GTS211: Philosophy, Logic & Human Existence

Flashcards covering the definitions, core branches, historical figures, and major theories of philosophy as presented in the GTS211 course transcript.

GTS211 Objectives

To teach students to be critical, rational, responsible, and to inculcate morality.

Fasoro's view on Philosophy

An intellectual discipline whose other name should be 'controversy' due to the lack of agreement on its definition.

C. D. Broad's definition of Philosophy

Argues that philosophy is best defined by observing what philosophers do on a daily basis.

Olusegun Oladipo's view on Philosophy

States it is difficult to define because it lacks a specific subject matter and a single identifiable method.

Philo

A Greek word meaning 'Love'.

Sophia

A Greek word meaning 'wisdom' or 'knowledge'.

Etymological meaning of Philosophy

The love of wisdom.

H. S. Staniland's definition of Philosophy

Philosophy is the criticism of ideas we live by, intended to evaluate rather than simply reject those ideas.

Core branches of Philosophy

Epistemology, logic, metaphysics, and ethics (also known as axiology).

Epistemology

Derived from the Greek word 'episteme' (knowledge), it is the branch that studies the nature, meaning, and limitations of knowledge.

Traditional Conception of Knowledge

As found in Plato's Theaetetus, it is defined as 'justified true belief,' requiring belief, truth, and reasons/justification.

Sophists

Ancient itinerant teachers who charged for their services and claimed that knowledge is impossible because nothing is certain and everything is changing.

Protagoras

A Sophist known for the claim: 'Man is the measure of all things.'

Gorgias

A Sophist who argued: 'Nothing exists. If anything exists, it cannot be known. If it can be known, it cannot be communicated.'

Rationalism

The school of thought holding that reason is the major or only source of knowledge.

Plato's Theory of Recollection

The belief that the soul lived in the world of Forms and forgot its knowledge at birth; humans 're-know' things through reasoning and teachers.

Methodic Doubt

Rene Descartes' process of subjecting everything, including mathematical truths like $2+2=4$, to doubt to find a certain foundation for knowledge.

Cogito ergo sum

A Latin phrase by Rene Descartes meaning 'I doubt, therefore, I exist' (often translated as 'I think, therefore I am').

Empiricism

The school of thought asserting that knowledge comes primarily through sense experience (sight, hearing, smelling, touching, tasting).

Tabula rasa

John Locke's concept that the human mind at birth is a 'clean slate' or blank sheet upon which nothing is written.

Esse est percipii

George Berkley's concept that 'to be is to be perceived,' arguing that objects are ideas in the mind of God.

David Hume's view on Knowledge

Arguat that there can be no idea without an impression; one cannot know sugar is sweet without tasting it.

The Gettier Problem

A challenge to the traditional definition of knowledge (JTB) published in 1963, arguing that justified true belief can be true by accident and thus not count as knowledge.

Correspondence Theory of Truth

The belief held by Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein that a statement is true if it mirrors a fact or state of affair.

Coherent Theory of Truth

Proposed by Brandt Blanshard, it holds that a statement is true if it agrees or coheres with an established system of other statements.

Pragmatic Theory of Truth

Associated with John Dewey and William James, it asserts that a statement is true if it works, produces good results, or provides value.

Axiology (Ethics)

Also called Moral Philosophy, it is the study of human conduct to determine what is good, bad, right, or wrong.

Meta-ethics

A branch of ethics concerned with the meanings and evaluation of ethical terms like 'good,' 'bad,' 'is,' and 'ought'.

Consequentialism

An ethical theory (also called teleology or utilitarianism) holding that the rightness or wrongness of an action depends on its results or consequences.

Deontology

An ethical school founded by Immanuel Kant holding that actions are good or bad in themselves, regardless of the results they produce.

Categorical Imperative

Immanuel Kant's rule that one should act only on those actions that they would allow to be universalized.

Metaphysics

The branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of reality and things beyond experience/the sensible world.

Logical Positivists' view of Metaphysics

Led by A. J. Ayer and building on David Hume, they argued metaphysical statements are meaningless because they cannot be verified.

Being qua being

Aristotle's definition of metaphysics as the study of being as it is.

Andronicus

The disciple of Aristotle who coined the name 'Metaphysics' for the volume of works collected after the book 'Physics'.

Mind/Body Dualism

The view held by Descartes and Spinoza that man is composed of two radically different entities: the physical body and the spiritual mind.

Pineal Gland

The point identified by Rene Descartes where the interaction between the mind and the body occurs.

Pre-established Harmony

Baruch Spinoza's theory that God designed independent 'monads' (mind and body) to act in sync without actually interacting.

Categorical Mistake

Gilbert Ryle's term for the error of thinking the mind exists as a separate entity from the body, using the university building analogy.

St Anselm's Ontological Argument

An argument for God's existence based on the idea of God as the 'greatest thing' that can be imagined, where existence is a necessary predicate.

Kant's Moral Argument for God

The argument that because the law of justice (reaping what you sow) must hold, there must be a 'Noumena' world and a God to reward people for deeds not balanced in this physical world.

Existentialism

Founded by Soren Kierkegaard and popularised by Jean Paul Sartre, it focuses on individual existence, human nature, and the questions of purpose and freedom.

Leap of Blind Faith

Soren Kierkegaard's concept that knowledge of God is a miracle and requires an irrational commitment because God's existence cannot be proven.