PhilosophyQ&A by dot point

Direct realism, indirect realism and the arguments from perceptual variation, illusion, hallucination and time-lag, Berkeley's idealism and the master argument, and responses including Locke's primary and secondary qualities and Russell's best-hypothesis argument.

The intuition and deduction thesis as a rationalist account of a priori knowledge, the meaning of and distinction between intuition and deduction, Descartes' clear and distinct ideas, the cogito as an a priori intuition, the trademark argument and the proof of the external world as a priori deductions, and the empiricist objections that such reasoning yields either certainty without substance or circularity.

The distinction between normal incredulity and philosophical scepticism, local and global scepticism, the role of scepticism in epistemology, Descartes' three waves of doubt and the evil demon, and responses including Descartes' own rationalist reconstruction and reliabilist or externalist replies.

The empiricist claim that all concepts and substantive knowledge derive from experience, Locke's attack on innatism and the tabula rasa, Hume's impressions and ideas and the missing shade of blue, the rationalist case for innate concepts and a priori knowledge, and the analytic, synthetic, a priori and a posteriori distinctions.

The tripartite (justified true belief) definition of knowledge, the distinction between propositional, ability and acquaintance knowledge, Gettier cases, and the main responses to Gettier including infallibilism, no false lemmas, reliabilism and virtue epistemology.

Teleological design arguments from analogy (Paley) and from spatial order and regularity, the cosmological argument from causation and contingency (the Kalam and Aquinas' first three Ways and Leibniz on sufficient reason), and the objections of Hume and Kant including the limits of analogy and the fallacy of composition.

Ontological arguments as a priori and deductive, Anselm's argument that God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived, Descartes' argument from God as a supremely perfect being, and the objections of Gaunilo's perfect island, Hume and Kant that existence is not a predicate.

The distinction between cognitivist and non-cognitivist views of religious language, the verification principle and Hume's fork as challenges to its meaningfulness, the Vienna Circle and Ayer, Hick's eschatological verification, and non-cognitivist analyses of religious language as expressing attitudes or forms of life.

God as omniscient, omnipotent and supremely good, the meanings of these attributes, the paradox of the stone and the Euthyphro dilemma, and whether the attributes are compatible with each other and with human free will and divine foreknowledge.

The distinction between moral and natural evil, the logical problem of evil (the inconsistent triad) and the evidential problem of evil, and the main theistic responses including the free will defence, soul-making theodicy and the appeal to the limits of human understanding.

Substance dualism and Descartes' conceivability and divisibility arguments, property dualism and the philosophical zombies and knowledge arguments, and the objections to dualism including the problem of interaction, the conceptual problem of causation and the issues of other minds and category mistakes.

Functionalism as the view that mental states are functional states defined by their causal role, the input, internal state and output structure and its multiple realisability, the contrast with type identity theory and behaviourism, and the objections from the possibility of inverted qualia and absent qualia and from the China brain or nation thought experiment.

Logical and analytical behaviourism (Ryle and Hempel), the mind-brain type identity theory and its commitment to ontological reduction, eliminative materialism on folk psychology, and the objections including multiple realisability, circularity, the asymmetry of self-knowledge and the conceivability of disembodied minds.

The concept of qualia and the hard problem of consciousness, the knowledge argument (Mary) and the philosophical zombies argument against physicalism, and physicalist responses including the ability and acquaintance replies, the new knowledge of old facts response and the denial that zombies are genuinely conceivable.

What the mind-body problem is, the features of mental states that theories must explain (intentionality, qualia, consciousness and the privacy of mental states), the broad division between dualist and physicalist answers, and the criteria for assessing theories of mind such as causal interaction and conservation of energy.

The application of utilitarianism, Kantian deontology and Aristotelian virtue ethics to the four AQA issues of stealing, simulated killing, eating animals and telling lies, comparing how each theory treats these cases and the strengths and weaknesses each application reveals.

Aristotle's account of eudaimonia and the function argument, virtue as a disposition of character, the doctrine of the mean, the role of habituation, practical wisdom (phronesis) and voluntary action, and objections including circularity, guidance, conflicting virtues and cultural relativity.

Kant's good will and duty, the distinction between hypothetical and categorical imperatives, the Formula of Universal Law and the Formula of Humanity as an end in itself, perfect and imperfect duties, and objections including conflicting duties, the role of consequences and ignoring agent partiality.

The distinction between cognitivism and non-cognitivism, moral realism including naturalism and non-naturalism, Hume's is-ought gap and Moore's open question argument and naturalistic fallacy, error theory, and non-cognitivist theories of emotivism and prescriptivism, with the problem of moral motivation.

Bentham's quantitative hedonistic act utilitarianism and the felicific calculus, Mill's qualitative higher and lower pleasures, the distinction between act and rule utilitarianism, non-hedonistic preference utilitarianism, and the standard objections of calculation, fairness, partiality and the tyranny of the majority.