human nature final

Boorse’s definition of mental illness

absence of normal function of a mechanism or process in a person that detracts from the person’s survival or reproduction

problems with Boorse definition of mental illness

assumes “normal”

doesn’t rule out people who have murderous tendencies (not necessarily bad for survival or reproduction)

What is Thomas Szasz argument?

He argues mental illness is not real

“…functions merely as a convenient myth”

Part 1 of what “mental illness” assumes according to Szasz?

sign of brain disease; neurological defect will be found for all disorders of thinking and behavior

What is the first component of Thomas Szasz’s argument?

1. person’s visual field = definite lesion; person’s belief -- cannot be explained by a defect or disease

What is the second component of Thomas Szasz’s argument?

2. “judgement” is necessary for mental illness (convert comparison)

Part 2 of what “mental illness” assumes according to Szasz?

deformity of personality; amounts to a defect in personality, important for dealing with social life

issue with part two of mental illness assumption?

for something to be deformity or defect, something must be the norm; who sets standards

What is Szasz’s overall main view?

Mental illness exists or is “real” in exactly the same sense in which witches existed or were “real”

What does Szasz believe mental illness truly is?

the expressions of man’s struggle with the problem of how he should live

what are the problems with szasz’s beliefs?

seems to dismiss neurologically-based disorders; seems to make hard distinction between treating depression with therapy/medication/neurological intervention/etc.

What is Cooper’s goal?

refute anti-psychology arguments

What was the Rosenhan study 1973

tricked psychiatrists at hospital into thinking normal people were mentally ill; seems to show maybe judgments of mental categories aren’t so accurate

What was Cooper’s response to the Rosenhan study?

only shows doctors can be tricked, not that categories aren’t real; ex: fake barns, but barns still exist

What was Szasz’s response to Cooper’s argument?

Cooper: distinguish between mental illness and brain illness; Szasz: causes of mental illness = intentional communications

What was Cooper’s response to Szasz’s argument?

Szasz: condition cannot be a genuine disease unless it has been shown to be caused by physical lesion; Cooper: can make inference to best explanation regarding some behavior, so some behavior might be symptom

What does Chloe Cooper-Jones consider? Why?

life’s value; born with rare congenital condition (sacral agenesis) affects stature and gait, causes physical pain; told she'd have no children but has son

What case does Chloe Cooper-Jones purpose?

2 deaf parents want child, possible for them to intentionally select to only use “deaf embryos;” is there anything wrong with them choosing such an option

What is the first general claim to deaf embryo case?

forcing child to be deaf

What is Chloe Cooper-Jones’s first claim?

embryo is already deaf, so not forcing it to be anything

What is a problem with Chloe Cooper-Jones’s first claim?

forcing deaf person into existence

What does Goethe say?

wished he was never born in first place

What is the second general claim to deaf embryo case?

too far from normal

What is Chloe Cooper-Jones’s second claim?

suggests some lives are more inherently valuable at baselevel based merely on “normalcy.” What is “normal?”

What is the third general claim to deaf embryo case?

cruel/their life will be more difficult/dangerous

What is Chloe Cooper-Jones’s third claim?

woman = currently more difficult than being a man in today’s society, so shouldn’t have woman?

What does Colin believe regarding easy beauty?

eugenics is a good thing and it’s wrong to knowingly bring disabled child into world; believe in ideal world, Chloe would be aborted

What is Chloe’s response to Colin believing she should have been aborted?

condition has brought many positive things into her life

What is Colin’s second argument regarding easy beauty?

Chloe is just coping/rationalizing; if he could get rid of his depression, he would, conditions are the same || BUT Chloe doesn’t share this belief

Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s main idea

argued that humans start in a state of nature and form societies by convention; “MAN is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. One thinks himself the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they…What can make it legitimate?”

What was John Locke’s view?

Life, liberty, property

What was Thomas Jefferson’s view?

Life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness

When can society be dissolved?

contract - determined by nature of the act so slightest modification would make them vain and ineffective; violation: each regains original rights and natural liberty

What are the problems with Rousseau’s view?

racist and sexist; assumed humans were naturally good; maybe too “stringent;” doesn’t really talk about how conventions/contracts would work

What are the three things protected under the social contract?

1. members of society
2. property of members
3. personal freedom (as much as possible)

What was Charles Mills’ critique of the social contract?

argues Rousseau was really arguing for a “racial contract”

What was Mills’ argument?

“…when white people say ‘Justice,’ they mean “just us”

What was the Veil of Ignorance?

John Rawls, A Theory of Justice; when setting up society/when choosing society’s rules, assume a position “behind the veil”

What were two principles of justice under the Veil of Ignorance?

1. greatest benefit of the east advantaged (the difference principle)
2. includes private positions and public offices open to all

What were problems with the Veil of Ignorance?

Can we really just imagine or believe away that we are whatever race, gender, religion, class, etc. we are? What about implicit biases? How do we make sure others are/aren’t doing it? Would we all come to same conclusion? What if disagreement?

When is dissolution or revolution justified?

first pass: when social contract is broken; ==but social contract is broken all the time==

second pass: when a certain threshold or tipping point is reached; ==is there a clear threshold==

Under risk argument: Hobbes

1. revolution may or may not succeed in replacing an unjust gov’t with a better one
2. There will very likely be mass bloodshed and suffering in the process
3. Overall, risk (the possible bad outcome(s)) is not worth it

What was Kant’s belief?

Evil does exist (varieties/different kinds) in levels; free will and are inclined to act both virtuously and sinfully

what are the three types of evil

frailty, impurity,wickedness/perversity

frailty

wanting to do good but being too weak of will to follow through

impurity

wanting to do good and doing good but not only for the right reasons

wickedness/perversity

having only selfish intentions and if one does do any good, one does it only for those selfish reasons

What did Kant call diabolical evil?

doing wrong only because it is wrong (only the devil)

What were problems with Kant’s views?

some people do wrong just to do wrong? are selfish motives/actions really paradigm of evilness? torturing for money = lying to mom?

How did Arendt view Eichmann?

“desk murderer” or banal

banal

normal, ordinary, or boring

How does Arendt’s view differ?

not apparently evil, but compliant

What are two cases that fall under Arendt’s view?

Milgram Experiment, Stanford Prison Experiment

Milgram Experiment Object

object of study: test willingness of participants to obey orders of authority; origin: understand psychology of Germans (Holocaust); question: Were Eichmann and his people just following orders?

Milgram Experiment Findings

none of the participants tried stopping the experiment; most people are predisposed to banal evil

Problems with banal evil thinking?

Eichmann was aware and seemed to gain pleasure

What kinds of love are there?

eros, agape, philia

what is eros?

love in the sense of a kind of passionate desire for an object (sexual passion)

What is agape?

love not conditioned on the value of object; god’s love for all

What is philia?

affectionate regard or friendly feeling, towards friends or family members, business partners, and one’s country at large

What does Brown believe about love?

love is an emotion; emotions are mental states that are abnormal bodily changes

What are the problems with Browns views on love?

How long must emotions last? What if you don’t feel the love?

love as behaviorism

act like you are in love

What is wrong with behaviorism in terms of love?

true emotion is a major part of love; someone could easily behave the right way but have the wrong feelings; showing love differs

What did Solomon believe regarding love?

Love is a union (“we”); love is concentration and intensive focus of mutual definition on a single individual (melting identities)

What are possible issues with Solomon’s view?

lost autonomy in love? does this entail self-less acts are impossible? is selflessness a key part of love?

What is Solomon’s ultimate reason for love?

bring out the best in one another

What are problems with Solomon’s ultimate reason?

is this really the only one real reason? not all lovers bring out the best in each other; if already at my best, can I not love? how much should you change to be worthy?

Bernard Williams view point

bad to live forever, even under the best of circumstances; good thing that we are not immortal; can’t maintain character indefinitely

Williams: What would make immortality worthwhile?

Identity, attractiveness

the identity condition

the person who lives at any point in the future must be the same person as me

the attractiveness condition

the sort of life that that person lived must be one what I want

what is William’s problem with the attractive condition?

thinks that any infinite life will eventually end up boring and not worth living

What does William provide as ways out?

remove higher consciousness; complete engrossment; eternal reincarnation; forgetfulness

What is the issue with removing higher consciousness?

who am I without my consciousness?

What is the problem with complete engrossment?

If I’m so engrossed in my projects forever that I never recognize I exist, then do I?

What is the problem with eternal reincarnation?

I’d have to forget my past life for this to work

What is the problem with forgetfulness?

But too much forgetting and I’m probably not myself

What are the problems with Williams’ views?

How do we know he is right about boredom? The world is constantly changing

What is Nagel’s view?

it is ALWAYS a misfortune to die; life is worth living even when the the bad elements of experience are plentiful…”

Why does Nagel think death is bad?

loss of opportunities to continue experiencing

What are the problems with Nagel’s view?

How do I know I really “lost” such an opportunity? What are the limits?

nihilism

nothing matters at all

anti-natalism

we should stop reproducing so as to reduce the suffering caused by existence

What was the Myth of Sisyphus?

assumes God doesn’t exist; no purpose;

What does Albert Camus believe?

I am interested… not so much in absurd discoveries as in their consequences

What are the consequences to the Myth of Sisyphus?

absurdity of existence raises the question of suicide and the meaning of life thus becomes “the only truly serious philosophical problem”

Why does Albert Camus use myth of sisyphus?

sisyphus tricked and trapped Death and prevented him from killing humans; when Death was freed, Sisyphus decided that his punishment should be to have to push a large rock up a hill

What does Camus believe about existense?

must engage in existential rebellion

Who was Aldo Leopold?

Environmental Ethics

What was “Old Bigfoot?”

killing of large predators like Grizzlies to make land safer for cattle ranchers and the like + the installation of roads + the installations of phone lines

Why was Leopold worried about “Old Bigfoot?”

laments destruction of beauty of landscape (via new constructions); laments the way old bigfoot was killed; not fair/necessary; lament loss of “feeling” or wildness and danger that bear’s presence brought to the area

What was “thinking like a mountain?”

trophic cascade: a. state of nature; b. kill all wolves; c. no more wolves = more deer; d. not enough plants; e. death

What was the lesson of “thinking like a mountain?”

progress gone wrong; need to learn to think like a mountain; take whole ecosystem into account

What is the land ethic?

a thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community

What are the problems with the land ethic?

not clear why this is the right ethical view; what is integrity? what is stability? what is beauty? at expense of rights of individual

Leopold’s solutions to wilderness destruction

the land ethic; writing/voting

What are Abbey’s solutions?

policy proposals; direct/indirect action (Monkey wrenching)

What does Cronon argue?

we need to revise our understanding of wilderness

What are the two main origins of wilderness?

idea of sublime; idea/myth of “frontier”