Miscellaneous

Question 1

moral agency

Answer 1

individual ability to make moral judgments on common notion of right and wrong

Question 2

monism

Answer 2

opposite of dualism; no separate mind

Question 3

falsafa

Answer 3

arabic for philosophy

Question 4

cosmology

Answer 4

question about origin of everything (God, first cause, big bang)

Question 5

ontology

Answer 5

a priori arguments for existence of God

Question 6

Jaak Panksepp study on rats

Answer 6

rat laughter; two different frequencies of rat covalizations, one positive and one negative; shows that they have emotions

Question 7

naturalizing ethics

Answer 7

getting rid of appeals to god and free will in explaining morality

Question 8

Gazzaniga brain study

Answer 8

done on split-brain people (severed corpus callosum); interpreter is on the left side of the brain and runs post-hoc commentary on behavior

Question 9

Vohs & Schooler experiment

Answer 9

pro-free will; finding was that encouraging a belief in determinism increases cheating; not replicable

Question 10

why do people fail to act morally? (4 reasons)

Answer 10

openness and flexilibity & subjective interpretations of behavior (includes cultural relativism); human tendency towards cooperation leading to groupthink/ingroup phenomena; rationalization (post hoc & initial); plasticity & capacity to use imagination

Question 11

Panksepp’s 7 unconditioned emotional systems

Answer 11

seeking/expectancy, rage/anger, fear/anxiety, lust/sexuality, care/nurturance, panic/separation, pain/joy. self emerges as emotional system to deal with survival

Question 12

dynamical systems theory

Answer 12

morality & self as complex system; involves dynamic and emergent interactions

Question 13

dynamic system

Answer 13

process or system characterized by constant change, activity, or progress; involved in plasticity

Question 14

emergent system

Answer 14

unpredicted from parts themselves; collection/system has, but individ members don’t