AAAS 105 study guide - BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY

Arjuna

(Hindu mythology) the warrior prince in the Bhagavad-Gita to whom Krishna explains the nature of being and of God and how humans can come to know God
Bhagavad Gita
Warrior nobel
It's his duty to fight in a just war
HOWEVER many of his family members are on the other (wrong?) side

Krshna

The Blessed One
Arjuna's chariot driver, he has a long dialogue with Arjuna about making a moral decision on where to fight in the war- this is the bagavhad gita
May or may not be the foundation of brahman

Bhagavan

Bhagavan has different meanings in different Indian traditions - The Blessed One
In this context it is a title of the Hindu god Krshna (gita)
Used to refer to someone that has attained a certain level of knowledge/spiritual wisdom.
Krshna is an example of a Bhagavan

Samkara

Most influential of traditional commentators on the Upanisads

Great author and debator, travels around india having public discussions
Wrote famous commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita

Brahmins

Priests, at the top of the caste system
Hereditary religious professionals, married. To carry on the knowledge of texts and traditions and beliefs. Perform religious rituals. (marriages, funerals, etc.) Brahmins are twice-born.

Ksatriyas

The Indian social class of warriors and rulers.

The warrior nobels, The major characters, leaders of the armies are all warrior nobels. Ksatriyas are twice-born.

Advaita Vedanta

Literally means, "non-dualism," or monism. The belief that All is One, that individual gods & goddesses, individual souls (atmans), and all of creation are deep down part of the same unified Absolute Reality: Brahman.

Most prestigious and widely held view in the Hindu religion
Advaita - derived from the word for the number two, Non-duality
Vedanta - Anta - end, Veda - Ancient Hindu Scriptures, Vedanta - Is the end of the Vedas, actually refers to the Upanisads

The Vedas

Ancient Hindu religious texts written in ancient sanskrit
There are Three (or Four Vedas):
Rg Veda (consists of poetry), Yajur Veda (Instructions for sacrifices), Sama Veda (Text of Rg Veda with music), Atharva Veda (collection of mantras, info about mantras)
Features many gods

Soteriology

study of salvation

Doctrination, specifies the conditions under which you will receive salvation.
The Gita's view is that there's not just one way to be saved.
Multiple paths to salvation according to the Gita.

Deontology

Absolute rules for morality- Any action is always either right or wrong regardless of context. Formalized by Kant, e.g. Kant murder at the door- lying is bad so you shouldn't lie to save your friend from a murderer

Consequentalism

Opposed from deontology. Here you should evaluate actions based on the context and consequences individually, not just follow rules.
Part of Utilitarianism

Atman

Sanskrit for 'soul' or 'self'. Our soul/self is actually brahman. One indian philosopher upanishad says that atman=brahman, not sure what he meant by that.

Brahman

The essence of everything, the world soul. Everything is made of Brahman, even hindu gods. You are just brahman sleeping .

Karma

What we need to be saved from aka cyclic existence
Do good things, happiness in future lives.
Do bad things, suffering in future lives.
Can be reincarnated in any number of different forms, you won't necessarily be a human.

Animsa

Sanskrit. Without violence. A (without) himsa (violence or force). States that you have to refrain from taking like. Buddhism. Within certain schools of Hinduism (moral vegetarians

The Four Virtues

Wisdom,
Following the traditional rituals - observance of the rights
Benevolence
Rightness or righteousness (or justice)

Filial Piety

A great amount of care and respect for one's parents and other (typically older) family members.
caring for elders
funerals and three year mourning period- now seen as excessive

Rectification of Names

The idea in confucianism that names/titles only belong to those who earn them, and if you don't act like you should for your title, you lose it. For example, a bad king who doesn't do well for his subjects loses the name 'king' and is no longer a king

Honoring the Worthy

Mozi's first virtue of social institutions.
Confucian principle that people who are smart should have political power. Examples include kings leaving their kingdoms to smart advisors instead of foolish children, and the chinese civil servant exam that selected only the smartest to be bureaucrats

Mandate of heaven

Belief that emperors were given the right to rule by heaven, giving them the ability to rule justly.

Division of Labor

Mencius believed that the key to prosperity is through the specialization of labor and trade

Child and the well

Mencius tells a story about a man who is walking and sees a child about to fall into the well. The man instantly feels a burst of compassion and caring for the child (VERY IMPORTANT THIS STORY DOES NOT SPECIFY THE MAN ACTUALLY SAVING THE CHILD). This compassion doesn't come from any expectation for reward, it's just rooted in human nature. Thus, human nature is at root good, because humans have the base instinct of compassion.

Ox mountain

Ox mountain started out having forests. People came to chop the trees, and wild animals ate the saplings before they could grow. The safety of night did not provide enough time to regrow, so the mountain became bare. Mencius uses this to argue that even though the mountain is bare, its true nature is to have forests. Similarly, even though humans look evil due to circumstances, true nature can be good.

Xunzi's Argument

Human nature is bad. If something requires effort it cannot be considered natural so thus goodness cannot be natural since it requires effort.This is the opposite of Mencius view

Confucius

Founder, first sage. Analects, Spring of Autumn. He wrote these two texts. Major thinker. Intellectual forefather of Mencius. Really important in terms of advising people on how to rule. Opposed human school of thought

Yao and Shun

Are sage rulers of the past. Yao was old emperor, Shun was an engineer. After the kingdom experienced great flooding, Shun was tasked with solving the problem. Shun was able to solve it. After which Yao gave up his throne for Shun. Both were supposed to be exemplars of virtue.Mencius uses these guys as an example of how rulers should be.

Yen Hui

Student of Confucius. Brought up in the Mencius in terms of a sage and what he should strive for. Expounds the Confucian idea of advising a leader.

Mo Tzu

Chinese Philosopher whose doctrine of "Universal Love" challenged Confucian values

Yin and Yang

In Daoist belief, complementary factors that help to maintain the equilibrium of the world. One is associated with masculine, light, and active qualities while the other with feminine, dark, and passive qualities.

Concept of dualism that describes contrary forces that compliment each other and are interdependent on one another. Yin and yang
Appear to have meant the sunny side (yang) and the shady side of a hill (yin)
Balance between two fundamentally different aspects (dark and bright, passive and active, feminine and masculine, etc.)
Gender norms using these concepts after Mencius
☯
Neither of them makes any sense without the other, you need them both.

The four noble truths

1) All life is full of suffering, pain, and sorrow. 2) The cause of suffering is nonvirtue, or negative deeds and mindsets such as hated and desire. 3) The only cure for suffering is to overcome nonvirture. 4) The way to overcome nonvirtue is to follow the Eightfold Path

The truths of suffering (not specifically life being suffering, birth death etc. parts of life are suffering), arising (cause of suffering is craving, we must ignore them), cessation (the prognosis is good, it is possible to live without suffering), path (the noble eightfold path is the treatment to become realizing that we can become free of suffering)

Buddha found these while meditating under the tree

The five aggregates

Form (the matter in your body more or less),
Feeling tones (aspect of every experience where it feels good bad or neutral),
Conceptions (interprets things),
Consciousness (The raw data of the senses itself, colors, sounds, etc.),
Conditioning (Habit patterns, emotions, etc.)

4 divine abidings

(Aka Four Immeasurables)
(List of 4 buddhist virtues)
Loving kindness
Compassion
Joy
Equanimity

5 precepts

-buddhist system of morality for lay people

I vow to abstain from taking life. (no killing)
I vow to abstain from taking things not given. (no stealing)
I vow to abstain from misconduct done in lust. (No sexual misconduct i.e. adultery, cheating, etc.)
I vow to abstain from lying.(No lying)
I undertake the training precept to refrain from basis of heedlessness.Sura, marya and mudga (no intoxicants i.e. alcohol)

Conventional Truth

What we experience with our senses and how we perceive our experiences. They can appear to be independent and permanent but they're not.

Ultimate Truth

The nature of what we experience. Ultimate truth's remain true without our perception and without. They are how things really are

Epistimology

Word for philosophical theory of knowledge. There are various ways to break it down. Asks three questions: What is knowledge? Do we have any knowledge? If we have knowledge, where did we get it?
Buddhist Epistemology: Exactly two epistemic warrants: perception and inference

Metaphysics

Branch of philosophy that discusses the nature of reality. What things exist? What makes me who I am? Is there an ultimate reality? Three big questions in metaphysics. Buddhism and Hinduism.

Monotheism

Belief in a single god, generally a capital G god. Examples include Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Note that hinduism, buddhism, daoism(maybe?) are not monotheistic

Bikkhu

Bhikkhu (m.) - term used to refer to buddhist monks (means beggar).
They're not allowed to work.
They're supposed to go around with a begging bowl and live off of donations of food
Bhikkhuni (f.) - Buddhist nuns

King Milinda

Debates with Buddhist monk that is adapted into a book
Explains how reincarnation is possible without there being a self
One of the interlocutors
Discussion with Nagasena. A Greek King who ruled over a region that is now Afgh. Patron of a lot of monks. Liked having religious debates. Within that dialogue, questioning Nagasena on the nature of the self. Another version of his name is Menander.

Vasubandhu

Buddhist philosopher(Sautrantika/Theravada)
Connection problem
Causal efficacy problem
Warrant argument

Vasubandhu's argument against souls

Connection problem - Idea that the soul is said to be this immaterial thing that is distinct from the body. Then how does the soul interact with the body? Unclear. Has to directly act on the body or there's something else the soul acts upon that then acts on the body. How does the soul interact with this third thing that then interacts with the body?
Causal Efficacy Problem - The soul causes some things about us (makes decisions i.e.) If it causes anything then there seems to be two options: causes same thing constantly throughout entire existence (can't be because then it doesn't do what we need it to) or it causes different things and if so it has to change over time. Once it can change over time that means it can be destroyed. If it completely changes it's no longer the same thing.
Warrant Argument - He thinks the only way to be said to have knowledge is if we can directly perceive it or make some kind of inference that establishes its existence. It doesn't seem like we can directly perceive the soul and there is no inference we can make about it. Even if it exists, we can't acknowledge the existence of it. If we can't have knowledge of, then it can't exist.

Warrant argument

1. There are exactly two types of epistemological warrants, perception and inference
2. The soul, even if it exists, cannot be perceived
3. There is no inference to establish the existence of a soul
4. Even if it exists, we have no way to have knowledge of a soul
5. Everything that exists can, in principle, be known to exist.
6. There is no soul

Bodhisattva

A being that is on the path to awakening, in the process of waking up.Buddhist saint essentially.
If you're a saint that means this is your last life. You learn the teaching from others and realize that teaching. Then your body falls apart. This is the Theravattan goal.
In Mahayana, goal is to become a bodhisattva and preach and help everyone reach nirvana
Purpose is to relieve suffering from the world, not for selfish motivations.

Sakyamuni

"Sage of the Sakya Clan"- Something the Buddha sometimes called himself.

Tathagata

Bhikkhu (m.) - term used to refer to buddhist monks (means beggar).
They're not allowed to work.
They're supposed to go around with a begging bowl and live off of donations of food
Bhikkhuni (f.) - Buddhist nuns

Materialist Argument

If we can't interact with a soul to prove it exists, then how does it interact with our body to do anything? It seems like a soul can't have any effect on our body to cause our actions if we can't also experience it in some way.
Drugs and alcohol
Neurodegenerative disorders
Connection problem (Conservation of energy)
SAME AS CONNECTION PROBLEM W PHYSICS ADDED

Pali

Pali is the language that the earliest Buddhist texts were written in
The Great Awakening/Journey
Texts in the Theravatta tradition

Vinaya

a monastic code that monks and nuns are supposed to follow. Different from Lay people. Has far more rules. Lay people told to follow the Five Precepts.Hundreds of rules. More rules for bhikkunis (nuns) than there are for bhikkus. Roughly the same across Buddhist traditions

Ascetism

Living a life without many material things e.g. like a monk. Eating simple/cheap foods, wearing rags, not focusing on material wealth.

Dharma

A person's goal/purpose/duty/destiny/reason for being. Kind of hard to describe, but it's what you're supposed to do, in an abstract sense.

Nirvana

The escape from cyclic existence. Not 'the afterlife' but the lack of an afterlife after you are no longer forced to be reborn. Distinct from Hindu idea of moksha. Where does the flame from a candle go when you put it out? Nibbana in Pali. Nirvana is a sanskrit term. State that one reaches when they realize the way that things really are.

Simile of snake

If you grasp the snake by the tail, he will wrap around and bite you. If you grasp the snake by the neck, he won't be able to bite you. If you grasp the Buddhist teachings wrongly, you will not benefit from the em. If you're just doing this to win over others or make yourself look smart, you're never going to benefit from this tradition.

simile of chariot

Basically the ship of theseus argument, but it is used to show that the parts of the chariot aren't themselves individually necessary for it to be a chariot.

parable of raft

Monk/man (?) uses raft to get across river and then continues to hold onto the raft afterwards just in case it will be useful in the future.. Nagarjuna says You're holding on too tightly to these frameworks. Great that you made all of this progress of not regarding the concepts of life as ultimate, but now you have to let go of your concepts of framework. Then if you let go of those you're not holding onto anything and you're truly free.
buddhist teachings may not be ultimate truth
for learning not for grasping

parable of arrow

Parable of the Arrow Section 5 pg. 63 CP
Man gets hit by an arrow and keeps asking questions about the origin of the arrow while he is dying. Pretty sure this is about people asking questions like where did the world come from, when we must worry the suffering in the world.
focus on 4 noble truths instead of questions

samkhya

Oldest form of indian philosophy. Derives from the word numbers so it can translate as 'enumerators'. Produced exhaustive lists of things that are real- real things in nature
influences bhagavad gita

Therevada

Pali Canon flavor of buddhism. You become a saint/buddha and can die for real, and are never reborn again (this is a good thing)

Mahayana

Flavor of buddhism. You become a buddha, but stay in cyclic existence in order to help others also become buddhas

Madhyamaka

School of buddhist philosophy key teaching is emptiness. Major contributors are shankara and Santideva.

Emptiness

Does not mean that nothing exists at all, it's the true/intrinsic nature of things or events (however, it's not the ultimate reality). It is a certain perspective and way of looking at things.

Sankara argument for body is not the self

It can change. The human body is subjected to constant change (from aging to the creation and destruction of cells). Anything that is our true self is not subject to change, therefore the body is not the self.

Control Argument

Anything that is not under one's complete control is not the true self. One cannot control any of the five aggregates (feeling tones, ect.) which make up the entirety of our being. Therefore, considering we do not have wholly control over any of the aggregates, they are not our true self.

Death of King Anantayasas

Another example from Santideva. The King is dying and they are asked what he wants them to tell his subjects. "I've been pursuing all of these desires throughout my life. None of it satisfied me. Always wanted more." The Hedonic Treadmill - You're not really any happier than you were once you get over that initial spike. The King can get new things all of the time and it made him happy intially but it never satisfied him. Supposed to be pushing for this idea of adopting the Awakening Mind. (Within individuals when they try to alleviate the suffering of others rather than focusing on what they want.) The way to get true satisfaction isn't to keep pursuing your desires but rather to dedicate your life towards relieving the suffering of others. Bodhisattvas dedicate their lives to doing so (Madhyamaka).

Impermanence argument

Anything that is not permanent cannot be our true selves. Our body is not permanent e.g. cell cycle etc. Therefore our true self can't just be our physical body, and our physical body can't be our true self.

Applied to all 5 aggregates:
i.e.form: constantly changing, cannot be the true self. (Hindu and Buddhists agree, yet Buddhists argue this applies to everything)

Memory objection

The Buddhist says there's no self but we can remember things that happened in the past. No one remembers what happened to someone else or we remember it from our point of view. Different people have different memories. How is that possible if there's no such thing as me now being the same person I was last year? Surely there has to be some sort of robust identity that allows me to remember things that have already happened.

Awakening mind

State of mind of a bodhisattva
The first stage in becoming a Buddha

Sutra

A buddhist scripture. Generally these come directly from a buddha, but hui-neng's came from him even though he was just a grand master

Intrinsic Nature

Is the object of 'reification': making something into a thing; non-relational: characterizes something independently of anything else; essence: what makes a thing what it is?; ultimately real; findable under analysis

Dependent Arising

Starts with something called Nescience (Not knowing, Ignorance, avidya)
Basic idea is that there is this causal process which starts with ignorance and unfolds over a series of lives. Going on uninterruptedly like the flow of a river. Until there is the insight that gets rid of the driving force. The key part is that this is an impersonal causal process. This is how the world works and what makes it go is causation.
ALL things exist do so dependently
If a thing exists dependently, it lacks an intrinsic nature
All things are empty

Royal Reason of Dependent Arising

All things that exist do so dependently.
Nothing that exists dependently has an intrinsic nature.
Therefore all things that exist are empty (lacking in intrinsic nature)

Argument from design

Our world is so complex that it had to be intelligently designed and not happenstance- so there is a big G God intelligent designer

cosmological argument

History of the universe began from the big bang, but no one knows the reason why. Without God there life would be contingent (there could have been no big bang), God is necessary for the universe to exist, this is the principle of sufficient reason.

Evidential Argument from Evil

If there is an omnipresent, omnipotent, and omnibenevolent god, why is there so much evil in this world? All of this evil is kind of evidence that it's very unlikely that there is a benevolent god out there.

The Meeting of Father and Son

Think about a fire. When a fire gets started, where does it come from? It arises but seemingly from nowhere. When a fire gets put out, where does it go? Doesn't seemingly go anywhere. A fire is something that seems to arise out of nowhere and then goes nowhere. Idea of seeing something. Try to run through this with things that are said to exist. For anything that exists, it's unclear where it came from and what it's nature is. When it ceases to exist it doesn't go anywhere. Unclear how something that does actually exist could exist in that way. Things are merely conventional.

Argument of the Three Times

Shantideva's argument:
Things that don't exist cannot do anything
A thing cannot arise before it exists, since it doesn't exist and can't do anything
A thing cannot arise after exists, since it is already there
There is no third time for things that are ultimately real; at any given time, all things that are ultimately real either exist or don't exist
Therefore, impermanent things that we encounter in our daily lives cannot ultimately exist

Sankara's version of the argument of the three times that he uses to disprove momentariness:
1. Only present things exist. Past things don't exist anymore, and future things don't exist yet.
2. A cause must exist before its effect
3. There can be no real relation between what exists and what does not exist
4. If momentariness is true, there is no time that both cause and effect exist
5. If momentariness is true, there is no real relation of causation
Sankara uses this to show that momentariness doesn't make sense.

Epistemic value

Emptiness, single-mindedness, stillness; Daoist; all impossible but not when you interpret it differently
character trait better able to understand things
Dao has three

Dao

Very similar to Dharma. Knowing the purpose of things and how they fit together.
Confucianists and daoists disagree on interpretation
means road

Objection against relativism

What are some problems with this?
In terms of ethical, there are no universal laws, other cultures/ people may have warped ideas. If we accept this, we have to acknowledge that although horrible things such as genocide are not right for us, they may be right for other cultures.

the argument from disagreement

People make different moral judgements. There's no unbiased judge of moral judgements because all of us have skin in the game. We all want our judgements to be right. If that is the case, morality might be subjective because we can't know for sure who has the right answer,

dream argument

One can't know if they are really awake from there sleep or if it is a false memory and you are asleep. Same with the matrix. With this we can't know that we know anything. Based on Chuang Tzu's "Butterfly Dream" anecdote.

intellectualism

A judgement; people choose what they think is good

relativism

Total (in terms of what we know)- what is true is relative to the individual or the culture of an individual. It is true necessary for you but not for others. What is true for you/ your culture is true for you/ your culture.
E.x. Prof Goodman discussed a bartender who created weird looking drinks, many thought it was gross before trying. After trying, they then realized their truth that the drinks would be gross are incorrect, contradicting the idea of relativism. Relativism throws convincing or persuading out the window.
Ethical- Something is right/ ethical given a situation (whether this be for the family, themselves, or a culture.

skepticism

Moral- Moral skeptic does not know what is right and what is wrong. May not know if right/ wrong even exists.

Argument against moral skepticism: If an objective morality exists, why do we not all agree on what is right/ wrong? Mencius explains that there is objective morality. Any differences in morals can be accounted for by a lack of information or a situation such as 'Ox Mountain'.

There are also no rules within morality that lead us to 'success' every time. In mathematics x = x always, yet with morality, there is no such rule that will give consistent results.

If there is an objective morality, we could literally ponder a chair's moral responsibility to another chair- which is extremely counterintuitive.

If there is objective morality humans are fallible.

Total- Someone who is skeptical about everything. We can be unsure that anything we know about ourselves are actually true.

Argument against total skepticism: "I think, therefore, I am" Can you deny your existence as you ponder your existence? You cannot think about if you are thinking; you cannot use thought to try and deny itself.

Butterfly dream example- Chuang Tzu a dream that he is a butterfly, and wakes up as himself. He wonders if he is himself dreaming he is a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he is a human.

Chuang Tzu's argument against objective morality

Moral standards limit freedom - options limited. Once you start accepting there are certain things you must / must not do, it simply restricts your freedom. Confucianism really limits what you can do, severely restricts the things you can do. Especially if you are not the first born son, especially if you are a woman.
No rules reliably produce right action. If morality is objective, it seems there should be a set of rules that if we followed should lead to the right action. Not always the case.
"Rightness" and "Wrongness" vary with context. There's some situations where we consider a strand of hair and it seems very small. If we compare a strand of hair to a piece of rice, then that hair might suddenly seem big even though before it was very small. We take a mountain, seems to be big. But if we compare it to say the entirety of the sky, now all of a sudden that mountain seems small. Might be the case that in which a given action seems right in certain contexts but when I move it to a different context then it's not clear anymore that that action seems right.
Different entities make different judgements of goodness (Argument for relativism). (Different species eating different things (i.e.), standards for beauty, etc.) How are we in any position to judge what is good and bad?

Hui tzu and giant gourds

Key thing to understand is that Hui Tzu is thinking of the objects in his possession as gourds. What are they used for? Containers or dippers. So big they can't serve those purposes. So they're useless. They only seem useless because he is trapped in that perspective. If he let go of that perspective and broadened his understanding he could use them as boats. Can prevent us from seeing the possibilities. Chuang Tzu is helping him think outside the box. Trying to show how the Daoist sage approaches life. Not being stuck to particular frameworks.

Chuang Tzu

Daoist philosopher, the Dream Argument, Praise of Uselessness found in the Carpenter and Oak Tree story, believes in creativity to master skill

cook ting

Skilled butcher who used one knife for 19 years. Instead of fighting against the meat, cut where it was naturally 'right' to cut- least resistance.

Hui Tzu

Logician; represents intellectual mind

Bodhidharma

The indian who according to legend brought zen buddhism to china. He didn't actually bring it, but presumably he brought his type of buddhism which evolved into zen inside china
semi-legendary
1st grand master

Zen

Brand of buddhism that originated in china. Spread to japan and the rest of east asia, but not really india. Currently most popular in south korea

Hui-neng

The 6th grand master. Started out as an illiterate boy, worked in the kitchens, wrote the poem etc. we did this this week. Started the southern/instant enlightenment school

The poetry contest between Hui-neng and Shen-hsiu

Shen made poem identifying buddhism as the clearing of dust off the mirror and Hui questioned the existence of the mirror itself. Hui-neng represents enlightenment is something that you attain all of a sudden. Shen represents one attains enlightenment after years of practice and dedication. Hui-neng's school of thought has won out.

Shen- Hsiu

Hui-neng's rival, started the northern gradual enlightenment school of zen which died out