Philosophy Final Exam Review

Philosophy

the love of wisdom

Autonomy

the freedom of being able to decide for yourself what you will believe in by using your own reasoning

Plato

student of socrates, preached "doing philosophy", said philosophy is an activity, teacher to Aristotle, performed in an intimate environment with trust, wrote Euthyphro The Republic The Apology and Crito

Socrates

came up with the socratic method, considered the father of philosophy, questioned conventional beliefs in Athens on a quest for wisdom, left no writings of his own

Epistemology

looks at the extent and realiability of our knowledge, truth, and logic, and whether knowledge is possible

Metaphysics

looks at the ultimate characteristics of reality of existence

Ethics

asks about our moral obligations and moral virtues; our moral principles; what is morally good; and the morality of behaviours, social policies, and social institutions

Thales

presocratic, explaining reality, made of water, first to take philosophical approach

Anaximander

presocratic, reality was boundless

Anaximenes

presocratic, air is the source of things, similar to Thales

Empedocles

presocratic, matter was made up of the 4 elements

Heraclitus

presocratic, reality is changing

Democritus

western materialism, everything consists of atoms and empty space

Pythagoras

influential math thinker, believed everything derived from numbers

Xenophanes

presocratic, suggested one god who was not anthropomorphic, or a god who did not imitate human qualities

Parmenides

presocratic, change is an illusion, founded Eleatic school

Zeno of Elea

presocratic with Parmenides, change is an illusion

Gail Stenstad

feminist philosopher, anarchic thinking

Victor Frankl

a Jewish philosopher who saw humans as ultimately free beings

Mohandas Gandhi

jain philosopher, knowledge predates senses

Selfish View

believed that humans are basically self-interested and act on survival

Selfish View

Sigmund Freud, Thomas Hobbes and Moritz Schlick

Western Religious View

humans are made in the image and likeness of God

Western Religious View

St. Augustin of Hippo & St. Thomas Aquinas

Rationalist View

we see ourselves as reasoning, free, moral beings who have an immaterial soul

Rationalist View

Plato, Aristotle

Materialist View

only the material body exists

Materialist View

Hooves, Schlick, Ninian Smart

Existential View

there is no God to determine our nature, so humans have no purpose or nature except the one they make themselves

Existential View

Sartre

No-Self View

gets rid of the self all together, holds that nothing in the universe, not even the self remains the same

No-Self View

Hume, Buddha

Darwinian View

said that some creatures have random variations that can be inherited by offspring, and those with advantageous variations survive and pass them on

Dualism

we can think of the self without a body, so it is not a body; we cannot think of the self without thinking, which is not a material act

Dualism

Descartes

Feminist View

claims that emotions, desires & reason are equal, says that the traditional rationalistic view and Platos theories are sexist

Scientific View

said the mind is a computer following a program that generates certain outputs when given certain inputs

Scientific View

Alan Turing

Materialism (Hobbes)

the view that matter is the ultimate constituent of reality

Idealism (Berkeley)

holds that reality consists of minds and their ideas

Theism

there is God

Pantheism

everything is God

Panentheism

everything is God but God is still his his own entity

Deism

God is transcendent but no imminent

Objections to ontological argument

existence is not property or a part of the concept of a thing

Teleological

proof of God through design

Objections to the design argument

for all we know nature and living are made by a non-intelligent mechanisms, Darwins natural selection,

Criticism to Aquinas proof

can be disapproved by Newton, it is possible for the series of movers and causes in the universe to be infinite

Atheism

there is no God

Agnosticism

no commitment to God or no God

Mysticism

he direct experience of a religious reality, involve the feelings of dependence, mystery, terror, and bliss

Religious Experience

Many believe in God not on the basis of rational proofs but because of a direct personal experience of the divine

Will to Believe

it is legitimate (not wrong) to choose on the basis of our "passional nature," even without sufficient evidence in support of the option we choose

Ethical Absolutism

is the view that there is one and only one correct set of moral standards that everyone should follow everywhere and always

Ethical relativism

argues that because societies differ in the moral standards they accept, it follows that there is no single correct set of moral standards everyone should adopt; instead, people should follow the standards that their own society accepts

Consequentialist

category of theories hold that a morally right action is one that produces more good and fewer bad consequences than any other action

Ethical egoism

type of egoism that claims that a morally right action is one that produces more good and fewer bad consequences for oneself than any other action

Hedonist egoists

such as Epicurus claim that good consequences are those that produce pleasure for oneself, whereas bad consequences are those that produce pain

Utilitarianism

claims that a morally right action is one that produces more good and fewer bad consequences for everyone than any other action

Non-Consequentialist

category of theories that claim that whether an act is right or wrong depends on factors other than or in addition to the non-moral value of relevant consequences

Aquinass principle of double effect

says that when an action has both a good and a bad effect-it produces one good but destroys another

Kants first categorical imperative

says that to be a morally good person I must never do something unless it is what I believe everyone ought to do

Aristotles theory of virtue

says humans will achieve happiness only by fulfilling their specific purpose, which is to exercise their reason, and to do so in an excellent or virtuous way

Feminist Ethics

Gilligan

Utilitarianism

Jeremy Bentham

Justice

includes both retributive , which looks at how fair punishments are, and distributive , which looks at how fairly society distributes benefits and burdens

Justice as merit

holds that benefits and burdens should be distributed unequally according to peoples ability, effort, achievement, or social status

Justice as strict equality

holds that everyone should have equal shares of societys benefits and burdens

Egalitarians

say there are no relevant differences among people, so all should be treated equally

Justice as moderate egalitarianism

holds that political rights and economic opportunities should be distributed equally but that all other economic benefits and burdens should be distributed according to the relevant differences among people

Justice as social utility

holds that benefits and burdens should be distributed so as to maximize social benefits and minimize social harms

Socialist justice

holds that burdens should be distributed by ability and benefits by need

Justice in the welfare liberalism

of Rawls requires equal liberty in societys political institutions, equal opportunity for desirable jobs and positions, and the difference principle, which says economic inequalities are just only if they produce benefits for the least advantaged

Justice in the classical liberalism

of Nozick holds that equality and maximum liberty are just in the political arena but that economic goods should be distributed as people freely choose to distribute what they make or are given

Social Contract

Rawls

Social Contract

argues that a just government is one we would choose to live under if we chose without knowing whether we would be rich or poor, black or white, and so forth

General Will

Rousseau

General Will

argued that without government, peoples property and security are at risk

Freedom

society in general and government in particular must grant each individual the freedom to believe what she wishes, the freedom to live as she wishes, and the freedom to associate with whomever she wishes, so long as she harms no one in the process

Communitarian Critique

argue that social contract theory mistakenly ignores Aristotles and Hegels claim that government is not an artificial construct but is a natural outgrowth of our social nature

Just War

would condemn terrorism because it is usually violence that is not authorized by a legitimate authority

jus ad bellum

justice when approaching war

jus in bello

justice when in war

Anselm’s ontological proof

• (1) God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived

• (2) than which nothing greater can be conceived must exist in reality and not merely in the mind

• (3) so God exists in reality

Paley’s Argument of Design

• (1) If we find an artifact, like a watch, that is designed to achieve a purpose, we can conclude it was made by an intelligent being.

• (2) But things we find in nature, especially living things and their parts, are designed to achieve a purpose.

  (3) So, by analogy, we can conclude they were made by an intelligent being, and this is God.

Aquinas’ cosmological proof

• (1) Some things move.

• (2) What moves must be moved by another moving thing, which must be moved by another moving thing, and so on.

• (3) This series of moving movers cannot be infinite, for then their motion would have no origin.

• (4) The origin of their motion cannot be moving, for then it would have to be moved by another.

• (5) This unmoving origin of motion is God.

Act Utilitarianism

type of utilitarianism claims that the right action is the one that itself produces more pleasure and less pain for everyone than any other action.

Rule Utilitarianism

is supposed to not have the wrong implications that act utilitarianism does.

Divine Command Theory

is a nonconsequentialist theory that says the morally right action is the one that God commands for example, in scripture.

Natural Law ethics

says that human nature has certain natural tendencies and that morally right actions are those that follow these natural tendencies.

Kant’s Second Categorical Imperative

Every human being is an end in himself. we should always treat people as ends in themselves and not use them as means to achieve our own goals

Buddhism

considers volitional actions as supremely important because they contribute to a person’s karma, which then determines a person’s future. Also considers morality and wisdom to be closely related.

Feminist Ethics

claims that moral development in women moves through

• (1) a level in which they are overly devoted to caring for themselves,

• (2) a level in which they are overly devoted to caring for others

• (3) a level in which they balance caring for others and for themselves.

Friedrich Nietzsche

“God is dead! God remains dead! And we have killed him! How shall we console ourselves, the most murderous of all murderers? Shall we not ourselves have to become Gods?”

Mary Wollstonecraft

“I see not the shadow of a reason to conclude that \[the\] virtues \[of men and women\] should differ in respect to their nature. In fact, how can they, if virtue has only one eternal standard?”

Julien Offroy

the idea that humans are nothing more than complex machines is associated with

Kant’s God Theory

people are forced to believe in a supreme being because of obligation

freud

god is an illusion

consciousness

awareness of things when asleep or when waking