        I agree insomuch as they cannot be rigorously demonstrated, but that they are demonstrated enough through one's own experience of existence.

   2. The Revival of Philosophy—Why?
      • What account does C. give of philosophy?
      • When he says "modern man is quite free to choose either philosophy," what alternatives does he have in mind?
      • How should we choose between them?
   3. The Approach to Thomism
      • What account does he provide of Thomist philosophy? (i.e., that it "is nearer than most philosophers to the mind of the man in the street.")

        Thomist philosophy is common sense: any sane individual is willing to reason that the objects of perception are, in fact, real.

      • What are its defining characteristics?
        • it is impossible for contraries to exist together.
        • belief is held in esteem above doubt
        • preference for simplicity
        • theoretical, but practical
   4. On Logic and Lunacy
      • What does C. contend that "logic" and "being logical" have come to mean?
      • What is the "older doctrine" he thinks should be "preached"?
6. Newman, John Henry. The Idea of a University. Discourse 5
   • What does he mean by his central claim that "knowledge is its own end"?
   • How does this claim relate to his understanding of liberal education?
   • Why do the disciplines need one another?
   • What is the difference between education and instruction
   • What part does the study of logic play within the larger whole of human learning?
7. Lehman, Jeffrey. Logic Text. "General Introduction"
   • What is classical logic?

     as opposed to modern logic (formal, symbolic), classical logic is within the context of speech and writing and oriented toward understanding the natural world.

   • Why should we study it?
     • enables us to synthesize with certainty new insights (universal truths and relations between them) about the natural world based on what is already known.
     • personally: enables one to support the faith (truth) and to guide others to faith through reason
   • How is logic an art? How is it a science?
     • art: arts are good in themselves and productive. Logic is good to know in itself in that it is how we know, and we use it in the production of new knowledge
     • science: the sciences are means to an end. Logic is a means toward understanding reality and is used in all other disciplines.
   • What are the three acts of the intellect?
     1. simple apprehension: understanding things by themselves
     2. composition and division (judgement): finding relationships between known things
     3. discursive reasoning: coming to realization of unknown things
   • To which of these acts does each of Aristotle's logical works belong?
     1. Categories
     2. On Interpretation
     3. Prior and Posterior Analytics

Essay 2: What is the First Act of the Intellect/Reason?

1. Signs
   • What are signs, words, and concepts?
     • A sign is something we sense that points to a reality beyond what is sensed
     • Words are the perfect conventional sign: sounds invented by humans to point to potentially complex ideas
     • Concepts are the perfect formal sign that we use to call to mind specific knowledge
   • What is the difference between natural and conventional signs?
     • natural signs are produced by nature, whereas conventional signs are artifacts produced by human beings for a specific purpose
   • Among natural signs, what is the difference between a purely natural sign and natural sign by intent?
     • purely natural signs mean nothing other than what naturally follows, whereas natural signs by intent are the use of natural signs to mean more than the natural thing
     • e.g. smoke as a sign to the presence of a fire (purely natural) versus "The beacons are lit; Gondor calls for aid."
   • What are formal signs?
     • Formal signs are interior signs within our knowing powers; namely, sensing (e.g. images) and intellect (e.g. concepts)
2. Universals and Predicables
   • What are universals? Why are they significant?
     • Universals are a singular abstraction or grouping that is also held in common with its members. (e.g. man and animal)
   • What are the five predicables? How do philosophers define them? How do they relate?
     1. genus: an abstraction above a species; tells what something is
     2. species: a partition beneath a genus; tells what something is
     3. specific difference: the unique "what-it-is-ness" that separates a species from other members of a genus
     4. property: an attribute that arises from something's "what-it-is-ness"
     5. accident: an attribute that can come and go without affecting that thing's "what-it-is-ness"
   • What is the difference between a predicable and a predicament (or category)?
     • Predicables are how we identify things' existence, whereas the categories describe what can be said about the things that exist.
   • Why are predicables helpful as an intro to Aristotle's Categories?
     • Once we know what a thing is, we can start saying things about it.
3. Equivocal vs. Univocal
   • What is the difference between equivocal and univocal naming?
     • equivocal naming uses the same word to refer to different things, whereas univocal naming uses the same word to refer to the same thing.
   • Why does Aristotle begin Categories with this distinction.
     • Aristotle recognizes the need for precise vocabulary and interpretation when making logical and philosophical claims. Changing the meaning of a word in the middle of an argument or definition makes the whole thing fall apart.
4. The Categories
   • What are the ten categories Aristotle names? What are the properties and most distinguishing mark of each?
     1. substance: stuff that exists
     2. quantity: magnitude, extent, or "how much" of something
     3. quality: the features of something in itself, typically that we can sense (e.g., its color, shape, temperature, etc.)
     4. relation: how a thing relates to other things
     5. place: answers the question, where?
     6. time: answers the question, when?
     7. action: expresses something that happens to something else
     8. being acted upon: expresses the receipt of an action
     9. position: how the individual parts of something are arranged (posture)
     10. condition: (typically of humans) the wearing or being equipped with something
   • Why does Aristotle give much more detailed accounts of the first four than he does of the following six?
     • The first four have many caveats and different ways of being interpreted (what one might call "sub-categories"), whereas the remaining six are easily understood.
5. Substance
   • What is primary substance? Why is it "primary"?
     • Primary substance is the stuff that we can point to and observe with multiple senses.
   • What is secondary substance? Why is it "secondary" to primary substance?
     • Secondary substance exists only within another substance (the supporting primary substance) and is usually perceived by only a single sense (e.g., "whiteness", "hotness", "manhood")
   • Why is species "more substance" than genus?
     • Species relates more closely to individuals (and therefore the stuff that exists) than does genus
   • Why is secondary substance our principal concern in logic?
     • universals are a secondary substance, and logic speaks more preferably of universals.
6. Opposition
   • What are the different kinds of opposition?
     • correlatives, contraries, privation/possession, and affirmation/negation
   • What are the senses of prior?
     • temporal, sequential, order of knowledge, goodness, and cause/effect
   • How do the 'kinds of opposition and senses of prior shed light on the categories and prepare us for what follows in Organon?
     • Opposition, senses of prior, and the categories describe how we use language to describe reality. This prepares us for using language to create unambiguous distinctions and definitions in order to understand reality.
7. Division and Definition
   • What are the rules of logical division?
     1. division must be into parts that are less universal than the whole
     2. division must include all parts of the whole (exhaustiveness)
     3. division must exclude anything that is not a part of the whole
     4. division must include only parts that are formally opposed to one another (mutual exclusivity)
     5. division must maintain one and the same basis throughout the process
     6. more immediate divisions must be prior to remote divisions
     7. divisions must be rooted in what is most natural to the thing divided
   • What are the two kinds of whole?
     • integral whole, which is composed of parts (e.g., the collection of all animals)
     • universal whole, which can be said of members who partake in this universal (e.g., the genus animal)
   • What are the kinds of logical division?
     • Each corresponding to the kinds of whole, an integral whole is divided into its constituent parts, and a universal whole is divided as a genus into species.
   • What is the basic definition of definition?
     • The limit or boundary of a thing.
   • What kinds of definition are used in logic? What are their relative strengths and usefulness?
     1. essential: strongest, tells what thing is
     2. causal: intrinsic (material and formal) and extrinsic (agent and final) reasons for a thing's existence. if all four causes are satisfied, the definition may be more complete than the essential definition.
     3. property: does not express what thing is, but follows from it
     4. accident: weakest, but available when all else fails...

Essay 3: What is the Second Act of the Intellect/Reason?

1. Grammar
   • What are name and verb?
   • What are affirmation and negation?
   • What are statement and sentence?
   • Why are all of these terms necessary to consider?
2. Proposition
   • Why is proposition the central concern of logicians?
3. Types of Propositions
   • What three ways are propositions typically divided?
   • What are the four kinds of proposition considered in logic?
4. Supposition and Distribution
   • What is supposition?
   • What kinds of supposition are there?
   • What is distribution?
   • What are the rules of distribution?
5. Square of Opposition
   • What is the square of opposition?
   • What is the difference among contradictory, contrary, and sub-contrary opposition?
   • What is a subalternate?
   • What are the rules for truth and falsity?
6. Compound Propositions
   • What is a compound proposition?
   • Distinguish between conditional, disjunctive, and copulative compound propositions.