Philosophy

·       St. Augustine – 3540-430 CE N. Africa (Algiers)

·       Was canonized as one of the four church fathers.

·       Ambrose, Jerome, Gregory the Great

·       Two greatest works: Confessions and City of God

·       Early life

·       As a student Augustine led a life of study and pleasure seeking.

·       Learned Latin and Greek.

·       Studied Cicero and fell in love with philosophy.

·       Had a son with a concubine, Adeodatus.

·       Adopted Manicheanism

·       Mani 216-277 taught dualist metaphysics with competing principles. (Another dualist was Plato, the theory of forms)

·       Light “God”- spirit- perfectly good Creator.

·       Darkness “god”- matter- perfectly bad Destroyer.

·        Chirsitan Conversion- In Milan for a Manichean teaching assignment, Augustine heard St. Ambrose teaching (combination of Christianity and Neo-Platonism)

·       But Augustine’s will was divided: “Give me chastity and continence but not yet”.

·       But he heard voice of a child over the wall repeating the phrase “Take up and read.”

·       Big difference was teaching, of God. In Christianity there is one God.

·       Baptized in 387 CE.

·       Ordained a priest in 391 CE.

·       Appointed Bishop of Hippo in 395 CE.

·       Canonized a saint in 1298.

·       Donatist Controversy 4^th -6^th cent. CE- Donatists refused to accept the sacraments and spiritual authority of priest and bishops who had fallen away from the faith during the Diocletian persecution.

·       The Church should be a church of Saints not Sinners.

·       Augustine: Sacraments come from God. So a priest could still administer ‘valid sacraments’.

·       Pelagian controversy- Rejected biblical concept of grace: moral perfection was attainable in this life without the assistance of divine grace through human free will.

·       Augustine said perfection was impossible without grace because we are born sinners with a sinful heart and will and a person’s salvation comes solely through a free grift of God’s grace which one could not freely accept or refuse.

·       City of God- after Rome was sacked by Visigoths in 410, Romans saw it as punishment for abandoning traditional religion for Christianity.

·       Augustine wrote THE CITY OF GOD, arguing for the truth of Christianity over competing religions and philosophies and that Christianity is not only not responsible for the fall of Rome, but instead was responsible for the success of Rome.

·       Augustine: even if the earthly Empire was in danger, the City of God would ultimately triumph.

·       Christina Triumphalism

·       Spiritual is more important than political.

·       City of God= mystical, heavenly city; the New Jerusalem.

·       Philosophy of History- human history is a conflict between the Earthy City- the City of Man- and the city of God, a conflict that is destined, by God, to end in victory for the latter.

·       The city of God consists of people who forget earthly pleasures to dedicated themselves to the eternal truths of God, only then revealed int eh Chirsitan faith.

·       The City of Man consists of people who have immersed themselves in the cares and pleasure of the present, passing world. (an example the Roman Empire, or people that are addicted to their smart phones).

·       Establishes a Just War Theory- history of the world is a universal warfare between God and the Devil.

·       Not limited by time but only by geography as it takes place on planet Earth.

·       In this war, God moves (by divine intervention called Providence) those governments, political/ ideological movements and military forces that are aligned with the Catholic Church (The City of God) in order to oppose by all means including military those governments, political ideology movement and military forces aligned with the Devil(The City of Man).

·       Overview of City of God- a polemical critique of Roman relgion and philosophy corresponding the Earthly city (Books 1-10).

·       Books 1-5; A critique of pagan religion.

·       Book 10- a teaching that the good angles wish that God alone is worshiped and a proof that no sacrifice can lead to purification except that of Christ.

·       Part 2 books 11- 22: discussions on the city of God and its relationship to the Earthly City.

·       Books 11-14- the origins of the two cities

·       The history or progress of the two cities

·       The derived denies of the two.

·       The end of the two cities and happiness of people of Christ.

·       Augustine focuses on how the two cities will end and, in the process, he outlines the nature of the Supreme good.

·       He emphasized the idea that the peace and happiness found in the heavenly city can also be experienced here on earth through faith, love, and hope.

·       Faith seeking understanding= Fides quaerens rationis.

·       Love- he who loves aright believes and hopes aright (gets it from the Enchiridion).

·       Hope- has two daughters, their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.

·       Against Origen and Castration.

·       The God of Creation and Divine blessings- don’t destroy your body but control it.

Particulars

·       There are at least six kinds of which one might be ignorant.

1. Who is acting

2. what is being done

3. what it is being done to

4. what the instrument of the action is

5. what the consequences of the action are

6. what the manner of the action is

·       Excusable- when a person feels regret for what has happened. (What happened because of their actions, or because of the actions they took)

·       To find the nature of human happiness we must determine what the function of human being is, because happiness will consist in fulfilling the natural function toward which one’s being is direct.

·       The natural function must be something which is specific to human beings which is essential to being human.

·       A person is primarily his intellect.

·       The activity which only human beings can perform is intellectual, it is activity of the highest part of the soul the rational part according to reason.

·       Eudaemonia- human happiness.

·       Any system of virtue which is only intelligible if it is teleological.

·       The purpose also of human life is the meaning of life.

·       Eudaemonia is the proper goal of human life.

·       “The activity of God…. Nature of happiness”

·       Aristotle taught of God.

·       Epictetus- was a great stoic philosopher. Xeno the founder of stoicism met his students on a stoa- a porch they hung out together and talked.

·       Not as famous a Plato or Aristotle, but deeply influenced Romans and Christians those who were persecuted.

·       Beliefs stoicism- if you are unhappy, its your fault. Everything is temporary, we are social beings with a social duty. Fatalism- accepts where one is supposed to be FATE, acceptance of condition. Hedonism (pleasure in itself) is not the path to happiness. Fame and fortune are overrated. A philosophy of life must be lived.

·       Strategies- live simply, rephrase goals so that they are entirely within our control, have nothing that you are not prepared to lose, negative visualization, exercise self-denial. Resist materialism, accept what can’t be changed. Refuse to consider yourself a victim, practice misfortune, live in accordance with nature.

·       Virtue is the only really good and so is both necessary and contra Aristotle sufficient for happiness, it never depends on luck.

·       GOALS- be satisfied with your current situation.

·       The Crutch- (Celsus)

·       SOMETHINGS ARE IN OUR CONTORL AND OTHERS NOT

·       Inner sage taught by the Chinese.

·       Stay strong of will and remember you always have the ability to CHOOSE.

·       10. For every accident in life there is a solution.

·       Attitude is everything.

·       ACCEPT THIS AND MOVE ON.

·       Humility- know in your heart that all you truly know is that you are ignorant.

·       Mortality- No one lives forever.

·       Acceptance- take whatever comes to you in life, and don’t fret about what you don’t have.

·       My own point of view- our viewpoints make us happy or sad, LEARN WHAT YOUR POINT OF VIEW IS.

·       Acceptance- you are thrown into this life as you are: the color of your eyes and skin your lot in life your riches or your property.

·       Superstition- Don’t follow the ideas of soothsayers and psychics.

·       Risk and understanding- if you don’t take a chance, you won’t get the possible reward.

·       Perspective- perspective is everything, realize the deceit and illusion that is found in immediate appearances.  

·       Death- remember death, will happen to everyone.

·       Philosophical life- if you embrace the philosophical life expect and accept ridicule from many people.

·       Self focus.

·       It is in your power… a mans own should”- shutting out the external world: its tough to run an empire. Refocuses thought and energy.

·       …with what are you disconnected….men do wrong involuntary..

·       Rember to retreat into this little

·       HAVING THE RIGHT ATTITUDE.

·        Aristotle- born in Stagira in 384 BCE to an aristocratic family, Aristotle was Plato’s student, for twenty years.

·       BCE- Before the common era

·       Aristotle sought to live a life of universal knowledge for its own sake instead of becoming a physician like his father who was a friend and physician to Amyntas 2                .

·       At 18 he left to study philosophy with Plato in Athens.

·       “SIN twice against philosophy” by condemning another philosopher to death as they did Socrates.

·       Dangerous to teach the young to ask questions.  

·       Peripatetics, itinerant those who travel about.

·       Like Plato, Aristotle explained virtues in terms of the rational ability of the soul to control its appetite portion.

·       Unlike Plato’s thesis that virtues are only based on knowledge while Aristotle believed that we need…

·       Politics as the most authoritative science. (Nim book)

·       Political science governs. Even…..City-state. Better to act for the whole group.

·       The Good is that at which all thinks including people aim or what they all seek.

·       What is if for something to be an end of action? (end=telos or goal)

·       Chapter 2- if there is some end that we seek for its own sake and not as a means to some other end, then clearly that end must be what we take to be the highest good.

·       ETHICS IS A MESSY BUSINESS!!!

·       The study of politics and thus the study of the highest good for the human, is not an exact science: “It is the mark of the educated man and…. precision as its nature permits.”

·       Learn to do the right thing at the right time at the right place.

·       Learn to observe what the situation is and learn how to act correctly.

·       Chapter4- Happiness.

·       Human essence and some essences are better than others.

·       Virtue theory is all about character; become a good person and you will do good things.

·       To find the highest good, me must being the evidence we have and move from that to first principles, not the other way around.

·       Induction rather than deduction.

·       By looking at the actual lives of exemplary groups of humans, we can discover clues as to what they to be good.

·       Some seek pleasure their vulgarity comes out in their preference for the life of a satisfied pig.

·       Chapter 6 – Aristotle’s criticism of Plato’s theory of forms.

·       The Form of the Good Argument: This argument attacks Plato’s claim that there is a single form of Goodness.

·       Chapter 7- highest good? 1. Must be chosen always for its own sake and NEVER as a means to something else. And 2. It must be such that when completely had by a person, that person is lacking in nothing that is worth having.

·       Function- But more needs to be said about the nature of happiness.

·       If the Highest Good= Happiness.

·       Function of being human, needs to be explored.

·       Arete= excellence.

·       Araomai- to pray.

·       Aristos- the best or excellence.

·       Peculiar to humans, so it cant be wither the basic functions of living- which are all shared by all living things, like plants. Or sensation-which are shared by all sentient beings, like no-human animals.

·       Arete= rationality

·       Fulfilling one’s function well= Happiness

·       Exercising virtue= Happiness.

·       1. We all seek the Highest Good

·       2. And we all seek Happiness

·       2. Therefore, Highest Good= Happiness

·       Book2 distinguishes between; Intellectual virtue and Moral virtue

·       Intellectual virtue comes from learning, while moral virtues come from habit. CHAPTER 1

·       Habit- like activities produce dispositions: “it is not unimportant then, to acquire one sort of habit…. important, indeed all-important.”

·       Behavior in a crisis and our habitual reactions to danger that makes us brave or cowardly.

·       Cultivating virtue- we learn the virtue of an activity by habit and constant practice. By behaving in the right way, we train ourselves to be virtuous. Habits are the way to turning “ought’s” into “is’ s”

·       Normative vs. descriptive laws.

·       Ethics is a messy business- thus takes ongoing assessments and approximation- not too little, not too much.

·       Aristotle: excess or deficiency= vice

·       Plato- We Don’t have the answers ourselves, but we should find them ourselves.

·       We become good by acting “as if” we are good already. –(Stupid is as stupid does- Forest Gump) We become good when we practice, get in the habit.

·       Virtue and pleasure- 1. Pleasure and pain often lead people astray. 2. The performance of actions virtuous or not are always accompanied by Aristotle say, by pleasure or pain. 3. Pain is a successful instrument of punishment.

·       Chapter 4- The performance of actions of a certain kind forms the way in which they are performed

·       The act and the will- 1. Must act in full consciousness, must be mindful.2 “Will” her action and will it for its own sake. 3. The act must proceed in a fixed and settled disposition.

·       How can we tell who is being moral? We can tell if we are good or bad according to our virtues and vices. We are praised or blamed for our virtues and vices. Our virtues and vices are EXPRESSIONS of our will. With regard to our virtues and vices we are said instead go be disposed this way or that.

·       Character-not capacities, state of character of disposition.

·       When it has to choose among actions and feelings, it observes the mean relative to us, (as a disposition).

·       Essential- the relevant mean is the mean relative to us.

·       We need practical guidance.

·       Virtue has to do with feeling and most directly with actions.  

·       Choice matters

·       Virtue is concerned with pleasure and pain.

1.      Importance of Plato

2.      The Euthyphro and divine command theory

Argument against ‘divine command theory’

“I should do what God (the gods) tell me to do without question because….”

Does God command the good because?

1.      Horn 1 of dilemma- if God commanded it because it is good then God bases his command on that which already exists.  

2.      Horn 2 of dilemma- Good is good because it’s commanded by God. Nothing is good until God commands it. Therefore, what God commands is completely arbitrary.

3.      Can we teach virtue or ethics? Essential point of the discussion. Can we or should we reason about ethics? Or do we accept traditional authority and/ or the divine command of God?

4.      Preliminary Resolution- we have to decide for ourselves so therefore we should teach and reason present arguments about virtue, BUT ultimate issue is there a unity of virtue implied by Socrates/ Plato? If one has one virtue, one has them all. Or there is a common essence to all the virtues (the Form of virtue).

5.      No Resolution? - But why does the Dialogue End with a “lack” of unity in virtue/piety/holiness?

6.      Ethics and teaching virtue- virtue for Socrates, is the expert knowledge of livening well a techne or rational skill to be learned.  Thus, teaching is not simply a matter of giving the right answers but leading them to the correct answer. 

7.      Ethics and Irony, why Ambiguity? Ends inconclusively perhaps to leave the space for the reader to think independently and struggle to formulate an adequate definition without Plato’s help.

8.      The ethical struggle- if piety is the same in every action, how can we discover the truth. Morality requires autonomous decision making and free use of critical intelligence.

9.      Socrates at 70 waiting for death because of charges brought against him. 1. Not recognizing gods recognized by the state2. Inventing new deities. 3. Corrupting the youth of ATHENS.  

10.  The law and the city. Socrates personifies the laws of Athens in his responses. Socrates states the doctrines most important to his conception of ethical life. He will give up his life rather than compromise his belief.

11.  Presupposes metaphysics of duality; the soul carries on after the death of the body.

12.  “An eye for an eye” justice.

13.  Health of mind= health of body

14.  The LAW responds- 1. Socrates agreed to obey them by choosing to live in Athens. 2. Socrates has received benefits from them, which places Socrates under a stronger obligation to the laws than he has to his parents. Neither Crito nor Socrates can reply to the arguments given by the laws, thus their conclusion stands.

15.  Challenge Learning how to explain what you learn.

16.  He stood up for his oath with the law of reason, that’s why he did not leave. Standing up for what he believed was right.

17.  A city cannot survive if its laws are nullified by its citizens.

18.  The Important thing is not being alive but living a good just life.

19.  WHAT IS JUSTICE? – book 1 The Republic.

20.  Thrasymachus argues that- norms of justice are conventions used to promote self-advantage 2. Or that such norms/ conventions are put in place by the politically stronger to prompt the advantage of the stronger the aristocratic class.

21.  What constitutes justice?

22.  Which leads to the question; How does one become internally just or practice justice in itself?

23.  Socrates said that Justice is a good, a virtue, no unlike good health and that there are forms of human knowledge that are good in and of themselves.

24.  Gyges Ring

25.  Philosophy and the City the Republic- Socrates suggests that they look for justice.

26.  What is taught? VIRTUE – for Plato virtues are character states of the soul with respect to its own inner harmony. How should we teach virtue- for Socrates and Plato- virtue can only be practiced from recollecting.

                Political implications

·       The first principles of natural law hold for everyone at all times (for example, self-preservation, propagation of the species, nurturing and education)

·       Certainty of any precept diminishes as “we descend further toward the particular.”

·       ETHICS IS A MESSY BUSINESS!

·       Associate Thomas with natural law.

·       The best form of government would be a monarchy provided the monarch is wise and just,

·       It is natural for the most able to govern.

·       If needed a monarch could be constrained by a constitution and some diffusion of power.

·       The individual is not totally bound by the state.

·       He is ambiguous concerning disobedience and resistance to bad laws.

·       Laws opposed to the divine good ‘must in no way be observed.”

·       Thomas’ view of humans is more optimistic than Augustine. Although we are weak, our reason which is unique to humans- we share automatic and instinctive reasoning with other living things.

·       A view shared by socialists and others though generally not by liberals, for whom freedom from the state is more important than the promotion of the good life by the state.

·       Conservatives would argue along similar lines as Thomas in regard to the state since ethics and morality are to be promoted by the church of the community.

·       Thomas’s account of human law is problematic: he makes nor room for such laws to constrain the ruler…Only natural law and Divine law can do this.

·       Moreover, some reject his view that we must obey human law because (or in so far as) it is part of natural law.

·       Thomas leaves the question unanswered: Who has the ultimate say, especially in cases of overlap, church, or state?

·       Man has a natural dominion over external things, because, by his reason and will, he is able to use them for his own profit.

·       Thomas used a doctrine of the mean (i.e. between two extremes)

·       The issue must be worth more than the loss of life that war would bring about.

·       This is the doctrine of double effect.

·       Augustine; fides quaerens rationis

·       Thomas-“since we are God’s creation and God gave us reason,  reason alone can discern right from wrong in the form of the natural law.”

Thomas Hobbes

·       Argues for the legitimacy of the sovereign (monarch).

·       Incurred wrath of the Parliamentarians.

·       leviathan or the Matter, Former and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil.

·       Provides argument for authority of secular absolute sovereign power. (Opposes divine right of kings.)

·       First formulation of a social contract theory.

·       Incurred the wrath of both Parliamentarians and some Royalists (loyal to divine right of kings).

·       Materialist and determinist.

·       Everything can be explained in terms of matter and motion.

·       No grounds for immaterial substance of powers.

·       Good and evil are simply what we desire or detest.

·       Freedom= Unimpeded desired, even though physical originated.

·       Ethical egoism: all motivation springs from self-interest.

·       Or is his ethics dependent on the absolute ‘command’ of the sovereign to protect and guide.

·       Thus, the monarch serves as a “stand-in” for God and the ‘divine command theory’ and demands duty.

·       Making it deontological.

·       The natural state is – solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. (idea of human nature)

·       Thus, our default condition is a “War of all against all”.

·       Social contract-

·       Reasonable for humans to agree to enter into a contract where each individual cedes his rights to free expression of desires to a sovereign ruler with absolute power to enforce the law.

·       For Hobbes, even a tyrannical ruler is preferable to a lawless state of nature.

·       It is a hypothetical construct but, in practice, this would allow for torture.

·       The goal: not to enjoy one thing or just one time, ‘but to assure forever the way of his future desire.’

·       Ethical instrumentalism.

·       Happiness is not a state of mind or rest.

·       Competition is the core of his ethics and fear of a greater competition who will get his desire and I won’t get mine.

·       The rationale- because we desire peace to pursue our own comfort, we give up some of our power to a common sovereign in order to be protected.

·       It is practiced because it sets powerful deterrent example for others.

·       This is aa forerunner of ‘cold war’ balancing based on the fear of avoiding mutual destruction.

·       Ultimately: “might makes right”

·       He who has a greater confederacy gets to enjoy the fruits of the land.

·       3 causes of human nature- competition, diffidence, and glory.

·       War of all against all – example the ‘gated communities’

·       Establishes a common power, a common law, and thus, the possibility of justice.

·       The Republic- What is justice, what is fair? (the same questions come up).

·       Humans are driven to society for rational and passionate reasons.

·       Based on natural law.

·       The Good of Creation and Divine Blessings

·       What if a man suffers from curvature of the spine to such an extent that his hands reach the ground, and he goes upon all-fours like a quadruped?

·       Does not this destroy all beauty and grace in the body, whether at rest of motion.

·       Against the Protagoras: “man is the measure of himself.

·       The Just lives by faith.

·       Christians believe that need help OTHER or others, you need the grace of God.

·       Life eternal is the supreme good, death eternal the supreme evil, and that to obtain the one and escape the other we must live rightly.

·       Only ETERNAL LIFE matters.

·       “Heilsgeschichte” Sacred history.

·       Human groups are like human individuals.

·       Scripture alone (sola scriptura) can instruct human beings about the highest good and the highest evil and that without this guidance, human effort has no purpose.

·       From the City of God: CHURCH, STATE, CITY OF HEAVEN, CITY OF MAN.

·       The church is divinely established and leads humankind to eternal goodness.

·       Theory of justice.

·       Humankind must therefore pursue the city of Heaven to maintain a proper sense of order which in turn leads to True peace and justice.

·       St. Thomas Aquinas- became the most influential western medieval scholar and theologian, 1226-1274 CE.

·       proponent of natural theology and natural law.

·       A Neo-Aristotelian: came up with the nickname “The Philosopher” for Aristotle.

·       Aquinas tried to show the harmony between faith and reason, and between Christianity and philosophy and is considered to be the most important theologian for Roman Catholic thought.

·       Aristotle’s philosophy drifted into oblivion.

·       Thanks only to the efforts of Jewish and Arabic Scholars his writings survived.

·       Thomas Aquinas a Christian.

·       Divine Inspiration.

·       Summa Theologica written 1266-1274

·       One of the influential works in all of Western Philosophy.

·       The existence of God; creation and Man; Man’s purpose; Christ; the Sacrament; God.

·       Apologetic- written to explain the Christian faith and defend it.

·       What is TRUTH?

·       A law is a prescription that we follow and then act upon or not act upon it may ALSO exist in us as an inclination to act in certain ways.

·       A law must be made and promulgated by those in charge of the community.

·       Prescriptions that aren’t for the common good are unjust- humans make mistakes and sin.

·       A so-called ‘unjust law’ isn’t properly a ‘law’ at all.

·       Happiness is the goal of human actions.

·       Happiness- 1. Temporal natural happiness- living a good life on earth. 2. Supernatural happiness- eternal happiness with God in heaven.

·       The final goal is happiness in both senses but particularly the second.

·       Four kinds of law- eternal law, natural law, human law, and Divine law.

·       Consequences- there is a need for human law and divine law. To promote justice and the common good for living beings but it only gives general guidance.

·       Law relying on logic, it belongs to law in order to forbid; but to order is rational therefore the law is rational categorical.

·       The word law is derived from the idea of binding because it compels action but what rules action is reason.

·       Naturally have moral responsibility. We are intermediaries.

·       Human law must strive to meet the standards set by eternal law.

·       The distinction between positive law and true law.

·       Speculative enables us to understand the first principles of natural law and our practical reasons.  Helps us to identify particular ends, and how to pursue the ends we should pursue.

·       First principles- of natural law are self-evident truths.

·       Second derivative principle- depend on circumstances and can change, they are less certain, and often are not know to all.

·       Synderesis is said to be the law of our mind, because it is a habit containing the percepts of the natural law, which are the first principles of human actions.

·       Virtues- prudence, temperance, justice, and fortitude.

·       The cardinal virtues are natural and revealed the nature.

·       Three theological virtues- Faith, hope, charity.

·       The virtues are imperfect (incomplete) or perfect(complete). Has to be given with charity, with a given heart.

·       Theological virtues are specifically distinct from the moral and intellectual virtues.  

·       The first principle of natural law hold for everyone at all times.

·       Certainty of any percept diminishes as ‘we descend further toward the particular’. ETHICS IS MESSY BUISNESS.

·       The Sovereigns is bound by natural law- the best form of government would be a monarchy provided the monarch is wise and just.

·       Law requires that we act in accordance with reason.

1.       Eternal law

2.       Natural law (moral law)

3.       Human law (civil law)

4.       Divine law (Biblical law)