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Philosophy Final Exam > Class Lecture Notes > Flashcards

Class Lecture Notes Flashcards

1
Q

What does Pascal believe on the notion of a God?

A
  • God is so different from us that we are incapable of knowing what/who He is if He exists.
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2
Q

Define the terms evidentialist and non-evidentialist.

A

Evidentialist - Someone who believes that reasons are necessary for religious belief.
Non-Evidentialist - Someone who believes that reasons are not necessary for religious belief.

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3
Q

Define the terms cognitive and pragmatic in terms of arguments for God’s existence.

A

Cognitive Arguments - Traditional arguments with a premise and a conclusion.
Pragmatic Arguments - Arguments based on why someone should or should not do something.

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4
Q

What are the three different types of cognitive arguments for God’s existence?

A

1) Ontological Argument for God’s Existence
2) Teleological Argument for God’s Existence
3) Cosmological Argument for God’s Existence.

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5
Q

What is the only pragmatic argument for God’s Existence?

A

Pascal’s Wager.

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6
Q

Draw the diagram that represents Pascal’s Wager.

A

Vertical Axis: 2 Choices - Believe or Don’t Believe
Horizontal Axis: 2 Possibilities - God Exists or He Doesn’t
The Four Squares From Top Right Clockwise: Positive Eternal Benefit, Lost Definable Pleasure, Really Bad Forever, Good That’s Finite and Definable.

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7
Q

What is the argument behind Pascal’s wager?

A
  • That the expected probability of existence is 50/50. Therefore, you should believe and take the wager. If you don’t you stand to lose a lot. If you do, you stand only to lose a little and gain a ton.
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8
Q

Briefly List and Explain the Three Objections to Pascal’s wager?

A

1) Beliefs are not chosen - Beliefs Seem to happen to us passively. Only exposure to new evidence impacts belief.
2) God would not be pleased with such beliefs.
3) How do we know which God to believe in?

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9
Q

Define doxastic voluntarism.

A

The notion that people choose their beliefs.

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10
Q

Who is the father of “Modern” Philosophy?

A

Rene Descartes.

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11
Q

Compare Aristotle and Descartes’ Epistemology.

A

Aristotle - An empiricist who believed that knowledge started with observation and went further than mere observable facts.
Descartes - Rejects Empiricism. Not a recollections. An existential rationalist that believes reason is supreme above all else.

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12
Q

What is the core of “Modern” Philosophy?

A

The notion of certainty in foundational knowledge on which all other truths are built. These truths are self-evident and not doubtable.

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13
Q

Describe Descartes’ Metaphysics.

A
  • There’s a dichotomy between mind and body.

- The mind is outside of the physical world.

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14
Q

Define a priori knowledge and postaori knowledge.

A

A Priori Knowledge - Knowledge that comes before observation.
Postaori Knowledge - Knowledge that comes from observation.

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15
Q

What is Methodological Skepticism?

A
  • Belief/Knowledge, in order to exist, require the possibility of doubt.
  • Certainty Must Exist Only In Cases Where Something is Beyond All Possible Doubt. (Doesn’t Have to be Reasonable.
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16
Q

What does Descartes conclude in Mediation I?

A
  • Knowledge cannot be had either a priori or postaori. We could all be dreaming so we can’t trust our sense impressions. Moreover, we cannot find knowledge via reason.
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17
Q

Define phenomenology.

A

The study of the way something feels.

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18
Q

Do We Have Knowledge according to Descartes?

A

No.

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19
Q

What does Descartes conclude in Meditation II?

A
  • The only thing that can be known for certain is that something engaged in thought exists.
  • This is the origin of the Cogito Ergo Sum: I think; Therefore, I exist.
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20
Q

What does Descartes conclude in Meditation III?

A
  • Argues that God exists. An effect cannot be greater than its cause. Thus, whatever causes the idea cannot be lesser than the idea Himself. We can trust in the existence of a God, to an extent.
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21
Q

Describe the background of Gottfried Leibniz.

A
  • He’s schooled into and holding to Scholasticism
  • He’s a philosopher, mathematician, and logician who. invents calculus.
  • Very smart, but arrogant.
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22
Q

Describe Leibniz’s Philosophy of Religion.

A
  • God is a perfectly rational being. Everything God does is rational and more rational than our own actions.
  • The more rational one is, the more free they are. God is maximally free by extension.
  • He’s a determinist with a compatibilistic view of free-will. (Your choice is already determine by your reason, but you still have a choice.
  • Believes in a Stoic-like Amor Fati. Love what happens to you because God’s choices are the best that could be.
  • Nothing is arbitrary.
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23
Q

Define God’s antecedent will and God’s consequent Will.

A

God’s Antecedent Will - God’s Will Before considering the Fallen State of the World. Pain or suffering is never in this will.
God’s Consequent Will - Will After considering the Fallen State of the World.

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24
Q

Explain Leibniz’s conception of Necessary Truths.

A
  • If you were trying to imagine other worlds, what truths would you have to transfer?
  • These necessary truths include things like Mathematics.
  • God cannot change these things since He is rational and to do so would make Him irrational.
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25
Q

Explain Leibniz’s conception of Maximal Creation.

A
  • Creation embodies attributes of complexity and diversity with harmony.
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26
Q

What does Leibniz believe about the world?

A
  • It is the best possible world that could ever exist since God created it.
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27
Q

Define Theodicy.

A
  • The belief that God allows it without causing it.
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28
Q

How does Leibniz view determinism?

A
  • The Future is unknown to us but certain to God.
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29
Q

Define necessary and contingent truth.

A

Necessary truth - Has to be true in every world.

Contingent Truth - Does not have to be true in every world.

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30
Q

How does Leibniz view Miracles?

A
  • Miracles are laid out ahead of time. They do not break the laws of nature but are a prescribed rule by God. So the monads are doing what they are supposed to do.
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31
Q

What does Leibniz believe is the basis of all substances?

A
  • Monads, a unit of being that is conscious. Awareness is key to being and existence.
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32
Q

What is the chief monad of a human being?

A

You. The cells are all monads but you are the chief monad.

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33
Q

Is matter a substance according to Leibniz?

A

No. Matter is not indivisible. Only consciousness is indivisible.

34
Q

What does Leibniz do with Aristotle’s essences?

A
  • He’s a nominalist and believes that each human is a different essence.
  • He also believe that mental things are all that exist.
  • Simply put, there is not matter, space, or causal interaction in the physical world. He’s an idealist.
35
Q

Define idealism.

A

The belief that everything is mental. There is no physical cause and effect.

36
Q

Define panpsychism.

A

The belief that the mind is all that exists.

37
Q

What does Locke’s book I claim about epistemology?

A

There is no innate ideas.

38
Q

What are the two categories of ideas according to Locke?

A

1) Ideas of Sensation

2) Ideas of Reflection - These are the only things that can really exist.

39
Q

What does Locke think about ideas?

A

They are the objects of understanding what a man thinks. Awareness of an image in your mind is not the object directly being considered.

40
Q

Draw the Locke Simple/Complex Ideas Chart.

A

Top line: Simple and Complex.
Side Line: Sensations and Reflections.
Simple Sensations: Sight, Smell, Sound, Touch, Taste.
Simple reflections: Motion, Shape, etc.
Complex Sensations: Do not Exist.
Complex Reflections: Every word not directly associated with sensation.

41
Q

How does Locke view Qualities?

A

As a power an object has to produce in idea in us. It’s a reflection category of idea.

42
Q

Define Primary and Secondary Qualities According to Locke.

A

Primary Qualities - All things associated with a scientific description of an object. (Mass, volume, motion, velocity.)
Secondary Qualities - Anything associated with an idea of sensation. (These exist in us, not the object.)

43
Q

What does Locke think about substance?

A
  • Substance is an idea of reflection that’s complex and beyond the realm of certainty.
  • Locke does not know the natural os substances.
  • Locke also believes sameness of substance cannot be the ground of personal identity.
44
Q

What are Berkeley’s 2 Motivations in his Philosophical System?

A

1) Avoid Skepticism Unlike Locke and Descartes.

2) Combat Deism and Mechanistic Physics which minimize the role of God. He wants a system that requires a God.

45
Q

What are Berkeley’s Metaphysics?

A
  • Everything in reality is tied to a mind. There is no such thing as a mind independent object.
  • Ideas exist in the mind and via this we can infer the existence of other minds.
  • To be is to be perceived or to perceived. Existence is based on perception.
  • He’s an idealist. God is omniscient and omnipresent, so most things continue to exist outside human perception.
46
Q

What does Berkeley think of substances?

A
  • He doesn’t need the idea of a physical substance to exist for his paradigm.
47
Q

What does Berkeley think of causation?

A
  • He doesn’t need a notion of causation for his system.

- Believes God causes his sensations and things to exist. God controls universal sensations.

48
Q

Define Hylas.

A

The belief that matter exists outside the mind.

49
Q

Define Philmous.

A

The lovers of mind.

50
Q

What does Berkeley think of primary and secondary qualities?

A
  • He believes both are in the mind. Unlike lock that believes that primary qualities are in the objects themselves.
51
Q

Where does all knowledge come from according to Hume?

A

Observation through the senses. (he’s an empiricist.)

52
Q

Define the term negative philosopher. Which philosopher fits this paradigm?

A
  • A philosopher who only looks to check other philosophical systems, but not create a new system/explanation.
  • This is Hume’s approach.
53
Q

Describe Hume’s Epistemology.

A
  • He will only accept foundationalism if knowledge is possible. But for him knowledge is not possible.
  • There is no connection between sense impressions and cause and effect per Berkeley.
  • We cannot have notions of space and time that are knowledge.
54
Q

What are Hume’s Metaphysics?

A

He doesn’t have any. He thinks discussions of metaphysics are useless since we can’t have knowledge about these things.

55
Q

What are the two categories of ideas according to Hume?

A

1) Relations of Ideas

2) Matters of Fact

56
Q

What does Hume view as Relations of Ideas?

A

Things that are necessarily true by the arrangement of the terms. Things like a round circle. They have to be true by definition/convention.

57
Q

What does Hume view as matter of fact?

A
  • These can be contradicted meaningfully.
  • However, casual relationship between perception and senses has to exist before we can accept this as knowledge.
  • Thus, we cannot assume the existence of anything, including the self.
58
Q

What is a pragmatist?

A
  • Even though Hume believes we cannot have knowledge, he thinks we should conduct ourselves in a way that works practically. So we can still make knowledge claims and act as if knowledge exists.
  • In fact, he encourages skepticism only in the academic realm. Not in the personal one.
59
Q

Does empiricism pass its own test?

A

1) If it doesn’t, then it commits the fallacy of contradictory premises.
2) If you think it does, then you prove that it’s false.

60
Q

What are the Four Groundwork Questions that have to be answered by Hume in Against Miracles?

A

1) What is a Miracle? - Is it a violation of the laws of nature?
2) Are Miracles Possible? - Physically, can the laws of nature be violated?
3) Should we Ever Believe a Miracle Has Happened Based on the Testimony of Someone else?
4) Should we Believe a Miracle if We Witness It?

61
Q

How does Hume Define a Miracle?

A
  • Miracles are only things that break the laws of nature.
62
Q

Explain Hume’s argument against believing Miracle’s based on Testimony.

A

Premise 1: Our beliefs should be proportioned based on the evidence we Have.
Premise 2: 1st Hand Experience is Better Evidence than Testimony.
Conclusion 1: When 1st Hand Experience and Testimony conflict, believe the 1st Hand Experience.
Premise 3: Miracles always contradict first hand experience.
Conclusion 2: Never trust miracles based on Testimony. Unless is is more miraculous to disbelieve the Miracle.

63
Q

What is Kant attempting to do in his work Prolegamaga to any Future Metaphysics?.

A

Attempting to bring together rationalists and empiricists in the enlightenment.

64
Q

How does Kant address Hume’s assault on Metaphysics?

A

He doesn’t reject Hume’s claim that cause and effect is not provable, but redefines metaphysics to deal more with the psychology than the nature of existences.

65
Q

What are the two types of relations of ideas according to Hume?

A

Analytic Ideas - Things that are true by definition.

Synthetic A priori- Things that are true. Such as the fact that 12 is the sum of 7 and 5.

66
Q

Describe Kant in terms of philosophical schools.

A

He’s a German Idealist. He believes the world of a person’s mind is the world they are in contact with.

67
Q

How does Kant’s Epistemology differ from all other schools before him?

A

Kant believes that objects conform to our minds. Every other thinker before him thought that the mind conforms to our experiences.

68
Q

Define rationalist and empiricist.

A

Rationalist - A person who believes that there’s something innate in our mind.
Empiricist - A person who believes knowledge begins with sense impressions.

69
Q

What does Kant think of rationalism and empiricism?

A

He disagrees with both. The mind is not tabula rasa, there’s an existent structure. He also does not think innate knowledge exists. Basically, there a structure with which we can get knowledge, but there is no innate knowledge or tabula rasa mind.

70
Q

Explain Kant’s Epistemology and What It Means.

A
  • Kant believes we cannot have knowledge of the world outside of our own minds.
  • There are two worlds, the numenal world and the phenomenal world.
  • Knowledge is only how we think about the world.
  • The consequence of this belief is that knowledge is relative to the individual.
71
Q

Define the numenal world.

A
  • The thing in itself.
72
Q

Explain how we get to ideas from the phenomenal world according to Kant.

A
  • We start with raw sense data based on observation the phenomenal world filtered through the framework of space and time that is innate in every mind.
  • We then interpret these through the categories that exist in our minds and produce conception of the world, self and God.
73
Q

What is Kant’s categorical imperative?

A

One should act only according to that maxim by which you could at the same time will that it becomes a universal law.

74
Q

Define consequentialism.

A

The morality of an action is based on the consequences it produces.

75
Q

What is a universal law?

A

Something that everyone in a similar situation should do.

76
Q

What is a maxim conceived according to Kant?

A

1) What you’re considering doing generally conceived.

2) The motivations behind what you’re doing.

77
Q

What is Kant’s Principle of Humanity?

A

Act so as to treat humanity and an end and never only as a means. Respect yourself and others because they’re rational beings.

78
Q

What is one objection to the Categorical Imperative?

A

Kant makes no exceptions for exceptional circumstances, like lying to save hidden Jews.

79
Q

Describe Mill’s philosophy briefly

A
  • He’s an empiricist who grounds reality in sensations.
  • He believes pleasure is morally good and pain morally bad. One should pursue maxim corporate pleasure. (He’s a hedonist.)
  • He’s a consequentialist. Utilitarianism wants to produce maximum corporate pleasure.
80
Q

Define Utilitarianism.

A
  • Consequences are the only things that matter. Not motivations.
  • Maximal corporate pleasure is the ultimate good.
  • However, human pleasure is different than mere animal pleasure. Intellectual pleasure is unique to humans.
81
Q

What are the preliminaries in regards to Kierkegaard?

A
  • Kirkegaard is responding to Hegel, who is a Kantian. (A German Idealist)
82
Q

What does Kierkegaard argue?

A
  • He disagrees with the notion of Thesis-Antithesis- Synthesis in describing God himself.
  • He believes that objective truth has to be accessed objectively.
  • He also believes that faith has to be devoid of reason. He believes that things have to be crazy in order to believe in them as a Christian should.

Philosophy Final Exam (2 decks)

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