philosophy final exam review

flashcards covering second half of philosophy year

Aristotle traits

Good trait of character, manifested in habitual action

Aristotle virtues

Honesty, courage, temperance, justice, loyalty, compassion, etc.

What did Aristotle believe?

Happiness requires virtue. Man lives his life in accordance with his moral character.

Happiness is…

…something final and the end of our actions.

Virtue and friendship

Virtue is the foundational gain for friendship. Friendship is natural and implies virtue.

Kant — unconditional ought

Morality is the unconditional ought and obligation.

One ought to perform some act apart from any consideration of personal gain. Never to use other people for advantage.

Consequentialist Theory of Morality

fulfillment of our duty does not rest on the consequences of our actions

John Stuart Mill — Utilitarianism — Principle of utility:

Actions are right in proportion, as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness—act based on the consequences of your actions.

Krrishnamurti — fear and ambition

Humans are driven by ambitions. Parental and societal expectations for children to take roles and positions put pressure on them, which drives them to fear.

Krrishnamurti — role of educators

Help students find their own true vocation; no special status attached to any profession.

Krrishnamurti — revolutionary thinking

Helped to awaken individual intelligence and find true vocation when you are younger.

Grimshaw — female ethic

Men are superior to women.

Virtue is gendered and women are secondary to men — standards of morality are different for genders and is central to the ethical thinking of philosophers.

Grimshaw’s position

Reject traditional sex roles and be skeptical of the gender differences in moral reasoning.

Do not base moral theory on one perspective or the other; equalize sex roles. Both are capable of morality.

Nitsche — beauty and ugliness

Nothing is beautiful except man alone.

Nothing is ugly except the degenerating man. Everything ugly weakens man, and his sense of power and courage fall with the ugly and rise with the beautiful.

Tolstoy — Art

Art has a religious and moral function.

Art communicates moral and spiritual values. It is essential for all men and accessible to everyone, not just the upper class.

St. Anselm — Ontological Argument

God must exist in inasmuch as the attributes of existence is part of his nature.

God itself is a proof to His existence. God is infinitely greater than man himself, and can have its origin only in God.

God placed an intuitive understanding in us.

William Paley — Teleological Argument

Watch maker analogy; formed and adjusted to produce motion, must have a creator

Watch maker analogy

Formed and adjusted to produce motion, must have a creator who formed it for a purpose.

Aquinas — Cosmological Argument

The first cause argument. Nothing can be produced from non-existence. There must be a first cause of the world. We cannot have something from nothing.

God is the first cause of everything we see in the universe.

Aquinas five arguments

proofs from motion

nature of efficient cause

possibility and necessity

graduation in things

governance of the world

William James

God’s existence is a living option for some. To not believe in God is to think it is better to fear being wrong more than hope for the possibility of eternal good.

Huxley — Agnosticism

Approach to knowledge with doubt, denial, desbelief.

Agnostic perspective on God

We can neither prove or disprove the existence of God. Unless facts can be given or proven, beliefs in supernatural beings cannot be taken as acceptable.

John Hick — God and the problem of Evil

Why does God permit moral evil or weakness?

Why has God create a world in which natural and moral occur?

Is he willing but not able? (David Hume)

Hick’s position

God did not create man as an automatic machine. God controls every movement of man. He gives man free will and can act in either direction.

Classical Christian Thought; Theodicy

God is not responsible for the evil in the world.

Evil as privation of goodness

Evil represents the going wrong of something that in itself is good. God created the universe for good purpose.

Freedom and responsibilty

To be a person is to be a finite center of freedom.

Jean Sartre’s position

Absolute individuality and freedom.

Humans create their own world; nothing determines man’s future. It is determined by yourself. This is essential for authentic life, and one relies on creative powers rather than social and religious authority.

Man is born to be free.

Skinner’s position

Opposite of Sartre

Limit man’s freedom. Establish psychological interventions to change man’s behavior. Put them in a system to change their behavior to mold them to behave.

Man will not know he is being controlled and changed. This is needed for a good society.

Rollo May’s position

Freedom is man’s capacity to take a hand in his own development.

Be aware of what is determining you

Freedom is shown in how we relate to the deterministic realities of life.

Frankl’s position

Everything can be taken from man except the last of the human freedom—to choose one’s attitude in any circumstances.

Christian Doctrine of Resurrection (Corinthians)

Christian faith rejects the Greek idea of souls’ absorption into the divine at death. Rejects idea of shadowy existence of souls.

Christ’s resurrection guarantees the resurrection of all believers. Those who believe in Christ get offered eternal life in heaven.

Otto — I-IT and I-THOU

IT: sphere of spatio-temporal objects and processes

THOU: realm of human relations, and divine human relations. Treat humans with I-Thou.

Russell — 3 passions

1. longing for love.

2. search for knowledge

3. unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind