Philosophy Exam II

Leopold and Loeb

killed their cousin and tried to get away with it as a sort of challenge

Clarence Darrow

lawyer that argued the both Leopold and Loeb's "heredity and upbringing together with the laws of causality" made them murder their cousin

determinism

the idea that human actions are completely determined by prior events

materialism

close allies with determinism

Marquis LaPlace

argued for determinism because we are unaware of the laws that actually govern us

Sigmund Freud

his followers trended towards determinism, unconscious desires made this happen

Determinism

1) human acts are causally determined
2) such determination rules out freedom and responsibility
3) humans are neither free nor responsible

libertarianism

the belief that people are free and have control over their actions, Sarte falls here

compatibilism

causal determinism is compatible with freedom, redefines freedom, blends determinism and libertarianism to say that you are free within the boundaries of what is determined

libertarianism

1) humans are free and responsible
2) determinism rules out such freedom and responsibility
3) human acts are not causally determined

Immanuel Kant

said that we are both free and determined, we act as free knowing what is determined

semantic

time is treated as...

Augustine

believed that only the present is real, the past is a memory, the future is an expectation, God is outside of time and eternal

Immanuel Kant

believed that time is a mental construct, we use it to organize situations, and it is a mental map - a priori; it helps us understand our world

a priori

prior to

J.M.E. McTaggart

described both the a-series of time and the b-series of time; since only the a-series of time can be counted as time, time is not real for him

a-series of time

time is described in past, present, and future; subjective; what is past, present, and future can change

b-series of time

time is described in terms of simultaneous with, before, and after; objective

Henri Bergson

said that subjective time is real, time is an abstraction or image, you experience this on a timeline from past to present to future, we have an "intuition" for flowing time

Ninian Smart

listed the 6 traits of religion

6 traits of religion

1) doctrine
2) experience
3) myth
4) ritual
5) morality
6) organization

religion

a set of spiritual beliefs and practices typically based in a community and influenced by culture and experience

the study of religion

unbiased, neutral, academic study of the religions of the world and how religions are formed and practiced

theology

done from the perspective of a practitioner of a faith tradition; typically accepts a belief in a theistic God

religion

viewed as: organized, communal, group rituals; sometimes negatively seen as confining, controlling, and as a power structure

spirituality

viewed as: individual, experiential, personal rituals

levels of perceived religion

this is why people are more comfortable with spirituality:
1) destruction of communities
2) destruction of the psyche

Pascal's Wager

purely beneficial way of looking at belief; if God exists and you believe = Heaven, if not = Hell; if God doesn't exist and you believe = nothing, if not = nothing

monotheism

belief in a single God; examples: Judaism, Christianity, Islam

polytheism

belief in multiple Gods

henotheism

belief in many gods with one chief God

theism

belief in an active, personal God

deism

belief in a creator, but absent God

atheism

belief in no God

pantheism

God is everything; "all God" - God is in everything and everything is God

panentheism

everything is "in God"; "all in God" - The universe is in God but God is more than the universe

3 arguments for God

1) The Ontological Argument
2) The Cosmological Argument
3) The Design Argument

Ontological

the argument that "God is that which nothing greater can be conceived"- Proslogion; if you can think of it, it has to exist

Anselm of Canterbury

the person who formed the Ontological argument

Immanuel Kant

person who critiqued the Ontological argument; said that Anselm defines God into existence, existence is not necessitated by the concept of an object

Triangle example

if a triangle exists, it has 3 sides but does not necessitate existence

Thomas Aquinas

the founder of the Cosmological argument, key theologian/philosopher from history, strong influence on Catholicism, influenced by Aristotle

The Unmoved Mover

Thomas Aquinas' first argument; things move, in order for them to move they have to be moved by something else, this can't go to infinity or there would be no origin, the origin can't be moving or it would be moved by something else, God is the unmoving origin

The Uncaused Causer

Thomas Aquinas' second argument; things that exist are caused by other things, they are caused by other things because nothing cannot cause something to exist, there can't be an infinite regression because then there would be no beginning to the causes and nothing would be caused, so the first cause is God; whew -_-

Arthur Schopenhauer

said that if everything needs a cause, then God also needs a cause; objected the Cosmological argument

Design

the argument that says order and purpose are evident in the universe, so there must be a God; also known as the "teleological argument"

The Anthropic Principle

constants and valuables in the universe are fine-tuned to support life

The Divine Watchmaker

by William Paley; if we find a watch, it is reasonable to think that an intelligent being made it; things in nature are designed for a purpose; analogy states that nature was made by an intelligent being- God

David Hume

objected the Design Argument because the assumption that only an intelligent being can produce something complex is not proven

evolution

an objection to the Design argument because random selection over a long period of time seems to mirror design

William Dembski

defended the Design Argument; intelligent design / irreducible complexity; three ways for an event or object to be produced: random chance, through natural laws, through the action of an intelligent designer

utilitarianism

the happiness which an action brings determines its morality

The Problem of Evil

If there is an all powerful, all good God, how can evil exist? Why do bad things happen to good people?

3 Maxims

1) God is all powerful
2) God is all good / all loving
3) Evil Exists

The Problem of Evil

one of the major arguments against God

Theistic responses

1) Evil is the absence of something good; God doesn't create evil, only good; evil becomes a byproduct
2) Evil is a result of humanity's free will; if God destroyed evil, it would not allow for free will

Augustine

person who said that evil is the absence of something good; God doesn't create evil, only good; evil becomes a byproduct

natural evil

something that causes mass destruction but is not caused by someone (hurricane, wildfire, etc.)

moral evil

something that causes destruction and is caused by someone (murder, robbery, etc.)

Agnosticism

a religious orientation of doubt; a denial of ultimate knowledge of the existence of God

Sigmund Freud

said that we have an infantile need to believe in a Father that is watching us

Immanuel Kant

said that because this is an unjust world, we must believe in a just God who "can bring about a perfectly just world"

William James

"The Will to Believe", the father of pragmatism, said that we can choose on the basis of our "passional nature" when an option is "genuine" - "living momentous and forced" and can't be decided intellectually

passional nature

made up of emotions, desires, hopes, etc.

W.K. Clifford

disagreed with religious belief and William James' view; said "it is always wrong always, everywhere and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence."

religious experience

moves from the actions of ritual to the feelings and experiences they invoke, both individual and as a group

mystical experience

an experience beyond basic religious experience

mystical experience

has two common characteristics:
1) ineffability: it defies expression
2) noetic: it seems like knowledge to the person experiencing it

ineffability

a common characteristic of mystical experience, it defies expression

noetic

a common characteristic of mystical experience, it seems like knowledge to the person experiencing it

mysticism

direct experience with a religious reality in which one is surrendering to the divine and unified with it

numinous experience

mystical consciousness of the holy;
1) one feels dependent
2) it is a mystery
3) terror is a part of the experience- no stability
4) bliss

Andrew Newberg

associated with the idea of an "Absolute Unitary Being", Cistercian Nuns / Buddhist Monks

radical theology

radical theologians believe our experience of God is more radical than rational

Kierkegaard

said that there is objective and subjective thinking; religious belief is not available to objective thinkers, which causes "anguish"; ultimately, one must take a leap pf faith

objective thinking

a scientific, dispassionate view of life

subjective thinking

truth is a profound personal concern, ex: the meaning of life / life and death

Paul Tillich

viewed God as an omnipotent/omniscient being that creates a gap with humanity and we rebel against Him, ultimately destroying traditional theism because we have no recourse

Paul Tillich

sees God as "the ground of being" or "the source of our ultimate concern", his knowledge is based in personal experience through prayer and meditation

objection to Tillich

his God is a tautology because the predicate repeats the subject

harmful

the Western perception of God is __________ to females

male

God is portrayed as...

male hierarchy

based on the conception of God and the fact that the first woman came from a man in Judeo-Christian myth

Mary Daly

the foremost theologian in feminist theology that believes the traditional conception of God cannot be reformed because it is implicitly male-centered

Pamela Young

disagreed with Mary Daly; said that the male features of God in traditional Christianity are not essential, thus there is room for reformation

Brahman

the only reality in Hinduism, "the oneness of reality", God

atman

the doctrine of no self, the spirit of God

Values in Hinduism

1) Wealth
2) Pleasure
3) Duty
4) Enlightenment

reincarnation

being born into another body after you die, occurs over and over until one reaches enlightenment

karma

the effects of a person's actions that determine his destiny in his next incarnation, you reap what you sow

4 Noble Truths

in Buddhism:
1) all life is sorrow
2) sorrow comes from craving
3) stopping craving stops suffering
4) the Eightfold path stops craving

Zen Buddhism

the avoidance of words and concepts- one understands something by placing themselves in the middle of it, versus describing it from the outside; Enlightenment is reached when one becomes one with nature; inner experience vs. intellectual exercise

western

__________ religions are more rule-based

eastern

there is a move towards more ___________ religions in the U.S.

epistemology

the study of the nature, sources, limitations, and validity of knowledge

epistemology

addresses the sources, reliability, extent of knowledge, nature of truth, linguistics, science, and interpretation

knowledge and truth

the major concepts at the foundation of epistemology

valid

having a conclusion that follows from the premises by logical necessity

rationalism

the idea that knowledge can be obtained by reason without any help from the senses

empiricism

the idea that knowledge is obtained by sense experience