The Notebook - Azusa Pacific Universitygroups.apu.edu/theophil/Wilkens/2008/Notebook-2005 (2).doc · Web viewMetaphysics (Ontological) Epistemology. Ethics (Axiology) Aesthetics.

The Notebook

The purpose of this notebook is to help guide you through the introduction to philosophy course by fulfilling several functions:

1. It will provide an outline for the lecture material. This should help you keep the points of the lecture material organized and allow you to see if your notes are complete.

2. It contains interaction questions at the beginning of many sections to get you thinking about the topic coming up. These are highlighted with a bullet. Make sure you respond to them thoughtfully.

3. It will provide essay questions at the end of each section. The essay questions for the examinations will be drawn from these questions.

4. It provides reading assignments, and provides a general guide to show you where you should be in the textbooks to be current.

This notebook will be handed in at two points in the semester to be graded. Criteria for grading will be completeness/usability of the notes and depth of interaction with thought questions.

1

Why Bother?

Negative assessments of Philosophy

“Unintelligible answers to insoluble problems.” – Henry Adams

“A philosopher is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn’t there.” – Lord Bowen

“A philosopher is one who contradicts other philosophers – William James

“Most of what one learns in college is quickly forgotten, but a little college philosophy is sufficient to screw up your entire life.” – Steve Martin

A more positive take on the enterprise

“Wonder rather than doubt is the root of knowledge.” - Heschel

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

2

Getting the Lingo Down

Reading - Palmer, pp. 5-28; 113-114; 252-256; Good Ideas, Introduction and ch. 1

Metaphysics (Ontological)

Epistemology

Ethics (Axiology)

Aesthetics

Logic

What type of statement is this? (Use categories listed at top of page for answers.)1. Absolute Truth cannot be known

2. Capital punishment is justified under certain circumstances.

3. We can know eternal truths because God illuminates them to our mind.

4. Hell exists.

5. I won’t believe it unless I see it.

6. Democracy is the best form of government.

7. All X is B, but not all B is X

8. One should always act in their own self interest.

9. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

3

More Lingo

Objective

Subjective

Rationalism

Empiricism

4

The Presocratics

The Beginning of Philosophy

1. Who are they?

2. How do we know of them?

3. What are they doing?

The transition from Mythos to Logos

1. Who creates it?

2. Attitude toward the past?

3. Description of the cosmos?

4. Concept of origin?

5

Thales – Materialistic Monism

Problem: The One and the Many

Solution: Materialistic Monism (however)

All is water. Why?

Everything is permeated by spirits (gods). Why?

Test questions:

Why does Thales argue that everything is water?

Why is Thales’ attempt to solve the problem of the One and the Many better defined as philosophical than mythological?

6

Anaximander

Is change random, linear (moving toward a goal), or cyclical? Use examples to explain your answer.

Thales’ Oversight

Anaximander’s Solution: The “Boundless”

Reality as Cyclical

1.

2.

Cosmic Justice

Test Question:

Why does Anaximander argue that water cannot be the final explanation of all things, and that something more basic is required to explain things? What does Anaximander see as the most basic reality?

7

Pythagoreans – Metaphysical Pluralism

Explain how either a building or music (your choice) can be reduced to numbers.

Numbers as the Basic Reality – Why?

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Goal: To find a harmony of tensions and order in the unchangeable

Test question:

Why do the Pythagorians argue that numbers are the most basic element of reality?

8

Heraclitus – Process Monism

Heraclitus is famous for his statement that “one cannot step into the same river twice.” What do you think he means?

Does this statement apply to things other than rivers? Is it impossible to look at the same picture twice or hear the same song more than once?

Change as real – Fire as the analogy

Change as real – Movement Toward Opposite/Peace in Proper Tension

Change as Directed – The Logos

Test Question:

How does Heraclitus use the concept of the Logos to solve the problem of the One and the Many?

In the philosophy of Heraclitus, what changes, what remains constant, and what is the relationship between constancy and change?

9

Eleatics – Radical Metaphysical Monism

Logic versus Perception

What reasons can you give for putting more faith in our powers of logic and reason than in our perceptions?

Basic Metaphysical Principle – “What is, is. What is not, is not.”

1. Nothing does not exist.

2. Nothing cannot become something.

3. No Empty Spaces

4. Movement is impossible

10

“Unfortunately, we do not have access to the entirety of Zeno’s philosophy. Before he could tell us the whole of his philosophy, he had to tell us the first half. But of course, before he could do this .” (Bluffer’s Guide to Philosophy)

Test questions:

What do the Eleatics mean by the statement, “What is, is. What is not, is not?”

Why do the Eleatics argue that movement is impossible?

Atomists – Pluralistic Materialism

“By convention are sweet and bitter, hot and cold, by convention is color; in truth are atoms and the void.” (Democritus)

Assuming that you have never seen an atom, why would you believe that all physical things are comprised of atoms?

Combining Heraclitus and the Eleatics

Permanence

Change

11

Materialism

1.

2.

3.

New Problems

1.

2.

3.

Test question:

What, according to the Atomists, explains the great variety of things in the world?

What are the various characteristics of atoms, according to the Atomists?

12

The Stoics – Metaphysical Monism

“Remember that you are an actor in a play, the character of which is determined by the Playwright: if He wishes the play to be short, it is short; if long, it is long; if He wishes you to play the part of a beggar, remember to act even this role adroitly; and so if your role be that of a cripple, an official, or a layman. For this is your business, to play admirably the role assigned you; but the selection of that role is Another’s.” – Epictetus

A lot of things have to come together in order for human life to be sustained. (1) Identify five things that must be as they are for us to live and briefly explain how they interact. (2) What makes these different things work together so well?

The Logos

1. In the world

2. In us

3. Thus must be the same

13

Determinism as the outgrowth of the perfect Logos

Apathia & Ethics

Why do most people have such a negative reaction to the idea that all things are determined?

Test questions:

In order to be happy, the Stoics argue that we need to make one crucial distinction. What is it? And how does making this distinction benefit us?

What does determinism mean and why do the Stoics believe in it?

14

The Sophists – Epistemological Subjectivism

“Man is the measure of all things.” – Protagoras

Why is there no unanimous agreement on some of the most important and basic questions in life, such as the morality of abortion, the existence of God, or what constitutes good art?

The indisputability of perception

The defensibility of opposites

The role of rhetoric

15

Arete and Pragmatism

Two different directions

1. Protagoras

2. Callicles

Are there absolute truths? If not, what are problems that arise with defending your answer? If so, what are they and how do you know?

Test question:

Why do the Sophists believe that, “man is the measure of all things?”

How do Protagoras and Callicles differ in their understanding of the implications of “man is the measure?”

Test questions from Palmer:

What are the differences between mythos and logos?

What is meant by first-order and second-order questions? Give an example of each.

How does Thrasymachus understand morality?

16

Socrates

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates

“The unlived life is not worth examining.” – Steve

Reading from Palmer - pp. 28-51; 256-260; 329-334; Good Ideas, chapter 2-3

What was the tallest mountain on earth before Mount Everest was discovered?

Think of someone considered a dissident. How do you feel about this person? Why?

The historical context:

1.

2.

3.

17

Asking questions:

1.

2.

The problem with questions:

The Trial of Socrates – In Three Acts

Before the Trial – Euthyphro

Background:

Getting at Piety:

Mistake #1:

Mistake #2:

18

Mistake #3:

Mistake #4

Mistake #5

The Trial

The Charges

The Refutation

1.

2.

19

The Sentence

1.

2.

After the Trial

1. Crito’s Plea – Reasons to leave

2. Socrates’ Response – Reasons to stay

Test Questions from Palmer:

What is the normal pattern of the socratic dialog?

Test Questions:

Why does Socrates ask so many questions? Relate this to his characterization of himself as a midwife and his concern for truth.

Why does Socrates look for definitions rather than examples in his quest for truth?

Why does Socrates agree with the Oracle’s claim that there is no one wiser than he? What does this tell us about his definition of wisdom?

Why does Socrates argue that it would be wrong for him to avoid his punishment by escape?

20

Plato

“When I do not know what something essentially is, how can I know what its properties are? How, if I knew nothing at all of Meno, could I tell if he was fair or the opposite of fair; rich and noble, or the reverse of rich and noble?” (Plato, Meno)

“If a man does away with Forms of things and will not admit that every individual thing has its own determinate Form which is always one and the same, he will have nothing on which his mind can rest; and so he will utterly destroy the power of reasoning.” (Plato, Parmenides)

Dualism

1. The Body

2. The Soul

Two Worlds

1. Physical World

21

2. World of Forms

a.

b.

c.

d.

e.

f.

The Hierarchy of the Forms

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Observations

1.

2.

22

Epistemology

1.

2.

3.

4.

23

The Divided Line – Put Your Nifty Picture Below

A.

B.

C.

D.

What A is to B, AB is to CD

The Allegory of the Cave – (Room for another spiffy picture below + explanatory narrative)

24

The Soul and its Functions (and related virtues)

1. Appetites

2. Spirit

3. Reason

Ethics – The Charioteer

1. Summary of the Story

2. The Ethical Problem

3. Justice

25

Politics

1. Craftsmen

2. Auxiliaries

3. Rulers

4. The Just State

You hear someone say, “all this stuff about justice is a bunch of hot air. Justice is simply a matter of law, and laws reflect the ideas of those in power. Nothing is good in itself.” How would Plato respond?

26

Test Questions:

Draw Plato’s divided line, label each section, and explain what each section symbolizes.

How does Plato explain evil?

Who should rule in a good state, according to Plato? Why?

What are the functions and virtues of the individual soul? How does this correspond to the structure and virtue of a good State?

Why does Plato believe the Forms exist?

What are the characteristics of the Forms?

Outline the basic elements of Plato’s allegory of the cave and explain what points he was trying to communicate in this story.


How would Plato distinguish between knowledge and opinion?

What is “Meno’s Paradox” and what was Plato attempting to demonstrate with it?

Describe the lifestyle and preparation of the Guardians?

What is the “Noble Lie” and what is its purpose?

Test questions from Wilkens (chapters 1-3):

Socrates does not like the idea that knowledge is perception/man is the measure. What are his problems with this view of truth?

What is Socrates view of the person and how does this shape his understanding of the afterlife? Where does Wilkens say this might be in tension with a Christian view?

27

Aristotle

“The human good turns out to be activity of the soul in conformity with excellence, and if there are more than one excellence, in conformity with the best and most complete. But we must add ‘in a complete life’. For one swallow does not make a summer, not does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.” (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics)

Reading from Palmer - pp. 76-79; Good Ideas, chapter 4

Agreement with Plato

1.

2.

3.

Departure from Plato – Metaphysical

The Problem: Change

1.

2.

Solution: Informed Matter

One World

1.

2.

28

Whatness/Substance/Forms

Thisness/Accidents/Matter

Potential:

Actuality:

The Four Causes

a. Material Cause

b. Efficient Cause

c. Formal Cause

d. Final Cause

29

Departure from Plato II – Epistemology

A posteriori

The role of observation

Classification

Connect the dots

Cause and effect

Departure from Plato III – The Soul

Life itself + Optional equipment

Three types of Souls

1. Vegetative

2. Animal

3. Rational

30

Soul uses matter to reach telos

Highest should rule

Not immortal

Departure from Plato IV – Ethics

Happiness – An end in itself

Here is the proper definition of happiness:

What is needed for happiness

Virtue

The Golden Mean

31

Virtue vs Continence

Understanding virtue

Happiness and the Highest

Test questions:

What does Aristotle mean by essence?

How does Aristotle understand God?

What are the three kinds of soul, according to Aristotle, and what are the attributes of these three types of soul?

Explain Aristotle’s four causes using a building as an example.

What does Aristotle mean by happiness and how is it attained?

Explain Aristotle’s doctrine of the Golden Mean.

What is the distinction between practical wisdom and theoretical wisdom, according to Aristotle?

Compare Aristotle’s view of knowledge with that of Plato.

Compare Aristotle’s view of reality with that of Plato. What kinds of things are most real? Why?

Compare Aristotle and Plato on the nature of the soul, including its relationship to the body.

32

Augustine

“God, give me chastity, but not yet.” (Augustine, Confessions)

“God is not the parent of evils. Evils exist by the voluntary sin of the soul to which God gave free choice. If one does not sin by will, one does not sin.” (Augustineand of)

Reading: Palmer 176-179; Good Ideas, chapter 5

Trying to figure out evil

1. The Manichean Phase – Cosmic Dualism

2. The Neoplatonic Phase – God Beyond Characteristics

33

3. The Christian Phase – God as Love

a. The Great Chain of Being

b. Creation as act of love

c. Evil as distorted love

d. How can God create?

34

Test questions:

Explain Augustine’s concept of the Great Chain of Being.

How does Augustine’s idea of the Great Chain of Being help him, after his conversion to Christianity, solve the problem of evil?

Throughout his life, Augustine embraced three different explanations of the problem of evil, informed by Manichean, Neoplatonic, and Christian thought successively. Briefly describe these three different explanations.

According to Augustine, why did God create heaven and earth? How does he answer the question of what God was doing prior to creating heaven and earth?

Using Augustine’s concept of love, explain what is wrong with human beings and what a good life would consist of.

Test questions from Wilkens (chapters 4-5):

What does Wilkens see as similarities and differences in the way Aristotle and Christianity understands happiness?

Although Augustine borrows a lot from Plato, while Plato sees evil as a problem of the intellect, Augustine understands the source of our moral failure differently. What capacity in the human being is the source of evil, and how is that related to love?

35

Proving God’s Existence

Anselm

“Faith seeking understanding.” (Anselm, Proslogion)

“Something than which nothing greater can be thought so truly exists that it is not possible to think of it as not existing. This being is yourself, Lord our God. Lord our God, you so truly are that it is not possible to think of you as not existing.” (Anselm, Proslogion)

Reading: Palmer, pp. 157-184; 192-200; Good Ideas, chapter 6

Who is the greatest singer, baseball player, or thinker who has existed (your choice)? Could you conceive of a greater singer, a baseball player, or thinker? What characteristics would this greater singer, baseball player, or thinker have?

If you were to try to think of a being than whom none greater could be conceived, what characteristics would this being possess?

36

What is the relationship between faith and reason?

The Ontological Argument

What are you denying when you deny that God exists?

What attributes are possessed by a Being TTWNGCBC

Can you conceive of that which does not exist?

Denial of God amounts to a logical contradiction

37

Gaunillo’s Objection

Perfect Islands?

Anselm’s response

Not everyone agrees with Anselm, but virtually no one thinks that Gaunilo put a dent in Anselm’s argument. Can you come up with a better rebuttal?

Test questions:

An atheist says, “there is no God.” How would Anselm answer?

According to Anselm, what is the relationship between reason and faith?


What is Kant’s rebuttal to the ontological argument?

38

Aquinas

“It is necessary to assume something which is necessary of itself, and has no cause of its necessity outside itself but is rather the cause of necessity in other things. And this all man call God.” (Aquinas, Summa Theologiae)

A description of Aquinas—“a very, very fat Dominican, Aquinas was one of the heaviest thinkers at a time when the greatest minds were often housed in the largest, most corpulent bodies, at a time not inappropriately known as the “middle” ages.” (Bluffer’s Guide to Philosophy)

How does God reveal himself to us?

General Revelation

Limitations of General Revelation

Special Revelation

Limitations of Special Revelation

39

The Five Ways

Premises

1.

2.

3.

The Cosmological Argument – In search of a beginning

1. The Unmoved Mover (Potential/Actuality)

2. The Uncaused Cause (Cause/Effect)

3. The Necessary Being (The Problem of Absolute Contingency)

4. The Superlative (Knowing the Higher)

40

The Teleological Argument

5. Intelligent Design

Test questions:

Outline the basic elements of Aquinas’ Five Ways.

What are the differences in how Aquinas and Anselm view reason and revelation?

What is meant by special revelation and general revelation? What does Aquinas see as the uses, benefits, and limitations of each form of revelation?

Test questions from Wilkens (chapter 6):

How would Aquinas understand the relationship between faith and science? How does the text suggest Aquinas might have seen his “5 Ways” in the context of the “Big Bang?”

41

Kant

“Moral theology is a conviction of the existence of a supreme being—a conviction which bases itself on moral laws.” (Kant, Critique of Pure Reason)

Is ethics possible if God does not exist. Explain why or why not?

The Moral Argument

Premises:

1.

2.

The Argument:

What is the purpose of freedom?

What is the purpose of a moral sense?

42

What are the benefits of obeying our moral sense?

Immortality & God as necessary hypotheses

Test questions:

Outline how Kant attempts to prove God’s existence.

Pascal

“The heart has reasons of which Reason knows nothing.” (Pascal, Pensees)

“Either God is or he is not. But to which view shall we be inclined? Reason cannot decide this question. Infinite chaos separates us. At the far end of this infinite distance a coin is being spun which will come down heads or tales. How would you wager? Reason cannot make you choose either, reason cannot prove either wrong. Yes, but you must wager. There is no choice, you are already committed. Which will you choose then?” (Pascal, Pensees)

The Subjective Argument

What kind of being is God?

How do you know this type of Being?

43

Pascal’s Wager

The nature of life – A Wager

The options and possible results

What is he doing (and not doing)

1.

2.

3.

Test questions:

What is Pascal’s Wager and what is he attempting to do with it?

Why does Pascal argue that rational and objective means of proving God’s existence fail? Include discussion of God’s nature and human nature in your answer.


What is meant by mysticism and why does it reject reason as a means to know of God and his ways?

Describe the means by which Teresa of Avila believes we encounter God.

44

Rene Descartes

“Everyone who observes himself doubting observes a truth, and about that which he observes he is certain; therefore he is certain about truth. Everyone therefore who doubts whether truth exists has in himself a truth on which not to doubt. Hence one who can doubt at all ought not to doubt about the existence of truth.” (Augustine, De Vera Religione)

“So after considering everything very thoroughly, I must finally conclude that this proposition, I am, I exist, is necessarily true whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind.” (Meditations, II)

Reading, Palmer, pp. 51-73; Good Ideas, chapter 7

Rationalism

1.

2.

The Search for Certainty

1. The Problem of Probability

2. The Relief of Mathematics

45

Methodological Doubt

1. Doubt everything

2. Doubting the Senses

a.

b.

c.

3. The Cogito

a.

b.

c.

46

4. Testing the cogito

a.

b.

Building on the Cogito

1. What do we know when we know – The Wax

a. Via the senses

b. Via the mind

2. God’s existence

a. Effects require causes/Causes explain effects

b. The effect in question – Our idea of a perfect Being

c. Are we the cause?

47

3. The Physical World

a. Ideas about sensation

b. The demon dies

c. World implied by math

Dualism

1. The substances/Different attributes

a. God

b. The mind

c. The body

2. The interaction of mind and body

a. Two-way communication

b. The pineal gland

48

Test questions:

Why does Descartes doubt the reliability of the senses?

In Descartes’ story about the wax, what is known by the senses and what is known by the mind about the wax? What point was he trying to make?

Why does Descartes conclude that “I think, therefore I exist” is a certainty? Why is this belief not thrown into doubt by the fallibility of the senses or the possibility of an evil genius?

How does Descartes attempt to prove that God exists?

Why does Descartes believe that human beings are a composite of body and soul? What are the attributes of each of these components?


How does Descartes come to the conclusion that his body and other physical objects exist?

How does Galileo’s story help us understand what Descartes was doing in his Meditations?

How does God fit into Descartes’ philosophy? How is this different from medieval Christian philosophers?

49

Locke (1632-1704)

“Let us then suppose the Mind to be, as we say, white Paper, void of all Characters, without any Ideas; How comes it to be furnished? Whence comes it by that vast store, which the busy and boundless Fancy of Man has painted on it, with an almost endless variety? Whence has it all the materials of Reason and Knowledge? To this I answer, in one word, From Experience.” (An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, II:1).

Reading, Palmer, pp. 76-110

Empiricism

1.

2.

Knowledge is not innate

1.

2.

Empirical Knowledge

1. Tabula Rasa

2. Sensation creates impressions

3. The capacity for reflection

a.

b.

50

4. The representative theory of knowledge (Representative Realism)

a.

b.

Sensation and Reflection – A brief interlude

Which truths come through sensation or reflection. Underline the appropriate means of knowing.

1. I believe (sensation, reflection) I see a blue ball (sensation, reflection).

2. This coin (sensation, reflection) is shiny (sensation, reflection).

3. I doubt (sensation, reflection) this coin is shiny (sensation, reflection).

4. I believe (sensation, reflection) in God (sensation, reflection).

5. Ethics – A case study of empiricism

a.

b.

c.

Test questions:According to Locke, how do we know anything?

What does Locke mean by representative realism?

51

David Hume (1711-1776)

“We have no other notion of cause and effect, but that of certain objects, which have been always conjoin’d together, and which in all past instances have been found inseparable.” (David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature)

“When I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe any thing but the perception.” (David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature)

If we only believe what we see . . . (Empiricism pushed to the wall)

1.

2.

3.

What can be known

1. Analytic propositions

2. Synthetic propositions

52

What cannot be known

1.

2.

The case study: Cause and effect

1. What we see

2. What we do not see

3. Contiguity & Resemblance

4. Causation as a habit of the mind

Test questions:

What does Hume mean by analytic and synthetic propositions?

What, according to Hume, is cause and effect, and why does he come to this conclusion?

Why does Hume’s epistemology lead to radical skepticism?

53

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

Pure Reason - Bringing together the a priori and the a posteriori

Noumena – The world as it isPhenomena – The world as we perceive it

How do we get from noumena to phenomena?

1.

2.

3.

4.

Test questions:How does Kant understand the process by which we know under pure reason?

Test questions from Palmer:What, according to Locke, is the difference between primary and secondary qualities? What fits into each category and why?

Why does Berkeley argue that “to be is to be perceived?”

According to Berkeley, if things do not have physical reality, what kind of reality do they have and what is the source of this reality?

What does logical positivism mean by a theoretical entity and what problem do they attempt to solve by introducing this idea?

54

Kierkegaard

“The difference between ‘popular’ and ‘philosophical’ is the amount of time a thing takes. Ask a man: do you know this or do you not know it—if he answers immediately, then the answer is popular, he is an undergraduate. If it takes ten years for the answer to come, and if it comes in the form of a system, if it is not quite clear whether he knows it or not, then it is a philosophical answer and the man is a professor of philosophy—at least that is what he ought to be.” (Kierkegaard)

Reading: Palmer, pp. 200-207; Good Ideas, chapters 8, 12

The Problem of Making Abraham Logical

1. The wrong way to look at Abraham

2. The Abraham story as it is – The Preamble

3. The call to sacrifice Isaac

The Problemata

1. The Universal vs the Absolute (Ethics vs Faith)

55

2. Problema I - Ethics as an end in itself

Agamemnon and Abraham

The teleological suspension of the ethical

The Temptation: Choosing society over God

3. Problema II – The recipient of our duties

The specificity of the call – Standing alone before God

The temptation: Social acceptance over isolation

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4. Problema III – The demand for disclosure

Abraham’s silence

The temptation: Explanation

The Three Stages

1. The Aesthetic Stage

The result:

2. The Ethical Stage

The result:

3. The Religious Stage

The leap of faith

57

Christianity as absurd

1. God as Wholly Other

2. Reason as a form of self-salvation

3. Turning ourselves over to the ridiculous/paradoxical

4. Passion

Test Questions:

What, according to Kierkegaard, are the attributes of ethics, and why does Abraham fail to measure up to the standards of ethics?

What are the characteristics of the first two stages and why do they each lead to despair?

What does Kierkegaard mean by faith?

What does Kierkegaard mean when he states that Christianity is absurd?


How does Kierkegaard understand the relationship between faith and reason?

58

William James (1842-1910) - Pragmatism

“God is real since he produces real effects.” (James, Varieties of Religious Experience, p. 389.)

“Objective evidence and certitude are doubtless very find ideals to play with, but where on this moonlit and dream-visited planet are they found? (James, “The Will to Believe,” p. 97.)

Reading: Palmer, pp. 187-192

The problem of certainty

1.

2.

3.

The will to believe

1. Will takes over where intellect ends

2. Belief helps create truth

Pragmatism

Truth is what works

59

Tests:

1.

2.

3.

Not a static entity

Determinism

The Brockton Murder Case

If all is determined (making sense of regret):

Option 1:

Option 2:

The validity of believing in freedom

60

Religious experience

How do we believe in God when God is not discoverable by the senses?

1.

2.

3.

Test questions:

James would say that everyone lives by faith? What does he mean by this and why is faith necessary for life?

What does James mean when he says that “truth is what works?” How do we determine when a belief “works?”

How does James use our sense of regret in hearing about a murder to explain why it is reasonable to believe that our actions are not determined, but free?


How does James’ pragmatism influence the question of whether we should believe in God’s existence?

61

Social & Political Philosophy

Reading – Palmer, 334-377; Good Ideas, chapter 10

Friedrich Nietzsche

From a Christian point of view, what is a good person? What will a good Christian believe, value, and do?

“God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.” (Nietzsche)

“Nietzsche went insane from syphilis; he was found one day in the street, crazed and hanging onto the head of a horse—perhaps the first time in history that both ends of a horse have gotten together.” (Bluffer’s Guide to Philosophy)

How to Philosophize with a Hammer

1. Creating suspicion, not counterarguments

2. Going beyond truth

The Will to Power

1. Ruled by will, not reason

2. Life is about power

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3. Truth as a power tool

The “genealogy” of truth

1. The Presocratic claims

2. The Platonic perversion

3. Truth as means of mastering world

4. Truth as perspectival

.

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God is Dead

Christianity’s selling points

a.

b.

c.

In other words . . .

1. “God is dead.”

2. Consequences of theism

Master Morality/Slave Morality

1. Master morality--Valuation by the strong

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2. Redefining “good”

a. Redefinition of terms

b. Redefining the referent

c. Redefining the antithesis

3. Reason for transition

4. Slave morality [reverses all that is exalted in master morality

Nihilism

1. Loss of moorings

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2. All that remains is nihilism – Two Possibilities

a.

b.

3. The Übermensch (Superman)

Test questions:

What does Nietzsche say is the proper perspective of the idea of truth, and how did we get to our current view?

Nietzsche says that nihilism offers two options. What is the wrong way to embrace nihilism and how does the Übermensch (Superman) see nihilism?

What does Nietzsche see as the characteristics of master morality and slave morality?

What does Nietzsche mean when he says that God is dead? How does he want to distinguish himself from other atheists?


How does Nietzsche say that human beings developed a conscience?

What does Nietzsche mean by the ascetic ideal and why is it a problem?

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Thomas Hobbes – Materialism in a Political Key

“the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” (Hobbes)

The driving force of human nature

a.

b.

c.

Translation into political theory

1. No Divine Right

2. Good = Survival

3. Others as a threat to our survival

a. Limited resources

b. Equal abilities

c. Self-defeating cycle

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4. The social contract

a. Voluntary agreement

b. A commonwealth – Defensive

c. Needs coercive power

5. The Leviathan – a Mortal God

a. Chosen by majority

b. Reflects the common will

6. The Leviathan – The Powers & Limitations

a.

b.

Test questions:

According to Hobbes, what is human life like without the social contract, and why is it like this?

What type of government does Hobbes suggest and why should it be formulated in this manner? What limits are there to be on government?

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John Locke

Assumptions

1.

2.

3.

Our Rights

1. Natural Rights

2. The basis of Law

a. Divine Law

b. Civil Law

c. Opinion & Reputation

3. The Limits of Government

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The Structure of Government

1. Legislative Power

2. Executive Power

3. Federative Power

Contract open to revision

Test questions:

What, according to Locke, are the three levels of law and how do they determine the limits that should be imposed on government?

How would Locke structure government, and why would he do it in this manner?

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Karl Marx – Dialectical Materialism

Reading: Palmer, pp. 179-184; Good Ideas, chapter 9

“More astute observers explain that in Capitalist societies, man exploits man, whereas in Marxist societies it is the other way around.” (Bluffer’s Guide to Philosophy)

Human Nature

1. Homo Faber, not Homo Sapiens

2. Social beings

3. Society shaped by economics

4. Ideas are effects, not causes

5. Modified “Golden Rule”

6. All forces are material

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The Dialectic – The process of social change [conflict]

1. Thesis

2. Antithesis

3. The synthesis

The Stages of History

1. Primitive communism

2. Slavery

3. Feudalism

4. Capitalism

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5. Communism

a.

b.

The Problem of Capitalism – Alienation

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

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Problem of Religion

1.

2.

3.

Communism

1.

2.

3.

4.

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Test questions:

Traditionally, philosophy has defined humans primarily as reasonable individuals. How does Marx define human nature? What is most important about us and the ideas we have?

Describe the types of alienation that result from capitalism and explain why they inevitably occur in this form of economy, according to Marx.

As Marx sees it, what is the nature of communism, what benefits does it bring, and why?

In Marx’s analysis of history, what are the various stages through which history passes, how does the idea of conflict fit into the different stages, and why will communism bring about the “end of history?”


How do Hobbes and Locke differ on the idea of property rights?

Outline Rousseau’s view of government.

According to Mill’s view of rights, what should government do and not do in restricting the rights of people?

Briefly describe Nozick’s view of the minimalist state.

What does Rawls mean by the “veil of ignorance” and the “original position?” How does it shape his understanding of politics?


How does Marx respond when others say that Communism will lead to a loss of personal freedom and that it will make people lazy?

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Ethics

Reading – Palmer, pp. 260-324

The Terminology

1. Deontology

2. Consequentialism

3. Virtue

4. Subjectivism

5. Objective

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Cultural Relativism – Ethical relativism

1. Beginning point – The observation of cultures

a.

b.

c.

2. Ethical Relativism

a.

b.

c.

d.

e.

Test questions:

Outline the basic elements of cultural relativism

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Ayn Rand – Ethical Egoism

1. Defining Selfishness

a. Not

b. Or

c. But

2. The story of nature

a.

b.

3. The human difference

4. The problem of altruism

a. Definition

b.

c.

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5. Benefits of selfishness

a.

b.

c.

d.

Test questions:

What does Rand see as the benefits of selfishness?

What does Rand mean, and what does she not mean, by selfishness? Why does she see it as a better ethical option than altruism?

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Utilitarianism – Jeremy Bentham & John Stuart Mill

“The greatest happiness for the greatest number.”

“Mill was once arrested at the age of 17 for handing out birth control information, a fact confusing to some of his followers who cannot figure out whether, in his infamous criminal act, he was ultimately attempting to promote the greatest happiness of the greatest number, or whether the greatest happiness of a lesser number.” (Bluffer’s Guide to Philosophy)

1. The Foundations of Utilitarianism

a. Empiricism [known by senses

b. Democratic political thought

2. The greatest happiness . . .

a.

b.

c.

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3. Hedonistic Calculus (Bentham)– Ethics by spreadsheet

a. Identify options

b. Identify categories of happiness

c. Evaluate options

d. Add it up

4. Mill’s modifications

a. Quality vs Quantity

b. The problem with lack of familiarity

c. The threat of barbarism

d. The higher pleasures

Test questions:

Describe how ethical decisions are made under Bentham’s “hedonistic calculus.”

What are the differences between the utilitarianism of Bentham and that of Mill? Why did Mill believe it necessary to make certain modifications to Bentham’s form of utilitarianism?

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Kant – Deontological Ethics

“There is therefore but one categorical imperative, namely this: act only on that maxim whereby thou canst at the same time will that it should become a universal law.” (Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphsic of Morals)

What Kant wants to avoid in ethical thought:

1.

2.

3.

In sum, what is wrong with utilitarianism

Foundational Ideas

1.

2.

3.

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The Categorical Imperative

1. Categorical

2. Imperative

3. First formulation of the CI

4. Second formulation of the CI

5. Violation results in absurdity

6. The centrality of motive/duty

Test questions:

Why does Kant believe that utilitarianism fails as an adequate ethical approach?

What is the categorical imperative? How would one apply it to a case in which we attempt to determine whether we should rob a bank?

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Aquinas – Natural Law Ethics

Review: General Revelation

a.

b.

c.

Natural Law

a. Purpose

b. Primary law

c. Secondary laws

d. Tertiary laws

e. Relation to civil (positive) law

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Making connections: Ethics & Salvation

a.

b.

Test Questions:

What is the relationship of natural law to divine law and positive law?

Explain the basic elements of natural law ethics.

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Divine Command Ethics

God’s Nature/Human Nature

1. God as Free

a.

b.

c.

2. Humans as limited

a.

b.

c.

d.

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3. Ethics

a.

b.

c.

d.

Test questions:

How does Divine Command Theory understand God’s nature in relation to human nature, and how does this shape its understanding of ethics?


Describe the ethics of Epicurus. What types of pleasures should we seek, which should we avoid, and why?

What does Hume mean by the “naturalistic fallacy?”

How does Gilligan view the difference between moral development in young males and females?

What is meant by “intrinsic value” and “instrumental value?” Which does deep ecology ascribe to nature and how does it shape its view of ethics?


How does Sartre define freedom? Why is freedom a condemnation?

What does Sartre mean by bad faith?

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The Notebook - Azusa Pacific Universitygroups.apu.edu/theophil/Wilkens/2008/Notebook-2005 (2).doc · Web viewMetaphysics (Ontological) Epistemology. Ethics (Axiology) Aesthetics.

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