PHI 2010 PASSED Exam Questions and
CORRECT Answers
Which ancient philosophical tradition did Plotinus represent?
A) Stoicism
B) Epicureanism
C) Skepticism
D) Neoplatonism - CORRECT ANSWER-✔✔ D) Neoplatonism
St. Augustine rejected this Neoplatonic claim.
A) There are two realms to reality.
B) The immaterial realm is more real than the physical realm.
C) The ground of all reality, knowledge, and truth lies beyond the physical world.
D) The highest reality is the One, an impersonal, indefinable, and indescribable god. -
CORRECT ANSWER-✔✔ D) The highest reality is the One, an impersonal, indefinable,
and indescribable god.
What do Pyrrhonic skeptics maintain?
A) Nothing can be known.
B) People should suspend judgment about all things.
C) Some topics of inquiry are unknowable.
D) Some sources are ruled out as sources of knowledge. - CORRECT ANSWER-✔✔ B)
People should suspend judgment about all things.
What is asserted by the principle of noncontradiction?
A) People who don't contradict themselves are rational.
B) A proposition and its contradictory opposite cannot both be false at the same time.
C) A proposition and its contradictory opposite can't both be true at the same time.
D) If two propositions don't contradict each other then both of them are true. - CORRECT
ANSWER-✔✔ C) A proposition and its contradictory opposite can't both be true at the same
time.
,Which argument did St. Augustine use to refute total Academic skepticism?
A) When we are in doubt we can at least know that we exist as a doubter.
B) Memory can give us accurate knowledge of past events.
C) Statistically speaking, if you believe enough things you can know that you are bound to
be right about some of them.
D) God guarantees that our clear and distinct perceptions and ideas will be true. - CORRECT
ANSWER-✔✔ A) When we are in doubt we can at least know that we exist as a doubter.
What did Hypatia think about the study of mathematics and astronomy?
A) They were useful in finding practical solutions to practical problems on earth.
B) They were an amusing diversion and, like philosophy, just idle speculation.
C) They were a way of proving the truth of Christianity.
D) They were part of a way of life and a means of testing the implications of Platonic and
Neoplatonic metaphysics and epistemology. - CORRECT ANSWER-✔✔ D) They were part
of a way of life and a means of testing the implications of Platonic and Neoplatonic
metaphysics and epistemology.
How did St. Thomas Aquinas distinguish philosophy from theology?
A) Philosophy is limited to the natural world and theology is limited to the supernatural
world.
B) Philosophy is based on reason while theology is based on divine revelation and faith.
C) Philosophy is a source of ignorance, error, and illusion while only theology can give us
truth.
D) Theology is dependent on philosophy but not vice versa. - CORRECT ANSWER-✔✔ B)
Philosophy is based on reason while theology is based on divine revelation and faith.
Which view did Aquinas accept?
A) A physical thing is matter plus form.
B) All reality is material.
C) Forms exist independently of matter.
D) Nothing changes. - CORRECT ANSWER-✔✔ A) A physical thing is matter plus form.
Which view of Aristotle's did Aquinas disagree with?
, A) Physical things are always a blend of matter plus form.
B) The essence of a thing is the same as its existence.
C) One and the same form (universal) can be in more than one physical thing (particular).
D) Change is explained in terms of four causes, the formal, material, efficient and final. -
CORRECT ANSWER-✔✔ B) The essence of a thing is the same as its existence.
What did Aquinas maintain concerning the human soul?
A) It is the passive potentiality of the body.
B) It is finite and destructible.
C) It cannot exist without the body.
D) It is a direct creation of God. - CORRECT ANSWER-✔✔ D) It is a direct creation of
God.
Plotinus believed in a personal God as the source of all reality and truth.
A) True
B) False - CORRECT ANSWER-✔✔ B) False
Neither Plato nor Plotinus accepted the doctrine of creation ex nihilo.
A) True
B) False - CORRECT ANSWER-✔✔ A) True
Platonism and Neoplatonism caused Augustine to reject skepticism and prepared him for
Christianity.
A) True
B) False - CORRECT ANSWER-✔✔ A) True
Augustine thought that God was in time, which is an objective feature of the world.
A) True
B) False - CORRECT ANSWER-✔✔ B) False
Both Academic and Pyrrhonic skeptics are modified skeptics.
CORRECT Answers
Which ancient philosophical tradition did Plotinus represent?
A) Stoicism
B) Epicureanism
C) Skepticism
D) Neoplatonism - CORRECT ANSWER-✔✔ D) Neoplatonism
St. Augustine rejected this Neoplatonic claim.
A) There are two realms to reality.
B) The immaterial realm is more real than the physical realm.
C) The ground of all reality, knowledge, and truth lies beyond the physical world.
D) The highest reality is the One, an impersonal, indefinable, and indescribable god. -
CORRECT ANSWER-✔✔ D) The highest reality is the One, an impersonal, indefinable,
and indescribable god.
What do Pyrrhonic skeptics maintain?
A) Nothing can be known.
B) People should suspend judgment about all things.
C) Some topics of inquiry are unknowable.
D) Some sources are ruled out as sources of knowledge. - CORRECT ANSWER-✔✔ B)
People should suspend judgment about all things.
What is asserted by the principle of noncontradiction?
A) People who don't contradict themselves are rational.
B) A proposition and its contradictory opposite cannot both be false at the same time.
C) A proposition and its contradictory opposite can't both be true at the same time.
D) If two propositions don't contradict each other then both of them are true. - CORRECT
ANSWER-✔✔ C) A proposition and its contradictory opposite can't both be true at the same
time.
,Which argument did St. Augustine use to refute total Academic skepticism?
A) When we are in doubt we can at least know that we exist as a doubter.
B) Memory can give us accurate knowledge of past events.
C) Statistically speaking, if you believe enough things you can know that you are bound to
be right about some of them.
D) God guarantees that our clear and distinct perceptions and ideas will be true. - CORRECT
ANSWER-✔✔ A) When we are in doubt we can at least know that we exist as a doubter.
What did Hypatia think about the study of mathematics and astronomy?
A) They were useful in finding practical solutions to practical problems on earth.
B) They were an amusing diversion and, like philosophy, just idle speculation.
C) They were a way of proving the truth of Christianity.
D) They were part of a way of life and a means of testing the implications of Platonic and
Neoplatonic metaphysics and epistemology. - CORRECT ANSWER-✔✔ D) They were part
of a way of life and a means of testing the implications of Platonic and Neoplatonic
metaphysics and epistemology.
How did St. Thomas Aquinas distinguish philosophy from theology?
A) Philosophy is limited to the natural world and theology is limited to the supernatural
world.
B) Philosophy is based on reason while theology is based on divine revelation and faith.
C) Philosophy is a source of ignorance, error, and illusion while only theology can give us
truth.
D) Theology is dependent on philosophy but not vice versa. - CORRECT ANSWER-✔✔ B)
Philosophy is based on reason while theology is based on divine revelation and faith.
Which view did Aquinas accept?
A) A physical thing is matter plus form.
B) All reality is material.
C) Forms exist independently of matter.
D) Nothing changes. - CORRECT ANSWER-✔✔ A) A physical thing is matter plus form.
Which view of Aristotle's did Aquinas disagree with?
, A) Physical things are always a blend of matter plus form.
B) The essence of a thing is the same as its existence.
C) One and the same form (universal) can be in more than one physical thing (particular).
D) Change is explained in terms of four causes, the formal, material, efficient and final. -
CORRECT ANSWER-✔✔ B) The essence of a thing is the same as its existence.
What did Aquinas maintain concerning the human soul?
A) It is the passive potentiality of the body.
B) It is finite and destructible.
C) It cannot exist without the body.
D) It is a direct creation of God. - CORRECT ANSWER-✔✔ D) It is a direct creation of
God.
Plotinus believed in a personal God as the source of all reality and truth.
A) True
B) False - CORRECT ANSWER-✔✔ B) False
Neither Plato nor Plotinus accepted the doctrine of creation ex nihilo.
A) True
B) False - CORRECT ANSWER-✔✔ A) True
Platonism and Neoplatonism caused Augustine to reject skepticism and prepared him for
Christianity.
A) True
B) False - CORRECT ANSWER-✔✔ A) True
Augustine thought that God was in time, which is an objective feature of the world.
A) True
B) False - CORRECT ANSWER-✔✔ B) False
Both Academic and Pyrrhonic skeptics are modified skeptics.
