Psy 415       First Exam study guide


You should expect long essay questions on these topics and people: 
Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Francis Bacon, the problem of knowledge and 
truth, the problem of motion(change), neoplatonism, rationalism, nativism, 
empiricism, the problem of conduct, later versions of
aristotelianism, falsifiability, quantification, Kuhn's ideas.  

On the syllabus, I indicated that you might see two types of essay 
questions: 1. Describe ????'s  major ideas, whence they came and where
they went.  So if Plato were the target, you would want to write about 
forms and poor copies, the unreliability of sense information, 
reincarnation, and the "reminiscence" role played by education.  Then you 
would want to sketch in the contributions of Parmenides and Pythagoras. 
Then you would want to talk about neoplatonism and its role in Christian 
Europe.  2. Who was "better", XXX or YYY ? If you are asked to compare 
Plato and Aristotle, you would want to sketch in their major ideas, 
particularly where they address the same problem, e.g., knowledge. You 
would also want to raise appropriate criticisms or problems, e.g., 
reification.

 I usually use material for IDs that weren't covered by the essay questions,
so, for example, if neoplatonism wasn't covered in an essay, names or
concepts like Plotinus, Philo, Augustine, reification, etc. would be
candidates. The rule is: if a name would be a necessary part of an
essay-answer, then it can be an ID.

Advice on studying: Be active. Preparing answers (on your own) to
potential essays forces you to think about and organize the material. That
makes it much more available in memory than material you accepted
passively from someone else.