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48 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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what is pratityasamutpadha? |
dependence co-arising= the buddhist concept of cause and effect and the complete interconnected of every single thing |
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the concept of pratityasamutpadha leads to certain conclusion called the "3 Marks". what are they? |
1. impermanence 2. no atman (no permanent, abiding self) 3. duhka |
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What are the 4 Noble Truths? |
1. existence of duhka (no matter HOW GOOD your life is) 2. causes of duhka = the 3 roots 3. cessation of duhka= nirvana 4. how you do it => Noble 8 fold path |
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What are the causes of duhka? also known as the 3 poisons, or translated more accurately as the 3 roots |
1. ego-centered greed (does NOT refer to desire, but possessiveness and craving) 2. anger and resentment (it's like taking poison and hoping the other person dies) 3. ignorance (seeing things the way they are, not just how you want them to be) |
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the Noble 8 fold path can be broken up into 3 broad categories. what are they? |
1. Morality 2. Meditation (will help you be more moral) 3. Wisdom (what you will have as a result of 1,2) |
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what is included under the category of morality? |
1. right speech (what you say) 2. right conduct (what you do) 3. right livelihood (how you make $$) |
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what is included under the category of meditation? |
1. right effort (pay attention) 2. right mindfulness (calm your mind) 3. right concentration (gain insight) |
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what is included under the category of wisdom? |
1. right thought 2. right understanding *you will have these things once you get rid of greed, anger, and ignorance (the 3 roots) |
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Buddhist ethics are based on... |
pratityasamutpadha, or cause and effect basically, don't do anything that will increase duhkha for others or yourself |
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What are the 5 Precepts? |
1. don't harm living things 2. don't steal 3. don't misuse sensual pleasures 4. be honest 5. stay sober (because otherwise you lower your awareness which makes you more likely to do harmful things) |
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"Why be moral?" Buddhists answer... |
1. to lessen your own duhka (householders) 2. to reach nirvana (monks and nuns) 3. to help others do the same, since you don't have to worry about yourself anymore (arhats) *arhats don't have to try, the just behave spontaneously and are good because they've COMPLETELY eliminated greed, anger, and ignorance (the 3 roots) |
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what is the difference btwn enlightenment and nirvana? |
enlightenment= the moment of waking up when you realize you've succeeded in completely eliminated greed, anger, and ignorance (the 3 roots) nirvana= a state you reach once you've COMPLETELY eliminated the 3 roots |
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Buddhism started around... |
500 BCE (time of Socrates) |
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what are the teachings of the Buddha called? |
sutras |
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what are the 5 realms you can be reborn in? |
1. heaven 2. human 3. animal 4. hungry ghost 5. hell |
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what is conscience? |
conscience is the highest governing principle give to us by God which tells us what to choose when self-love conflicts with benevolence |
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how is Butler's worldview different from Hobbes, who believed that the self is ALL there is to ethics? |
Butler believed that benevolence is a natural tendency just as strong as the natural tendency of self-love |
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according to Butler, what is self-love? |
self-love is NOT unrestrained gratification of impulses (external), but a lifetime of happiness (internal) |
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is Butler's system of ethics teleological or deontological? |
deontological bc it tells us to follow conscience no matter what the consequences are |
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where does conscience come from? |
conscience operates by some unknown principle and gets its authority (not power) from human nature and God, and thus is self-evident |
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what are the criticisms of Butler's ethics? |
1. self-evident just means what most people believe (used to be self-evident that women were not really people and slaves are okay) 2. operating by some unknown principle is a cop-out and doesn't explain how conscience works and where it comes from 3. why do consciences disagree if it is reliable? 4. there's no way to know who is right when consciences disagree |
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Butler lived around... |
~1700s (the time of the Enlightenment and many scientific discoveries) his contemporaries were Newton, Bach, and Hume |
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was Butler a theist or deist? |
Butler was a theist who wanted to prove that theism > deism without appealing to scripture, divine revelation, etc |
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is conscience feeling or reasoning? |
conscience is reason bc it's part of your soul |
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what was Butler's day job? |
minister to king and queen of England in Oxford |
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what was Butler's religious background? |
his parents were protestant dissenters at a time when the Church of England was extremely intolerant of anything other than their Christianity. Butler ended up agreeing with the Church of England. |
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what is the difference between rationalism and empiricism? |
rationalism= knowledge comes from reason empiricism= knowledge comes from sense experience |
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what are some implications of empiricism if you follow it to its logical conclusions? |
there is no soul bc we can't reason about things we have absolutely no sense experience of love is not an abstract thing but simply how you behave (we don't have sense experience of abstract things but we do have sense experience of behavior) |
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how do Hume's views on causality differ from the status quo? |
one event doesn't MAKE another event happen. instead, one event FOLLOWS another. in other words, correlation != causation. we can only observe correlation, not causation. "cause" is us projecting our expectations and wanting things to always stay the same. it just happens to be the case that one event has always followed another in our lifetimes. this could change. e.g. "show me where you saw the cue ball MAKING the 8 ball move" |
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sum up Hume's ethical system |
"morality is sentiment in the mind of the observer, essentially, feelings and emotions" in other words, right/wrong is nowhere to be found in the external world, but it is just an emotional response. morality is NOT out there, it's inside. |
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what does Hume say about feelings vs reasoning? |
feelings are the basis of morality and affect your behavior, while pure reasoning does NOT change behavior (e.g. that the square root of 9 != 1.41428 will do absolutely nothing to change my behavior) reasoning is secondary to feelings HOWEVER reasoning CAN change your feelings (like how learning about motifs and musical symbolism leads to you appreciating classical music more) |
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what is a strength of Hume's ethical system that is a weakness for absolute ethical systems? |
Absolute ethical systems cannot explain why people disagree with each other. Hume says people disagree with each other because it's all relative, but they also agree as often as they do bc we all have common biology and backgrounds so we're likely to have the same emotional reaction to the same things and approve/disapprove of similar things. |
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If morality is all relative, then why do we have universally agreed upon virtues such as benevolence and justice? |
benevolence and justice are not abstract things. they are simply socially useful, or helpful when it comes to relations with other people. (benevolence is always socially useful because we like agreeable people, and justice is socially useful in a society like ours where there's enough resources but it's not evenly distributed) |
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is home's ethical system teleological or deontological? |
trick question! it's neither. it's not telling you what the absolute standard of morality is AND it's not telling you to look to consequences to figure out right/wrong. it's basically saying there is no such thing as right/wrong. |
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what are the criticisms of Hume's ethics? |
1. everyone is always right (just say how you feel) 2. everyone is equally right (what about slavery/genocide/honor killings?) 3. there has never been a moral disagreement (what people think is a disagreement is just people telling each other what they approve/disapprove of e.g. "i like chocolate" and "i like milk") |
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Hume lived around... |
~1700s (same as Hume) time of scientific discoveries and the American Revolution |
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What was Hume's reputation? |
seen as an equal to Aristotle/Plato/etc. he was deeply respected by intellectuals, and was the most famous philosopher in Europe at the time. however, he was an atheist and criticized Christianity so no university would hire him and his books were forbidden by the Catholic Church. |
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What was the Hume's religious background? |
Hume was from Scotland where Calvinism was big. Calvinism= 3 to 4 hr church services with a person yelling at the congregation telling them how worthless they are and how much God will enjoy torturing them (!) |
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what is John Stuart Mill's ethical system? |
utilitarianism, or "Greatest Happiness" Principle= greatest happiness for the greatest # of ppl |
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what does his ethical system have to do with hedonism? |
happiness= pleasure and the absence of pain i.e. hedonism the difference is that in Hedonism, you are at the center of the ethical system. with utilitarianism, everyone is at the center of the ethical system, so it is a kind of "impersonal Hedonism" (!) |
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what aspect of Mill's ethical system makes it scientific and measurable? |
Hedonistic calculus= weighing the pros and cons of each action in a math-like way |
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what are the different aspects of pleasure? |
1. quantity or intensity (i simply don't understand this) 2. quality (higher pleasures like appreciating aesthetics?!) 3. duration (some pleasures are pleasurable now but painful later) |
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what are the criticisms of Mill's ethical system? |
1. it's impossible to be happy in this world (wtf Christians?!) 2. it's not enough bc ppl want to be happy ALL the time (wtf whiners) 3. incompatible with Christian ethics bc the Christian virtue of self-sacrifice doesn't always bring about a greater good (Mill doesn't care) 4. doesn't say why you should be moral (A-it's a tool not a motive) 5. no way to measure (how do you compare duration with intensity?) 6. an action that produces greatest happiness for greatest # of ppl isn't always morally right (e.g. borrowing $$ and buying pizza for the class, arresting wrong person vs losing the public faith in the Dark Knight) |
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according to Mill, why are people moral? |
because of internal and external sanctions. internal sanctions > external sanctions. external sanctions= social expectations, laws, religion internal sanctions= personal standards that form the basis of self-esteem, self-worth, self-worth |
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What is Mill's response to the objection that an action that produces the greatest happiness for the greatest # of ppl isn't always morally right? |
Rule utilitarianism= when utilitarianism goes against general moral rules, follow the general rule |
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John Stuart Mill lived around... |
1800s contemporaries were Dickens/Lincoln/Thoreau |
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How did the theory of utilitarianism come about? |
Mill got it from Jeremy Benthem, an economist who was his father's friend. Benthem believed politicians should make laws that benefit the greatest # of ppl instead of what they normally do. Mill took this idea and ran with it but changed utility (or usefulness) => happiness. |
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what were some remarkable things about Mill? |
-he was a child prodigy -his father worked his ass -he had a nervous breakdown at 21 bc of his upbringing and figured out on his own that he needed to experience more beauty in life so he read poetry and went for walks and got better. this was before the time of Freud (!) -he supported women's suffrage (WAY ahead of his time) |
