Philosophy Midterm 1

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gadfly of Athens

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Socrates
Socrates kept asking questions. And asking, and asking, and asking. When those questions were answered, there were others. Eventually, these led to more questions that the Greeks didn't want to even ask, let alone answer. What is God, what is Art? how do we know? how do we know that we know? Socrates was able to reduce the most powerful to blubbering idiots through inquiry.

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begging the question

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the informal fallacy in which an argument utilizes as a premise the same idea which is also contained in the conclusion

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modus ponens

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affirming the antecedent

if p then q
p
therefore q

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modus tollens

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denying the consequent

if p then q
not q
therefore not p

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deductive argument

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attempts to show that a conclusion necessarily follows from a set of premises.
men are mortal
i am a man
therefore i am mortal
Developed by aristotle- Hume doubted deduction by questioning induction

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inductive argument

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type of reasoning that follows for the possibility that the conclusion is false even when all the premises are true
if its raining the sidewalk is wet
the sidewalk is wet
is it raining

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moral objectivism

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the position that certain acts are objectivly right or wrong ,independent of human oppinion

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moral relativism

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the view that what is morally right or wrong depends on what a person thinks

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Greatest happiniess principle

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mills famous formulation utilitarianism which holds that one must always act so as to produce the greates happiness for the greatest number of perople

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utilitarianism

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the idea that the moral worth of an action is determined by the usefulness in maximizing utility. moral of the action is determined by its outcome
Kant

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epicureans

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a form of hedonism that declares pleasure as the sole intrinsic good.
greates good was to seek modest pleasures to attain a state of tranqility and freedom from fear an pain though knowldege and the workings of the world and the limits of ones desires
rejects immortality and mysticism; it believes in the soul, but suggests that the soul is as mortal as the body
materialistic hedonism

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hedonism

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the believe which argues that pleasure is the only intrinsic good. used as evaluating actions in terms of how much pleasure and how little pain. hedonist strives to maximize net pleasure of everyone

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know theyself

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engraved above the oracle at delphi
socrates guiding rule

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may 28 585 BCE

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eclipse predicted by thales
start of philosophy

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the unexamined life

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is not worth living
stated by socrates as the reason he cannot stop asking questions
would rather die than stop seeking knowldge

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ontology

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central branch of metaphysics
categorizes things in the world and what relations these have on other things

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metaophysics

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explains the fundamental notions by which people understand the world: existance spacetime and possibility

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love of wisdom

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the litteral translation of philosophy

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epistemology

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theory of knowldge concerned with nature and the limitations of knowledge :
what do we know?
how do we know?

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ethics

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moral philosophy
concepts of good and evil, right and wrong

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socratic humility

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attitude that the only thing a person can know is what they do not know.

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idealism

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theory which maintains that the ultimate nature of reality is based on the mind or ideas

plato & berkely

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rationalism

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reality is rational in nature and making prpoer deductions is essential to achieving knowledge
deductive logic and use of math are rational tools

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tabula rasa

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blank slate
mind in itself has no knowledge prior to experience
john locke

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cogito ero sum

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i think therefor i am
second poart of decartes explaniation that god exists

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decieving demon

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evil genious that creates doubt

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doctrine of swine objection

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objection to utilitaranism
says moral consideration not based on pleasure

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conventionalism

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fundamenta principles of a certain kind are grounded on agreeents in society rather than on external reality

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principle of utility

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in order to act in a moral way your action must produce more good than bad for people inculded

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final end

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fully realized state of existence or actuality

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intrinsic good

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somethign good in itself not for something else

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instrumental good

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a means to an end

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virtue

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moral acts that are done freely and not due to a duty

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clear and distict ideas

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form of rationaluism
distinct ideas are clear
clear ideas are not always distinct

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god is not a deciever

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decartes view that because god is a perfect being. he cannot be decieveing which is an unperfect quailty

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Eudaimonia/happiness

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the ultimate intrinsic good
the final end

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egoism

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the theory that one’s self is, or should be, the motivation and the goal of one’s own action.

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primary qualities

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primary properties are less tied to the deliverance of one particular sense, and include the size, shape, and motion of objects.

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secondary qualities

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...or immediate sensory qualities, including colour, taste, smell, felt warmth or texture, and sound.

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innate ideas

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concepts present in the mind at birth as opposed to concepts arrived at through experience.

highly general concepts—God, freedom, immortality, substance

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idealism

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idealism is contrasted with realism, in which the external world is said to have an apparent absolute existence. Epistemological idealists (such as Kant) claim that the only things which can be directly known for certain are just ideas

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russelian benefit

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A contented old age would be, I suppose, a Russellian benefit, ... Going to heaven when one dies, though a benefit, is not a Russellian benefit.

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locke's ideas

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tabula rasa
primary and secondary qualities

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formal reality

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all ideas are mere modes of thought, and in that sense they are all equal: they all have the same amount of formal reality, that is, reality intrinsic to themselves

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objective reality

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the reality of the things they represent
the idea of God has more objective reality than the idea of a tree, which has in turn more objective reality than the idea of the color red.

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matters of fact

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beliefs that claim to report the nature of existing things; they are always contingent

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relations of ideas

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ideas go together,
no idea of 2+2=4 rather idea of 2 and idea of + and idea of 4

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falsifiable

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proves scientific method sort of,
sciencetific fact always trying to be falsified but it doesnt so its true

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problem of induction

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inference that "all swans we have seen are white, and therefore all swans are white," before the discovery of black swans

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Epiphenominalism

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In the Philosophy of Mind, a dualist theory of mind-body interaction which maintains all mental events are causally dependent upon physical events (i.e., brain states). According to this theory brain events cause mental events, but not vice versa.

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subjectivism

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The doctrine that all knowledge is restricted to the conscious self and its sensory states

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moral absolutism

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the belief that there are absolute standards against which moral questions can be judged, and that certain actions are right or wrong, devoid of the context of the act.

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dobuan

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natives who have freedom of sex

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validity

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An argument is valid if and only if the truth of its premises entails the truth of its conclusion

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soundness

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An argument is sound if and only if

1. The argument is valid.
2. All of its premises are true.

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empiricism

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a theory of knowledge that asserts that knowledge arises from evidence gathered via sense experience.

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categorical imperative

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the central philosophical concept in the moral philosophy of Kant.
it may be defined as a way of evaluating motivations for action.

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constant conjunction

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Two events A and B are constantly conjoined if whenever one occurs the other does. The constant conjunction theory of causation, often attributed to Hume, is that this relationship is what is meant by saying that the one causes the other, or that if more is intended by talking of causation, nevertheless this is all that we can understand by the notion.

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type-type

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For instance, we may call a certain class of objects – such as cars - a “type”, whilst a particular car – a Fiat Punto – may be called a “token”, or representative of that type.

Now, some forms of Identity Theory argue that certain types of brain state are identical with certain types of mental state. So, all sorts of happy mental states would be identical with certain sorts of brain states. This is known as Type Identity Theory.

This form of the theory assumes two things:

* Everytime you are in a certain mood – such as being happy – there is the same corresponding brain state
* The same mood/brain state relationship occurs in everyone else

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token-token

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This supposes that an individual thought is identical only with the individual brain state which it corresponds to. However, this leaves us with the problem that no brain activity need correspond to any sort of mental state or behaviour whatsoever. This cannot even be tested for, since it may be argued that we can never have the same thought twice – and therefore never the same brain state. Even though this does not disprove the theory, it means that there is nothing to suggest beyond doubt that brain states are mental states.

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leibniz's law

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The identity of indiscernibles is an ontological principle which states that two or more objects or entities are identical (are one and the same entity) if they have all their properties in common

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functionalism

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mental states (beliefs, desires, being in pain, etc.) are constituted solely by their functional role — that is, their causal relations to other mental states, sensory inputs, and behavioral outputs.

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Property dualism

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while the world is constituted of just one kind of substance - the physical kind - there exist two distinct kinds of properties: physical properties and mental properties. In other words, it is the view that non-physical, mental properties (such as beliefs, desires and emotions) adhere in some physical substances (namely brains).

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Substance dualism

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that there exist two kinds of substance: physical and non-physical (the mind), and subsequently also two kinds of properties which adhere in those respective substances

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frankies concept of a person

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a thing which thinks and has second order voilitions. ie it wants to want to do something.

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ought implies can

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A formula in Kant's ethics, meaning that correctly judging that a given agent is morally obliged to perform a certain action logically presupposes that the agent can perform it. He can perform it not just if he wants, prefers, or wills to, but in some absolute sense. This capacity is a categorical freedom in contrast to the hypothetical freedom defended by Hume and others, for it is freedom both to do and to forbear doing a certain action under the same set of conditions.

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desert

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the condition of being deserving of something, whether good or bad. It is related to justice, revenge, blame, punishment and many topics central to moral philosophy.

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retributive view of punishment

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The retributive theory seeks to punish offenders because they deserve to be punished.

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utilitarian view of punishment

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seeks to punish offenders to discourage, or "deter," future wrongdoing.

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humanitarian view of punishment

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It is maintained that the only legitimate motives for punishing are the desire to deter others by example or to mend the crimina