PHIL2901 Examination 2005

1. Would a principle of the uniformity of nature be of any help in responding to the problem of induction?

2. Suppose someone tells you that P. Is it rational for you to believe that P? What types of consideration should you use with respect to the person telling you and to the proposition that P?

3. How is Newton's law about bodies not acted upon by a force different from a claim about unicorns?

4. Do you know that this examination is not part of a reality TV programme that has deluded you? If you are not sure about this, do you still know that you are taking an examination in PHIL2901?

5. Feyerabend says Galileo produced theories that contradict commonsense. Taking the case of bodies falling from a tower, is this the most insightful way to characterise what was going on?

6. Explain why, in Two Dogmas, Quine rejects the existence of a priori knowledge and describe what his resultant view looks like.

7. Does the Duhem-Quine thesis undermine Popper's appeal to an asymmetry between verification and falsification?

8. Does the 'default and challenge' approach to knowledge let people be too credulous?