Final Exam

I. Define and fully explain the philosophical significance of eight of the following: [2 points each]

II. Answer one of the following questions: [12 points]

(q) Can objects, such as the Ship of Theseus or your pen, survive change? Present, explain, and evaluate arguments and examples supporting both positive and negative answers.

(r) According to Lewis' view personal fission and fusion are symmetrical analogues of each other. But are fission/fusion cases analogues of each other? Present, explain, and evaluate reasons supporting both positive and negative answers.

III. Answer one of the following questions: [12 points]

(s) Can an effect precede its cause? Present, explain, and evaluate arguments and examples supporting both positive and negative answers.

(t) Can a time traveler shoot and kill Adolf Hitler in 1933? Present, explain, and evaluate arguments and examples supporting both positive and negative answers.

IV. Answer both of the following questions: [30 points each]

(u) The Story: One day a mysterious device appears out of thin air in my office with a note that says "This is a time machine." The note is signed, in my handwriting, --"Your Future Self". Intrigued I get into the time machine, determine how it operates and travel back in time to the building of the pyramids. While there I accidentally cause one of the hundred ton blocks to topple and crush scores of hapless builders below. Upon returning to the future I discover a radically changed world--the Hasidim rule half the planet and the Aztecs the other. Liking neither option I travel back to the original time period and resolve to stop the block from toppling.

But how am I alone to stop a hundred ton block? I hit upon the following plan--I try to prevent the block from toppling by my own power for 30 seconds and then jump back in time 15 seconds. Now there are two of me trying to stop the block from toppling. We try again for 30 seconds and then both travel back in time 15 seconds. Now there are four of me trying to prevent the block from toppling.  We keep doing this until a rather freaky, though fortuitous, set of circumstances occurs. Though we do manage to clear all the builders away from the danger zone, we are unable to prevent the block from falling. In fact, the falling block kills all but one of me. Those who cleared the builders away just in time get caught under the block. Most of those trying to hold the block plummet to their deaths with the stone. After these events and upon returning to the future I find the world, as far as I can tell, returned to normal.

Next I jump to the future where I find a much better world and resolve to travel to the stars on the new interstellar ships. So I send the time machine back to the year 2000 with a note that says: "This is a time machine" and signed, "Your Future Self".

Present and explain the two main theories of time travel discussed in class. Is the above story consistent on any version of either theory? Identify the parts of the story that are examples of objections to the possibility of time travel. For each objection state the objection and then evaluate the objection. Justify fully all your answers.

(v) In the Star Trek Voyager episode "Threshold" and in the Next Generation episode "Genesis" we have characters undergoing radical transformations. In the former, Paris and Janeway, in less than 24 hours, evolve several millions of years into what the crew calls "a completely alien life form"--[they look like salamanders except with no back legs and they don't act as if they are intelligent.] In the latter, most of the Enterprise crew de-evolves hundreds of thousands of years. In fact, most of the crew de-evolves to pre-hominid, pre-sapient creatures. In both cases, everyone is returned to normal, but none of the individuals affected have memories of the time they spent in their changed state or even feelings of what it was like to be in that state.

Present and explain the Only Mind Matters, the Only Body Matters, and the Dualist theory of Identity. For each theory describe what the theory should say about survival in the above cases? Is there any theory, not necessarily just the three mentioned above, according to which the crewmembers survive either procedure? Do you think any of the crewmembers survive either procedure? Why or why not? Be sure to fully justify all your answers to these questions.

DUE: Thursday, December 14th, by 2pm (Eastern Time)

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