Philo 12 Midterm Terminologies

Modern ideologies that lost interest in the afterlife

Liberalism (political authority & law must be justified, focusing on individuals), Socialism (public rather private ownership of property & resources), Feminism (belief in full social, economic, and political equality for women)

Nationalism

only modern ideology that still gives death a central role; promises eternal life for those who die for the ___

Religion

gives meaning to death

Socratic Method

term for a probing / questioning that Sir uses in class and that Socrates used for those who were claimed to be wiser than him; aka Socratic debate / dialectic, Elenchus

Corruption of the Youth

Socrates’ first charge; started from his questioning of the wisdom of others

Impiety

Socrates’ second charge; was accused of being an atheist

Meletus, Anytus, Lycon

3 main accusers of Socrates; represented the poets, craftsmen, and rhetoricians respectively

Punishment for Socrates

exiled if he would agree to stop philosophizing, but he didn’t agree to do so, and he would rather be put to death

The church is ___

hierarchical

Is the Philippines a secular state?

in principle we are, but in practice we are not

Nonestablishment Clause

“No law should be made representing an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Article 3 Section 5 of the Constitution

Free Exercise Clause

“The free exercise and enjoyment of religious profession and worship, without discrimination or preference, shall forever be allowed. No religious test shall be required for the exercise of civil or political rights.” Article 3 Section 5 of the Constitution

Ecclesiastical Affair

“…involves the relationship between the church and its members and relate to matters of faith, religious doctrines, worship, and governance of the congregation… examples of this so-called ecclesiastical affairs are proceedings for excommunication, ordinations of religious ministers, administration of sacraments, and other activities with attached religious significance.”

Legitimacy and Stability

2 main challenges of Political Liberalism

Ways Public Reason is Public

Its the reason of the public, Its subject is the good of the public, Its nature and content is public

Overlapping Consensus

citizens can endorse a core set of political values for different reasons

Comprehensive Doctrine

set of beliefs affirmed by citizens concerning a range of values

Substantive Principles of Justice

rules for organizing society’s basic structures

Guidelines of Inquiry

methods of acceptable justification, criteria, etc.

Political Conception of Justice

specifies basic rights, liberties, and opportunities; assigns priority to those rights, and ensures fair value of liberties

Difference Principle

Social and economic inequalities are to be arranged so that they are to the greatest benefit of the least advantaged.

Exclusive View

view that says comprehensive doctrines should never be used in public justification

Inclusive View

view that allows comprehensive doctrines to be introduced if they support and strengthen public values

Proviso

reasonable comprehensive doctrines, religious or nonreligious, may be introduced in public political discussion at any time, provided that in due course proper political reasons are provided

Supreme Court / Judiciary Branch

exemplar of public reason; only branch of the government that needs to justify their decisions

Duty of Civility

the ___ to be able to justify one’s political decisions with public reasons

Secularism

separation of the church and the state; derived from Christian Cultural Heritage and the idea came from Jesus himself

Kinds of Secular States

Militant Secularist, Agnostic Secularist, Confessional Secular, Official State Religion, Millet-Based Model

Militant Secularist Model

expulsion of religion; France and Turkey

Agnostic Secularist Model

inviting all religions but barring the state from favoring any of them; United States

Confessional Secular Model

incorporates religion into the culture; Germany and Italy; can be problematic

Official State Religion

state adopts one religion (and can thus be exclusionary); UK and Greece

Millet-Based Model

in matters of personal law, an individual is subjected to the law of their religion; Israel

3 Main Objections to Rawls’ Work

(1) There are no religious grounds for the two principles of justice (2) Rawls does not allow religious argument a place in political discourse (3) Rawls privatizes religion

Richard Rorty

philosopher whose interpretation of Rawls’ work sparked theologians to come up with the first two objections to Rawls’ work

Thomas Aquinas (in Weithman)

considered religion public and thought of it as an intellectual resource for exercise of public power and strength and harmony of society

Timothy Jackson

philosopher/theologian(?) who claimed that Christians should accept Rawls views out of love, and that Rawls’ reasons cannot be accepted out of love

David Hollenbach

moral theologian that argued that the privatized conception of religion is at odds with the conception of religious freedom as cited from Vatican II

John Courtney Murray

theologian that believed that religion was relevant to life and action of the society, and that religious freedom includes the ability to use religion’s relevance in public discussions

John Langan

claimed that religion is not divisive, or that it can help forge social unity and political coalitions

Kinds of Morality

Heteronomous Morality (Natural Law), Autonomous Morality (Utilitarianism)

Heteronomous Morality

natural law; major ethical theories overlap with religious views, human beings possess intrinsic values that govern their reasoning and behavior

Autonomous Morality

utilitarianism; based on secular reason and aims to reach morality without religion

Four Causes of Aristotle

Material, Efficient, Formal, Final (most important)

Utilitarianism

attempt to justify moral action in terms of expected results; argues that the right thing to do in any situation is that which is to be of the greatest benefit to the most

Aristotle (in Segev)

philosopher that rejected the anthropomorphic depictions of divinity characterizing traditional religion

Traditional Religion

what Aristotle believes to be false yet necessary for the flourishing of a city

Polis / Ideal Polis

Aristotle’s term for his best possible political community, where individual potential is actualized for the common good

Politics

Aristotle’s book in which he discusses allotting a budget and having priests in the polis (a class of retired citizens), as well as the humanization of gods and their origins

Philosophical Contemplation

ideal goal of the polis

Wonder

where philosophical inquiry starts from

Metaphysics

Aristotle’s book where he establishes the nature of the true gods as the eternal unmoved movers of the heavenly bodies

Strabo

ancient Greek geographer who supported Aristotle’s ideas on the necessity of traditional religion by claiming that myths are functionally necessary for awakening curiosity that leads to understanding

eudaimonia

the highest human good; the good life of a polis citizen

3 Main Assumptions in Ricoeur’s Work

(1) A religious faith may be identified through its language (2) This kind of discourse is worthwhile to analyze (3) Philosophy is needed to analyze the truth of this discourse

Hermeneutics

theory / science of interpretations with a philosophical lens; mostly used for philosophy

Exegesis

theory / science of interpretations with a theological lens

Statutory Construction

theory / science of interpretations involving legal matters

Examples of Religious Language

narratives, prophecies, proverbs, parables, prayers, hymns, legislative texts

Modes of Discourse

different ways of how language is used

Distanciation

more objective perspective on a text; reviewing a text as it is, separate from authorial intent and context

The World of the Text

distanciation of the real from itself; when a ___ creates a ___ of its own and opens itself to a number of different interpretations

Principle Task of Civilization

to defend us against nature, to impose coercion, and to suppress humanity’s destructive, anti-social instincts

Illusions

defined by Freud as beliefs derived from human wishes; what religious doctrines are; need not be false or contrary to reality

Error

caused by faulty reasoning / observation; can be proven by fact

Infantile Neurosis

human condition that is in need of a cure so that the individual can become a mature, healthy individual

Father Figure

the concept of God is a psychological projection of the omnipotent, protective, yet feared ___ ___ from infancy; fulfills our needs, protects from danger, attributes value to our being, provides needs

Pathos

emotional wish-fulfillment

Logos

intellectual reason and scientific inquiry; needed to achieve maturity

Learned Helplessness

why we have a modern fixation to men as protective figures as per Sir (or Freud honestly not sure)

Freud’s Verdict on Religion

Freud believes that religious illusion should be abandoned because the only path to maturity is one where civilization is built on reason and reality

Religious Experience

considered the heart of religion; encounters with the supernatural; esoteric experiences that are hard to explain but impossible to dismiss

Strong Justification

the argument that the common experience of mystics is strong justification for all for the existence of God; credited to C.D. Broad, Richard Swinburne, and Gary Gutting

Weak Justification

the argument that religious experience is sufficient for solely the subject for the existence of a divine reality; RE is only useful for the individual’s faith; William James and others

Gary Gutting

philosopher that further developed C.D. Broad’s strong justification thesis

3 Main Criticisms against the Strong Justification

(1) Religious experience is too amorphous and varied (2) Religious experience is circular (also for the weak) (3) Religious experience cannot be confirmed

The Flaw of Subjectivity

the feeling of absolute subjective certainty cannot serve as objective evidence for an experience’s external truth

Checkability-Predictability

complex criterion that suggests religious experience does NOT make a prediction that is testable and RE can thus not be confirmed

Pojman’s Verdict on Religion

unlike Freud, Pojman claims that religion and religious experience only has a role in personal and internal reinforcement, but not for public truth

The Five Ways for the Existence of God (condensed)

(1) Unmoved mover or motion (2) Uncaused cause or efficient causation (3) Possibility and necessity or contingency (4) Degrees of quality or gradations (5) Design or harmony of things

First Way: Unmoved Mover

since everything that moves is moved by something else, God is understood to be the unmoved mover that causes movement without itself being moved; imagined as an infinite loop

Second Way: Uncaused Cause

since everything (including every cause) has a cause, God is understood to be the the uncaused cause that causes everything to happen

Third Way: Possibility and Necessity

since something comes into existence only as a result of something else that already exists, God is understood to be the necessary being without whom we cannot exist

Fourth Way: Degrees of Quality

since degrees exist, God is understood to be the highest degree and most perfect being that makes degrees possible

Fifth Way: Design

since all things have a purposeful design (even in nature), God is understood to be the great designer of the world that is a product of divine intelligence and unexplainable by chance

Potency vs Actuality

potency is the capacity to become, while actuality is the actual change or the realization of potency

Creation

movement from nothing into something (e.g. the big bang)

Generation

movement from something into something else (e.g. children)

Corruption

movement from something into nothing (e.g. death)

Aquinas’ definition of “Necessary”

not subject to generation or corruption; exists but does not come into existence by composition and cannot cease to exist by decomposition

Different Foundations for Arguments on the Existence of God

Revelation, Reason, Religious Experience, Psychic Phenomena, Pragmatism (Faith)