ESSAY SET #2
Select two of the options below.
1. What is Baldwin’s basic point in “A Talk to Teachers?” Explain. Why does he claim that “What does the Negro want?” is “perhaps the most asinine and perhaps the most insulting” question?
2. Explain Paley’s “Watchmaker Analogy.” What is the advantage of concluding God’s existence from our ordinary experiences in the world (as with the “Argument from Design”)? Are there disadvantages to this approach? Explain.
3. What is knowledge? How does it differ from belief? Give an example of something most people claim to know but which they actually do not. Explain how this mistake might occur and how it can be avoided.
4. Fully explain “the Euthyphro Problem.” If right and wrong are not determined by God’s commands, does morality become a matter of individual preference? If yes, how can we explain the apparently universal prohibition on killing one another? If no, on what might morality be based instead? Explain.
