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57 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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your donation
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Kant- my motives are not duty based they are self interest so my donation is not morally good
Mill- helping the greater good so it is morally good |
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Why does Nietzsche refer to his own philosophy as inverted Platonism?
THE NATURE OF THE GOOD |
Nietzsche views the good as multiple origins which depend on who you are asking (slave and master)
Plato who sees the good as one super concept that is the ultimate reality |
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Why does Nietzsche refer to his own philosophy as inverted Platonism?
ORIGIN AND STATUS OF IDEAS |
Nietzsche views the origin and status of ideas as derived abstractions, which are abstract notions that we create in our own minds; least real
Plato who believes the origin and status of ideas are forms which are the standard of reality; most real |
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Why does Nietzsche refer to his own philosophy as inverted Platonism?
PHYSICAL BODY |
Nietzsche looks at the significance of the physical body from a Dionysian view which is how old folks do philosophy, they have a bias view of the body since they are old and their own bodies are starting to fail them, philosophy is a metaphysical escape from the physical body
Plato who thinks the body is a prison home for the soul |
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Why does Nietzsche refer to his own philosophy as inverted Platonism?
STATUS OF ART |
Nietzsche views the ontological status of art as the most real (easel). We don’t get the world the way it is but see what we can in our mind, the human mind imposes forms on the world and all identities are imagined vs.
Plato who believes the art is the least real, and ideas are the most real |
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Inverted Platonism
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We create identities to make language possible and we impose forms upon the world even though they aren’t out there
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Explain what Sartre means by “Existence precedes essence
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Existence precedes essence refers to the idea that humans have free will to decide what kind of person they will become. In many cases, such as a paper cutter, the object has essence as the artist has conceived the idea, and then exists, after the artist has made it.
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Existentialism according to sartre
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refers to being in itself for itself: this distinguishes humans from everything else because they are able to decide their essence.
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Sartre and existentialism
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determinism provides us with an excuse for actions that we wish we had not performed.
Existentialism rejects this kind of thinking as false and dishonest. If I do an action that I wish I didn’t perform, I have done this by freely choosing to do so and have no one to blame but myself. Freedom is something that sets us apart from the rest of the universe and gives us dignity. Freedom is also a burden that we would like to shed. We would like to be told what is right and wrong and be relieved of our responsibility for determining values. However there is no escape from our freedom. To choose not to choose is itself a choice. |
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Epictetus and existentialism
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he believes that our script is already written and the world is fated.
You only have control over judgment, impressions, and attitudes. If it is outside of your control, that it is nothing to you. The world will happen and you just have to deal with it. |
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Why does Carol Gilligan reject Kohlberg’s theory of moral development?
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• Gilligan rejects Kohlberg’s theory of moral development because she thought his research was invalid since it was mainly based on male subjects. Also, she believes that it devalues things such as care and feelings. Gilligan is less likely to judge people which goes against Kohlberg’s universal laws. She also thinks it is incorrect that Kohlberg’s research shows that men are more likely to get to the post conventional phase than women because of universal laws.
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Do you agree with Gilligan? Why or why not?
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• I do agree with Gilligan because I think that women have an equal chance of passing the conventional stage. Also, I agree with her that by her not passing judgement does not make her morally deficient
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Preconventional
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(young children/animals) morality is outside of them they do what is right to avoid punishment or to further them. They are seen as selfish.
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conventional
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do what is acceptable and moral, do what is right in order to please others and feel good about themselves. Try to prevent society from breaking down
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postconventional
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independently know what conventions are, universal ethics, goes beyond conventions that you grow up with , tinking outside cultural and environmental programming, come to own conclusions about what is morally acceptable, capable of reasoning out what is morally right for anyone, past conventions of what everyone is doing
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According to James, what is pragmatism?
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Pragmatism: focuses on real questions rather than theoretical ones. Philosophy should have results. It is a method of assessing ideas and theories and relating them to our life.
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What kinds of “habits that are dear to professional philosophers” does James specifically reject?
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•James rejects abstraction, insufficiency from verbal solutions, bad a priori reason, abstract theories, fixed principles, closed systems, pretended absolutes and origins
-Rejects them because it doesn’t make a difference in the world |
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What distinguishes the pragmatist account of truth from the intellectualist or correspondence theories of truth?
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•Pragmatic truth-ideas become true through practice and verification not abstraction
oTruth is action (what promotes successful behavior) |
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What specific differences are there between Mill and Bentham’s Utilitarian philosophy?
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• Mill: Qualitative difference in pleasure, advocate defender of women’s rights (give everyone equal access)
-Uses both act and rule based utilitarianism -Quality not quantity -What matters is if you can feel pain (not an advocate of animal rights) -Aim at maximization of pleasure in general -Good life for humans is different than good life for a pig •Bentham: pleasures are qualitatively the same -Concerned with pain pleasure calculations for only humans |
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What practical implications does the distinction between rule-based and act-based Utilitarianism suggest?
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Act: capable of defending noble lies more successfully
-Specific cases without regard to general rule (justify a noble lie/killing) -Look at specific actions -Run out of food and must eat someone-in this specific act it is ok in order to maximize most people’s happiness Rule: general rules: shouldn’t kill/lie/steal because it would cause more pain than happiness (Jesus is good example) -What general rules we should follow for maximizing pleasure -Do they add up to greater happiness or misery -What laws should be set up for a community Act is more capable of justifying noble lies |
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Compare Marx and Rawls on their thoughts about economic inequalities and their relationship to justice.
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• Marx: redistribute the wealth equally among everyone, get rid of the rich and poor and make it equal
-Crass utilitarianism -Communist -He believes that economics is the cause of suffering -Labor is what creates the value but when people only get little wages it is unfair • Rawls: -Each person is to have an equal right to the most extensive basic liberty compatible with a similar liberty for others(liberties/rights-everyone’s equal) -Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are both: *Reasonably expected to be to everyone’s advantage *Attached to positions and offices open to all • (economic inequalities justified as long as poor aren’t made worse off) |
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What specifically does Kant claim about ethical motives?
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• Nothing can be called good without qualifications except good will
o Duty-only moral motive (respect the law don’t fear it) Cannot have feelings toward it o Self interest-not moral/ethical In order to benefit oneself o Inclination- not moral/ethical Out of fear Give to poor to make yourself feel better • Animals not included • Categorical imperative: act so you can will your maxim as universal law o Never lie: morally corrupt o Treat others as ends, rather than means (don’t use people) • You can never resort to your feelings you must resort to reasoning |
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Do you agree with Kant?
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• You can never resort to your feelings you must resort to reasoning
• I do not agree with him because I think that people can do morally good even when they have feelings toward a cause. For example, if someone is to donate money to a cause they probably have feelings towards it yet it is still morally good of them to help benefit others. In addition, some people are forced to do community service and therefore do not have feelings toward the cause yet I think that they are not doing something morally good because they do not have a choice whether to do it or not. The person who donated the money because they felt strongly about the cause was doing more morally right than the person forced to do community service. |
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What aspect of Wittgenstein’s philosophy does Morris Weitz employ to account for the concept of art?
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Weitz took the family resemblance theory of games and applied to art
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How does Weitz differentiate a closed concept from an open concept?
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• Closed concept-definitive characteristics has necessary characteristics and sufficient characteristics
• Open concept- cant be defined by closed or open concepts |
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What does Weitz imply about the nature of art?
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• Art can’t be strictly defined
• Appeals to people’s emotions and gives an aesthetic buzz • There’s no single property present in all art • No absolute metaphysical truth about art |
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What is Schrodinger’s cat?
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• A cat trapped in a room that contains a radioactive material, a Geiger counter, and hammer poised over a flask of acid
o If an atom in the radioactive substance in the box decays, there is a 50% chance of the cat dying within an hour. Otherwise the cat will live. |
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What problem does the cat present for the philosophy of science?
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o The problem is that the system is in an indeterminate state: the disparity between micro and macrostates
How can macrolevel objects such as rocks and cats have determinate qualities (weight, color, size) while subatomic particles that constitute them have indeterminate qualities How can determinate be based on indeterminate |
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Explain the four attempts to reconcile the problem of the disparity between microstates and macrostates.
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o Wigner-observation: whether radioactive particles will decay or not depends on whether it is being observed
o Copenhagen/Bohr- fuzziness is character of world: fundamentally, there is a barrier stopping us from understanding the world. It is fundamentally indeterminate o Bohm/Einstein- hidden variable –fuzziness is character of our perception: we could understand how the microstates work but we just do not know. It is knowable we don’t know it yet though o Many worlds hypothesis: whether cat dies or not depends on what world you’re in: some worlds cat will die, some worlds cat will live |
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Which attempt is most relevant to O’Hear’s analysis? What do you think he is implying about the nature of scientific knowledge?
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• O’Hear agrees with Copenhagen view: there is an epistemological limit about how far we can understand things
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• Anselm:
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o Criticizes the ontological proof for the existence of God
o States that this proof only works when talking about something “that which nothing greater can be thought” namely God o Exists because unlike all other creatures or things God is perfect |
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• Aquinas:
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o Proves the existence of God in five ways
o First mover, first cause, contingency vs. necessity, degrees of perfection, teleological/ design o States that just because something exists in your mind does not mean it exists in reality o Claims the ontological proof for the existence of God does not work |
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• Aristotle
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o In the Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle discusses the Golden mean which means the middle math: moderation is key
o Owned slaves o Was Plato’s student o Has to be balance in one’s life o If you feel bad about doing bad actions=corrupt character o The happiest person is self sufficient o Defends poetry in ontological and political sense o Important difference between defining something and proving whether it exists |
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• Augustine:
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o Claims that times is a distinction of the mind
o Argues that evil is the privation of the good: why do bad things happen to good people with a benevolent and omnipotent god o Claims that time is distention of the min. was influenced by St. Ambrose of Milian o Was a Manichean before converting to Christianity o Argues that evil is the privation of the good o Was not a Pythagorean o Does not claim that free will is an illusion |
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• Copernicus:
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o Used sense perception and geometry to prove heliocentrism
o Was a priest |
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• Dawkins:
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o Believes in cumulative selection over single step
o Cumulative natural selection is exactly what happened on this planet and we ourselves are among the most recent if not the most wonderful of its consequences o Me thinks it is like a weasel o Blind watch maker o Not everything created is made all at once, it can take a long time and objects mutate over and over to form their final appearance |
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• Descartes
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o Pineal gland is intersection of mind and body (only thing in brain without duplicate
o Brain-states are not equivalent to mind states o The mind is not the brain, the brain is a physical object o Try to find something that is un-doubtable o Engages in the methodical doubt to search for an indubitable starting point for the sciences o Claims the soul is in the pineal gland o Claims that bodily perception is a confused mode of thought o Trying to figure out what is consciousness |
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• Epictetus
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o Script already written
o The stoic o Was a slave o Fatalist o World is fated, cant choose o Figure out what is in our control Judgment, impressions, attitudes o Anything outside control means nothing to us |
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• Epicurus:
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o Philosophy used to help soul
o Irrational not to fear own death o Cure us of fear by getting over death fear o People have a tendency to seed pleasure o Some things are certain and some things are not |
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• Freud
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o Founder of psychoanalysis
o Mind made up of three parts Superego (reasoning and cultural ideas about ethics) Ego (balances the superego and the id) Id (sex drive) o Thinks god is a wish fulfillment |
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• Siddhartha Guatama (Pali Canon)
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o 5 skandhas: form, feeling, formation, perception, and consciousness
o View of self is not consistent with karma and reincarnation o There is no deep self |
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• Heraclitus
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o Cant step in the same river twice
o Things are always in flux |
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• Hume
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o Empiricism skepticism
o There is no knowledge without experience (but what does knowledge amount to for Hume?) o All knowledge comes from experience/ structure of mind is passive o Advances the bundle theory of sensation to account for the existence of the self o Is an empiricist o Claims that ideas are derived from impressions o Has a view of the self that is similar to Siddhartha |
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• Kant
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o All knowledge begins with experience, but it does not follow that all knowledge is dependent on experience
o Critique all priori metaphysics o Mind is active o Believes in god/freedom o Can’t be scientifically proven o Kant’s critique of pure reason: a priori knowledge= knowledge prior to or independent of experience/ a posteriori= truths dependent on experience o Kant’s epistemology: nature isn’t out there but a function of the forms of sensibility and concepts of the understanding o Duty based ethics o Motives: duty, self interest, inclination o Motives are crucial/ consequences are irrelevant o Phenomena/noumena o Existence is not a real predicate of description |
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• Locke:
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o Believes gov is the mediator b/t disputes
o He believes it is acceptable to rebel against the gov in extreme cases o Natural rights are life, liberty, estate, and property |
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• Nietzsche:
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o Psychological contortments allow people to escape
o No such thing as free will at times : why give advice to someone if they have no free will at times? o Compares himself to Copernicus o We ignore individualistic characteristics of all human/real things (each leaf is diff but we makes with our minds each one similar) We put form upon the world o Master morality vs slave morality Master w power good=strong bad=weak Slave w/o power good=weak bad=strong o What’s good for some are bad for other o Forms: believes ever identity is imaginary, concepts are made up o The good is relative to power structures o The art is most real |
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• Pascal:
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o Did not invent telescope
o Did not execute Copernicus o Pascal’s wager: should you bet against divinity |
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• Plato:
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o To know the good is to be good
o Idealism o Theory of forms Supreme being is good Form/ math are real Knowledge and opinion are on the x axis Sense objects are below the x axis Art objects are least real o Form is the most real while sense objects are least real Ontological significance o Epistemological significance refers to how we know what we know (origin of knowledge) o Theory of being: rationalism/idealism o Reject ethical relativism (when in rome) o Was a Pythagorean o Cave allegory o Says rulers shouldn’t be allowed to own lots of treasures (hoard things) o Advocates that leaders cant own property Communism (shared community) Doesn’t want rulers to be corrupt o Believes everyone is cut out for something o Soul is more important than body o Only place for poets in just states is to keep them on a short leash o Ideas are out there o Cogito ergo sum-I think therefore I am |
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• Reid
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o Account of self
o Personal identity is justified by the phenomenon of memory o We continue to exist from the past time to the present time o While memory justifies his belief in self it does not cause the self o The concepts of the imperfect identity enables us to say that an object is the same when all parts are replaced o Identity of a person from one moment to the next is perfect o Identity of physical objects over time is imperfect o Identity is the foundation of all human rights and obligations and of all accountableness and the identity is the foundation of all human rights and obligations and of all accountableness and the notion of it is fixed and precise |
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• Searle
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o Uses analogy of microstates vs. macrostates to explain mind vs. brain
o Mind does not equal brain. |
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Epistemology
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the study of what is meant by knowledge, what does it mean to “know” something as opposed to merely having an opinion
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Catharsis
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when therapy is thought of as catharsis is it thought as a way of emptying oneself of frustration and misery. If a person says that an experience is cathartic it mean that pent up resentment or emotion was expressed and no longer demands the same expression
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Metaphysics:
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principle works of Aristotle, examines what can be asserted about anything that exists just because of its existence and not because of any special qualities is has
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Teleology
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study of design, purpose, directive principle of finality in nature or human creations; stresses essence before existence; hold that there is a purpose inherent and final cause for all that exists
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Empiricism
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theory of knowledge emphasizing the role of experience and evidence, especially sensory perception
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Logic
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supremacy of reasoning, system of reasoning
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Aesthetics
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art and beauty
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