PH19C Exam 2002

This paper is in three parts. Give a reasoned answer to two questions. Do not choose both questions from the same part.

A

1. Give an example of a Socratic elenchos. If a proposition p survives continued elenchtic scrutiny, does this show that p is true?

2. Explain the "third man" argument against Forms. Could it be rebutted without damage to the roles of such Forms?

3. Explain what goes wrong with Plato's appeal to opposites such as dead/alive or hot/cold in his argument for the immortality of the soul.

B

4. Plato and Aristotle both appeal to the requirements of meaningful language to reject relativistic accounts of truth. Show what sort of point they were making.

5. Both Plato and Aristotle talk of parts of the soul. Does either of them succeed in reconciling this with the apparent unity of experience?

6. "Aristotle shows much greater appreciation of the complexity of meaning than Plato." Discuss the accuracy of this claim with reference to their ideas about the meaning of general terms.

C

7. Why does birth or death create a problem for Aristotle in the way other changes to an organism do not? Does he solve it?

8. What does the fact that Achilles does overtake the tortoise tell us about the nature of space and time?

9. "Man is by nature a political animal" - how does Aristotle resolve the nature/convention debate about the status of moral values?