1. The first possible exam question to be discussed was the Cosmological Argument i.e something caused the Universe to exist, and this First Cause is what we call God. It has been used by various theologians and philosophers over the centuries, from the ancient Greeks Plato and Aristotle to the medievals (e.g., St. Thomas Aquinas). The cosmological argument requires a self-originated motion to cause action. However the argument falters when the proponents of a first cause (God) fall back on the theory that the First Cause is exempt from the question 'who then caused the first cause?' God, is outside our concept of time, cause and motion. Yet, the argument persists, if he is outside it how can he intervene?
We discussed Plato who posited a "demiurge" of supreme wisdom and intelligence as the creator of the Cosmos. I pointed out to the student that in the view of Bertrand Russell, 'Plato set civilisation back 2000 years', with his notion that reality (the Forms) i.e a cause, is elsewhere and we are in this metaphorical cave looking at shadows. My approach throughout was to deconstruct the accepted view so the student might have something of interest to say in the examination. I also pointed out that the cosmos viewed by the ancients must be contrasted to the cosmological view of today which asserts there are an infinite number of Universes. Therefore for us to talk of 'first cause' cause/effect is parochial.
2. The self. We discussed the topic of the self and whether it was an entity. We then discussed Descartes "I know that I exist; the question is, what is this ‘I’ that I know?" (Descartes 1641) I argued that the self was constituted of a series of discourses. I explained a discourse as a consensus of opinion of those in power who then impart a view to the populace. This is not a conspiracy but a way of the world. We discussed the biological nature of the 'self' which does exist, however the self, commonly viewed as that little man/woman in the brain, the homunculus, was a view I did not concur with.
3. Free will versus determinism. I referred the students to Galen Strawson on this topic, who would argue that we are not free to choose our parents. I pointed out that a development in criminal law is the accused arguing that 'I did not commit the crime it was my brain that did it'. i.e by ones very nature one is compelled to act in a certain way, this would be a deterministic argument. Amongst others, Hume was discussed. We discussed the compatibilist view (or soft determinism) the belief that free will and determinism are compatible ideas, and that it is possible to believe both without being logically inconsistent.
4. The teleologcial argument. A student pointed to the complex working of a watch which we then must conclude that there was a watchmaker. William Paley presented the watchmaker analogy in his Natural Theology (1802) I pointed out the supposed complexity of the watch being a weak metaphor in the light of say Einstein and time itself being no more than a man made utilitarian concept, I indicated that the reliance on metaphor weakened the argument. I referred to linguistics where a current argument is that we do not use language but language uses us.
This led us onto a brief discussion on rationality and reason. I pointed out that the common device in argument of 'be reasonable' or 'you are not being 'rational' have an underlying power motivation, i.e using reason and rationality as argumentative tools. This also, I pointed out, applies to 'you are not being objective', there is a hierarchical power play in "I am being objective and you are being subjective." We also discussed briefly cognition and emotion. we discussed Newton's macro world science, which is still extant to the micro world of quantum mechanics where counter intuitive notions of something being in two places at the same time, of actions without cause amongst others are beyond our comprehension. I referred the students for future reading to Richard Feynman
Overall comment:
I encouraged the students to go into the exam with the tools of thier learning, (we discussed memorisation devices) as this is a mode in which the terror of the empty page may be averted.
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