IB Philosophy Exam Review

Plato's Allegory of the Cave - Answer- explores the notion of belief, illusion, knowledge and truth. Shadows (doubts, prejudices, cultural norms) play a role in the illustration of our ability or inability to be freed from illusion (or gain new knowledge and understanding) Existentialism - Answer- people are free agents who have control over their own thoughts and actions Sartre - Answer- we are all born as a blank slate, we can make it into whatever we want, we get to decide the person we become, we have no explicit purpose Bad Faith - Answer- Sartre's term for acting inauthentically Freedom of Choice - Answer- we all have the choice to live however and be whoever we want Free Will - Answer- we choose our actions Determinism - Answer- every event, action, and decision results from something independent of the human will Hard Determinism - Answer- accepts the principle of determinism and rejects the principle of free will. Free will is an illusion, and people are never responsible for their actions Soft Determinism - Answer- accepts both the principle of determinism and of free will. People are determined to act as they do, but this is actually compatible with having free will and moral responsibility Skinner - Answer- hard determinist who denied the existence of intentions, purposes, aims, goals, etc. Freud - Answer- hard determinist who believed the ego, id, and superego determine your life Aristotle - Answer- believed that the self is always growing and changing. The Good Self = fulfilling one's essence Descartes - Answer- fierce rationalist, the self is defined by the phrase: "I think, therefore I am" Locke - Answer- *THE MEMORY IS THE ESSENCE OF THE SELF* example: computer (