UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS
DEPARTMENT OF PHILOSOPHY

PHILOSOPHY 321: HISTORY OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY

Vere Chappell                                                                                                                                                                                     Spring 2003

FINAL EXAM INFORMATION

The exam will consist of 50 short-answer questions.  

Several different types of question will be included: true-false, multiple choice, and fill-in-the-blank.  Sometime one or two words will suffice
to fill a blank; sometimes a longer phrase, or even a whole sentence, will be necessary.

The exam will cover all the reading assignments, all material presented in class, and everything  posted on the course website, from the begin-
ning of the semester.  There will be questions on each of the four philosophers studied, and also some questions asking you to compare the views 
of two or more of these philosophers. 

The best way to study for the exam is simply to review the reading you have done, your notes, your papers, and the website.  You should also
reflect on all the topics specified for the weekly papers.  Pay particular attention to the topics you didn't write papers on; think about what you 
would have said about each topic if you had written a paper on it.

FINAL EXAM SAMPLE QUESTIONS

1. A valid argument is always sound: true or false? ______

2. The first indubitable truth that Descartes identifies in the Second Meditation is ___________________________.

3. Descartes's principle that everything has a cause applies ______
    A. only to bodies. B. only to minds. C. only to ideas. D. to God. E. none of the foregoing.

4. Leibniz holds that all truths _______________________________________________________________________.

5. All monads are conscious for Leibniz: true or false? ______

6. Give an example of a secondary quality for Locke. ____________________________________________________

7. A human being for Locke must ______
    A. have a body. B. be alive. C. be a person. D. be conscious. E. have a soul.

8. Give an example of a genuine idea for Hume that is not a copy of a single antecedent impression. _____________

9. Hume holds that inferences from past experience are based not on reason but on ___________________________.

10. Give an example of an idea that each of the following philosophers would have regarded as innate.
    Descartes __________ Leibniz __________ Locke __________ Hume __________

11. Descartes claimed that minds influence bodies and bodies minds, whereas Leibniz _________________________.

12. The essence of matter is _______________ for Descartes; for Locke it is __________________________________.

13. Locke says that our idea of substance is _____________________; Leibniz says that it is ____________________.

14. Locke and Hume both believe that primary qualities exist only in the mind: true or false? ______

15. What Leibniz called a necessary truth Hume would have called a truth about _____________________________.