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94 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What are the three branches of PHilosophy?
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Ontology, Epistemology, Axiology
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What is the difference between a valid and sound argument?
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A sound argument is both valid and has content that is true; a valid argument just determines whether the components agree
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What is the difference between a priori vs. a posteriori arguments?
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A priori is the knowledge gained independent of experience; a posteriori is the knowledge gained through experience and experimentation
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What is the difference between analytic vs. synthetic propositions?
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Analytical propositions is true by definition; Synthetic propositions are known through experience
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What is Anselm's definition of God?
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By God we mean an absolutely unsurpassable being, a being that cannot conveivably be improved upon
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What is a reductio ad absurdum argument?
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A method of proving a premise false by showing that its logical consequence is absurd or contradictory
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What was it argued is the main problem with Anselm's ontological argument?
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Perfection; God with numbers, There is n but couldn't you think of it as n +1
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Why does Aquinas argue in the first 2 ways that there must be a first cause?
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First Way: We must stop somewhere, there are a series of causes so we must stop somewhere
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What does Aquinas mean by necessary versus possible beings in his 3rd way?
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If God is an existent object in the universe, it is possible for God not to exist. It is necessary for God to exist/ Countable objects, many existent objects, God exists
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What is the fallacy of composition error and in what way is Aquinas guilty of it in the third way?
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If for all existent objects they do not exist at the same time, then, given infinite time, there would be nothing in existence
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What is the basic argument in Paley's argument from design?
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We can infer that the universe had a designer simply by looking at the world around us and seeing that everything has a purpose and a design that could not be some random combination of events.
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What views do Demea, Cleanthes, and Philo hold in Hume's Dialogues?
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Demea argues that theology should only be taught to a mature mind: a student should first study logic, ethics, and physics, and then should they turn to theology. He, the traditional orthodox Christina seems to be ambivalent toward the idea of reason-based faith. He is not wholly against the idea, but he is not wholly comfortable with it either. Cleanthes is an empirical theist; that is, he believes that ti is possible to come to an understanding of God's existence and nature by inferring it from the natural world. In other words, he thinks that by looking at the world, we can gather evidence that will allow us to justifiably draw conclusions about what God is really ike. He is the only one who clearly and adamantly believes in the possibility of natural religion. Philo is the only Character who shows no tendency toward natural religion. Philo, introduced to us an understanding of God's nature. It its Philo's arguments against Cleanthes empirical theism that comprimise the main theme of the Dialogues
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What is the main principle at the heart of Cleanthes analogy?
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World is a complex machine, Machines are designed by intelligent beings, God created the World
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What is Philo's empiricist principle?
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Our ideas reach no further than our experiences
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What are the five consequences that Philo argues follows from Cleanthes own Analogy?
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1. Designer if not infinite 2. Designer is not perfect. 3. Designer is not one agent 4. Designer is mortal. 5. Designer has physical body
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What are the 4 inconsistent propositions involved in the problem of evil?
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1. God is all powerful 2. God is all knowing 3. God is perfectly good 4. evil exists
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What is the evidential versus logical problem of evil?
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Logical: If there is a perfectly good being then no evil exists, evil exists/ Evidential: There is no omniscient being because how could he allow evil to exist
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Why does Johnson reject the free will defense?
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Does not explain natural disasters, non-human suffering going on in nature, any argument about a good god can be flipped to a sadistic God
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Why does Johnson reject the higher morality defense?
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Why terrorist say normal rules don't apply to them, Punishes us because he loves us?
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What other objections/ concerns does Johnson have?
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Why create a world that seems to have so much intervention?
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What is the difference between moral and natural evils according to Swinburne?
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Moral is humans acting in morally bad ways, Natural evil is pain from anything other than human action
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What is the purpose of suffering according to Swinburne?
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Heaven and what would be the difference between here and heaven
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What does Swinburne mean by moral urgency and responsibility?
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God desired to create a world that not just includes them, but also has moral significance and values
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What is Swinburne's free will defense?
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Once God grants free will he no longer has control over the occurence of evil
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How does swinburne explain why God allows natural evils?
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Provide opportunity to create heroes
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What other arguments does swinburne offer?
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Moral Luck; one generic human soul and we become who are; if each soul is created uniquely, he knows our true nature regardless of circumstances
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What type of suffering is Ivan most concerned with in the Brothers Karamozov?
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The suffering of Children (the Turkish soldiers skewering babies on bayonets)
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Why does Ivan reject Alyosha's theodicy?
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The price is too high (theodicy is an account to solve the problem of evil without losing god))
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What are Descartes three levels of doubt?
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1)perceptual illusion 2)The Dream Problem 3) A decieving God
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Why does Descartes question the senses?
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Because in the past, his senses have decieved him before ( such as seeing something at a distance and thining it's one thing when it is in fact something else)
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What is Descartes dream argument?
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There is no way for Descartes to be able to determine whether at the present moment he is in a dream or not because he has had dreams so vivid he could not differentiate between whether what he was perceiving was a dream or reality
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What is Descartes first principle and why is it certain?
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I think therefore I am. Every time he puts forth this principle, it is necessarily true because something that does not exist can not think
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What is the difference between impressions and ideas according to Hume?
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IMPRESSIONS ARE ACTUAL EXPERIENCES, IDEAS ARE MEMORY/RECALL/imagination
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What is Hume's copy principle?
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Any idea is something that we formulate from a combination of things we experience in our lives
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What is Hume's empiricist criterion of meaning principle?
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To be meaningful, a statement must be either analytic or capable of being verified
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What does Hume mean by demonstrative proof?
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a priori; a bachelor is a single man
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What is Hume's view of the nature of causal relationships?
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Its not just coincidence, there is a necessary causal link between two events, yet there are only two events, we create the link in our minds; constant conjunction of two events in you experience; black swan events; without previous experience, there can be no causal relationships; there can be no absolute truths with causals
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What is the principle of the uniformity of nature?
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What happens in the past will happen in the future; the assumption is that the same natural laws and processes that operate in the universe now, have always operated in the universe in the past and apply everywhere in the universe
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Why does Hume conclude that matter of fact reasoning has no rational foundation?
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Hume wanted to prove that certainty does not exist in science. Hume claimed that our belief in cause and effect relationships between events is not grounded on reason, but rather arises merely by habit or custom
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What does Kierkegaard mean by the public?
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Humanity as a whole. Kierkegaard said that including a human being as simply a member of a species is a reduction of the true meaning of life for individual
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What are K.'s three spheres of existence?
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Aesthetic is pleasurable, Ethical is what's right, Faith is God's will
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What is the teleological suspension of the ethical according to K.?
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A father should not kill his son, but God tells Abraham to kill Isaac, K says we should look at abraham as both a murderer and the father of faith
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What is the difference between subjective and objective knowledge according to K.?
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Subjective is infinite inwardness/ Objectiveness: scientific investigations
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What does K. mean by an appropriation process as opposed to an approximation process?
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Appropriation is a process of love, Approximation is doing good because of love
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What did tillich mean by the courage to be?
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It is the strength to continue to live on in a meaningful way in spite of the fact that our existence appears to have no purpose
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What is the difference between fear and anxiety according to tillich?
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Fear has a specific object, Anxiety is fear without an object
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What did N. mean by master vs. slave morality?
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Master morality:
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What is the difference between the moral categories good and evil
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goodness is established by the noble's greatness. Anything that falls short is inferior or bad. Evil is anything powerful and threatening; by default becomes good is anything that is not that.
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What did N. mean by the Ubermensch?
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The perfection of man
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What did N. mean by the will to power and what are the two aspects of it?
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Dionysus is fun and second is Apollo which is order, balance the two and pursue man to be the best of the best
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What did N. mean by the herd instinct and the ascetic ideal?
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Herd instinct- common mediocre masses and their habits/ Ascetic ideal are the direct result of a slave moralitywants to have wealth, power, sex, etc.
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What did N. mean by the doctrine of the eternal recurrence and what is its significance?
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concept which states that the universe has been recurring over an infinite amount of time over an infinite amount of space
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What does Sartre mean by existence precedes essence?
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You exist before you form who you become; god doesn't assign us a destiny; we are a person before we become who we are as a person
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Why does sartre argue that man is condemned to be free
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even if you choose to not choose, that's still a choice, we constantly have to make a choice
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Why does Sartre arrgue that we experience our freedom in anguish?
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There is no black and white, There is no answer/ duty to family or duty to country?
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What does Sartre mean by hell is other people?
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Sartre meant we can't escape interaction with other people, when we interat they'll have certain perceptions of us
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What is the conflict and tension according to Sartre between you and the other and being for others?
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previous
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What is the significance Sisyphus according to Camus?
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People work meaningless jobs in factories and offices
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Why does Camus think life is absurd?
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It seems like a lot of what we do amounts to nothing, all there is is time and theres no time to do what we want, office life
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Why does Camus conclude that we must imagine Sysyphus happy?
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If Sisyphus can find meaning in a meaningless task then we can find meaning in anything
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In the Ring of Gyges, what did Glaucon thin the nature of justice was?
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Best case: Do whatever you want and have no consequences, worst case: people do wrong by you and no retribution can be had. justice is the middle ground, the compromise
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What were Glaucon's two thought experiments?
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Would you rather be an unjust person who everyone thinks is just or a just person everyone thinks is unjust?
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Why did Socrates disagree with Glaucon on the nature of justice?
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not just about consequences, whats more important is what you do when no one is looking, important to be content with yourself
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What did Hobbes mean by the state of nature?
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State of nature is a state of war; every man for themselves
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What did Hobbes mean by the right of nature?
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Every individual has the right to do whatever is necessary to keep themselves alive
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Why did Hobbes think a sovereign authority was necessary?
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A social contract prevents chaos. It ensures peace. by giving up certain natural rights, you provide yourself with the security of knowing that others won't exercise their right of nature on you
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What is the Prisoners Dilemma?
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Two convicts are being interrogated, if both don't confess they both get two years if one rats he gets one year the other gets 25, if they both confess they get 10 years
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What is mill's Greatest Happiness Principle and how does it work?
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Greatest Happiness Principle- any action is considered right in so far as how much happiness or pleasure the consequences create. As a result, an action is considered wrong by how much pain/unhappiness it creates
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How does Mill define happiness?
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Mill defines happiness as a pleasure and the absence of pain
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What is the difference between intrinsic vs. instrumental value?
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Intrinsic value is something that has value in itself, enjoyment; instrumental if it serves a purpose, leads to other value
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What is the difference between higher and lower pleasures?
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One pleasure is of higher quality than another if and only if most people who have experienced both pleasures always prefer the first to the second regardless of their respective quantities
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What is the competent judge and what's the problem with it?
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an individual who is complete acquainted with both of the two pleasures being judged. how do we determine who can say what is higher pleasure
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What is the doctrine of the swine objection and how does mill respond to it?
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utilitarianism is dehumanizing and doesn't recognize the greater worthiness of some nobler pleasures
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What is the happiness machine objection?
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Would we prefer the machine to real life?
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What are some of the practical objections to Utilitarianism discussed in class?
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The intense sufferings of a few can in principle be justified in terms of the marginal benefits of many
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What is Kant's Categorical Imperative and how does it work?
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It is the universal law that will comply with all people that can rationally think and make a morally correct decision that is not based upon their own desires.
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What does Kant mean by a good will?
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Intentions. He says what's right or wrong isn't a matter of consequences unlike mill, it has to do with intentions. The categorical imperative tells us what is good will. even if our actions end up having bad consequences, as long as our intent was good, then it was good will
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What is a maxim?
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A maxim is an absolute moral statement about a universal truth, example: murder is wrong
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What is the difference between a categorical imperative and a hypothetical one?
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hypothetical is a command that applies if you want to attain a particular outcome/ Imperative is what you care about simply doesn't matter do what you have to do no matter if you want to or not
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What is the difference between perfect and imperfect duties?
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perfect duties you must always act on/ imperfect duties ou're required to perform them sometimes or when you can
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What is the difference between autonomy and heteronomy?
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autonomy is acts on internal drives/ heteronomy acts based on external forces or obligations
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What was Kant's shopkeeper/dealer example?
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A shopkeeper could take advantage of his customers but his duty as a shopkeeper is to be good to his customers
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What is Kant's second formulation of the categorical imperative?
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We should never use people for our own benefit
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Why does Kant argue it is wrong to make a false promise?
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If false promises were universal, promises would become unintelligable
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What does Kant mean by duty and why is rationality so important in understanding it?
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A rational being with Good will automatically does its duty
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What are some of the objections to kant discussed in class?
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Kant says we're obligated to perform our moral duties.
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What is a virtue according to aristotle?
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Mean between two vices, excess and deficiency
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What are the three conditions of having a virtue?
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must know he is doing virtuous actions, must decide on them, must do them from a firm and unchanging state
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What does Eudaimonia mean
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Eudaimonia is aristotles concept of happiness
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How does one obtain a given virtue?
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By finding that virtue in another person and imitating that person
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In what ways are pleasures and pains related to character and virtue?
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If we have virtuous character we pleasure virtous acts and suffer from the thought of vices
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What is the function argument?
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an argument that something is good if it serves it's function
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Why are virtues so important in obtaining Eudaimonia?
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You can't obtain Eudaimonia without a noble cause based on virtue
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What are some of the objections to Aristotle discussed in class?
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How do we know where the golden mean is? Perfect Balance????
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