Ph 200 Unit 2 Philosophers

Augustine

The relationship of faith and reason, the virtues as loves, divine foreknowledge and human will, the problem of evil, the Cities of God and Man

Anselm

The ontological argument for God's existence, Defining "God," the argument

Aquinas

Faith and reason, the existence of God, foreordination and free will

Descartes

Rationalism, realism, dualism

Hobbes

Cosmology, ethics, politics

Pascal

Epistemology, "wager" argument

Leibniz

Truths of reason and truths of fact, limitations of empirical knowledge, providence and free will, theodicy

Locke

Empiricism, ethics, politics

Hume

Epistemology

Rousseau

Romanticism, social contract

Augustine's Faith and Reason

Faith is primary to knowledge.

1.) Faith can be completed by reason.

2.) Reason can lay the ground for faith.

Augustine's Divine Foreknowledge and Human Choosing

"Soft" Determinism / Compatibilism

God ordained human will to be free, but it is bound by the limits of human nature.

Anselm on God's Existence

Ontological argument - God is something you cannot conceive anything greater than

God in the mind -> BETTER = God in reality --> by definition, God exists in reality!

Aquinas on God's Existence

Cosmological argument

1.) Prime Mover

2.) Uncaused Cause

3.) Necessary Being

4.) Absolute Perfection

5.) Intelligent Governor

Aquinas' Foreordination and Free Will

God moves man to choose but does not determine what he will choose.

All men are morally accountable to God for their choices.

Descartes on God's Existence

EXISTING in order to doubt - "I think, therefore I am."

Who came up with God in my mind? I could not since He is infinite and I am finite. Therefore, God exists.

Hobbes's RIGHT of nature

Each person enjoys absolute freedom with no inherent limitations

Hobbes's STATE of nature (BAD)

Each person's RIGHT OF NATURE puts him in a STATE OF WAR with everyone else

Hobbes's FIRST Law of Nature

Man's desire for peace causes him to set aside his right of nature (absolute freedom to do anything)

Hobbes's SECOND Law of Nature

A man ought to be content with the same liberty against other men that he would allow against himself (treat others as you want to be treated)

Hobbes's THIRD Law of Nature

Men should keep their contracts to cede/GIVE UP their rights

Hobbes's social contract, the LEVIATHAN

Supreme, sovereign authority who received ALL the people's rights because they wanted to be protected and have peace

Pascal on God's Existence

WAGER and acting like you believe

Theist's wager: RIGHT = infinite gain; WRONG = finite loss

Atheist's wager: RIGHT = finite gain; WRONG = infinite loss

BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY

Leibniz's Providence and Free Will

God made the best of all possible worlds according to His master plan (evil exists for the greater good)

All creatures act freely according to their God-ordained behaviors (and think they are free)

Locke's STATE of nature (OKAY)

Each person may do as he wishes so long as he doesn't harm anyone or violate divine law

Mutual interest and mutual BENEFIT

Locke's law of nature

Obliges every person not to harm another "in his life, health, liberty (freedom in the state of nature, or possessions"

Locke's social contract, the Commonwealth

Government protects people's natural rights (life, liberty, and property) and enacts the will of the majority as long as it doesn't violate the state of nature's freedom

CHECKS AND BALANCES - divided legislative and executive power as

1.) A single hereditary person having the constant, supreme, executive power

2.) An assembly of hereditary nobility

3.) An assembly of representatives chosen by the people for a time

Rousseau's STATE of nature (GOOD)

Man possessed an innate sense of goodness through self-preservation and compassion against observing suffering

Society made mankind prideful, which led to inequalities that resulting in the people's willingness to SACRIFICE their liberties to a tyrant's laws

Rousseau's Social Contract

The General Will (our best selves' will)

Moral right and common good for a commonwealth while also allowing man to remain free (mutual agreement to have individuals' wills be ruled by the General Will)

Man is paradoxically free in a way (obeys himself) and enjoys greater freedom now than he could have in the state of nature