Skip to main content

Final Exam Review

Essentials: The exam will take place on Thursday, December 20 from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. in our regular room. It will be closed-book and closed-notes. You will need to bring a large examination book (aka “blue book”) in which to write your exam.  These can be purchased at the bookstore.
 

Format: The exam will consist of two parts. Part One will consists of several short-answer questions, each of which being one of the following questions (perhaps with minor changes in wording). Part Two will consist of fewer, but more substantial essay questions, each of which being composed of some number of the following questions (perhaps with minor adjustments in wording). Thus, if you are able to answer each of the following questions well, you will be well prepared for the exam.  There will be some degree of choice regarding which questions you answer.

 

1.     In the Categories, Aristotle exploits the relations of being said of and being in. Articulate the distinction between the two and identify what you take to be the most significant consequence of the distinction.

2.     In the Categories, Aristotle distinguishes between primary and secondary substances. What are these, and how are they related to one another? Contrast this account with Plato’s view.

3.     In the Categories, Aristotle claims that what is most distinctive of substances is that they can receive contraries. Present the account of change that is developed in Book I of the Physicsand explain the puzzle that it raises for Aristotle’s view of substance. How is hylomorphism supposed to help solve the puzzle?

4.     In Physics II, Aristotle provides a principled distinction between natural objects and artifacts. Articulate the distinction and briefly explain how it figures in his subsequent account of substance.

5.     In Physics II, Aristotle develops his doctrine of the Four Causes. Illustrate this account by applying it to (a) an artifact, (b) a non-artifact.

6.     In Metaphysics IV, Aristotle speaks of a “science of being qua being.” What, exactly, does this science take as its object(s) of study, and how does it differ from other sciences (e.g., physics or mathematics)?

7.     In Metaphysics IV, Aristotle says that “being is spoken of in many ways, but … not homonymously.” If not homonymously, then how? Why is this significant?

8.     In Metaphysics VII, Aristotle identifies two criteria for being substance. What are they? Why doesn’t matter satisfy the criteria? How does form satisfy them?

9.     Aristotle’s mature hylomorphic view is developed in Books VII and VIII of the Metaphysics. What is the relation between matter and form, on this view, and how does Aristotle exploit this relation in subsequent treatises?

10.  State Aristotle’s official definition of psuchê as he articulates it in Book II of De Anima and explain the role of each of the parts of the definition.

11.  In De Anima II, Aristotle draws a comparison between an axe, an eye, and an animal. How does the comparison run, and what is its point?

12.  Explain how the notion of eudaimonia as a kind of activity ties in with Aristotle’s treatment of psuchê in De Anima.

13.  Explain how teleology figures into (a) Aristotle’s doctrine of the four causes; (b) his account of psuchê; and (c) his ethical theory.

14.  In Nicomachean Ethics I, Aristotle arrives at his definition of eudaimonia by way of the Function Argument. Present the argument and explain how it reflects the psychology developed in the De Anima.

15.  Aristotle maintains that pleasure, honor, and virtue are choice worthy in themselves, and yet we also choose them for the sake of eudaimonia.  Does that mean that pleasure (etc.) serve as means to the achievement of eudaimonia?  Explain.

16.  What sense can be attached to the claim Aristotle is not primarily interested in the moral propriety of actions?

17.  Articulate Aristotle’s definition of the virtues of character, discuss the psychological basis of the definition, and explain how the definition relates to intellectual virtue.

18.  In Ethics VI.13, Aristotle says “we cannot be fully good [of character] without intelligence, or intelligent without virtue of character.”  How can anyone ever acquire either trait if each requires the existence of the other?

19.  In Ethics I.2, Aristotle identifies political science as “the most controlling science (architektonikês),” the science that supersedes all other sciences and the one whose charge is to secure the highest human good to the greatest extent possible.  Given how his views concerning virtue are developed in the subsequent books of the Ethics, why would he say this?

20.  In Book X of the Ethics, Aristotle claims that “a human being’s complete happiness [is contemplation] if it receives a complete span of life.” How does this square with the rest of theEthics?