· The paper should be at least 5 pages in length but probably more. Any font and type is acceptable, but I interpret length by 12 pt, double-spaced, Times New Roman.

· You are free to be creative and profound with the organization of your paper, but it should be organized and cover the questions below. I have provided some of the better known answers to the questions.

The Questions

1. How does one “know” anything?

Fideist – You just know, whether through intuition, revelation, or blind faith.

Rationalist – Truth is a matter of clear thinking and the use of logic.

Empiricist – Truth comes through your senses and experimentation.

Kantian – Truth is the use of innate reason to process the data of your senses.

Constructivist – Truth is constructed (not absolute) as your mind organizes the data

of your senses according to your culture and individual way of thinking.

Pure postmodernist – There is no right or wrong answer, only opinions.

2. What is real in this world?

Idealist – Only thoughts and ideas are truly real (perhaps we are God’s thoughts).

Materialist – Only matter is real (perhaps God also out there beyond the world).

Dualist – There are at least two kinds of stuff – material/immaterial, body/soul.

Non-realist – There is no essential reality, although some ways of thinking may seem to work better than others.

3. The existence and involvement of God

Atheist/Naturalist – There is no God. All that exists is the natural world.

Agnostic – We cannot know if there is a God.

Pantheist – Everything makes up God.

Panentheist – Everything is in God. Perhaps the world is God’s body.

Deist – God made the world but is no longer involved.

Theist – God made the world and is still involved in it.

4. What is a human person?

A Divine Creation in the image of God – All human life is intrinsically valuable.

Such a person may or may not believe in free will.

The Pinnacle of Evolution – Humanity is the most important species, but still a

species of animal.

A Biological Machine/Determined – A person is a collection of atoms in motion.

There is no such thing as free will since there are causes for everything you desire.

A Maker of Meaning/Existentialist – Although a person is ultimately determined in

his or her parts, the whole person may think of himself or herself as free. There is ultimately no meaning to life, so anything one chooses to center their life around is as valuable – and just as absurd – as any other choice. Seize the day and choose a meaning for your life.

5. What makes something right or wrong?

Duty Based Ethics – There are certain duties that must be followed either without

exception (absolutism) or with rare exception. Such duties can be thought to inhere in nature (natural law ethics), to be known intuitively (e.g. by way of conscience), or to be revealed by God.

Relativism – There are definite rights and wrongs, but they vary from person to

person or from culture to culture. Wrong for you may not be wrong for me.

Utilitarian Ethics – Right and wrong are based on what is the greatest good for the

greatest number.

Egoist Ethics – Right and wrong is based either on what is the greatest good for all

individuals (universal egoism) or simply what is best for me (personal egoism).

Nihilism – Might makes right. If I am strong enough to get away with something,

how can you say I did wrong?

6. What is the best way for people to live together?

Theocracy – God rules (at least in theory).

Monarchy – A king (or queen) rules.

Oligarchy – A few rule, perhaps the aristocracy.

Social Contract – A group come together, set up rules they hold in common.

Democracy – Everybody has a vote on every issue.

Anarchy – Nobody rules.

Study Questions

Sophie’s World

1-27

1. What do you make of the drivel about God and beginnings on pg. 7?

2. What are the two questions that Sophie receives in the mail?

3. According to Gaarder, what is the only thing we need in order to be good philosophers?

4. What does Gaarder say the world becomes to us even before we leave childhood?

5. What is Gaarder’s definition of a myth? Do you agree with it?

6. Which do you think Gaarder likes better, mythical thinkers or philosophers?

7. What 6^th century BC individual noted that humans tend to create God in their own image? Is this true? Do Christians ever do this?

8. What kind of shift from a mythological mode of thought does Gaarder prefer?

“A Christian View of the World”

1. Know key terms.

2. How “tidy” does Schenck think our worldviews usually are?

3. What are three Christian positions on the relationship between faith and reason?

4. What was Aquinas’ perspective? Tertullian? Josh McDowell? Kierkegaard? Anselm? Augustine?

5. What are some potential sources of truth for a Christian?

6. According to Schenck, is the Bible a source of truth that is independent of reason or experience?

7. What does Schenck think a so called “biblical worldview” actually turns out to be?

8. What are some historic Christian views of God?

9. Is there an official Christian position on issues like materialism, dualism, or idealism?

10. What is the most valuable aspect of human existence for a Christian and what does this imply about the meaning of life?

11. What is the most fundamental Christian ethic?

12. Is there an official Christian position on how society should be structured (e.g., is democracy the Christian form of government?)?

28-90

1. Why were the natural philosophers called the “natural philosophers”?

2. Did the Greeks believe that the world had been created out of nothing (ex nihilo)?

3. Who was the first philosopher we know of? What did he believe the basic substance of reality was?

4. What did Anaximander believe? Does his thought remind you of any contemporary theory of the world’s origins?

5. What did Anaximenes believe the world was made out of?

6. Where were the philosophers of 3, 4, and 5 from?

7. Who said there was no such thing as change?

8. What is the name of the philosophical position that believes reason is the path to truth?

9. Which philosopher said “Everything flows” and “you cannot step into the same river twice? What did he mean?

10. Who believed everything was made out of four basic elements? What were they?

11. What did Anaxagoras believe about basic substances? What did he believe the sun was?

12. Who was the first philosopher from Athens we know of?

13. What Greek philosopher came up with the idea of atoms? What does “atom” mean?

14. What philosophical position holds that only material things truly exist?

15. Did Democritus believe in a soul? Was he a materialist?

16. What is fatalism? Do you know any Christians who are fatalists as Gaarder defines it?

17. What was the oracle at Delphi? What was written on the entrance to the temple there?

18. Who are the two best known Greek historians? Does Gaarder think they believed in fate?

19. Who was the founder of Greek medicine and what did his “oath” say?

20. Who were the Sophists? What did they do for a living? What was their approach to truth?

21. What was the saying of Protagoras? What did it mean?

22. What do you call a person who believes we cannot know if there is a God?

23. Through whose writings do we know of Socrates?

24. What was Socrates main method of discourse? How did he approach his “targets”?

25. What charge was brought against Socrates?

26. What are some of the (superficial) similarities between Jesus and Socrates?

27. Who are the most subversive people?

28. What did Socrates mean by the statement “Right insight leads to right action”?

29. What was the name of Plato’s school? Who had Plato studied under?

30. Were Sophist’s relativists?

31. What is Plato’s “theory of ideas”?

32. What are the two realms of existence according to Plato?

33. Did he believe we have a soul? When was it created?

34. Which did Plato believe we could trust more—our reason or our senses?

35. What was the name of Plato’s school? Who had Plato studied under?

36. Were Sophist’s relativists?

37. What is Plato’s “theory of ideas”?

38. What are the two realms of existence according to Plato?

39. Did he believe we have a soul? When was it created?

40. Which did Plato believe we could trust more—our reason or our senses?

41. What is Plato’s Myth of the Cave? What does it mean?

90-120

1. What was Plato’s Republic about?

2. What was the ancient view of how the various parts of the body function and how did Plato relate it to the perfect government?

3. What is rationalism?

4. Did Plato believe women could rule? (he wanted rulers to be “philosopher kings”)

5. What did Plato think about nurseries and full time education?

6. What other famous philosopher studied under Plato?

7. Who was Europe’s first great biologist, according to Gaarder?

8. How did Aristotle disagree with Plato over “innate ideas”? What are “innate ideas”?

9. How did Aristotle believe we came up with the idea or “form” of a horse, in contrast to how Plato thought we did?

10. Where did Aristotle believe we got the ideas in our mind from?

11. According to Aristotle, what is humanity’s most distinguishing characteristic?

12. What are the two components to things, according to Aristotle?

13. What did Aristotle mean by a “final cause”?

14. Who invented the science of logic?

15. Who was the first to start classifying nature (e.g. animal, vegetable, mineral)?

16. Who is Aristotle’s “first mover”?

17. What are the three forms of happiness, according to Aristotle?

18. What is the “Golden Mean”?

19. What is “man” by nature, according to Aristotle?

20. What are the three good forms of government according to Aristotle and what are the three worst?

21. What was Aristotle’s view of women? How did it relate to his division of things into form and substance?

121-148

1. Sophie finds a postcard on the sidewalk. To whom is it addressed and from whom was it sent?

2. To what does the term Hellenism refer?

3. What is “syncretism”?

4. Who was the best known Cynic and where did this philosophical school think happiness lies?

5. Who was the founder of Stoicism?

6. What is natural law? Did the Stoics believe in it?

7. What is monism and what is dualism? Which were the Stoics? Which was Plato?

8. What philosophy did Cicero, Seneca, and Marcus Aurelius all follow?

9. Who said, “To mankind, mankind is holy”?

10. Who were the garden philosophers and who was their founder?

11. Did Epicurus believe we should “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die”?

12. How did Epicureanism change after the death of Epicurus?

13. Who was the most important figure in Neoplatonism?

14. Was Neoplatonism dualist or monist? What existed and what did not?

15. What is a mystical experience? How do Eastern and Western mysticism differ from one another?

16. What items does Sophie find in the cabin?

“How They Viewed the World”

1. Know basic terms.

2. In Genesis 1, are the sun and stars pictured above the waters that came down during the Flood or beneath them?

3. Does Paul view the earth as round or does he have a “three-story” understanding of the universe (earth, heaven, under earth)? How many layers of heaven does he picture?

4. Was the ancient world “fatalistic,” and what does that mean?

5. Is there any relationship between the power of sin and our human bodies?

6. What aspects of the New Testament seem similar to Stoic thought at the time of Christ?

7. Did the Epicureans believe in an afterlife? the Stoics? Plato?

8. What is the difference between resurrection and immortal souls?

Mid-Term

149-187

1. Who were the “Indo-Europeans”?

2. Using SW, match the following characteristics with the Indo-Europeans and with the Semites: sight, hearing, cyclical, linear, polytheism, monotheism.

3. What does SW say the kings of the Old Testament could be called?

4. What is the difference between the resurrection of the body and the immortality of the soul?

5. What is the quote from Goethe that Gaarder gives? What does it mean?

6. What smacks into the window as Sophie is stirring a casserole?

7. Where does Sophie meet Alberto?

8. What do the following dates represent: 313, 410, 529, 1200?

9. What are the three cultures by which Greco-Roman culture was passed on?

10. What was the basic idea of Manichaeanism?

11. By what philosophical school was Augustine most influenced?

12. What was Augustine’s view of evil?

13. According to Augustine, what are the two kingdoms that struggle for mastery of each one of us?

14. What is Augustine the first philosopher to do?

15. What ancient philosophical tradition did Arabs keep alive?

16. Who was the most significant philosopher of the 1200’s?

17. If Augustine liked Plato, who did Aquinas like?

18. What was Aquinas’ view of reason in relation to faith?

19. Does time exist for God, according to Aquinas?

20. Who was the female philosopher of the Middle Ages that Gaarder mentions?

21. What do some refer to as the female side of God?

“The Problem of Evil”

“Is Belief in God Reasonable?”

188-232

1. What does the word “Renaissance” mean?

2. What was Renaissance humanism characterized by?

3. What is the view of God that equates Him with everything?

4. What is the empirical method and how did it differ from science before the Renaissance?

5. Who said “Knowledge is power”?

6. What was Copernicus’ revolutionary way of thinking of the universe?

7. How did Kepler modify Copernicus’ theory?

8. For what scientific laws are Galileo and Newton known for?

9. What was typical of Baroque art?

10. What was the tone of the Baroque period?

11. What is determinism?

12. Was Thomas Hobbes deterministic in outlook?

233-341

1. Was Descartes a rationalist or an empiricist?

2. Who was the father of modern philosophy?

3. What was Descartes main concern?

4. What is the philosophical approach that believes we can really know nothing?

5. At what point of history did people begin to think of a really radical division of the body and soul?

6. Who said “I think therefore I am” and what did he mean by it?

7. With what medieval philosopher is Descartes argument for the existence of God similar?

8. What does it mean to say that Descartes was a dualist?

9. At what point of the body did Descartes believe the soul and body joined?

10. For what way of interpreting the Bible do we give Spinoza the “credit”?

11. What was Spinoza’s view of God?

12. What does it mean to say Spinoza was a monist?

13. Was Spinoza a determinist?

14. Was Spinoza a rationalist or an empiricist?

15. How did Spinoza combine the idea of God with his pantheism and determinism?

16. What does Sophie find written on the inside of her banana peel after she unpeals her banana?

17. What is a rationalist again?

18. What is empiricism?

19. From what place were the three main empiricists of this period?

20. Was Locke a rationalist or an empiricist?

21. What is the difference between a simple idea and a complex one and how do these relate to simple perceptions, according to Locke?

22. What did Locke believe was built into human reason?

23. What is the principle of the division of powers and who suggested it?

24. What three divisions of power did Montesquieu suggest?

25. What did human want to dismiss as meaningless nonsense?

26. What similarity did David Hume’s understanding of a person have with that of the Buddha?

27. What is an agnostic?

28. What did Hume think about cause and effect?

29. What did Hume believe was the basis of ethics?

30. What did Berkeley believe were the only things that exist?

31. Where do we truly exist, according to Berkeley?

32. What is the big “twist” of Sophie’s world and how does it relate to Berkeley’s philosophy?

33. What was the flavor of the Enlightenment?

34. What is deism?

35. What philosophical project has dominated the thinking of philosophy since Descartes?

36. What was Kant’s “Copernican Revolution” in the problem of human knowledge?

37. What is Kant’s greatest contribution to philosophy?

38. What is the gist of Kant’s epistemology?

39. What is Kant’s categorical imperative (p. 334-5)?

40. How does Alberto suggest that he and Sophie can be free even though they are characters in a novel?

342-446

1. According to Sophie’s World, what was Europe’s last great cultural epoch?

2. What was the general “feel” of the Romantic era?

3. If Kant believed that there was a certain unattainable truth, what did Hegel believe?

4. Was is history and its process, according to Hegel?

5. How did Hegel’s dialectic work?

6. What is Hegel’s absolute spirit?

7. What did Kierkegaard think of “Sunday Christianity”?

8. What did Kierkegaard and Buddha’s philosophy have in common?

9. What did Kierkegaard mean by “existential”?

10. What did Kierkegaard think about faith?

11. What are Kierkegaard’s three forms of life and what did they each represent?

12. What does it mean to say that Karl Marx was a dialectical materialist?

13. What was history primarily a matter of, according to Marx?

14. Who are the bourgeoisie and proletariat?

15. What is “alienation” in Marx’s system?

16. What is naturalism?

17. What were Darwin’s two main theses and what is natural selection?

18. How old does Gaarder say we “know” the earth is today?

19. How have “neo-Darwinists” used the idea of mutation to develop Darwin’s ideas further?

20. What are Freud’s id, ego, and superego? How do they function?

21. What was Freud’s distinction between the conscious and unconscious mind?

22. What is a neurosis? parapraxis? rationalization? projection?

23. What is surrealism?

447-513

1. What do Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, and Simone de Beauvoir have in common?

2. Where does the expression, “God is dead” come from?

3. Was Sartre a theistic or atheistic existentialist?

4. What did Sartre mean when he said that “existence precedes essence”?

5. What is a nihilist?

6. What was Albert Camus’ theater of the absurd about?

7. How does Joanna and Jeremy’s tussle in the bushes, and Mrs. Ingebrigtsen’s lack of surprise illustrate Camus’ theater of the absurd?