Saturday, August 18, 2007

Philosophy Notes







Everything I learned in Philosophy 101:

Notes:

Philosophy

Lucretius
Epicureanism
Only two components to existence-
Bodies and the Void
The swerve of particles causes collisions and the creation of all things.
The first-beginnings(Vital Clusters)(Soul Bits) can be knocked from a person causing death.
He believes that since swerveing particles inhabit the whole of the universe that they would necessarily cause the creation of other worlds and races of men.
Mind and soul are of a union.
Mind and body are united and one degrades with the other. Implies no life after death.

Mill
Actions are rights in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness.
"It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied." Pleasure of the mind is more valuable than pleasure of the Senses.
Men lose their ability to be noble for want of practice. Society does not allow them to indulge their noble aspirations.

Nietzsche-Immoralist
insists than, in an important sense, we choose our moralities and that this choice can not be justified in an argument. Appreciated ancient Greek morality.
Slave morality-Duty-Herd instinct-survival
Mater morality- virtuous action to better oneself.
Excellence is a goal, and contributes to mankind as a whole.
Find your values within yourself. Follow yourself not me.
"Will to Power" Is the effort to excel as individuals.

d'Holbach
We are slaves to selfish will.
Will is directed by outside forces.
Man can not be to blame for his actions, because he is at all times doing what he believes is in his best interest, based on experience or teaching, or tempermant.

Kant
Morality is strictly a matter of practical reason, divorced from our personal interests and desires and based solely on universal principals of law. The ends do not justify the means. It requires Autonomy, not obedience. Duty.
Do not blame someone for their character or abilities, many factors contribute to a person's circumstances, like heredity or upbringing. What is really important is the will to do good, what we try to do is in our control and is the only thing worthy of moral consideration.
Believes in God. So everything has a purpose.
You should do your duty because it is your duty, not for any personal gain.
Kant believes we should try to be happy because it will assist us in our ability to do our duty.
Decide what you should do by asking yourself, What if everyone were to do that?
Categorical Imperative-You msut do in all situations. Don't Lie. Don't kill.
God is good because he obeys the laws of morality.
Kant believes in categorical imperatives, a person is wrong for doing a bad thing, but the situation may deny punishment for the wrongdoind.
Kant does not allow for conflicts in moral law, like being forced to tell something one promised to keep secret or lie about it.
Prohibits suicide as we are obligated to develop our talents.
All those capable of being rational are obligated to do their moral duty.

Liebniz-Pluralist(belief that many entities exist.)
Monads-immaterial with no extension, indivisible. Can only be created all at once or destroyed all at once by a Super Monad(God)
No two Monads have the same qualities, each is different. Only God can tell them apart.
A monad is alive and changes from within. They are programmed for future interactions by God at creation. Monads perceive?
attacks Newton.
Its present is pregnant with its future.
The best of all possible worlds
Each monad is a reflection of the universe.
God is creator lord and final cause. The uncreated monad.
Principle of sufficient reason-all things must be justified and ultimately all events must be justified by God.
From Romans 2:15 The Law of God is written in the heart, Conscioncess bear it out.

Rousseau
The first impulse of nature is always right.
There is no original sin.
Wrong doing depends on harmful intentions.
If man is naturally evil than to do good would me corrupting his nature, Virtue itself would cause remorse.
Conscience and feeling leads us to morality.

Descartes
What can we know?
Premis 1-I think therefore I am. In order to doubt my existence I must exist.
"Method of Doubt"
Descartes appeals to reason rather than experience because we could be deceived by our experiences.
Reason a first premise.
Geometry and algebra are real, because answers remain the same for everyone in any situation.
Premis 2-God exists because I could not exist without him.
Cartesian Circle-He assumes the existence of God in order to prove his existence.
Descartes must also have confidence in his ability to reason, which may be unfounded.

Locke
A method appropriate to generalizations from experience, or induction.
Probability and degrees of assent.
Not as certain as deductions.
rejects innate or inborn ideas, because no idea is accepted by all and if you contained a truth but were unaware of it that is as good as not knowing it.
Knowledge comes only from experience.
Primary Qualities-Properties inherent in objects; Size and Shape. Inseperable from body, Solidity, Extension, figure, motion or rest, and number.
Secondary Qualities-Properties things appear to have; Color, texture and sounds.
"Causal Theory of Perception" Insensible particles bring perception of the qualities of objects to us.
Assumes his existence and the existence of God.
Suggests that the idea of "forms" is produced by the categorization of percieved patterns in the brain.

Berkeley-Skeptic
Subjective Idealism-Doctrine; No material objects only minds and ideas in minds, created by God.
Objects are a collection of ideas. smell, taste, color...
Berkeley assumes his existence and the existence of God.
"To be is to be perceived."
Nothing can exist outside of the mind because nothing is like an idea except another idea.
Ray says "But matter can destroy the mind"
Things don't come into existence by thought alone or NOT exist when they are not perceived because God's will produces them. Things are not excited at random as the Human will is apt to do. Things are regular and steady, which testifies to the existence of God.

Hume-empiricist & Skeptic
Speaking of literature on Divinity and Metaphysics-"Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No, Commit it to the flames, for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion."
Hume's Fork-"All reasoning may be divided into two kinds, namely, Demonstrative reasoning, or that concerning relations of ideas, and Moral reasoning, or that concerning matter of fact and existence."

Matters of fact; which are the second object of human reason, are not ascertained in the same manner; nor is our evidence of their truth, however great, of a like nature with the foregoing. Can not be proven to be true.
Impressions can not accurately portray reality. My idea of Paris does not represent all of its streets and houses in proportion.

"To justify a belief as knowledge we must break up its complex ideas into simple ideas and then find the impressions upon which those ideas are based."
Rejects existence of God because there is no evidence or relation of ideas.
Shows that cause and effect are the basis of of all reasoning and then proves such reasoning is not a relation of ideas or a matter of fact.
"The contrary of every matter of fact is still possible; because it can never imply a contradiction.

It is either Monday or not Monday-It is not Monday and it is Monday*Contradiction
A human is a primate-A human is not a primate*Contradiction
The sun will rise tomorrow-The sun will not rise tomorrow*NOT Contradiction as past is not sufficient prove of the future.
We do not know cause and effect because of reason but only through experience.
Induction can not be established by Hume's Fork.
Ray says, it makes everything mean nothing.

Plato
Suggests that ideas are born into us.
Says that either we follow God's laws either because they are his or because they are good; In either case we must decide whether the laws are good, in order to accept God or the Laws.(We Decide our Morality)
If one thought they could act with impunity they would always do so.
Society is built on agreements spawned by selfish concern.

Socrates

Aristotle
Argues that being virtuous, controlling our feelings and acting rationally, enables us to become fullly human.
Virtue is rational activity.
"The natural good for man is to find what Men desire for it's own sake and not for the sake of anything else".
There can be no infinite regress, there must be some ultimate end.
Mans purpose is to utilize his faculties.
Respect and honour are ingredients in the good life.
We need good education.

Two kinds of virtues
:
Practical and Moral Virtues; Courage, Generosity
Intellectual Virtues; skill at mathematics and philosophy
We learn to do by doing what we wish to do, so by doing just acts we learn to be just. Virtue aquired by practice.
Virtuous nature is not just believing in moral behavior, but doing virtuos actions, because one believes in doing good things, and enjoys it.
Virtue is a habit of choice.
Excellence is destroyed by excess or deficiency. The courageous man fears not to much nor to little.
Aristotle feels humility is a deficiency.
Vanity-Pride-Humility
Extreme-Appropriate-deficiency
Virtues of Aristotle*
Courage--Temperance(moderation in food sex and other pleasures)--Charity--Pride--Good Temper--Friendliness--Truthfulness--Wittiness(Fun)--Shame(When mistakes are made)--Justice
Happiest life? "The life of contemplation"
Aristotle says only a small elite are capable of happiness.
Ray says, I like happiness. Faculties, like gifts from God.

Principle of Induction-The future will be like the past.

Rationalist Thinking
The key to rationalist thinking "Intuition of Mind"-obtain premises from which to draw conclusions.

Empiricist-assume that evidence from perception is the only source of knowledge about the world.

Necessary Truths-Beliefs that we cannot even imagine being false and that lie beyond the range of all possible doubt and refutation. A Priori knowledge thatis independent of experience.

Utilitarians-hold that any good moral rule should promote the greatest happiness for the greatest number.

Correspondence Theory of Truth-an assertion is only true if it has a relation to reality. Commonsense.

Contingent Truths-knowledge that is true but may be false.

Ethical Relativist-The idea that two different moral values can be correct at the same time.

Ethical Altruism-Poeple ought to act with eachother's interests in mind.

Ethical Absolutism-The belief that there is only one moral truth.

Cultural Relativism-The fact that different cultures have different moralities.

Law of contradiction-Something can not exist and not exist simultaneously.

Psychological Egoism-is the thesis that everyone can only act out of self interest.

Ethical Egoism-Is that we can act in other peoples interests but we should act only for our own interests.

Relativism-The thesis that truth varies from context to context, from culture to culture, that truth is relative to a context, a culture, a language, a set of circumstances, a way of looking at the world.(All points of view are equally valid)

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