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Exam Study Guide for Unit 2: Happiness and Anthropology

As a human, I am created in the image and likeness of God for eternal happiness



Key Terms; 

  • 4 causes of a human person:

    • Material cause: What is the thing made of? (matter) (Body)

    • Formal cause: What makes it what it is? (form) (Soul)

    • Efficient cause: What brought the thing into being? (God through parents)

    • Final cause / telos of the human person: What is the ultimate end or reason for the thing? (Telos) (To know and love the good (happiness), to be in accord with one’s Telos

  • Views of human person:

    • Dualism: Humans are souls trapped in bodies, Spiritual is good but physical is bad

    • Materialism: Humans just atoms 

    • Hylomorphism: Humans are body-soul composite

  • Types of souls

    • Vegetative: Self-nutrition, growth, reproduction

    • Sensory / sentient: Sense knowledge, locomotion (+ nutrition, growth, reproduction) w

    • Rational: Intellect and will (+sense knowledge, locomotion, nutrition, growth, reproduction)

  • Human Powers

    • Rational Powers

      • Intellect: The power to know truth, including abstract concepts

      • Will: The power to desire and choose the good 

    • Sense Powers

      • External senses (5): The five senses used to gather information from the outside world (Sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch)

      • Internal senses (4): 

        • Estimative: Capable of perceiving benefits or harms of an object

        • Memory: Retain information from estimative power

        • Imaginative: Produce images even when object is not present

        • Combination of senses: Multiple senses can be recognized from the same object

      • Sense Desires

        • Concupiscible Passions: Respond to simple sensible goods or evils.

        • Irascible Passions: Respond to difficult sensible goods or evils. 

  • Perceived good vs. Objective good

    • Perceived good: “This seems good to me.” Something I desire because I think it will make me happy, may be actually good, or I may be mistaken. 

      • Ex: Augustine → pleasure, popularity, sex, stealing the pears.

    • Objective good: “This actually is good for me.” Something that helps me flourish as a human person, prefects my human nature and moves me toward my telos.

      • Ex: truth, virtue, rightly ordered love, ultimately God.

  • Rightly ordered love

    • Loving each thing according to its true worth - loving God above all things, and loving everything else in the proper way and in relation to God

  • Ethical models:

    • Hedonism: I will do the action that brings me the most pleasure & helps me avoid pain (Choose pleasure, avoid pain).

    • Deontology: I will do the action that follows the rules and duties (Follow the rules).

    • Utilitarianism: I will do the action that produces the most useful result (Do what’s most useful, the ends justify the means)

    • Virtue Ethics: I will do the action that leads to developing virtue (Aligns with natural law, and the first principle of practical reasoning: do good and avoid evil).

  • Levels of happiness:

Level

Desire

Characteristics

Gratification

Effects

Examples

1

Maximize pleasure and minimize pain (hedonism)

Obligation to self alone, no desire for ultimate good

Immediate 

Lack of self- worth, boredom

TikTok, Instagram, Ice Cream, etc.

2

Achievement, be better than others

Promotion of self personal power, control

Short-term

Jealousy, fear of failure, isolation, cynicism 

Winning a Championship can’t/ won’t bring the lasting happiness you’d expect it to

3

Contribute to good beyond self

Goodness as an end in itself 

Long-term

Greater selflessness, increased sense of purpose

Christian Service

4

Participate in giving and receiving ultimate meaning 

Rightly ordered love with God at the top

Eternal 

Experience of Truth, Love, Peace

Following the Word of God, Praying to God Daily



  • Distinguish between:

    • univocal, equivocal, and analogical terms

      • Univocal Terms: Only have one meaning and its the same meaning whenever they’re used

        • Ex: I have a cheeseburger.

      • Equivocal Terms: Have entirely different & unrelated meanings

        • Ex: I feel down today.

      • Analogous terms: Have different but related meanings when applied to different things

        • Ex: I’m on time.

    • Material, logical, and real suppositions

      • Material Supposition: Refers to verbal existence, speaking about the term as a word and doesn’t define the term

        • Ex: Human is a five letter word.

      • Logical Supposition: Refers to logical existence, categorizes the term on the porphyrian tree

        • Ex: Human has five notes: rational, sensitive, animate, material substance/A human is a rational animal.

      • Real Supposition: Refers to real existence, says things that are true about the term

        • Ex: Humans live on planet Earth

  • Be able to put a sentence into logical form

    • Humans walk on two legs ❌

    • Humans are things that walk on two legs. ✅