Philosophy Exam 1 Study Guide

What is Bostrom’s thesis

One of the following must be true: most civilizations never reach post-human civilizations, post-human civilizations have no interest in running ancestral simulations, or we a living in a simulation

What is Clifford’s thesis

It is wrong/immoral to believe upon something with insufficient evidence

What evidence supports Clifford’s thesis

Ones beliefs reflects their actions, and acting upon insufficient evidence will cause problems. Credulity is contagious. In his second example, some people accused the professor of their religion of breaking rules to take children away from their parents. People talked about this and more people began to believe it and eventually created a society dedicated to this cause. They continued these accusations and it became such a big deal that investigations started and they were eventually proven innocent. Although they truly believed their accusations, they acted upon no real evidence and that one persons accusations spread like a wildfire.

What is Jame’’s thesis

It is sometimes rational to choose to believe something on non-rational grounds

What evidence supports James’s thesis and how does he apply this to religion

His thesis only applies to genuine options: living, forced, momentous. If an option is living it is a genuine and possible/appealing to someone. If an option is forced that means that there is no way of not answering, it cannot be avoided(either accept or don’t). If an option is momentous then the opportunity is unique and/or life changing. Missing out on the opportunity will mean not getting the “prize”. He argues religion is living, forced, and momentous. To many people religion is a live possibility they could accept. It is forced because someone cannot remain skeptical about a religion forever without missing out on the potential positive outcomes. Lastly it is Momentous because believing in religious values can lead to a more fulfilling life.

How does James’s apply his thesis to the leap of trust we make during a friendship

Similar to religion, the leap of trust we make during a friendship is also living, forced and momentous. It is living because the possibility of making a genuine ad fulfilling connection is appealing to most people. It is forced because you either trust the people enough to get to know them or you do not. And it it momentous because the outcome could be a life long friendship that could change ones life. 

Descartes Meditation 1

Two Principles: avoid error and believe truth. Too do this he decided to doubt everything that could be doubted instead of testing each belief one by one. So he is overshooting to make sure he doesn’t believe anything that isn’t true, and some of them could have been correct but he was not certain about them. He is also doing this because he realizes that he has been deceived many times, by his senses, dreams, personal experiences.

Descartes Meditation 2

He is now doubting everything including himself. He concludes since he is having these thoughts of doubt, he can only be sure that he is a thinking thing. So he can understand, and think but he can also imagine and sense even if these things can deceive him. He wants to know his own essence. He knows his imagination deceives him “dreams”  so then he moves to wax. He observes it using his senses: its hardness, shape, color, size. etc. However when it is melted all of those things change and it seems like a completely different thing. Using only his senses he would not know that piece of wax is the same but only through his mind can he come to that conclusion. So he also concludes that his mind is stronger than his body. Every perception he has about the world around him come from his thoughts and not his senses or imagination. 

Descartes Meditation 4

Descartes understands that his understanding of God is not from his senses but from his intuition. Now that he knows God exists he wonders how/why something all being and perfect would deceive him/make him imperfect. As doing these things would make god a deceiver and imperfect as well right? He knows he is somewhere in between God and nothingness. Him being wrong does not mean God made a mistake with him, and him being deceived is not the result of God being a deceiver. But why didn’t God make him perfect? He concludes that he might be a perfect being in the greater scale of the universe. He thinks about his will and how its the closest thing that resembles God, as our will is infinite. Our intellect was given by God so that also cannot be imperfect. Because our intellect is not infinite, our will surpasses judgement and hence explains our errors. He can completely avoid error preventing judgment when he is unertain and only pass judgments on clear and distince perceptions.