Philosophy Unit 1

philosophy

the love of wisdom

The main categories of philosophy

epistemology, metaphysics, ethics

epistemology

the study of knowledge and what we know

metaphysics

the study of reality and what is considered real

ethics

the study of morality and what is right/wrong

Socrates

teacher of Plato, the father of Western Philosophy, "Dialogue With Crito"

Plato

teacher of Aristotle, godfather of Philosophy, "Myth of the Cave", "World of Forms"

Aristotle

the unmoved mover, huge influence on later Philosophy and Theology

The main lesson in "Dialogue With Crito"

justice above all else

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs reveals that...

becoming self-actualized is a process

Buddhism's view of the enduring self

no self as the enduring self

The 4 Noble Truths of Buddhism

1) All life is suffering
2) Suffering is caused by cravings
3) Getting rid of cravings leads to enlightenment
4) The path to enlightenment is the Eightfold Path

The 4 things we are taught about Philosophy from Plato's Myth of The Cave

1) Activity
2) Hardwork
3) The Goal is Freedom
4) Examines our presuppositions

acedia

sloth

avarice

greed

vainglory

pride

The Seven Deadly Sins

1) Lust
2) Avarice
3) Vainglory
4) Acedia
5) Gluttony
6) Wrath
7) Envy

Enlightenment is tied to...

metaphysics and epistemology connect us to how we understand and engage with the world

Sigmund Freud believed that humans are...

aggressive, selfish, not gentle

Psychological egoism

the idea that humans act in their own self interest

Aristotle's view of happiness

our intellect is the highest good and leads us to true happiness

Human nature is...

closely related to the duality of personhood and life after death

Four assumptions if you presume life after death

1) We each have a "self"
2) The "self" is distinct from the body
3) The "self" endures and remains the same through time
4) The "self" is individual and distinct from others

Why is human nature important to understand?

Understanding humanity is one of the focal points of philosophy and religion

3 Major Views of Human Nature

1) Traditional Rationalistic View
2) Judeo-Christian View
3) Darwinian View/ Challenge

Traditional Rationalistic View

dualism; Plato: reason, appetite, aggression; intellect is the highest good

dualism

the idea that humans have an immaterial/immortal soul and a material body

inner-self

Greek psyche

Reason, appetite, and aggression relate to...

1) knowledge
2) wealth
3) power

Aristotle emphasized...

human purpose; to be happy, you must fulfill your purpose

Aristotle differed from Plato in that...

- Aristotle believed that reason is what separates humans from other creatures. - Plato believed that knowledge of the next world separates humans from other creatures.

Both Plato and Aristotle...

focus on reason as the most important (reason is the highest good)

Passions

self mastery over ______ is of great importance in order to fulfill human purpose

Judeo-Christian View

love, Augustine, original sin, humans are unique and rational beings

love

the main aspect of the Judeo-Christian View

original sin

a sin said to be inherited by all descendants of Adam

Because of original sin...

humans cannot choose good over evil without the help of God

Augustine

had a huge influence on Western Philosophy and Theology, related to the Judeo-Christian View

Darwinian View

focuses on natural selection, formed by Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin

the father of evolutionary theory and natural selection

human uniqueness is...

challenged by the Darwinian View

punctuated equilibrium

a theory of evolution holding that evolutionary change in the fossil record came in fits and starts rather than in a steady process of slow change (Gould)

theism

belief in a personal God

deism

belief in an absent God

pantheism

everything is God

panentheism

God is in everything but is greater than everything

monotheism

belief in a single God

polytheism

belief in multiple gods

henotheism

belief in multiple gods with one chief God

Existentialism

focuses on the existence of the individual, we become who we are and who we want to be, we are in control of our own lives

Jean Paul Sarte

atheist existentialist, "we are free and can choose to be so", coined "bad faith"

bad faith

pretending we are spectators in events and not able to change them or make choices

reason

male according to Plato

emotion

female according to Plato

Aristotle

said that reason is only fully developed in males, so women and children should obey men

modernism

objective, relies heavily on the empirical-rational method for truth claims, based in enlightenment

postmodernism

subjective, narrative-based, relies on the experience of an individual or community, allows for the supernatural

consciousness

the hard problem

Mind-Body Problem

we have a material brain and seemingly have a conscious, but how can we have both a material and an immaterial self?

Descartes

suggested the pineal gland as the source of Dualism

Leibinz

suggested that the brain and mind run parallel like clocks, independent but seemingly related

Materialism

matter matters, everything in the mind-brain problem is explained by the material world, reductionism

reductionism

reducing the explanation to the most natural explanation

identity theory

brain and mind are directly connected, emergence

emergence

the mind emerges from a material body

behaviorism

we are what we do, our behavior explains what is going on mentally

functionalism

our brain functions as a series of inputs and outputs, sensory inputs=behavioral outputs

Turing Test

determines whether or not a computer is capable of thinking like a human being

Alan Turing

English computer scientist

Semantic Viewpoints

1) eliminative materialism
2) new dualism

eliminative materialism

we only think that we feel things, basically materialism but tries to explain away why we think we have consciousness

new dualism

property dualism, conscious experience involves properties of an individual that are not entailed by the physical properties of that individual

The Enduring Self

1) Soul
2) Memory
3) No self
- a way to discuss who we are over time, our core essence

Soul

enduring self, an immaterial part of you that lives on

Memory

enduring self, the self is the same because we have memories of the person we were and continue to be

No Self

enduring self, we do not have a self that endures

David Hume

believed that only what we perceive exists

The atomistic self

Descartes: the self is known apart from others
Kant: the self has the ability to choose moral principles
- The belief that everything is made up of atoms

the relational self

we are known in relation to others, we know ourselves by how others define us

Power and Hegel's View

we force respect from others, create a master-slave relationship, and ultimately realize that the slaves have power over the masters

Culture and self-identity

our culture helps to define our identity

Robert Nozick's idea of reality

for something to be real, it needs value, meaning, importance, and weight

Pragmatism

William James, go with what works and what is practical

logical positivism

focuses on language and meaning, language describes reality, language describes reality

antirealism

no "real" objective world, the world is created by our perceptions of what is real

phenomenology

the study of lived experiences, reality must be revealed to our conscience, being is the underlying reality that appears

existentialism

"find self-definition in the passionate commitment to action", existence precedes essence - Sarte

eastern materialism

Charvaka Philosophers, sense perception tells us about the world, not inductive or deductive

western materialism

- Democritus: universe is made up of atoms, including reason and the soul
- Scientific method, Thomas Hobbes: there is only measurable matter in the universe

idealism

universe is made up of mind and idea, not matter, matter doesn't matter

western idealism

- Plato's World of Forms
- Augustine: the spiritual world enduress
- George Berkeley: subjective idealism, objective idealism

subjective idealism

the world is dependent on the mind of the individual

objective idealism

reality is dependent on a supreme being

eastern idealism

- Vasubandu
- since everything is perceived by our senses, we can't show that external objects cause these sensations

Pragmatism

the idea that what is meaningful to us is real, practical; major thinkers are Charles Peirce, William James, and John Dewey

Pragmatic method

a way to discover what our ideas mean by studying their consequences in actual experience

William James

defines pragmatism as the attitude of looking away from first things... and looking towards last things

William James

"we determine whether an object is real by its relation to our emotional and active life" - ?

logical positivism

a response to the argument between idealism and materialism, says that idealism and materialism don't look closely enough at the language they use, a blend between idealism and materialism

Alfred Ayer

argued that there are only two types of meaningful statements, tautologies and statements of fact; said that if a statement it neither, then it is meaningless