Comps Study Set: Modern

0How does Hume effect Kant? (CPR)

What is Kant's project? (CPR)

What does Kant mean by 'synthetic a priori'?

What is needed for knowledge, in the CPR?

What is one argument for Space’s necessity? (CPR)

How do we know synthetic a priori truths are possible? (CPR)

What happens to God, Freedom, and Immortality in the CPR?

Why does Kant focus on duty? (Groundwork)

What is one formulation of the categorical imperative? (Groundwork)

What is the difference between a categorical and hypothetical imperative? (Groundwork)

What happens to happiness in the Groundwork? Why is it not sufficient as a grounding for morality?

What is Descartes’ project in the Meditations? Distinguish the main/basic problem/question from the method that Descartes proposes.

What is the purpose of doubting that which appears? Why do it? What do I attain by doubting what immediately presents itself? (Descartes)

What is the extent of Descartes’ doubt?

What happens after Descartes presents the problem of the dreamer? How does he still prove that he exists (cogito ergo . . . )?

What is the function of the “evil genius”? (Descartes)

Why is Descartes after certainty?

What are the three articulations of the categorical imperative? Talk about peculiarities of each one. (Groundwork)

How does happiness differ for Aristotle and for Kant?

Why is it specifically the notion of “causality” that plays such a key role for Kant (maybe think Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature here)?

Why would the notions that stem from Kant's “Copernican turn” be impertinent for Aquinas?

Why does Kant entitle his work Critique of Pure Reason? What is the purpose of the “critique”? Why does reason have to be referred to as: “pure”?

What are the synthetic a priori judgments? Why does Kant need this notion?

Distinguish synthetic a priori from analytic judgments and from a posteriori judgments.

How is Descartes different from the Medievals in regards to his relationship with tradition? Give an example of a Medieval philosopher and their relationship to tradition, and then gives Descartes’ relationship to tradition.

What kind of doubt is Descartes’ doubt of the world, bodies, etc. Is it like an everyday, ordinary doubt, like, “I doubt I’ll make it home soon in this traffic”?

What is Descartes doing with the malevolent being?

How does Descartes work his way out of his radical doubt?

Does Kant think about man as a thinking substance like Descartes?

How are a priori synthetic principles used in the Groundwork? How is the categorical imperative an a priori synthetic principle?

Tell me about the kingdom of ends. (Groundwork)

How does Descartes prove the existence of God in the third meditation?

How does Descartes prove the existence of other external bodies in the third meditation?

Is Rousseau a communist?

Why doesn't Descartes need an active intellect and a passive intellect? (Think of Aristotle in De Anima or Aquinas)

For Kant, who imposes duty on you?

Is there free will for Kant? (Groundwork)

Rousseau tells a story. Is it a story of progression, a story of decline, or a mixture of both? Why?

Describe Rousseau's second state of nature.

Does Descartes doubt more than the material world?

Why does Descartes have a problem with "Rational Animal"?

What is the Cogito? (Descartes)

What does Descartes say is our essence?

How does Descartes ground the material world?

In the Meditations, what does the wax argument show?

What is the difference between “transcendent” and “transcendental”? (CPR)

Why does Kant need both the general and transcendental logic?

What is the difference between the heteronomy and autonomy of the will? Explain “autonomy” in view of the universal law of reason. (Groundwork)