4-6 pages maximum length, double spaced, 11 point font
COMPOSITION: Each question asks you to set out an argument (or an objection — but objections are of course themselves just a certain kind of negatively-intended argument).
Your reconstruction should clearly identify and distinguish the argument’s or objection’s various assumptions, it should clearly explain the inferences made in that argument or objection, and it should also clearly set out the intended conclusion of that argument or objection.
Each question also asks you to present a ‘reasoned evaluation.’ A ‘reasoned evaluation’ will involve raising one or two of the best objections you can to the argument under consideration, or alternatively, one or two of the best replies to the objection under consideration. (The objections or replies might be original to you, drawn from your reading of the secondary literature [with appropriate credit given], or they might come from class discussion etc.)
Finally you should adjudicate. Is the original argument or objection ultimately successful and the best response available a failure? Is the argument or objection sunk? Or can the argument or objection be successfully defended against the best available critique? Grading is based on accuracy, completeness, and philosophical acuity of the essay considered as a response to the question posed. Clear, precise writing is also essential.
(It is important to answer every part of the question; each successive part should be thought of as leading the essay writer step-by-step through the writing of a satisfactory short essay.)
2. In Berkeley’s Three Dialogues, the character Philonous (the spokesperson for Berkeley’s own immaterialist philosophy) argues that the heat that we immediately perceive by sense is “nothing distinct from” one or another kind of pain or pleasure, and therefore “can exist only in a thinking substance” (p.54-56 in our anthology Late Modern Philosophy).
He holds same is true of sensible cold (p.56), and then will extend the same sort of argument to tastes (p.57) and eventually to various of the other ‘secondary qualities’ as well (though these latter sections are not included in our anthology)
(i) Clearly and precisely reconstruct Philonous’s argument for the thesis that the heat and cold we immediately perceive are simply certain kinds of pleasure or pain, and hence can exist only in minds. What exactly does this thesis amount to, and how exactly does Philonous argue for it?
(ii) Explain how one might attempt (as Philonous does) to extend this kind of argument to show that certain other ‘secondary qualities’ (such as tastes and odors) can exist only in the mind.
(iii) Present a reasoned evaluation of Philonous’s argument regarding heat and cold. In the course of your reasoned evaluation, be sure to consider one or two objections to the argument and weigh their merits. In your view, does this argument ultimately succeed? Why or why not?
