Daily Quiz

March 24

1. What 18th century Irish philosopher/bishop denied the existence of matter and said that, in a world consisting of nothing but ideas, "to be is to be perceived"?

2. What distinction of John Locke's did Berkeley reject?

3. Which German rationalist asserted the Principle of Sufficient Reason (according to which there must be a logical explanation for everything) and insisted that, appearances notwithstanding, the world is harmonious and "perfect"?

4. Which French philosopher wrote a play parodying the idea that everything (including devastating earthquakes, disease, rape, murder, torture,...) always works out for the best in our "best of all possible worlds," and said we must each "cultivate our garden"?

5. What did Richard Rorty think we understand better when we abandon notions such as "the intrinsic nature of reality" and "correspondence to reality"?

6. What did Rorty think we need in order to achieve moral progress and a better world, instead of theories about truth and human nature?




==
1. George Berkeley. 2. primary/secondary qualities. 3. G.W. Leibniz. 4. Voltaire.  5. truth. 6. "Stories" & "better vocabularies"-richer imagination, more inclusive ways of thinking & talking.

ALSO OF NOTE:
DQ: Was Rorty truly the most important American Philosopher of his era?


FQ: How many different essays did Richard Rorty write?

FQ: What did Rorty write in one of his essays about "to construe Nietzsche and the American pragmatists as saying the same things in different types of voice? p128
It was key to his view of modern philosophy.

FQ: How many of Rorty articles were edited in The Philosophy's Index? p129
three(3)

DQ: From references on p 129; Do you think that philosophy is a form of literature?

Article about Rorty interpretation:
http://www.academia.edu/412740/Literature_Ethics_and_Richard_Rortys_Theory_of_Interpretation

FQ: What book did Rorty believe knocked out the enterprise of epistemology itself? (Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature)
FQ: What position did Rorty believe in? (Middle-of-the-road)
DQ: How do you feel on the view that every tradition is as rational or as moral as every other could be held only by a god, womeone who had no need to use the terms rational or moral because she had no need to inquire or deliberate?
Link: Describing Rorty on analytical philosophy!! http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n02/richard-rorty/how-many-grains-make-a-heap

FQ: Which Irish Philosopher was friends with Jonothan Swift, The author of Gulliver's Travels?

DQ: If Berkeley is correct in his theory that the world must be perceived in order to exist, what would happen to us when could ever be absolutely alone with ourselves? Excluding God and all else, if it were just us, would our perception of ouselves be enough for us to exist?

Link: Here is a page full of quotes from Berkeley!
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/g/george_berkeley.html

FQ- What does 'Esse est percipi' mean? (Answer- to be is to be perceived)
FQ- Which west coast California school was named after a philosopher who believed that the things we see are just ideas? (Answer- Berkley).
FQ- Which German philosopher created the Principle of Sufficient Reason? (Answer- Gottfried Leibniz)