// Intro to Philosophy - Exam 2 //

Introduction to Philosophy // Summer '25

Rene Descartes (Rationalist)

1. Systematic doubt (he doubts everything - including his own senses)

2. He wants to be autonomous (we are independent and don’t have to rely on anyone else) (he thought he was autonomous) 

3. “I exist” 

4. God exists 

5. The external world exists  

6. Most famous conclusion: “I think, therefore I exist”

7. Cartesian Dualism - immaterial and material 

8. Famous in math (Cartesian)

what philosophical school did Rene Descartes belong to?

Rationalism

Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza (Rationalist)

1. Believed that God is infinite substance (God is the cosmos; God is everything - aka pantheism) 

2. He believed in Determinism - whatever occurs happens by necessity 

3. Passive emotions (ie. getting angry if your car gets hit) are confused ideas (because everything happens for a reason) 

4. Jew 

5. Died in 1677 

6. Grew up as an orthodox jew but was kicked out 

7. His questions and skepticism didn't sit well with the Jewish Orthodox synagogue 

8. Job: Lens Grinder (later on, this caused him lung problems) and on the side worked as a philosopher

what philosophical school did Baruch (Benedict) Spinoza belong to?

Rationalism

Gottfried Leibniz (Rationalist)

1. Died in 1716 

2. Invented Calculus 

3. Offered a professorship but turned it down

4. Analytic Truths: truths of reason (truths we can know by rationality alone)

5. Synthetic Truths: truths of fact

6. He thought the world was the best of all possible worlds 

7. Monads

what philosophical school did Gottfried Leibniz belong to?

Rationalism

John Locke (Empiricism)

1. All humans born as a blank slate (Tabula Rasa)

2. Knowledge is based on sense of experience, therefore it is based on probabilities 

3. We should have tolerance of society and be willing to change our mind 

4. Primary quality: Characteristics of an external object (exists out there in the objects) 

5. Secondary: exist in the mind, dependent on the object that we engage with

6. The role of government is to secure our rights (these rights: life, liberty & property) 

7. If the government is being ineffectual, the citizens have a right to overthrow the government (social contract theory)

8. English philosopher 

9. 1704 

10. Concerning Human Understanding (written in 1869)

what philosophical school did John Locke belong to?

Empiricism

George Berkeley (Idealism) (Empiricism)

1. Irish; Anglican bishop 

2. Died in 1763

3. Takes Locke's ideas of secondary and primary qualities and believes that all these qualities are in our mind 

4. To be is to be perceived (the existence of the object is in our minds) 

5. All of reality is made up of thoughts (idealism)

what philosophical school did George Berkeley belong to?

Empiricism

David Hume (Empiricism)

1. Scottish;  died in 1776

2. Believes Analytic truths are meaningless because they don't give us any new knowledge 

3. Tautology: Defining something by itself 

   • Thought all synthetic truths were tautologies  

4. Began to question the idea of cause and effect 

5. Mitigated skepticism: the idea that although you don't know things, you have to live as if you know them (shelve your skepticism to keep on living) 

6. He denies miracles (they are just unusual events)

what philosophical school did David Hume belong to?

Empiricism

Voltaire (French Enlightenment)

1. Died in 1778

2. This was his pen name (not his real name) 

3. He became a deist 

4. Wanted to see everything through lens of human reason (very enlightenment thinker) 

5. Opposed to Christianity 

6. He was contriversol (imprisoned twice), exiled to England

7. Used humor and intelligence 

8. Used human autonomy (independence/self-determination) - he believed we should be independent in our thinking (even going against the norm) - this led to tolerance 

9. His ideas help lead to the French Revoloution

what philosophical school did Voltaire belong to?

French Enlightenment

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (French Enlightenment)

1. Defended the value of emotions along with reason 

2. Human nature is inherently good 

3. The natural state is good (if left to themselves, humans can survive on their own)

4. Private property (did not view this as a positive thing; instead, it was the beginning of problems) 

5. He challenged the benefits of civilization (humans are good by nature, but bad by civilization 

6. He espoused the idea of Social Contract Theory

7. He believed in the “general will” of government  (if someone refused to comply, he thought you must force them to be free/obey) 

8. He believed children should learn naturally by discovery (affected philosophy of education) 

9.  Influenced the French Revolution

what philosophical school did Jean-Jacques Rosseau belong to?

French Enlightenment

Immanuel Kant (French Enlightenment??)

1. German-speaking philosopher 

2. Died in 1804 

3. Came from piotists Lutheran background 

4. Never left his hometown 

5. He was very scheduled into a routine 

6. He was comfortable in his philosophy until he read a book by David Hume 

7. Did not believe our minds ere pre shook 

8. Critique of Pure Reason 

9. Critique of practical reason (World & Noumenal World - categories help us make sense of things)

10. The soul transcends our bodies 

11. Argued for free will against determinism 

12. God, Afterlife (Immortal Soul), & Free Will (All apart of Noumenal world) 

13. Ethics/Imperatives*see other flashcard w/more details

what philosophical school did Immanuel Kant belong to?

??

George Hegel (19th Century German Philosophers)

1. Developed as a philosophical scholar later in life, but still dominated German philosophy by the end of his life  

2. Stressed historical process  

3. Geist 

   • The world’s spirit or mind 

4. Thesis, antithesis, and synthesis - made a renewed interest in history of philosophy 

5. Everyone is envelopes in their time (swimming in our culture/era)

6. Can’t jump out of history because we are where we are (in this dialectical process) 

7. Zeitgeist: spirit of one's time 

8. Saw himself as the combination of the world’s historical process

what philosophical school did George Hegel belong to?

19th century German Philosophers

George Hegel (19th Century German Philosophers)

1. Developed as a philosophical scholar later in life, but still dominated German philosophy by the end of his life  

2. Stressed historical process  

3. Geist 

   • The world’s spirit or mind 

4. Thesis, antithesis, and synthesis - made a renewed interest in history of philosophy 

5. Everyone is envelopes in their time (swimming in our culture/era)

6. Can’t jump out of history because we are where we are (in this dialectical process) 

7. Zeitgeist: spirit of one's time 

8. Saw himself as the combination of the world’s historical process

what philosophical school Friedrich Nietzche did belong to?

19th Century German Philosophers

Friedrich Nietzche (19th Century German Philosophers)

1. Believed that there is no God, no immortal soul, no afterlife 

2. He believe the concept of God existed but that concept is dead to us 

3. We are free to make our own values 

4. Thought Christianity was for the weak. 

5. Believed in the will to power to win out over the weak, lead to emphasis on self-assertion 

6. Eternal recurrence: you need to live your life as if you had to live your one life over and over again (no afterlife) 

7. No truths, only interpretations

8. Died in 1900

Jeremy Bentham (Utilitarianism)

1. Liberal free thinker (thinks freely, not framed in by any authority) 

2. Didn't succeed in professional philosophy until later in life

3. *Pleasure Principle

4. *Social Hedonism

5. *Consequentialism

6. Died in 1832

what philosophical school did Jeremy Bentham belong to?

Utilitarianism

John Stuart Mill (Utilitarianism)

1. Educated entirely by father (drastically homeschooled - pushed super hard) (learned Greek by age of 3, etc. - nervous breakdown at age 20) 

2. Supported women's right to vote 

3. *Levels of Pleasure

4. *Libertarianism

what philosophical school did John Stuart Mill belong to?

Utilitarianism

William James (Pragmatist)

1. The most famous pragmatist

2. “Cash Value” - practical consequences of ideas - does this make a practical difference in my life or other’s life? (if it has no practical value (“cash value”), then it is not worth considering) 

3. Pragmatic Theory of Truth - its true if it works (true if it accomplishes the task we ask of it) 

4. Religion - not important (if religious knowledge is true, does it have practical value? - ie, It doesn’t matter if praying works [God hears you], but if praying makes you feel good then it has some practical value) (it might work, but is it really true?) 

5. Died in 1910

what philosophical school did William James belong to?

Pragmatism

John Dewey (Pragmatist)

1. Known for his philosophy of education - aim of education was to make democracy work (School is supposed to make good citizens - fit for democracy) 

• We want to be value free in education (don't want to impose our values on others - just all live peacefully) 

• The problem: the idea to all live peacefully is a value itself (education really can't be value free) 

2. Learning by doing - problem solving approach to education 

• Students are to seek a solution to that works (how it is related to Pragmatism) 

3. Died in 1952

what philosophical school did John Dewey belong to?

Pragmatism

Bertrand Russell (Analytic Philosophy)

1. British 

2. Married 4 times, wrote 60 books, won nobel prize 

3. Known for his analytical philosophy (close analysis of terms and propositions) 

• The British monarch is bald. T or F. currently, F. The French king is bald. T or F. There is no French king. Is the sentence T or F? By dissecting the language, you can see how the language affects things. 

4. Our terms are used of objects - the object that is related to that term 

• Many terms can share the same referent

what philosophical school did Bertrand Russell belong to?

Analytic Philosophy

Ludwig Wittgenstein (Analytic Philosophy)

1. While in college, he became interested in analytic philosophy (wanted to study under Russel, but wasn’t sure) 

• Problem: WW1 broke out and he had to go back home to fight for his home country 

• While in the trenches, he writes notes on paper & titles it the Tractatus Logico Philosophicus 

• He thought the important solutions were meaningless and therefore the questions are meaningless - the language matters and the questions need to be better 

2. (his approach) Logical Positivism: only impericallly, verifiable statements have cognitive meaning 

• Only experiences that can be proven through the senses have meaning Believed he had solved all of philosophy 

• Awarded a doctorate (in philosophy) for his book (Tractatus Logico Philosophicus) 

• Thought of language as picture theory - linguistic theory (the language pictures things) 

• Performance Utterances, not picturing, but doing something

what philosophical school did Ludwig Wittgenstein belong to?

Analytic Philosophy

what philosophical school did Soren Kierkegaard belong to?

Existentialism

Soren Kierkegaard (Existentialism)

1. Danish 

2. Existentialists before Existentialism became popular 

3. Reacted against Hegel’s view 

4. He wanted humans to make passionate choices 

5. He was upset that people would say they were Luthern because they were born and baptized into the church - not bc they decided to be Luthern 

6. He believed the most important truths are subjective truths 

7. Subjectve Truths: Fundamentally affect who you are (affect your identity)

8. Most important human activity is decision making because that affects who we are and most importantly our relationship to God and our soul 

• Come to desperation, and you make a leap of faith to God (just a passionate choice out of desperation) (faith is irrational with no foundation) 

• To become a Christian: Passionately commit oneself to make this leap of faith in the face of uncertainty (gives the idea that it is more important how you believe not what you believe)

  9. Theist (believed in God) 

what philosophical school did Jean-Paul Sartre belong to?

Existentialism

Jean-Paul Sartre (Existentialism)

1. French 

2. Died in 1980

3. Atheist (believed religious belief was philosophical suicide) 

4. Wrote novels and plays, became a Communist 

5. Relatiy left to itself is absurd (no meaning to life) 

6. “We are condemned to be free” - the moment you are entered into the reality of world (aka born) the door slams shut and you are in a jail (now you have to make decisions) 

• You can’t avoid decision-making (condemned to be free)

7. We create our own values 

8. Facticities: facts that we have no choice in but have great influence in who we are (ie, parents - we don’t have a choice in that but they greatly affect us) 

• But we can still choose how to respond to facticites 

9. Stresses individualism - we get to make our own lives (define yourself) 

10. By choosing what we do, we end up choosing who we are (our identity)

Post-Modernism

1. Proposes “anit-foundationalism” in epistemology

2. Believes complete objectivity does not exist only “interpretations”

3. Opposes “meta-narratives” (big story that tries to explain all of life), all-embrassing truth claims

4. Views all ideologies as oppressions

5. Emphasizes cultural realtivism

6. Replaces objective truth with “discourses”

7. Emphasizes community rather than individuals (and the “self” is a social construct) 

8. Asserts that language is oppression, the concept of “power language”

9. Proposes the “deconstruction” of texts 

10. Demonstrates a pessimism toward scientific knowledge

Rationalism (from Christian perspective)

God made us as reasoning humans

• Noetic God made us as reasoning humans

Empiricism (from Christian perspective)

Theological Argument for Determinism

(not talking about soteriology - salvation) God necessarily (they have to happen this way) causes our actions and decisions - this discusses all human actions

Scientific argument for Determinism

1. Material

   • Physical/chemical reactions necessarily cause our actions and decisions (we really don’t have a choice in everything we choose bc it’s based on the chemical reactions in our bodies)

2. Genetic

   • our natural make up (they way we are born) necessarily causes our actions and decisions (ie, I’m Irish and have red hair therefor I’m angry)

3. Environmental

   • Our social context (the way we are raised) necessarily causes our actions and decisions (ie, in court, one might say an adult was abused as a child therefore they also abused their children)

4. Psychological

   • Our unconscious desires beyond our control necessarily cause our actions and decisions (ie, you said something you “didn’t mean” but you were thinking it so you did mean it) 

Free Will

1. Adam and Eve freely chose to disobey God. 

   • Theologians across the spectrum agree with this because God is not the author is sin 

2. Fallen humans are sinners by choice and antecedently (beforehand) by nature, their innate disposition and orientation is sinful and not God-centered. 

   • Left to ourselves, we would be selfish and sinful and our focus would not be on God 

3. We are morally responsible for our actions 

   • The Bible holds us accountable and God holds us responsible 

4. Christians especially have no excuse to sin 

   • We have the Holy Spirit and a new nature

5. True freedom comes in serving Christ (Rom. 6) 

   • We are now slaves to righteousness and Christ (this is where true freedom is found

   • No neutral ground (either salve to sin or to righteousness)

6. True freedom is knowing and doing what is right and enjoying it (Gal. - Christ has set us free and serve each other)

   • This freely flows from our nature as we become more Christ-like

Absolute Freedom

the complete and total freedom to do whatever you want

Analytical Statement

A statement that is true by definition and whose truth can be known just by understanding the meaning of the words.

Synthetic Statement

A statement whose truth or falsity depends on how the world is, not just on logic or definitions

Analytical Philosophy

close analysis of terms and propositions

Posteriori

 Truth or falsity known after sense experience

Priori

Truth known independently (before) sense experience 

Authentic Self

The true self that is genuine, self-directed, and not shaped by external pressures like social norms, expectations, or roles.

Authorial Intent

The idea that the author’s intended meaning or purpose should guide how we interpret a text.

Axiology

The study of values (Ethics and Aesthetics are subsets of this)

Bad Faith

Behaviorism

mental events are simply explantions of tendencies to act

Categorical Imperative

we should only act on that principle which one can will to be a universal law (ie, you want to murder your roommate. Wait, what if you made this a universal law? Then anytime anyone got mad at someone, you could just kill them) 

Communitarianism

• stresses personal duties and responsibilities to others (taking care of one another)

Compatibilism (Soft Determinism)

1. An action or choice is free as long as it’s without external constraint or force, even if it is affected by internal dispositions, character, or desire (our choices are often influenced by internal things, but they are free choices because they come from us - not something external) 

Consequentialism

the result of an action determines the morality of the act (not your motivation/intention, the result is what is important)

• Does that prove that it is ethically proper to still do that action? 

• Do we fully know the results/consequences of our actions?

Correspondence Theory

an agreement between a statement and a fact of reality (a statement is true if it agrees with reality) 

Coherence Theory

truth is a property of a statement that fits into a system of accepted statement (a statement is true if it fits with other statements that we view as true)  

Pragmatic Theory

a truth is a statement that results in usefulness and practical consequences (a statement is true if it works and gives us practical, concrete consequences) (helps us get through life)

Democracy

rule by the people

Determinism

(the belief that) all human actions and choices by necessity. (They can be explained by previous sufficient and necessary causes) (Prior conditions/causes are what determine future choices and actions?)

2 types:

1. Theological

2. Scientific

Dialectic (thesis/antithesis/synthesis)

• back and forth influence like dialect) - this pitted a thesis against an antithesis 

1. Thesis: initial state of affairs (this is opposed to antithesis) 

2. Antithesis: a reaction 

3. This leads to a Synthesis: result/comparison/resolution 

4. Synthesis 1 becomes thesis 2 against antithesis 2, and so o

Dualism

immaterial & material

Empiricism

knowledge comes from and is based on experience

Epistemology

study of knowledge

Existentialism

Stress the responsibility of the individual for giving meaning to reality, existence and identity.

1. Stresses personal choices 

2. We create who were are through those choices 

3. Don’t just live, live passionately (choose your life) 

4. Popular after WW2

Facticity

1. facts that we have no choice in but have great influence in who we are (ie, parents - we don’t have a choice in that but they greatly affect us) 

• But we can still choose how to respond to these

Harm Principle

You are free to do as you like as long as it does not harm someone else

Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

1. When it comes to subatomic particles one cannot know the position and the momentum and direction of that particle (can’t know BOTH the position and momentum) 

Hermeneutics

The art and science of interpretations

Idealism

• (opposite of materialism) - all of reality is mental (it is in our minds) 

Identity Theory

mental events are specific brain processes

Ideology

A system of ideas, beliefs, or values that shapes how people understand the world, often serving political or social interests.

Indeterminism

The view that not all events are causally determined by previous events; some events happen without a definite cause.

Innate Ideas

Ideas or knowledge that are inborn or naturally present in the mind from birth, not acquired through experience.

Knowledge

•  it is justified true belief 

Liberalism (or social democracy)

• emphasize the benefits of a strong centralized government 

Libertarianism (personal)

• stresses individual freedom and minimal government interference 

Libertarian Free Will

• (the view that) we have the real ability to make free choices between open possibilities. 

  • May not be equal possibilities (ie, one option might have more pros than the other option - transfer to Michigan or Arizona

Libertarianism (political)

Government can only limit freedom to prevent harm to others

Logic

study of sound reasoning and argumentation (how we reason well)

Logical Atomism

the understanding of complex notions and vocabularies by dissecting them into simpler ones

Logical Positivism

1. only empirically, verifiable statements have cognitive meaning 

• Only experiences that can be proven through the senses have meaning 

• Meaning is found through sense experience 

• God is meaningless 

Metanarrative

big story that tries to explain all of life

Mind-body Problem

• how could a material body and an immaterial body interact with each other? - a choice (immaterial) to move your hand (material)).

Monad

• these little monads (immaterial centers of activity that make up things) influence each other to do things like raising your hand (solves the mind-body  problem) 

  • Super-monad (God in His system): what causes these monads to work together 

Monarchy

Rule by one

Monism

The belief that reality is ultimately composed of one kind of substance or principle.

Negative Freedom

freedom from constraint or limitation (freedom from something) (ie, no limitation on your free speech)

Nihilism

There is no meaning to life

Noumenal World

lies beyond our senses

Oligarchy

Rule by a few

Pantheism

belief that God is everything or everything is God

Paternalism

the government’s role is to keep people from harming themselves (gov. Should act as a parent to its people)

Phenomenal World

The world as it appears to us through perception and experience. (senses?)

Plutocracy

A form of government or society ruled by the wealthy.