Ancient Philosophical influences

Question 1

Socrates

Answer 1

• Teacher of Plato
• Wrote none of his philosophies down himself
• Found guilty of ‘ corrupting the young’ and died by drinking Hemlock

Question 2

Socrates’ view on democracy

Answer 2

• Pessimistic of democracy
• Only educated people should be allowed to vote: non educated people are too easily manipulated
• Philosophers should be in power

Question 3

Rationalism

Answer 3

Reason

Question 4

Empiricism

Answer 4

Experiences

Question 5

A Priori Knowledge

Answer 5

Knowledge that can be found through reason. Does not require past experiences

Question 6

Posteriori knowledge

Answer 6

Knowledge gained from experience

Question 7

Plato believed true knowledge can only be gained through….

Answer 7

A priori knowledge, because our senses can only provide opinions and shadows of object’s true forms.

Question 8

The story of the cave

Answer 8

• A group of prisoners have been chained in a cave since birth
• They only see shadows of true objects projected on the wall in front of them.
• They believe the shadows are all that exist
• Plato states that if a prisoner were to be freed, he would realise that the outside world is real and the cave was just an illusion
• He also states that if the prisoner were to return to the cave and tell the other prisoners, then they would not believe him and even try to kill him

Question 9

Positives of the cave analogy

Answer 9

• It is a good starting point into philosophical thought
• Our senses are not always reliable, sometimes we get false information
• It helps us to understand why there are imperfections in the world

Question 10

Negatives of the analogy of the cave

Answer 10

• The information we get through our senses is not irrelevant because we need it to survive.
• Why should philosophers rule if our world is just a shadow anyway?
• Plato does not offer proof of the world of forms

Question 11

The world of the forms

Answer 11

• A reality away from ours that contains all the perfect, unchanging forms of ideas and objects in our world

Question 12

The world of particulars

Answer 12

• Our world, containing particulars, or imitations of forms. Constantly changing and imperfect

Question 13

Why does Plato believe in the world of forms?

Answer 13

• In our world, everything is constantly changing
• However, mathematical truths stay constant. e.g 1+1 will always equal 2
• Plato believes there is a similar, unchanging truth behind every object in our world
• For example, beauty. Many things are beautiful, but they all have beauty in common. Therefore, there must be an unchanging form of ‘beauty’.

Question 14

Example: Beauty

Answer 14

• In the world of Forms: The form of Beauty
• Known a priori: The concept of Beauty
• Known through our senses: Individual Beautiful entities
• Imitations of Beauty (e.g paintings, photos etc)

Question 15

Positives of the forms

Answer 15

• We have an innate ability to recognise the forms
• The ideal standard: The forms ca be used to support belief in unchanging moral rules
• The forms encourage us to not take things at face value

Question 16

Negatives of the forms

Answer 16

• Wittgenstein rejected the argument of similarity as just overlapping characteristics
• If objects have forms in common, then what do forms and particulars have in common? (Third man argument)
• There is a form for everything - a perfect murder, a perfect genocide? How can evil be perfect?

Question 17

According to Aristotle, what do things move from, to?

Answer 17

Potentiality to actuality.

Question 18

The four causes

Answer 18

1) Material cause
2) Formal cause
3) Efficient cause
4) Final cause

Question 19

What is the material cause?

Answer 19

The material that it is made from

Question 20

What is the formal cause?

Answer 20

The structure or form of the finished thing. The form is in the object itself, not an idea in a different world

Question 21

What is the efficient cause?

Answer 21

The maker of the object / how it came to be

Question 22

What is the final cause?

Answer 22

The purpose for which something was made. Telos

Question 23

Why do the four causes exist?
(According to Aristotle)

Answer 23

• The world is real and the task of philosophers is to explain it.
• They key to knowledge is the empirical method
• The world and all that is in it has a Telos

Question 24

Positives of the four causes

Answer 24

• Make sense: has an element of common sense
• The four causes focus on purpose: something is good if it fulfils its purpose.

Question 25

Negatives of the four causes

Answer 25

• Not everything has a purpose
• Existentialists claim that humans have no purpose. Therefore, the four causes do not work for humans

Question 26

What is Aristotle’s prime mover?

Answer 26

A being that causes changes in the world as a whole, as the four causes only explain individual changes

Question 27

Characteristics of the prime mover

Answer 27

• Immutable
• Eternal
• Perfect
• Impassive (emotions change)

Question 28

Did Descartes support reasoning or sense?

Answer 28

He supported rationalism (reasoning)

Question 29

Descartes wax analogy

Answer 29

Imagine a piece of wax. We are able to observe this piece of wax’s properties and characteristics. If we left it by a fire, and came back it would be melted into a puddle and no longer have those same properties. However, using our reason we can still tell it’s the same piece of wax.

Question 30

Did Hume support reasoning or sense?

Answer 30

He supported sense experience

Question 31

What did Hume believe about ideas?

Answer 31

We can only have ideas of the things we have experienced
Made up, imaginary things are just combinations of what we have already experienced.