GENERAL HISTORY, BRODY, WORLDVIEW, DANGLING CARROT, ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE

When did Plato live?

427–347 BC

Where did Plato live and teach?

Athens, Greece

What language were Plato’s works written in?

Ancient Greek

Who was Plato’s teacher?

Socrates (who wrote nothing)

What is Plato most famous for writing?

The Republic

How many of Plato’s dialogues survived?

At least 26

What school did Plato found?

The Academy

What did Plato believe about moral knowledge?

It is possible but very difficult and requires rational explanation

What idea about virtue appears in the Meno?

Virtue is a form of knowledge

What did Socrates believe about injustice?

It is better to suffer injustice than to commit it

What are Plato’s ethics grounded in?

The Forms

What are Forms?

Perfect, unchanging, immaterial essences

When did Descartes live?

1596–1650

Where was Descartes born?

La Haye, Touraine, France

What languages did Descartes write in?

Latin and French

What is Descartes’ most famous statement?

I think, therefore I am

What did Descartes believe about science?

All sciences form one unified system based on math

Why was math important to Descartes?

It gives absolute certainty

What is Descartes’ most famous work?

Meditations on First Philosophy

What does Descartes question in the First Meditation?

The reliability of the senses

What truth cannot be doubted in the Second Meditation?

I think, therefore I am

What two substances exist according to Descartes?

Physical bodies and immaterial minds

What is addressed in the Third Meditation?

The existence of the physical world

When was David Hume born?

1711

Where was David Hume born?

Edinburgh, Scotland

What was Hume trying to investigate?

The limits of human reason

What two types of knowledge did Hume distinguish?

Relations of ideas and matters of fact

Did Hume believe we know the universe a priori?

No

How do we form cause-and-effect beliefs according to Hume?

Habit and custom

What was Hume skeptical about?

Certain knowledge based on reason

What is philosophy concerned with?

The nature and validity of major human activities

What does ethics study?

Right and wrong

What does social and political philosophy study?

Justice, law, and political obligation

What does philosophy of religion study?

The rationality of religious belief

What does metaphysics study?

The nature of reality and being

What does epistemology study?

The theory of knowledge

What is a philosopher trying to do?

Rationally defend conclusions

What are premises?

Statements supporting a conclusion

When is an argument good?

When the premises prove the conclusion

What is a worldview?

A set of presuppositions about reality

What are presuppositions?

Assumptions accepted as true without proof

Who has a worldview?

Everyone

What two branches shape a worldview?

Metaphysics and epistemology

What must knowledge be to count as knowledge classically?

Certain and infallible

What is skepticism?

The belief that certain knowledge is impossible

Where did classical philosophers locate truth?

In the Forms or the mind of God

What did Plato and Aristotle disagree on?

The location of the Forms

Where did modern philosophers locate certainty?

In the mind

What did Nietzsche believe about knowledge?

Culture and interests shape what we know

What is the final conclusion about certainty?

Nothing is fully certain

What is an allegory?

A story with a hidden philosophical meaning

Who do the prisoners represent in the cave?

Ordinary people who see only appearances

What do the shadows represent?

Illusions and false beliefs

What does the sun or fire represent?

The source of truth and knowledge

What does the world outside the cave represent?

The world of Forms

What happens to the freed prisoner?

He slowly learns the truth

What happens when he returns to the cave?

The others reject and may kill him

What is seen last in the allegory?

The Form of the Good