Friday 12/14

Friday 12/14

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:

  1. 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.
  2. I will bring two boxes: One box of names; one box of puzzles.
  3. To start, I will select a name and a puzzle.
  4. 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.
  5. 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:

  1. The presenter used their time carefully and effectively.
  2. The presentation was well organized.
  3. The puzzle was clearly explained.
  4. Argumentation was adroitly, precisely, and helpfully deployed.
  5. The presentation was well-crafted so as to avoid gaps and confusions.
  6. The philosophical import of the puzzle would have been clear to some otherwise capable individual new to philosophy.
  7. Illustrations and examples were skillfully chosen and helpful.
  8. Except in service of better illuminating the puzzle, the presentation did not stray unduly into the solution space for the puzzle.
  9. The presentation avoided casting the puzzle as a philosophical trompe l'oeil.
  10. 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

  1. The Paradox of Analysis
  2. Arrow's Theorem
  3. The Beetle in the Box Thought Experiment
  4. The Brain Fission/Fusion Thought Experiments
  5. Brains in a Vat Skepticism
  6. Buridan's Ass
  7. The Carnap/Bar-Hillel Paradox
  8. The Problem of Causation
  9. The Problem of Certainty
  10. The Chinese Room Thought Experiment
  11. The (Hard) Problem of Consciousness
  12. The Problem of Counterfactuals
  13. The Cosmological Argument
  14. The Demarcation Problem
  15. The Problem of Designation
  16. The Problem of Disjunctive Belief
  17. The Duck/Rabbit Puzzle
  18. The Epistemic Gap
  19. The Euthyphro Dilemma
  20. The Problem of Evil
  21. The Explanatory Gap
  22. The Case of the Famous Unconscious Violinist
  23. The Problem of Fictional Entities
  24. The Frame Problem
  25. The Problem of Freedom of Will
  26. The Frege Puzzle
  27. The Gettier Problem
  28. The Problem of God's Foreknowledge
  29. Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem's
  30. Hume's Missing Color Blue
  31. The Indeterminacy of Translation
  32. The Problem of Induction
  33. The (New) Problem of Induction
  34. The Case of the Inquiring Murderer
  35. The Problem of Intensional Entities
  36. The Problem of Intentionality
  37. The Problem of Intentions
  38. The Liar Paradox
  39. The Paradox of Machine Reasoning
  40. The Case of Mary
  41. The Problem of Mathematical Knowledge
  42. The Problem of Mathematical Truth
  43. The Meno Paradox
  44. The Mind-Body Problem
  45. The Modal Gap
  46. Moore's Paradox
  47. The Problem of Moral Luck
  48. The Problem of Moral Knowledge
  49. The Problem of Moral Motivation
  50. The Problem of Moral Truth
  51. Newcomb's Paradox
  52. The Problem of Negative Facts
  53. The Problem of Nomological Necessity
  54. The Problem of Other Minds
  55. The Ontological Argument
  56. The Problem of Personal Identity
  57. The Philosophical Zombies Thought Experiment
  58. The Prisoners' Dilemma
  59. The Case of the Prince and the Cobbler
  60. The Private Language Argument
  61. Quine's Paradox
  62. The Raven Paradox
  63. The Ring of Gyges Thought Experiment
  64. Rule-Following Skepticism
  65. Russell's Paradox
  66. Russellian Skepticism
  67. The Puzzle of Setting a Surprise Exam
  68. The Ship of Theseus Thought Experiment
  69. The Case of the Super-Super-Spartans
  70. The Case of the Swampman
  71. The Teleological Argument
  72. The Teletransporter Thought Experiment
  73. The Problem of Time's Arrow
  74. The Problem of Trans-World Identity
  75. Pascal's Wager
  76. The Problem of Perception
  77. The Problem of Psycho-Physical Laws
  78. The Paradox of Tolerance
  79. The Trolley Problems
  80. The Twin Earth Thought Experiment
  81. The Undecidability Theorem
  82. The Underdetermination Problem
  83. The Problem of Universals
  84. The Problem of Unobservables
  85. The Problem of the Utility Monster
  86. The Problems of Vagueness
  87. The Problem of Weakness of Will
  88. Zeno's Paradoxes