cumulative exam

Question 1

how did he get started

Answer 1

Entered the world of philosophy after reading Descartes and through his philosophy having shown that metaphysics is impossible to study.

Question 2

what is Critical Idealism?

Answer 2

-Objects need to be understood as conforming to our mode of cognition
-Objects conform to us
-We constitute objects when observing/thinking about it, all objects humans can perceive exist in space and time
-We are active in knowing objects

Question 3

what is Transcendental Idealism to Kant?

Answer 3

Kant is against Transcendent idealism/claims because he believes this is purely dogmatic and we can’t begin to understand and speak about what exists beyond space and time.
If one of these conditions exists in all forms of knowledge, then that means objectivity exists.

Question 4

? what is transcendental to others?

Answer 4

Transcendental: Look at the conditions to the side of the subject to understand what makes any knowledge possible, a genetic claim (how it came to be), It’s a mix of both reality and consciousness

Question 5

what is the A New Conception of the Self?

Answer 5

its a combination of -The hermeneutical turn
& -Transcendental Idealism.

Question 6

what does Kant discover when he starts to critique reason?

Answer 6

Two fundamental powers of the mind or powers of cognition: sensibility and understanding (Intelligence)

Question 7

how does he differin’ the critique of reason from Leibniz or Hume?

Answer 7

Remember that Leibniz argued understanding or intellect was the only fundamental power of the mind, and sensibility is a confused species of cognition

Hume said that reasoning derives from sensibility

Other philosophers reduce knowledge to either the senses or reason, but to Kant, that view is too reductionist.

Question 8

what are the 3 faculty of the mind?

Answer 8

-Sensibility (passive)
-Understanding (active)
-Reason

Question 9

how many concepts of understanding are there?

Answer 9

There are 12 concepts of understanding, such as quantity and quality; two of which are substance and causality, they’re the necessary conditions of thought required for understanding

Question 10

what is Causality/Causation?

Answer 10

Causality/Causation: Humans are only capable of thinking of the world through the concept of cause and effect, it’s impossible to perceive the world outside of the realm of cause and effect.
I do not have a succession of sensations and then put them together in terms of cause and effect
I apply the category of causality to my thinking of objects, therefore denying Hume and his denial of understanding of causality

Question 11

what is Substance?

Answer 11

Substance: They are the qualities of objects that exist in space and time. The substance is required for humans to perceive the world and the qualities of the world because we can’t fathom something outside of space and time.

Question 12

is mathematics purely analytic or is it synthetic?

Answer 12

Kant argues that math is synthetic:

-When we look at how mathematical claims are made, and what makes them possible (Transcendental Idealism) we see that they are constructed against the a priori “background” of space and time

-Math is possible because mathematical objects are not independent of the mind, they are dependent upon the background of space and time

-But space and time a priori

Question 13

is Pure science purely analytic or synthetic?

Answer 13

-One thing we already know, whatever science does, it will have to structure all the possible objects of space and time

-When we make a claim about nature, the world, we structure it according to a priori concepts or categories of the understanding

-A concept is an active power, an ability to operate on our sensible intuitions

-Therefore, science is also synthetic and applicable to the world

Question 14

what is judgment?

Answer 14

-Judgement is the claim about a substance and the properties of that substance, we have no choice but to think of objects in this way.

Therefore, we are simply applying a universal power of the mind, therefore science isn’t always right, however, the existence of science is true and objective.

Question 15

what is the Phenomenal Realm?

Answer 15

The world that it appears to us, is the world we can perceive and use science and math to explain, it’s ordered causally

Question 16

what is the Noumenal Realm?

Answer 16

The world as it is outside of perceptions, and where sense data is created, Kant doesn’t have an answer of what this realm is because it’s inaccessible to us and our perceptions.

Question 17

explain the Faculty of Reasoning

Answer 17

The part of our minds that asks “why” for the unknowns in the world. It’s the means of which we strive to think the unconditioned (world as it is in and of itself, God, an absolute subject, the soul, etc.) These ideas are PURE ONLY

Question 18

what is Antinomies of Reason?

Answer 18

Contradictions in the world that we can’t solve (paradoxes), the existence of antinomies proves that reason must be reined in back to sensibility and understanding and critiqued.

Question 19

where does metaphysics

Answer 19

Metaphysics lies in reason; it is inevitable that metaphysics will exist and be thought about. However, metaphysics lies outside math and the sciences, such as good. Thinking of metaphysics isn’t irrational, however, it isn’t knowledge.

Question 20

what is the Problem with Kant’s Philosophy

Answer 20

Sense data exists parallel to the consciousness; however, Kant doesn’t provide how sense data exists and where it comes from to then be integrated with human consciousness

Question 21

??? The only answers to these questions don’t work ???

Answer 21

That’s just the way consciousness is constructed (Idealism, not what Kant wants)

There’s a causal relationship between consciousness and the obscure outside world, such as a divine being (out of bounds of causality, which exists purely within our realm)

The material world

Question 22

is transcendent metaphysics possible

Answer 22

no you dumb ass

Question 23

Is the Noumenal Realm Ordered Causally?

Answer 23

Kant can’t answer that question because he doesn’t know if the noumenal realm even exists. The good news, however, is that when Kant discovers that we’re subject to an illusion about the categories of the understanding, and thus about what we can know with certainty, he gets an answer to his inquiries about the status of practical reason and morality

Good News: Because we don’t know that the world if the world is causally determined, we can hope that we have free will because perhaps the will isn’t causally determined.

Question 24

are we free?

Answer 24

We, as humans, have to assume we’re free to make our own choices in order to act in reality. Our reason shows us that it’s rational to believe we’re free and thus we act accordingly despite the scientific proof that we aren’t free (in the phenomenal realm)

We don’t have to choose between the view that our actions are exceptions to scientific laws of nature or that we are just not free at all.

Question 25

Ethics and morals to kant

Answer 25

To Kant, any and all moral problems and questions are capable of being answered purely through your reason and it’s required for you to have autonomy to be moral.

-To be Moral Requires:

—Pure Will: The only thing that is incorruptible are pure intentions, if you want to be good, it’s an incorruptible wish. The actions may be wrong; however, the intention will always remain good.

—Autonomy: Free from any external influence, be it physical or mental (ex; wishing for parent’s approval).

Question 26

what are the Categorical Imperative

Answer 26

1. You must always act so you can that your maxim (rule) becomes a universal law (If you want to be moral, this is the rational thing to do, act on behalf of all human beings)
2. Treat people as ends in themselves and never as means only (Don’t treat people as objects, treat them with the intrinsic value that they have, acknowledge them as people)
3. Be autonomous (required to not follow the law/rule, act because you know it’s the right thing to do. Don’t cheat because it’s the rule, don’t cheat because it’s not the right thing to do.

Question 27

what did Mary Wollstonecraft do?

Answer 27

Did very important work on the topic of autonomy and the self

Fluidity and Complexity of Female Identity

Before her, many women had argued that women are equal to men and that it is the lack of education that holds them back.

Question 28

what did she do for women rights?

Answer 28

–Rights are based on common reason and common virtues

–Wollstonecraft follows Price on God: God IS love, wisdom, intelligence, power

–It is through God that these attributes ae in others, therefore we obliged to develop these attributes

–There is only one God, not a male God and a Female God

Question 29

what did she do for women’s rights?

Answer 29

–Rights are based on common reason and common virtues

–Wollstonecraft follows Price on God: God IS love, wisdom, intelligence, power

–It is through God that these attributes ae in others, therefore we obliged to develop these attributes

–There is only one God, not a male God and a Female God

Question 30

what did she way on reason?

Answer 30

-Reason is universal

–Stressing obedience and exercising authority prevents the development of capacities in women

–Ideas about women and their education are not based on empirical evidence but on ideas of women (creation of Eve)

–Distinguished women in history have not relied on power or feminine wiles to achieve

–Mary claims they are not exceptional women, they have had the right nurturing for their faculties to unfold and for their virtues to gain strength, they’re normal women who were given the proper circumstances to be normal women.

Question 31

what did she say about Women in Society?

Answer 31

–Bringing up children is an important role in society

–Not ornaments to their husbands, valued companions

–Rousseau is wrong that women should be educated for the pleasure of men, women should be educated to become equal members of society

–Women are not property; they are equal beings before God

–Yes, women are silly and superficial, but this is not a natural or innate state, however, the only reason they’re like this is that society expects them to be like this and there are silly, irresponsible women just as there are men, they’re human and some have their faults as well.

–Physical weakness is the “natural order”

Question 32

what did she say about autonomy?

Answer 32

–Has to have a real possibility, you can have an authentic possibility choice of doing something that is possible(possibility of being autonomous). See your life as a coherent plan and not haphazard choices

–Understand why is that authenticity mine or is socially constituted and constructed

–A minimum of an accepting society is required where people are equal, and you aren’t completely oppressed so the possibility of identifying your desires is possible.