American Philosophy Midterm

Intro to Philosophy

PLKR

Philosophy Knowledge Reality

PLVS

Philosophy Value Society

Broad Sense of Philosophy

The love and pursuit of WISDOM

Wisdom

The correct/proper use of KNOWLEDGE

Knowledge

Any type of justified belief

Technical Sense of Philosophy

The RATIONAL and Critical examination of the fundamental questions of existence

Rational

The use of reason and EXPERIENCE

Experience

The use of the five senses and how they lead to ideas

1st Step to Philosophical Thinking

Sense of Wonder

2nd Step to Philosophical Thinking

Ask questions

3rd Step to Philosophical Thinking

Provide answers and justifications to questions

Subjective Wonder

The experience of man himself (depends on the subject)

Objective Wonder

The experience of the world around man (The same for everyone, physical reality)

Metaphysics

The theory of reality / the criticism of the theories of reality (Racism, Sexism, classism, etc)

Epistemology

The theory of knowledge / the criticism of theories of knowledge (truth claims)

Morality

The application of the theories of right and wrong to individual, personal decisions or actions

Aesthetics

The criticism of the theories of beauty and art

Beauty

The quality of all things we call beautiful (All things are beautiful)

Logic

The art of reasoning

Criticism

Rational and critical examination of the fundamental questions

Forms of Knowledge

Truth Claims and Beliefs

Science

Studies physical reality through observation and experimentation, resulting in laws and theories

Religion

Studies God and spiritual reality through faith and commitment, resulting in faith-based beliefs

Philosophy

Studies the concept of everything— how we understand all reality— through reason and critique and results in reason-based beliefs

Agnosticism

Belief that the existence of God can’t be proven

Atheism

Belief that there is no God

Opposite Claims

When both claims contradict each other so one must be true (ex. There is no God, there is God)

True by definition

Concepts we know to be true (ex, all barking dogs bark)

SAAP

Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy

American Philosophy

The Criticism of goods and values related to “America” and “American” - John Dewey

Ethnophilosophies

An array of beliefs reflecting daily ways of living unique to America (Traditions, culture; includes all types of Americans)

Schools of Thought

Ideas in the writings of individuals, including puritanism, the enlightenment, transcendentalism, etc.

Pluralism

The idea that more than one belief can coexist; coexistence can only exist when the moral code is properly justified (As long as beliefs don’t hurt other people)

Absolutism

Believing there is only one correct way to live (ex, Mr. Cram’s belief of Christianity by evidence of the Bible)

Relativism

Different cultures have different moral codes, therefore, there is no objective truth in morality (people can do absolutely whatever they want)

Not plausible because…

1. There is no way to criticize others moral codes

2. There is no way to criticize our own moral code

3. We have no way to account for moral progress

Puritanism

A religious and philosophical movement strongly influenced by Calvinism with works by Jonathan Edwards. Believed that

1. Mankind is weak and depraved

2. Mankind must totally depend on God

Religious Movement

Old-fashioned theism; believed in both predestination and free will (Contradictions)

Philosophic Movement

Scientific Theism; God is nature and its laws, and you are most free when you have the most knowledge (freedom of the will)

God is…

Omnipotent, Benevolent, and Omniscient (Free will is a contradiction to benevolence)

Empiricism

1. Experience is the basis of knowledge

2. There are no innate ideas or principles

3. The mind is a blank tablet that needs to be filled

(associated with John Locke)

Jonathan Edwards

Claimed that the God above things was the same as the God of things, but couldn’t reconcile the two (Free will vs. Freedom of the will)

American Enlightenment

A school of thought with works from Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. The main beliefs were

1. Mankind is capable (Has rationality and reason)

2. Mankind must depend on mankind

Benjamin Franklin

A self reliant pragmatist who believed in Theism (Nature) and made advancements in both science and philosophy

Thomas Jefferson

Believed in the innate goodness and rationality of each person (everyone was born with a sense of right and wrong) and thought education would be the best safeguard of the nation’s freedom and happiness. Also helped write the Declaration of Independence and fought for the bill of rights.

Rationalism

Knowledge can be gained through rational thought

Perfectibility

An enlightenment belief that states that nobody is born evil, nut they can always get better

American Transcendentalism

A school of thought with works from writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Main beliefs included

1. Nature is divine

2. Mankind is part of nature and therefore also divine

3. Mankind should be able to know the truth directly

To be divine

To have the ability of intuition

Humanism

Respect for the dignity of all

Constitution

A political document compromise that allowed life to continue until we improved as human beings

Declaration of independence

A moral document that set an ideal for how America should be run

Pragmatism

Ideas, actions, etc. must be measured only by their practical effects (their meaning)

Free will

The ability to choose between good and evil

Freedom of the will

We are capable of making our own decisions according to our own desires/thoughts (We are capable of knowing the laws of nature)

Deism

God created the universe and its natural order, but the universe operates according to the natural laws rather than constant supernatural intervention (Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson)

Platonism (Transcendentalism)

The belief that all ideas are innate and knowledge is about uncovering these ideas (Human consciousness can access truths beyond ordinary sensory experience)

English Romantic Poets (Transcendentalism)

Includes Wordsworth and Coleridge; believed knowledge was to be found through reflection on the “inward consciousness”. We aren’t just observers of reality, we actively create and interpret our experience (we can all be poets)

German Idealism (Transcendentalism)

The belief that our senses give us information about the world, but they don’t necessarily give us the whole truth about reality

• Individual consciousness could possess the truth directly

• Nature known through sense experience was indirect and often deceptive

Friedrich Schelling

Wrote that we possess an active, creative kind of immediate knowledge (Esthetic Intuition) that coincides with the life in us / active principle within nature

Immanuel Kant

Intended the term “transcendentalism” to be used as the search for the conditions of knowledge, elements of the mind itself that we bring to experience

• any attempt to extend human reason beyond the limits of possible experience leads only to error and delusion

• Argued that the human mind contributes structures through which we experience reality

Transcendentalist view of Transcendentalism

All non experiential thought or “whatever belongs to the class of the intuitive thought”

Intuition

The ability to know something directly without reasoning or discovering it through sensory experience

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Defines transcendentalism as a way of regarding will, thought, inspiration, and miracle as the real (In opposition to fact, history, and force of circumstances)

Henry David Thoreau

Argued that individuals have a moral obligation to resist unjust laws rather than simply obeying the government

• practiced civil disobedience and was jailed for refusing to pay taxes

Aristocracy

There are common people and people higher up that are more intelligent and are given more power/control

Kant’s Categories of Understanding

Substance, Time, Space, Causality