philosophy

What century is Immanuel Kant (author of 'An Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?') from? | 18th century (1724–1804; essay published 1784)

What century is Ralph Waldo Emerson (author of 'Self-Reliance') from? | 19th century (1803–1882; essay published 1841)

What century is Friedrich Nietzsche (author of 'On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense') from? | 19th century (1844–1900; essay written 1873, published posthumously 1896)

What century is Simone Weil (author of 'The Iliad, or the Poem of Force') from? | 20th century (1909–1943; essay written 1939/1940)

What century is Martin Heidegger (author of 'The Question Concerning Technology') from? | 20th century (1889–1976; essay published 1954)

What century is Audre Lorde (author of 'Poetry Is Not a Luxury' / 'The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action') from? | 20th century (1934–1992; key essays 1977–1978)

What century is Herbert Marcuse (author of the excerpt starting 'A Biological Foundation for Socialism?') from? | 20th century (1898–1979; text from late 1960s/early 1970s era critical theory)

How does Kant define Enlightenment? | Enlightenment is humanity’s exit from self-incurred immaturity: the inability to use one’s own understanding without being guided by another.

What does Kant mean by 'immaturity' (Unmündigkeit)? | A condition where a person relies on others to think/decide for them instead of using their own reason.

Why is immaturity 'self-incurred' for Kant? | Not because people lack understanding, but because they lack courage and resolution to use it without guidance.

What is the motto of Enlightenment in Kant’s essay? | Sapere aude — “Dare to know” / “Have the courage to use your own understanding.”

What two traits does Kant say keep people in immaturity? | Laziness and cowardice.

What role do 'guardians' (tutors) play in keeping people un-enlightened? | They encourage dependence by making it easier to obey than to think; they warn that самостоятель thinking is “dangerous.”

Why do people often prefer having a guardian? | Because it’s comfortable: someone else becomes the “book/doctor/pastor” who thinks for them.

What does Kant say is required for enlightenment of individuals? | Freedom—specifically, the freedom to make public use of reason.

Kant’s key distinction: what is the difference between public and private use of reason? | Public: as a scholar addressing the reading public (should be free).
Private: as an official in a role (may be constrained to keep the institution functioning).

Give Kant’s examples of 'private use of reason' where one must obey. | A soldier following orders; a citizen paying taxes; a clergyperson teaching the church’s doctrine in an official capacity.

What does Kant think about 'Argue as much as you like, but obey!'? | It can be compatible with enlightenment if public discussion is free while private obedience maintains order.

Why can a society gradually enlighten itself, according to Kant? | If public reason is free, people learn to think; even some officials/guardians may start promoting rational critique.

Why does Kant warn against revolutions as a route to enlightenment? | A revolution can remove a tyrant but may not reform the way of thinking; it can replace old prejudices with new ones.

What does Kant say about making a permanent religious constitution or oath forbidding reform? | It is illegitimate: it wrongs future generations by binding them against progress in understanding.

What is Kant’s view of a monarch’s role in enlightenment? | A ruler should allow free public reasoning while governing; he praises a monarch who says essentially, “Think/speak freely.”

Are we living in an enlightened age, according to Kant? | No—Kant says we live in an age of enlightenment, meaning a process toward it.

In Kant’s view, what’s especially harmful about immaturity in religion? | Religious immaturity encourages obedience to external authority rather than the individual’s rational conscience.

Emerson’s opening claim: what is 'genius'? | To trust your own thought: what is true for you in your private heart is true for all (when spoken authentically).

What does Emerson say great thinkers (Moses/Plato/Milton) did? | They set aside books/tradition and spoke what they thought, not what others expected.

What lesson do 'works of genius' teach the reader? | They return our rejected thoughts to us with “alienated majesty,” showing we should have trusted ourselves.

What does Emerson mean by 'imitation is suicide'? | Copying others kills your own unique life and power; your strength comes from your own original nature.

Why is 'envy is ignorance' in Emerson? | Envy assumes others possess what you lack, instead of recognizing your own distinct portion and calling.

What metaphor does Emerson use for self-trust? | “Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.”

What is the 'plot of ground' metaphor in Emerson? | Your nourishment comes only through your labor on the particular life-field assigned to you.

How does Emerson describe society’s relationship to individuality? | Society is a conspiracy against the manhood of its members; it rewards conformity.

What is Emerson’s definition of 'virtue' that society demands? | Conformity—following customs and names instead of realities and creators.

What does Emerson mean by 'Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist'? | To be fully human you must resist conformity and follow your own mind.

What is 'sacred' for Emerson? | “Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.”

Emerson on morality labels: how does he treat 'good' and 'bad'? | They’re names transferred easily; right is what fits your constitution, wrong what violates it.

What does Emerson say about consistency? | A “foolish consistency” is the hobgoblin of little minds; growth may require changing your view.

Why does Emerson distrust external approval (badges/names/institutions)? | They pressure you to surrender your inner truth for social acceptance.

What does Emerson argue about doing good/charity? | Beware performative charity; your goodness must have an edge (truth over soft sentimentalism).

What does Emerson mean by 'absolve you to yourself'? | Grant yourself permission to follow your nature; then the world’s approval follows (or doesn’t matter).

How does Emerson contrast youth with adults? | Children act with wholeness and independence; adults become 'committed persons' trapped by reputation.

In Emerson, what’s the danger of caring about what people think after public success? | You become watched and pledged; you lose the neutral freedom to observe and speak honestly.

What does Emerson say about speaking the 'rude truth'? | You should speak plainly even if it’s graceless; truth is more beautiful than fake niceness.

What does Emerson mean by 'I shun father and mother… when my genius calls me'? | Your vocation can demand breaking social expectations, even family pressure.

Nietzsche’s opening fable: what does it say about human 'knowing'? | Human intellect is a brief, arrogant moment in cosmic time—clever beasts invent knowing, then die.

What is the basic function of the intellect for Nietzsche? | Self-preservation: a device for helping fragile beings survive, mainly through deception/dissimulation.

Why does Nietzsche say deception is 'the rule' among humans? | Social life is full of masks: flattering, lying, role-playing, hiding behind convention and vanity.

According to Nietzsche, why did 'truthfulness' arise socially? | People need peace in the herd, so they agree on shared designations (language rules) to reduce conflict.

For Nietzsche, what is the first 'step toward the truth drive'? | A social contract of language: fixed words/designations become binding as what counts as 'truth.'

How does Nietzsche define a 'liar' in the social sense? | Someone who uses valid words to make the unreal appear real (misusing conventions).

Why do people hate the liar, Nietzsche says? | Not for deception itself, but for the harmful consequences of certain deceptions.

What does Nietzsche suggest humans really want from 'truth'? | The pleasant, life-preserving effects—not truth for its own sake.

What is a word, according to Nietzsche? | A sound-copy of a nerve stimulus—already far from the thing itself.

Why is it false to infer a 'cause outside us' from a stimulus? | It’s an unjustified leap (misuse of the principle of sufficient reason): we project our experience outward.

What does Nietzsche’s 'hard stone' example show? | Qualities like “hard” are subjective stimuli; language treats them as if they were objective properties.

What does Nietzsche argue about language and 'truth'? | Words aren’t adequate expressions of reality; different languages carve the world differently, showing arbitrariness.

Nietzsche’s metaphor chain: stimulus → ? → ? | Nerve stimulus → image (1st metaphor) → sound/word (2nd metaphor).

What is the 'thing-in-itself' for Nietzsche in this essay? | Something incomprehensible and not worth striving for in language-making; language names human relations, not essences.

How does Nietzsche describe humans’ relation to illusions? | We live in dream-images and surfaces; senses deliver forms, not truth.

What is Nietzsche’s warning about 'fatal curiosity'? | If we saw the body’s brutal processes and our ignorance clearly, we’d realize we’re 'hanging in dreams on a tiger.'

Weil’s central claim: who/what is the true subject of the Iliad? | Force—the power that turns people into things.

How does Weil define 'force' in the Iliad? | That which kills or reduces a living person to a thing, even before death (dehumanization).

What happens to a person fully under force, according to Weil? | They become like a corpse: a thing, no longer a “someone.”

Weil’s key paradox: how does the Iliad treat victors vs. victims? | Force dominates both: it intoxicates the victor and crushes the victim; no one is safe.

What does Weil mean by 'the intoxication of force'? | Power makes people forget limits; it produces hubris and cruelty until the powerful are themselves broken.

How does fear function in Weil’s reading of the Iliad? | Fear is universal; even strong warriors can be seized by it, because force can flip anyone’s fate.

What does Weil say about the Iliad’s tone toward suffering? | It is lucid and unsentimental—showing suffering as a fact, without consoling myths.

How does Weil describe war’s effect on the soul? | War empties the soul; it reduces attention to survival and strips away stable meaning.

In Weil, what is 'the spectacle' of force? | The degradation of humans into objects, bodies dragged/destroyed—war as a display of dehumanization.

What moral insight does Weil think the Iliad gives? | A recognition of human fragility and the dangerous illusion of power; compassion comes from seeing force’s impartiality.

Why does Weil call the Iliad 'the poem of force'? | Because its organizing principle is how force operates across all characters and events, shaping the entire world of the poem.

Weil on slavery: what does force do to the enslaved? | It turns a person into property; even memory, hope, and voice can be erased or distorted under domination.

What does Weil suggest about the 'balance' of force? | Force tends to overreach; it eventually rebounds—those who wield it become subject to it.

How does Weil view pity/compassion in the Iliad? | Rare but real moments (e.g., shared grief) break through the machinery of force and reveal common humanity.

Heidegger’s starting move: why 'question' technology? | Questioning opens a way of thinking that can prepare a free relationship to technology.

What is the common (instrumental) definition of technology Heidegger begins with? | Technology is a means to an end and a human activity.

Why does Heidegger say the instrumental definition is 'correct' but not 'true'? | It fits what we observe, but it doesn’t reveal technology’s essence (what it truly is).

Heidegger’s method: how do we get from the correct to the true? | Interrogate instrumentality itself—ask what means/ends belong to, leading to causality.

What four causes does Heidegger discuss (from Aristotle)? | ( ) Material (causa materialis), Formal (causa formalis), Final (causa finalis), Efficient (causa efficiens).

Heidegger’s chalice example: what is the material cause? | The silver the chalice is made from.

In the chalice example, what is the formal cause? | The form/shape—the 'chaliceness' (eidos).

In the chalice example, what is the final cause? | The telos: the sacrificial purpose/rite that bounds what the chalice is for.

In the chalice example, what is the efficient cause (and how is it reinterpreted)? | The silversmith—not as brute producer, but as one who gathers the other causes into bringing-forth.

What does Heidegger say the Greek word aition means? | That to which something is indebted—ways of being responsible, not just mechanical 'causing.'

What’s the key shift Heidegger makes about causality? | From 'making effects' to being responsible for bringing something into appearance.

What is 'bringing-forth' (poiēsis) in Heidegger’s frame? | A revealing where something comes into presence—like craft or art letting something emerge.

Why is the 'neutral' view of technology dangerous, for Heidegger? | Calling it neutral blinds us to its essence and keeps us unfree—whether we embrace or reject it.

What is the aim of a 'free relationship' to technology? | To respond to its essence rather than be dominated by it—seeing the technological within its bounds.

Lorde: what does she mean by 'Poetry is not a luxury'? | Poetry is a vital necessity: it gives language to feelings and dreams that shape action and survival.

According to Lorde, what role do feelings play in knowledge/action? | Feelings are sources of deep knowledge; respecting them enables lasting action and change.

What does Lorde say poetry does for the 'nameless'? | It helps us name what was formless, so it can be thought, shared, and acted upon.

Lorde: why are women’s 'dark places' (inner depths) important? | They hold ancient, hidden reserves of creativity and power—often ignored in dominant culture.

How does Lorde contrast European 'problem-solving' with her view? | Over-reliance on ideas as tools can miss deep feeling; poetry reconnects to inner sources of power.

Lorde: what happens when dreams/ideas are dismissed as luxury? | We abandon the foundation of our power and future; we lose the capacity to imagine alternatives.

In 'Transformation of Silence', what is Lorde’s core claim about speech? | What matters most must be spoken and shared, even at risk of misunderstanding.

What personal event frames Lorde’s 'Transformation of Silence' talk? | A medical scare: possible malignant tumor (later benign) forcing urgent clarity about mortality and priorities.

What did Lorde say she regretted most when facing mortality? | Her silences—what she never said.

What famous line sums up Lorde’s argument about silence? | “Your silence will not protect you.”

Why is speaking hard, according to Lorde? | It’s self-revelation and feels dangerous; fear of pain, rejection, or consequences.

How does Lorde reframe fear? | Not as something to obey, but something to put in perspective—doing so can produce strength.