Friday 12/14
Final Examination: UC 316 (Islander Room) 10:30 - 4:00
Herewith,
The Final Twenty
The instructions are as before and follow the Final Twenty verbatim. Remember that you are permitted a single, handwritten 4-inch x 6-inch note card. See you Friday!
- The Beetle in the Box Thought Experiment
- The Problem of Causation
- The Cosmological Argument
- The Problem of Evil
- The Problem of Freedom of Will
- The Frege Puzzle
- The Gettier Problem
- The Problem of Induction
- The Case of Mary
- The Problem of Moral Luck
- The Problem of Personal Identity
- The Prisoners' Dilemma
- The Private Language Argument
- The Ring of Gyges Thought Experiment
- Rule-Following Skepticism
- Russell's Paradox
- The Ship of Theseus Thought Experiment
- The Twin Earth Thought Experiment
- The Underdetermination Problem
- The Problem of Universals
Our plan for Friday is as follows:
- We will convene at 10:30 in UC 316 for any last minute questions and so as to begin at 11:00 a.m. sharp.
- I will bring two boxes: One box of names; one box of puzzles.
- To start, I will select a name and a puzzle.
- The first presenter whose name was selected will have up to ten minutes to explain as best they can the puzzle selected, leaving another ten minutes for questions, discussion, and grading. Explanations and discussion are oral, but illustrations on the whiteboard are welcomed and encouraged.
- The first presenter will conclude discussion by selecting the name and puzzle for the next presentation, and so on until everyone has presented.
Everyone will grade everyone by evaluating a set of propositions using the following scale:
+3 Very Strongly Agree
+2 Strongly Agree
+1 Agree
0 No Comment
-1 Disagree
-2 Strongly Disagree
-3 Very Strongly Disagree
The evaluative propositions (which, of course, should help guide your preparations) are:
- The presenter used their time carefully and effectively.
- The presentation was well organized.
- The puzzle was clearly explained.
- Argumentation was adroitly, precisely, and helpfully deployed.
- The presentation was well-crafted so as to avoid gaps and confusions.
- The philosophical import of the puzzle would have been clear to some otherwise capable individual new to philosophy.
- Illustrations and examples were skillfully chosen and helpful.
- Except in service of better illuminating the puzzle, the presentation did not stray unduly into the solution space for the puzzle.
- The presentation avoided casting the puzzle as a philosophical trompe l'oeil.
- The presentation was framed in such a way as to elicit an excellent discussion.
Evaluators will tally their scores on the range [-30,30]. A space will be provided on the evaluation form for notes and justificatory comments.
The original 88 puzzles are as follows. Note again that this page will be updated to report the Final Twenty by 8:00 a.m. on Friday, December 14.
Problems, Puzzles, Paradoxes, Arguments, and Thought Experiments
- The Paradox of Analysis
- Arrow's Theorem
- The Beetle in the Box Thought Experiment
- The Brain Fission/Fusion Thought Experiments
- Brains in a Vat Skepticism
- Buridan's Ass
- The Carnap/Bar-Hillel Paradox
- The Problem of Causation
- The Problem of Certainty
- The Chinese Room Thought Experiment
- The (Hard) Problem of Consciousness
- The Problem of Counterfactuals
- The Cosmological Argument
- The Demarcation Problem
- The Problem of Designation
- The Problem of Disjunctive Belief
- The Duck/Rabbit Puzzle
- The Epistemic Gap
- The Euthyphro Dilemma
- The Problem of Evil
- The Explanatory Gap
- The Case of the Famous Unconscious Violinist
- The Problem of Fictional Entities
- The Frame Problem
- The Problem of Freedom of Will
- The Frege Puzzle
- The Gettier Problem
- The Problem of God's Foreknowledge
- Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem's
- Hume's Missing Color Blue
- The Indeterminacy of Translation
- The Problem of Induction
- The (New) Problem of Induction
- The Case of the Inquiring Murderer
- The Problem of Intensional Entities
- The Problem of Intentionality
- The Problem of Intentions
- The Liar Paradox
- The Paradox of Machine Reasoning
- The Case of Mary
- The Problem of Mathematical Knowledge
- The Problem of Mathematical Truth
- The Meno Paradox
- The Mind-Body Problem
- The Modal Gap
- Moore's Paradox
- The Problem of Moral Luck
- The Problem of Moral Knowledge
- The Problem of Moral Motivation
- The Problem of Moral Truth
- Newcomb's Paradox
- The Problem of Negative Facts
- The Problem of Nomological Necessity
- The Problem of Other Minds
- The Ontological Argument
- The Problem of Personal Identity
- The Philosophical Zombies Thought Experiment
- The Prisoners' Dilemma
- The Case of the Prince and the Cobbler
- The Private Language Argument
- Quine's Paradox
- The Raven Paradox
- The Ring of Gyges Thought Experiment
- Rule-Following Skepticism
- Russell's Paradox
- Russellian Skepticism
- The Puzzle of Setting a Surprise Exam
- The Ship of Theseus Thought Experiment
- The Case of the Super-Super-Spartans
- The Case of the Swampman
- The Teleological Argument
- The Teletransporter Thought Experiment
- The Problem of Time's Arrow
- The Problem of Trans-World Identity
- Pascal's Wager
- The Problem of Perception
- The Problem of Psycho-Physical Laws
- The Paradox of Tolerance
- The Trolley Problems
- The Twin Earth Thought Experiment
- The Undecidability Theorem
- The Underdetermination Problem
- The Problem of Universals
- The Problem of Unobservables
- The Problem of the Utility Monster
- The Problems of Vagueness
- The Problem of Weakness of Will
- Zeno's Paradoxes