PHIL106 Study Guide - Final Guide: Pedophilia, Alternative Facts, Virtual Murder
PHIL EXAM PREP-
Part A: 25 marks
Provide definitions for key terms and concepts. Answer five questions out of ten.
Part B: 75 marks
Short essay questions, around 400 words each. Answer three out of six.
A-
4. The medium is the message: The ediu is the essage is a saig itodued Mashal
McLuhan and is a deliberately paradoxical statement that suggests that the way we convey a
message is more important than the content of the message itself. If we focus solely on the message
and ignore the medium, we miss important things. The media has a major effect on our lives and
McLuhan observes that the medium shapes and controls the way humans interact and the
technology that transfers the message changes us and changes society.
5. Fictionalizing tendencies: Our lives are made up of stories we tell about ourselves and to ourselves
which can be concerning as they have the power to influence us and as Goldie says, profoundly
affect how we lead out lives in the future. There are four fictionalising tendencies that he suggests
we make ourselves aware of and guard against. One: we plot and plan our lives, two: we tend to find
easos o eplaatios i a old hee thee ist, thee: e assue life has a aatie losue
and four: we tend to see ourselves as characters within a specific genre.
7. Imagination-as-simulation: As humans, we can become very involved in fictions, particularly if the
author has created things well. Imagination-as-simulation is when we, the audience, engage with the
fiction and temporarily take on the attitudes we assume someone in that situation would be having
as opposed to imagination-as-theory where we simply imagine ourselves in the situation. Goldman
describes simulation as an emotionally charged procedure that plays a significant role in the way we
consume fictions and is something audiences do naturally.
9. The Gaes dilea: The Gaes Dilea as itodued a pape Morgan Luck who
argues that gamers who commit acts of virtual murder must somehow clearly outline the difference
between that and virtual paedophilia or admit that they themselves have been committing morally
prohibited acts as the two should be held in the same regard; either both permitted or prohibited.
Gamers who partake in acts of virtual killing baulk at the idea of virtual paedophilia when in reality;
the two have no difference. Both acts are immoral and bring harm to other people but virtually,
neither brings any harm.
10. Filter bubble: When using social media or search sites, your searches are tracked and recorded
and are used as data for later searches you conduct by an algorithm that will pre-filter the results to
present you with information that you are more likely to be looking for based on your previous
actions. This can be useful in the sense that it makes it easier to find what you are looking for; but it
also has an extremely negative effect of confirmation bias and polarisation as we are not presented
with any alternate facts or opinions.
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11. Cybercascade: A cybercasacde is when there is an article, photo, video etc. online that becomes
popular or unpopular by people clicking on it, liking it, sharing it etc. and the more it is shared, the
more popular or unpopular it becomes; it is all based on the choice of the first downloaders.
Cybercascades occur every day and are a concern because cascades can be exploited or rigged and
anything can become popular.
13. Metadata: Metadata is data collected that is about how the certain thing is happening for
example, the date, time, what device you are using etc. At the moment, access to metadata is
justified eig used i the puli iteest suh as fo potetio agaist teois ad i tes of
national security but other non-law enforcement agencies can use it for their own purposes. With
the use of metadata, companies can predict what you are going to do and what kind of person you
are and this is a concern because this kind of data can result in discrimination.
14. Psychographic labelling: Everything we do online and in public is collected and recorded as
demographics or psychographics which private companies can use in their marketing techniques.
Demographics are things about you for example, age, gender, religion etc. and psychographics are
psychological assumptions about you based off of your demographics and create a psych profile on
who you are such as your personality, values, opinions etc. From your psychographics companies
form certain ideas about you and sort you into a certain category that determines how you are dealt
with.
15. Defamation: The law of defamation is the main constraint on freedom of speech and states that
if the at is false ad daages thei eputatio seiousl ad ufail, fo eaple, thee lost
business or have been socially ostracised; then the injured party can seek civil damages. The only
issue is it is very hard to sue for defamation because it takes a long time and is very expensive.
18. The paradox of fiction: The paradox of fiction was first identified by Colin Radford who presented
the argument that our reactions to non-eistet haates ad situatios i fitios ee iatioal,
ioheet ad iosistet. Thee ae thee peises that e hae to oside i egads to this
paradox; one: that having emotions requires having relevant beliefs, two: we have genuine emotions
when engaging with fictions and three: we lack the relevant beliefs for having genuine emotions
when engaging with fictions. These are challenged by pretend theory which suggests we adopt
make-believe attitudes towards the fictio ad Caolls ojetio hih suggests that eotios ae
beyond our control.
B-
2. Daniel Solove argues that the increasing availability of personal information on the internet
undermines our ability to control our own reputation. Do you agree? Explain why or why not with
reference to a relevant example.
I agee ith Daiel Soloes aguet that the aailailit of ifoatio o the iteet udeies
our ability to control our own reputation because there are so many instances that show this; such
as The Sta Was Kid. Our reputations are vitally important to the way we connect with the world; it
is the side of us we present and it is based off the reputations of others that we make friends, date
and get a job. It is because our reputations have such an important role in our society that it is
important that we have control over the personal information that we release and with the internet
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Document Summary
A: the medium is the message: (cid:858)the (cid:373)ediu(cid:373) is the (cid:373)essage(cid:859) is a sa(cid:455)i(cid:374)g i(cid:374)t(cid:396)odu(cid:272)ed (cid:271)(cid:455) ma(cid:396)shal. Mcluhan and is a deliberately paradoxical statement that suggests that the way we convey a message is more important than the content of the message itself. If we focus solely on the message and ignore the medium, we miss important things. The media has a major effect on our lives and. There are four fictionalising tendencies that he suggests we make ourselves aware of and guard against. Imagination-as-simulation is when we, the audience, engage with the fiction and temporarily take on the attitudes we assume someone in that situation would be having as opposed to imagination-as-theory where we simply imagine ourselves in the situation. Gamers who partake in acts of virtual killing baulk at the idea of virtual paedophilia when in reality; the two have no difference.
