Test #2

Front 1

Know Aristotle's 4 causes

Back 1

1. Material- refers to the material (substance) from which the thing comes and in which change occurs. Like what accounts for wood becoming a bed instead of a table?

2. Formal Cause- the shape, or form, into which "this matter" is changed. It's not just wood that makes a table but the form it takes.

3. Efficient Cause- that which initiates activity; the substance by which a change is brought about.

4. Final Cause- is that for which an activity or process takes place, a thing's very reason for being (raison d'être).

Front 2

Know Aristotle's types of souls

Back 2

Lowest type of soul- Vegetative or nutritive- the minimal level of life, absorbs matter from other things (as food is absorbed and transformed into blood or tissue)

Second level of soul- Sensitive or sentient soul- registers information regarding the form of things, but does not absorb or become those those things (as when we look or touch something)

Third level of soul- Rational Soul- includes the nutritive and sensitive souls, as well as capacities for analyzing things, understanding various forms of relationships, and making reasoned decisions (called deliberation).

Front 3

Know Aristotle's main ideas in his theory of happiness

Back 3

In Aristotelian words, happiness is the state of actualizing or realizing a things function. It's entelechy. A good life is one that provides all the necessary conditions and opportunities for a person to become fully himself or herself- and one in which the person has the character to do so.

Front 4

Eudaemonia

Back 4

Implies being really alive rather than just existing; fully aware, vital, alert. Implies exhilaration- great suffering and great joy, great passions.

Front 5

Central Ideas of Hedonism

Back 5

Pursue pleasure (whatever suits you) and avoid pain (whatever causes you suffering and discomfort)

Front 6

Know the main teachings of stoicism concerning happiness and a good life

Back 6

In the stoic view, happiness comes only through detachment form all "externals." Everything is a matter of attitude.

Front 7

Know the main teaching of Aristippus

Back 7

Taught that pleasure is the principal motive for living and that pleasure is always good-regardless of its source. We should have as much, intense, sensual pleasure as we can.

Front 8

Know what Epicurus taught about pleasure

Back 8

Only the quality of pleasures or pains is important. Rather than to have the most of anything, including the longest possible life span, the wise and sophisticated person chooses to have the finest.

Front 9

Know what cosmological argument is

Back 9

Asserts that it is impossible for any natural thing to be complete and sufficient source of its own existence.

Front 10

Know what rationalism in epistemology is

Back 10

is an epistemological position in which reason is said to be the primary source of all knowledge, superior to sense evidence. Rationalist argue that only reason can distinguish reality from illusion and give meaning to experience.

Front 11

Know Augustine's criticism of epicureanism

Back 11

Augustine thought that Epicureanism is fit only for swine, not for human beings. Besides debasing humans being, the Epicureans make what God intended only as a means (appetites) into the be-all and end-all of life (satisfaction, pleasure). In so doing, Epicureans, in their retreat into the earthly Garden, satisfy themselves at the expense of the poor. In their rejection of an afterlife, they ignore their own souls.

Front 12

How did Aquinas think we could know about God?

Back 12

He thought God's existence could be demonstrated by natural reason. "Natural Reason" is, thus, reason unaided by divine revelation.

Front 13

Know what a "priori" means

Back 13

A priori ideas are characterized as being certain, deductive, universally true, innate, or independent of all experience. A priori knowledge is derived from reason without reference to sense experience. Truths of reason and laws of logic are usually

Front 14

Aquinas Five Ways and a counterargument for each

Back 14

1. Motion- The argument points out that motion must be given to each object by some other object that is already moving.

2. Cause- concerns the initiating cause of the existence of the universe

3. Necessity- Thomas concluded that there must be something whose existence is necessary and not just possible.

4. Degree- Argument from gradation. Rests on the idea of qualitative differences among kinds of beings.

5. Design- Thomas held that the order we observe in inanimate nature cannot come from matter itself, since matter lacks consciousness and intelligence. Design, by its nature, implies intent.

Front 15

Descartes Theory of Doubt

Back 15

Begin by doubting the truth of everything—not only the evidence of the senses and the more extravagant cultural presuppositions, but even the fundamental process of reasoning itself. If any particular truth about the world can survive this extreme skeptical challenge, then it must be truly indubitable and therefore a perfectly certain foundation for knowledge.